New Members

The University of Melbourne Library has joined the Digital Preservation Coalition this week, becoming the DPC’s newest Associate member.

The University of Melbourne is Australia’s leading research-intensive University, generating considerable digital collections of enduring value. The University Library provides key research infrastructure in the form of scholarly and research collections, support and services which include digitisation services, data forensics services and research data management support. The University of Melbourne Digital Preservation Strategy aims to ensure that preservation of digital materials is integrated into the University’s research programmes. It outlines a ten-year program which will make the University’s digital outputs available to future generations.

The University of Kent’s Templeman Library has become the latest organisation to join the Digital Preservation Coalition, making it the twenty-fifth University to do so.

The library’s digital preservation activities focus on digitised and born-digital collections curated by Information Services on behalf of the University. These include research data sets, research outputs, and archive material cared for by Special Collections & Archives, as well as images created by the Digital Imaging team services, and associated metadata held within digital files and within catalogues/databases.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is pleased to announce that Library and Archives Canada (LAC) became an Associate Member of the Coalition in March, last month.

LAC is in the process of formalizing its digital preservation program, in order to meet its national mandate for long term preservation and enduring access to Canada’s documentary heritage, and to serve as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions.

The Scottish Council on Archives (SCA) has joined the Digital Preservation Coalition this month, becoming its newest Associate Member.

In its capacity as a leadership, advocacy and development body a key strategic goal of the SCA is to support the sector in its development of capacity and organisational sponsorship, so that the whole sector is equipped to identify, curate and make accessible digital information for the long term.

As well as helping  to raise awareness of digital preservation issues at high profile conferences and events, SCA has made a significant contribution to ensure new models of recruitment and skills development that help address the digital skills gap. It’s HLF-funded 'Opening up Scotland’s Archives' traineeship programme has brought fresh and diverse talent into the sector and offered an excellent platform for advocacy and communication, bringing benefits across the sector and sharing the 2016 Digital Preservation Award with a partner project operated by the National Archives in England.

The UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) became the Digital Preservation Coalition’s newest Full member in January this year.

The Mechanism is mandated to manage the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as well as its own archives, which consist of both physical and digital records.

Long standing Associate Member, the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) has joined forces with the University of Glasgow Library and upgraded membership to become the latest Full Member of the DPC at the start of 2017.

With HATII joining the Coalition in 2010, ongoing collaborative initiatives with the Digital Curation Centre and Digital Preservation Europe, as well as the library’s commitment to sustaining access to digital materials, have meant that the University of Glasgow has continued to make a significant contributions to research, teaching and application of practices in Cultural Heritage, Digital Humanities and Information Management and Analysis.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is very pleased to welcome the Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust) as its newest associate member. Based in the USA at the University of Virginia, the APTrust is a 16-member consortium of American research university libraries committed to the creation and management of a sustainable environment for digital preservation.

The DPC is delighted to welcome the University of Bern, Switzerland as its newest associate member.

The University Library of Bern currently provides books and journals in print and electronic format as well as access to subject-specific databases. The team at Bern also aims to open its archive to the university community, incorporating access to more complex objects and formats in the digital editions it holds.

Marion Prudlo, the University of Bern’s Head of E-Library Service Centre explains why the University chose to join the Coalition. “Joining the DPC will move us forward another step towards our goal of providing a trustworthy preservation infrastructure to the university community in Bern. We are looking forward furthering our own knowledge, but to also engaging more with the digital preservation community at large.”

The DPC is pleased to welcome University College Dublin (UCD) as its newest Associate Member. Founded one hundred and sixty years ago, UCD has continued to make a unique and substantial contribution to the creation of modern Ireland and in particular to digital services through its UCD Digital Library, the UCD Institutional Repository and the national Irish Social Science Data Archive, operated through the Library.

“Digital preservation is a key part of our digital and data lifecycle,” explains Julia Barrett, UCD’s Research Services Manager. “Investing in digital preservation enables long term access to content for our users - providing greater access and increasing overall impact.”

“We see our DPC membership as a resource for the continuing development of our digital and data collections and services,“ she adds, “and feel that being part of the DPC will ensure that we develop best practice in this fast changing area.”

The DPC is pleased to welcome European Central Bank as its newest Full Member. Details will follow.