New Members

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Information Directorate of the University of York as its newest member.

'Accessing and preserving digital information is one of the great challenges of the 21st century,' explained Chris Webb of the University of York. 'We recognise the importance and scale of the challenge, and we're pleased to join the DPC, which is a key partnership that enables these difficult areas to be tackled for the benefit of all.'

DPC is delighted to welcome the London School of Economics as its newest member.

‘LSE Library has been developing its digital preservation capacity for around two years - since initial planning and making the business case’, explained Ed Fay. ‘We have already made use of the events programme offered by the DPC to train members of our specialist team. Now that our preservation capacity is moving from development to operation we enter a new phase of activity.’

The University of Leeds has joined the Digital Preservation Coalition.

'Over the last few years our digital collections have grown and diversified', explained Bo Middleton of the University Library. ' They represent a considerable investment and we must move to protect these assets through active preservation.'

'We have joined the DPC because we want to be active participants in discussions of key digital preservation issues. We also recognise the benefits that will accrue from access to world class research. We are delighted to become members of the key forum for the digital preservation community which is working to develop policies and encourage the adoption of best practice.'

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the University of Portsmouth as its latest associate member.

'The Future Proof Computing Group at the University of Portsmouth has a track record of research and development of digital preservation through initiatives like the KEEP project (Keeping Emulation Environments Portable)' explained Dr David Anderson. 'We're about to start a new project, POCOS, funded by the JISC, on the preservation of complex objects, and have interests in topics like the sustainability of computer games technology, the history of computing, emulation, virtualization and data warehousing.

Dr Janet Delve observed 'We’re delighted to join the DPC as a way of amplifying and facilitating our research, especially for the KEEP project.'

'This is just one example of the wide range of expertise within the coalition that we’re keen to share. DPC has an impressively diverse membership: working with them will help ensure the greatest possible impact from our research.'

The National Library of Ireland is the latest organisation to join the Digital Preservation Coalition, helping the Library to address the challenges and opportunities associated with long term management of digital collections.

'The core mission of the National Library of Ireland (NLI) is to collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the documentary and intellectual record of the life of Ireland,' explained Della Murphy, Assistant Keeper at NLI. 'One of our key strategic aims is the development of a digital collections policy with preservation and access infrastructure to match. By putting in place the necessary policy and infrastructure, we will maximise access to our resources, enhance and expand the services we offer, and enable users to work with the Library and Library collections in new and innovative ways.'

'The National Library of Ireland believes that working with partners in the DPC will vitally inform and support the implementation of best practice in relation to policy and infrastructural development in the area of digital preservation.'

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at Glasgow University as its newest associate member.

Since its foundation, HATII has had a strong commitment to digital preservation and digitization. It has been involved in a large number of collaborative initiatives such as the Digital Curation Centre, the PLANETS project, Digital Preservation Europe and Erpanet.

The Scottish Arts Council has taken a significant step to securing a lasting legacy from Scotland's digital creativity by joining the Digital Preservation Coalition. In doing so it joins a growing number of strategic bodies and memory institutions taking steps to ensure that digital objects can be accessible to future generation.

'The Scottish Arts Council takes digital preservation seriously', explained Kate Wallace, Senior Research Officer, Scottish Arts Council. 'Preserving a digital legacy for future generations of artists, organisations and the public gives greater access and can inspire learning.'

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome as members the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, acting jointly through the 'SWISH Partnership'.

'The Royal Commissions collect, record and interpret information on the architectural, industrial, archaeological and maritime heritage of our countries,' explained Kirsty Lingstadt of RCAHMS. 'We have been doing this for more than a hundred years so our archives are vast and continue to expand.'

'Our digital collections are growing rapidly. Between us we curate more than 300,000 digital objects totalling over 11TB and we expect this to increase by more than 50000 objects and 3TB annually. We have very diverse types of data including GIS data, vector graphics and laser scanning.

The DPC is pleased to announce that the Archaeology Data Service at the University of York has become the latest organisation to join the coalition.

'The Archaeology Data service is a national data archive for archaeology and related disciplines in the UK', explained Prof Julian Richards, director of the ADS. 'We are the mandated archive for archaeological data for the AHRC and NERC and work closely with a variety of national agencies such as English Heritage, to ensure the long term preservation and dissemination of digital data. We currently curate more than 250 archives covering thousands of archaeological projects, as well as a wealth of digital library resources. There is a broad range of data types and several terabytes of data.'

We are delighted to announce that English Heritage has become the latest organisation to join the Digital Preservation Coalition as an associate member.

English Heritage is the lead body for the conservation of England’s historic environment. The research and documentation which EH carries out and which it funds in the wider sector to support this remit is increasingly created and disseminated in digital formats, sometimes using techniques which are at the cutting edge of new technologies. It is crucial that this work remains accessible to future generations so that it can continue to inform understanding and management of the historic environment.

Mike Evans, Head of Archives for the English Heritage National Monuments Record, explained, 'Over 18.5 Tb of data is held by the National Monuments Record and very large volumes of data collected or funded by EH are held on local servers or curated by third parties.

'In an era in which the study and the management of the past around us depends more and more on digital tools and communication, we believe that the work of the Coalition and its members can help EH make a real contribution to safeguarding the collective memory of the historic environment sector

'We're very pleased to be joining the Digital Preservation Coalition.'

Bruno Longmore, Acting Chair of the DPC and Head of Government for the National Archives of Scotland, welcomed English Heritage to the coalition.

'Our members represent very diverse agencies, in public and professional practice. This is not surprising: the challenge of long term and reliable access to data is one that many organisations face. By joining, English Heritage have not only got access to the resources and support of the coalition to help face that challenge, but they have also clearly signalled that they are serious about working to resolve this challenge.'

Full List of Members