This month sees the addition of two new organisations to the DPC’s Supporter Program. The Coalition welcomes:
- Ex Libris, Cloud-based Solutions provider for the Higher Education sector.
- Formpipe, Developer of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Information Quality Management and Electronic Quality Management System (eQMS) software solutions.
Both organisations have committed to supporting the DPC, and to a constructive collaboration for the benefit of the whole digital preservation community.
“As the membership of the DPC diversifies and expands globally, it is essential that both users and the solution providers who support our community have a meaningful way to communicate and learn from each other” explains Executive Director of the DPC, William Kilbride. “We are delighted therefore to see these organisations, which represent various aspects of digital preservation, choosing to support the DPC in this way.”
A longstanding and active member of the digital preservation community since its foundation in Jerusalem in 1980, Ex Libris identifies digital preservation as a crucial part of the ecosystem. Ex Libris collaborates with a large community of globally leading institutions to design the strategy of the preservation system, based on the latest tools and updates and their end-to-end digital asset management and preservation solution Rosetta is used by libraries, archives, museums and other institutions around the world.
Sweden based Formpipe has been delivering Content Management Software Solutions within the most digitised country in Europe for over 20 years and had a UK presence since 2014. Digital preservation has long been a consideration of Formpipe’s products and projects which include Long Term Archive, a digital preservation focussed product which addresses the needs of long term digital data preservation delivered alongside their other products or as a standalone solution.
The DPC Supporter program provides an environment where solution providers and members can collaborate. The program’s events and activities offer opportunities for greater insight into the requirements of members. The new DPC Supporter program of activities for 2018 – 2019 delivers exciting opportunities, activities and benefits designed to enable a positive dialogue between members and solution providers on ‘neutral’ ground.
“We are very excited to be part of DPC, and we’re looking forward to being exposed to the latest trends and market needs, getting involved in designing the vision for preserving digital resources and providing assistance through our practical experience with a wide range of globally spread institutions,” says Daniel Greenberg, Rosetta Product Manager at Ex Libris.
All funds raised by the Supporter Program will be used in first instance to support grants to members for training and workforce development as well as the Annual Student conference, to subsidize training workshops or to sponsor DPC membership for charities and not-for-profits.
Any organization which provides products or services to the digital preservation community may apply for Supporter status and in return will be invited to join and extend the activities of the Coalition. Supporters also enjoy 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.
“Having been involved in digital preservation for the last 10 years we understand the value our solutions can bring to organisations, but we also want to better understand the community’s needs and options,” explained Head of Europe Sales for Formpipe, Ben Saxton. “We are very excited about being part of the DPC’s Supporter Program and believe we can learn a lot from the relationships we hope to build through it.”
The DPC enables members to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services through advocacy, community engagement, workforce development, capacity-building, good practice and good governance.