The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is pleased to announce the launch of the Digital Preservation Toolkit for Community Archives today on World Digital Preservation Day, November 7, 2024. The new resource is designed to empower community archives at every stage of their digital preservation journey.
This year's World Digital Preservation Day theme, 'Preserving Our Digital Content: Celebrating Communities', couldn't be more fitting for the toolkit's debut. It's a day that brings together digital preservation professionals worldwide to celebrate the diversity of the communities which surround and support us, whilst also drawing attention to the unique and valuable digital content which becomes their digital legacy.
The DPC has partnered with the AHRC-funded "Towards a National Collection Project" and its initiative "Our Heritage, Our Stories" (OHOS), working with a wide range of community groups and archives to research and document the community archives landscape in the UK. This collaboration has resulted in the development of a toolkit designed to address the needs of community archives.
Karyn Williamson, Digital Preservation Analyst and DPC representative on the OHOS project , shares her enthusiasm: "We are excited to unveil this toolkit at our launch event on World Digital Preservation Day. It's the result of extensive collaboration with historical groups and community archives, focusing on preserving the fragile and valuable digital content they hold."
“But the journey doesn't end here. The DPC is committed to keeping the toolkit useful and relevant to the community archive sector. “We'll be working hand-in-hand with community archives to ensure the resource evolves with their needs, covering essential topics in practical, accessible ways.” The toolkit will be sustained by the DPC over the long-term.
Providing resources like the Toolkit is just one of the ways the DPC supports the digital preservation community. An international charitable foundation and advocate for digital preservation, the Coalition helps its members around the world to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services through community engagement, targeted advocacy work, training and workforce development, capacity building, good practice and standards, and through good management and governance.
We invite you to explore this new resource and join us in our mission to preserve our shared digital heritage. Together, we can ensure that the diverse stories of our communities are preserved for generations to come.
Discover the Digital Preservation Toolkit for Community Archives now!