Looking Back to Make Progress with Advocacy in Digital Preservation

Check your local time for the event here.

The DPC organizes this webinar together with the International Council on Archives (ICA) to celebrate their 75th anniversary! Looking back to make progress in digital preservation: what we’ve learned; what to ask for; and how to ask for it will examine core and emerging challenges of digital preservation and introduce participants to tools and methods that will help them build a compelling and impactful basis for investment in digital archives.

Digital preservation is the series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary. It’s been at the core of the DPC’s purpose since we were founded in 2002, but as the coalition has grown so the digital preservation challenge has become more complicated and more demanding. An already crowded problem space has only become more crowded. As fake news proliferates and information wars rage, it now falls to the archivist to authenticate and trace provenance. As cyberwarfare makes a battlefield of every server and smartphone, the archivist’s mission to preserve the memory of the world becomes urgent and ubiquitous. As disruptive economics of technological change threaten obsolescence at the speed of light, the archivist offers memory that will endure beyond boom and bust. As digital landfill grows so the pressure to reduce re-use and recycle becomes more critical. Digital archivists and digital archives have never been more needed, so how can we unlock the investment that we need? How do we get and hold the attention of decision-makers and policy leaders?

This webinar will start with a call to action, its theme: digital preservation in times of crises. It will outline the emerging challenge and the need for action at all levels, putting the digital memory of the world off limits to those who would disrupt, deface or destroy. This action will need clear voices and thoughtful messages; advocates who can influence policy at all levels, releasing investment and safeguarding a shared digital legacy for the next generation.

While many of the actions will fall to governments and governing bodies, there are actions we can all take towards advocating for digital preservation within our many organizations and across our diverse professional contexts. So, having laid out challenges before us, the webinar will then introduce key concepts and resources to support advocacy for digital preservation.

The speakers will include:

• William Kilbride, Executive Director of the DPC

• Sarah Middleton, Head of Advocacy and Community Engagement for the DPC 

Recordings and Slides

• Looking Back to Look Forward - William Kilbride

• Getting Started with Advocacy - Sarah Middleton

DPC Inclusion & Diversity Policy

The DPC Community is guided by the values set out in our Strategic Plan and aims to be respectful, welcoming, inclusive and transparent. We encourage diversity in all its forms and are committed to being accessible to everyone who wishes to engage with the topic of digital preservation, whilst remaining technology and vendor neutral. We ask all those who are part of this community to be positive, accepting, and sensitive to the needs and feelings of others in alignment with our DPC Inclusion & Diversity Policy.