News

DPC Executive Director, William Kilbride, was invited to a small workshop in London at the start of March on the broad topic of ‘Curation and The Cloud’  The manuscript of his invited paper 'Curation, The Cloud and Cultural Heritage' has been released for members: http://www.dpconline.org/component/docman/doc_download/747-curationcloudculturalheritagemarch2012 (login required)

DPC is delighted to offer members a preview of our latest Technology Watch Report ‘Preserving Moving Pictures and Sound’, written by Richard Wright, formerly of the BBC. 

‘Moving image and sound content is at great risk’, explained Richard Wright, the report’s author.  ‘Surveys have shown that 74 per cent of professional collections are small: 5,000 hours or less. Such collections have a huge challenge if their holdings are to be preserved. About 85 per cent of sound and moving image content is still analogue, and in 2005 almost 100 per cent was still on shelves rather than being in files on mass storage. Surveys have also shown that in universities there is a major problem of material that is scattered, unidentified, undocumented and not under any form of preservation plan. These collection surveys are from Europe and North America because there is no survey of the situation in the UK, in itself a cause for concern.’

Preserving Email, a new report from the DPC, gives practical advice on how to ensure email remains accessible

Email is a defining feature of our age and a critical element in all manner of transactions. Industry and commerce depend upon email; families and friendships are sustained by it; government and economies rely upon it; communities are created and strengthened by it.  Voluminous, pervasive and proliferating, email fills our days like no other technology.  Complex, intangible and essential, email manifests important personal and professional exchanges.  The jewels are sometimes hidden in massive volumes of ephemera, and even greater volumes of trash.  But it is hard to remember how we functioned before the widespread adoption of email in public and private life.

DPC is delighted to offer members a preview of our latest Technology Watch Report ‘Preserving Email’, written by Chris Prom of the University of Illinois.
 
DPC Technology Watch Reports identify, delineate, monitor and address topics that have major bearing on ensuring our collected digital memory will be available tomorrow.  They provide an advanced introduction in order to support those charged with ensuring a robust digital memory and they are of general interest to a wide and international audience with interests in computing, information management, collections management and technology.  The reports are commissioned after consultation with members; they are written by experts; and they are thoroughly scrutinised by peers before being released.  The reports are informed, current, concise and balanced and they lower the barriers to participation in digital preservation. The reports are a distinctive and lasting contribution to the dissemination of good practice in digital preservation. ‘Preserving Email’ is the first Technology Watch Report to be published by the DPC in association with Charles Beagrie Ltd. Neil Beagrie, Director of Consultancy at Charles Beagrie Ltd, was commissioned to act as principal investigator and managing editor of the series in 2011.  The managing editor has been further supported by an Editorial Board drawn from DPC members and peer reviewers who have commented on the text prior to release.  The Editorial Board comprises William Kilbride (Chair), Neil Beagrie (Series Editor), Janet Delve (University of Portsmouth), Tim Keefe (Trinity College Dublin), Andrew McHugh (University of Glasgow), Dave Thompson (Wellcome Library).
 

DPC is delighted to welcome the London School of Economics as its newest member.

‘LSE Library has been developing its digital preservation capacity for around two years - since initial planning and making the business case’, explained Ed Fay. ‘We have already made use of the events programme offered by the DPC to train members of our specialist team. Now that our preservation capacity is moving from development to operation we enter a new phase of activity.’

The University of Leeds has joined the Digital Preservation Coalition.

'Over the last few years our digital collections have grown and diversified', explained Bo Middleton of the University Library. ' They represent a considerable investment and we must move to protect these assets through active preservation.'

The DPC has today responded to a new policy consultation from the EU regarding preservation and access to scientific information.