Also in this section

Getting Started in Digital Preservation (All sessions)

10 July 2013

The British Library Preservation Advisory Centre and the Digital Preservation Coalition are delighted to invite you to join them at one of three events which will equip collection managers, archivists, librarians and conservators with the skills necessary for ‘getting started in digital preservation’.

Our generation has invested as never before in digital resources and we've done so because of the opportunity they bring. Digital collections have grown in volume, complexity and importance to the point that our children are baffled by the inefficiencies of the analogue age. Pervasive, fluid and vital: digital data is a defining feature of our age. Industry, commerce, government, law, research, health, social care, education, the creative industries, the heritage sector and private life depend on digital materials to satisfy ubiquitous information needs and expectations. But digital objects are fragile: at risk of loss, corruption or obsolescence, not to mention unlawful alteration or theft. Digital preservation – the series of managed activities necessary to ensure that digital materials remain accessible beyond the limits of obsolescence - is an issue which all organisations, particularly in the knowledge sector, will need to address sooner or later. Collection managers need digital preservation skills to ensure access to their growing digital collections, but training in these new skills can be hard to acquire.

This day long introduction assumes no prior knowledge except a willingness to engage with digital preservation. Through a series of presentations, case studies and exercises, participants will learn how to apply techniques of assessment, risk management and planning to help secure their digital collections.

Presentations and exercises will help participants:

  • Understand the range of issues associated with digital preservation
  • Survey and characterize a digital collection
  • Undertake preliminary risk assessment to manage their own digital collections
  • Understand preservation planning and write a basic preservation plan
  • Meet and network with others locally working in digital preservatio

Who should come?

This workshop will interest:

  • Collections managers, librarians, curators and archivists in all institutions
  • IT managers in memory institutions
  • Records managers in institutions with a need for long-lived data
  • CIO’s in organisations with commercial intellectual property
  • Students and researchers in information science and related fields
  • Researchers with interests in research data management
Outline Programme

1000 – Registration open, tea and coffee
1030 – Welcome and Introductions (Caroline Peach)
1035 – Introducing digital preservation (William Kilbride)
1100 – Making sense of your collection case study (Invited speaker)
1120 – Discussion
1130 – Tool demo: making sense of a collection (William Kilbride)
1140 – Risk assessment and Digital Preservation (Caroline Peach)
1200 – Risk assessment exercise
1240 – Discussion
1245 – Lunch (provided)
1330 – Preservation planning case study (Invited speaker)
1350 – Preservation planning for beginners (William Kilbride)
1405 – Preservation Planning exercise (William Kilbride)
1450 – Short discussion (all)
1500 – Comfort break
1515 – Next steps in digital preservation (Caroline Peach)
1545 – Roundtable discussion
1600 – Close

Presentations from The National Archives, Kew, 6th December 2013

Presentations from Glasgow, 10th April 2013

Presentations from London, 13th May 2013

Presentations from Aberystwyth, 6th June 2013


Scroll to top