The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to announce that digitization services provider TownsWeb Archiving is the latest organization to join its Supporter Program.
TownsWeb Archiving currently provides digitization, metadata creation and digital collections management software services to the UK cultural heritage sector. With clients including Cadbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Diageo, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Transport for London, Bank of England, GSK and more, TownsWeb works with archives, museums and libraries to digitize their fragile and precious collections and open up access to them online through their PastView system.
With a wealth of experience in advising how best to create digital materials, TownsWeb is now working towards incorporating digital preservation services in order to meet a growing need to sustain access to a digital legacy in the long term; potentially by collaborating with other existing DPC Supporters.
The DPC’s Supporter Program enables much greater insight into the needs and requirements of both members and solution providers and provides an environment for collaboration whilst protecting the independence gained from the DPC’s widely-understood vendor neutrality.
Paul Sugden, Founder & Managing Director of Townsweb says “We are delighted to support the DPC through this program and look forward to engaging with the great community they have fostered. We hope to learn from this community, whilst sharing our own experiences and building relations with fellow Supporters to contribute to solving the digital preservation challenges we all face.”
“We are delighted that TownsWeb Archiving has decided to collaborate with the DPC and its members through the Supporter Program,” says Executive Director of the DPC, William Kilbride. “As a community we are all aware of the importance of sustaining access to digital materials, whether born digital or digitized, and we are enormously encouraged to see that long term access and preservation is now part of TownsWeb’s offering.”
Funds raised by the DPC’s Supporter Program will be used in first instance to support grants to members for training and staff development as well as the Annual Student conference, to subsidize training workshops or to sponsor DPC membership for charities and not-for-profits.
Any commercial organization may apply for Supporter status and in return will be invited to participate in and extend the activities of the Coalition, with full acknowledgement of their support provided on the DPC website and in relevant publications. Supporters also have early access to draft outlines of DPC Technology Watch Reports and other published output, an invitation to an annual trade fair and horizon scanning meeting with DPC members, as well as the opportunity to showcase products and services through webinars and relevant briefing days.
The DPC enables members to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services, helping them to derive enduring value from digital assets and raising awareness of the strategic, cultural and technological challenges they face - through advocacy, community engagement, workforce development, capacity-building, good practice and good governance.