Blog

Helen Dafter is Archivist at The Postal Museum in the UK.

When politicians come to office, they often set out their plan for the first 100 days. I am taking a longer timeframe and reflecting on the first six months (roughly 180 days) of working with a digital preservation system. 

In September 2023, The Postal Museum invested in Preservica. I blogged about the work involved in getting to that stage for World Digital Preservation Day last year (Acquiring a Digital Preservation System - Digital Preservation Coalition (dpconline.org)). This was a significant achievement but as anyone who has gone ahead on this journey will tell you, it is a milestone not a destination. 

The DPC recently held a series of events on the topic of digital forensics (an initial event on the 26th February and a follow up ‘Watch Party’ event suitable for community members in Australasia and Asia Pacific). As suggested by the title, the focus was to ‘investigate good practice’ through the sharing of knowledge, experiences and case studies.

This event was born as a result of the interesting discussions in our very first DPC Reading Club which looked at an article on the topic of digital forensics by Thorsten Ries, alongside a realization that our existing Technology Watch Report on the topic was in need of revision, and that facilitating a community discussion around the subject might be a good way to kick this off. 

Dr. Maureen Pennock is Head of Digital Collection Management at The British Library

Have you ever noticed the range of different ways we talk about risk in digital preservation? We talk – and write – extensively about risks, but the terminology we use to describe them can be quite inconsistent. We often use different terms and different measures to define the same kind of concerns. We talk a lot about trust too, sometimes seemingly confusing it with risk - though they’re not the same thing.

Following on from our earlier announcement, we wanted to go into a bit more detail about the goals of the Registries of Good Practice project, some of the principles that will guide us, and how to get involved.

The Born Digital Cultural Heritage Now #BDCH23 conference https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/bdch-23/ was held at ACMI in Melbourne, Australia from 29 Nov to 1 Dec 2023. It was a forum for researchers, practitioners, artists, historians, cultural theorists, and industry professionals to discuss the challenges of collecting, preserving, and accessing born digital cultural heritage material. Much born digital cultural heritage material such as media art, video games, web content, discussion forum and bulletin board posts, architectural documentation and other digital data created over the last twenty to thirty years is no longer accessible. This is the result of a range of technical and non-technical issues including hardware and software obsolescence, media deterioration, content abandonment, institutional and business decisions, archival practices, legal restrictions, and cultural and audience changes. The #BDCH23 conference focused on how these issues are being addressed in different contexts and the impact this loss on our culture and society.

Mzodidi Tutuka is Principal Library Assistant, Digital Preservation, at University at Cape Town Library. He attended the No Time To Wait 7 conference with support from a travel grant from the DPC Career Development Fund, which is funded by DPC Supporters.

Recently, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) has afforded me the invaluable opportunity to attend a remarkable NTTW7 conference held in the captivating city of Prague. The event was a convergence of minds, a gathering of experts, scholars, and enthusiasts alike, all fervently dedicated to unravelling the complexities of safeguarding our digital heritage. Over the course of three days (8-10 November 2023) immersed in riveting discussions, illuminating presentations, and networking, I gleaned profound insights that underscored the critical importance of working and preserving our digital legacy for future generations.

Graham Purnell is Digital Preservation Assistant at the National Library of Scotland.

As part of a practical exercise to investigate preservation of modern digital objects at the National Library of Scotland (NLS), Graeme Hawley, our Head of General Collections, drew up a short list of items for investigation and possible addition to the Library’s collections.  This list partly emerged out of discussions with partner Legal Deposit Libraries, including the British Library. A small team from across NLS was assembled to investigate best methods and discover technical and legal barriers. The Bytesize Collection Group was born.

Late last year I was lucky enough to attend and give a paper at NDF Whanake\Evolve 2023 at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 20 – 23 November 2023. NDF is a future and technology conference for the Aotearoa cultural sector. It brings together participants from the cultural sector across the Asia-Pacific region to explore how to tackle global challenges including climate change, inequality, and injustice.

The DPC is not alone in recognizing and responding to the pain and distress of civilians caught in the violent conflict in Gaza, both Israeli and Palestinian. We have watched with compassion and horror the growing humanitarian crises and the many personal tragedies which have unfolded. We condemn atrocities whoever has committed them, and we are moved by scenes of unimaginable suffering to call for a complete cessation of violence.

The DPC's mandate – a sustainable future for our digital assets – compels us to have a particular concern to ensure the preservation of the digital cultural and scientific record. We are therefore profoundly distressed by reports of the destruction of the Central Archives of Gaza, of the main public library of Gaza, of the displacement of staff who manage and preserve the cultural and scientific heritage of the region, and of the suffering inflicted on them and their families.

Drawing on our own mandate, we add our voice to those of ICA, IFLA, UNESCO, ICOM and others to reiterate to all parties the terms of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols. These documents make plain that cultural heritage, including the digital record, is irreplaceable. Therefore the spaces and institutions associated with cultural property must not become a theatre of war, and the professionals who safeguard it must be afforded the full protection of international law.

Knowing also that peace, justice and truth are aligned, we celebrate those who create and preserve the digital record of our turbulent times. Insofar as it is in our power, we extend to them our full professional support and recognition.

At the end of January 2023 the DPC contacted its Members to find out who would be interested in joining a new DPC Working Group for Museums and Galleries. We had a lot of interest - in fact even from Members who we weren’t aware were looking after collections of this nature. The group now has members from Australia, USA, UK and the Netherlands.

We held our first meeting in March 2023 and have met for an hour every other month since. Though we only advertise our meetings to those who are signed up for the group, we are keen that learnings from our discussions are more broadly shared with the wider digital preservation community. This blog post intends to do just that by summarizing the activities of our first year.