The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) welcomes University of the Arts London (UAL) as its latest Associate Member this week.
UAL is strategically committed to digital preservation prioritising its historical and contemporary archives and special collections, both digitised and born-digital. As an art and design institution, the university’s collections are many and varied, including documents, books, photographs, costume, and object collections – many with national and international significance. Having recently completed a discovery and procurement process for a digital preservation system, UAL sees digital preservation as an essential activity that will also provide a platform for increased visibility and use of their unique collections for teaching and research, as well as collaboration beyond the university and into the wider art and design academic community, and other areas of community collaboration.
“As we develop our own expertise in this area, it is really important to have access to authoritative best practice guidance and support in digital preservation,” explains Jess Crilly, Associate Director for Content & Discovery at UAL Library Services. “We are very excited to be joining the DPC and an expert community. We look forward to accessing all of the guidance and support they bring through publications, training and networks.”
“UAL consists of six renowned art and design colleges and we are delighted to welcome them into the Coalition,” said Executive Director of the DPC, William Kilbride. “Their requirements are complicated and distinctive, at the cutting edge of digital preservation research, so everyone in the DPC will benefit from their membership. Their introduction of digital preservation early into the design process means we will all get to enjoy the legacy of an extremely talented community of artists for a long time into the future.”
The DPC helps members to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services, helping them to derive enduring value from digital collections. The coalition also raises awareness of the attendant strategic, cultural and technological challenges and supports members through advocacy, workforce development, capacity-building and partnership.
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