Blog

Helen Fisher is the University Archivist at the University of Birmingham.

My last blog post for the DPC ended on a positive note. In March 2020 we were about to recruit to a new post in Library Services with digital preservation responsibilities and we were hoping this would lead to institutional funding for a digital preservation system. Then we moved abruptly to home working and all recruitment was put on hold. Budget cuts mean that the financial landscape is very different as I write this post a year later and there is still a lot of uncertainty about what we might be able to do at an institutional level.

On the other hand, the switch to home working for much of last year gave me the time and space to step back and look at the problem from a different angle, to think about what was in my control and what I could do to ensure that we didn’t lose all the momentum that we had built up. I also had in mind advice from Rachel MacGregor’s presentations and blog posts that it’s better to do something than to do nothing, and so I was determined to make the most of this unexpected change in working circumstances.

Evanthia Samaras is the VERS Senior Officer at Public Record Office Victoria. She attended IDCC 2021 with support from the DPC’s Career Development Fund, which is funded by DPC Supporters.

Recently my workplace, Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), joined the DPC. This partnership afforded me eligibility to apply for one of DPC’s Career Development Fund grants to attend the 16th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC21) on Monday 19 April 2021. Without this generous grant I would not have been able to attend the conference. I would like to extend my gratitude to the DPC for providing me with this valuable learning opportunity. In this blog, I will share some of my learnings from IDCC21 – focusing on digital preservation-related content from the online conference.

Alexis Tindall is Digital Innovation Manager at the University of Adelaide

In March 2020 the University of Adelaide Library became the Digital Preservation Coalition’s 100^th member, becoming part of an emerging Australasian presence for the DPC. In addition to supporting learning, teaching and research at the University of Adelaide, our Library encompasses the University’s archives, rare books and manuscripts, and art and heritage collections. As such, we care for important and growing digital collections, including research data, business records, audio-visual material, archived web content and other material. Joining the DPC has been an opportunity to align and focus our approach to digital preservation to ensure a planned and consistent program of preservation strategies, to ensure ongoing safety and utility of these resources, supported by improved documentation and workforce capabilities.

Tim Mifsud is Digital Archives Project Officer at the National Archives of Australia

The National Archives of Australia is focused on building its capacity for digital archiving, both in terms of technology and its people. Part of that plan has been the establishment of the Digital Archives Innovation and Research section – and as members of the section, nothing fits us better than the acronym of DAIR. Yet who, and what, is DAIR? This is a new section, formed in July 2020 to help the National Archives achieve its vision of being a world leading archive in this digital age, with a focus on investigating digital preservation techniques and processes, as well as building digital archiving capability within the Archives. James Doig, Carey Garvie and Bridget Dexter were the first members, joined by Rowena Loo as Director and Tim Mifsud later in 2020.

This week, version 2 of DPC RAM, our Rapid Assessment Model was launched (including a new DPC RAM logo courtesy of Sharon McMeekin).

This blog post describes what has changed and why.

When DPC’s Rapid Assessment Model was first launched in September 2019 we were aware that future revisions would be required to keep it up-to-date. In an evolving field like digital preservation, good practice develops over time and the models by which we measure ourselves should also change in order to remain relevant.

Michaela Hart is Digital Archivist at Department of Health and Human Services in Australia and Councillor for the Australian Society of Archivists.

I’m getting a little twitchy for travel, something I’m sure many of you are also feeling. I thought I’d take you on a little journey around Australia and see what the Australian archives community has been getting up to during these times.

This post is by Matthew Burgess and Joanna Fleming; Digital Preservation Network co-leads for NSLA, and Aimee Said; NSLA Program Coordinator

National and State Libraries Australia (NSLA) is the peak body for Australia's nine national, state and territory libraries. Through collaboration, we deliver better collections, solutions and customer experiences than each library can do individually.

We also share our knowledge and expertise to increase the professional capability of our staff and to build a workforce for the future. NSLA staff networks form a key pillar of this strand of work. Networks are designed for professional development; information sharing; sharing of practical skills, methodologies and tools; and peer support.

The Digital Preservation Network is comprised of practitioners from all NSLA libraries. The network meets online quarterly to share updates and discuss issues of shared interest or concern. Digital preservation is at varying stages of maturity in NSLA libraries, with some having established preservation systems, policies and workflows and others still in the early stages.

While NSLA network members are also involved in DPC and Australasia Preserves, there are some issues-in-common that particularly benefit from sharing among those working within collecting institutions with similar remits and concerns. Our focus areas in 2021 are:

• Preservation planning and policy
• Workflows and technology for preserving materials held on obsolete physical digital carriers
• Preserving complex born-digital collections
• Audiovisual metadata and ingest.

The state libraries of Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales and the National Library are also actively involved in planning with universities and cultural organisations across Australia for future emulation infrastructure, in a project led by Swinburne University.

The following updates, from a selection of NSLA libraries, give a taste of the range of digital preservation activities in process:

Daniel Walding is Senior Photographic Technician for Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

Lantern slides are a unique format that were in wide use from the 18th to mid-20th century and allowed glass photographic transparencies to be displayed using a magic lantern projector. They were often shown to large groups of people as a form of entertainment, and are referred to as a precursor to cinema. Content was often enhanced with hand colouring and oration to provide a narrative.

AIATSIS has around 850 lantern slides across 18 sub-collections in its Pictorial Collection. The majority of these slides were collected and used by missionaries including Ernest Brainwood, Herbert Read and Arthur Mathews from the early 1900s to the mid-1940s. These document the people and activities undertaken at UAM (United Aborigines Mission) and other missions across Australia.

Rachel MacGregor is Digital Preservation Officer at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. 

This blog is a version of the presentation I gave at the DPC Briefing Day on Preservation Planning and Technology Watch in February 2021.

One of the most exciting (or is that offputting?) things about digital preservation is that things don’t stay still – new formats and software are appearing all the time. The sheer variety of formats out there and which are continuing to be developed can make the task of “keeping up” with technological advances seem overwhelming. There’s a massive temptation to leave the problem to someone else – either the provider of your preservation software or maybe to your successors.

DO NOT GIVE IN TO THAT TEMPTATION!

Audrey Drohan is Digital Library Manager at University College Dublin

UCD Digital Library went into ‘Work From Home’ mode on Friday 13^th March 2020, and it was quite a surreal transition. One minute I was in the building with all of my colleagues, putting a few things into Google folders for the two weeks we were going to be out of the office, and the next minute my office became a roving location in my house: first the kitchen, then the sitting room, and finally the spare room.  A few things threw me initially: my five-year-old trusty personal laptop was suddenly getting lots of new software that it was not happy with, and it could not cope with the work that my higher spec workstation handles with ease; there was no printer, which in hindsight, is probably a good thing; I was battling neighbours for broadband; my amazing colleagues were miles away; the VPN connection was appalling; and everything just changed.

Being immersed in the digital world meant I could transition most of my work easily enough, but suddenly everything became harder and slower to do. Data transfers felt like they took years. Suddenly storage on my local machine became an issue. And then Zoom entered my life.