News

Following the launch of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) office in Melbourne, members in Australia meet today as the DPC Australasia Stakeholder Group for the first time.

The Stakeholder Group has been constituted to ensure that members in Australia, New Zealand and surrounding areas inform the development of the local program and can direct the DPC’s activities to meet their own particular needs. 

Providing a forum where members in Australasia can articulate their needs, the Stakeholder Group will guide and oversee activities relating to the Coalition’s core objectives in the region, reporting to the DPC’s Executive Board and ensuring that the DPC remains true to its values and mission.

The following article is a statement from the ICA and is available in English, French and Spanish below

#StayHome learn from home: ICA’s offer to the archival community during COVID-19

Above all, we hope you - and your family and staff - are in good health.

A new situation calling for new measures. We all recognize the unprecedented situation that the worlwide COVID-19 crisis is having on your work, domestic and social structures, all of which are being impacted. The whole ICA team has switched to homeworking but even remotely, the team spirit persists. Our overriding message to all of the ICA network is: stay at home, but stay connected! The ica.org website remains open during this period and we remain available by email, telephone and videoconference.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) has launched its new Australasia office with an online celebration today.

More than 100 members of the digital preservation community from Australasia and around the world gathered online for a soft launch event which saw quizzes, games, party hats, balloons, self-supplied food and drink, as well as guest speakers spanning the history of the DPC, as the University of Melbourne welcomed the Digital Preservation Coalition to the southern hemisphere. 

Members of the digital preservation community from around the globe gathered online to celebrate the launch of the DPC's new Australasia office in Melbourne 

The new office in Melbourne will enable improved access to the Coalition’s program of activities for members and digital preservation practitioners across the southern hemisphere and will help the DPC to enable institutions at all stages of maturity in the digital preservation journey.

The DPC is updating advice for events and activities planned for the month ahead. 

• DPC offices will close from Monday 16th March for four weeks.  Staff will continue to work remotely but all face-to-face meetings and business will move online, whether by phone or teleconference. DPC staff will contact you to follow up with alternative arrangements if you have an appointment in the diary. If you need to contact us, please note we might not be able to pick up phone messages.
• We intend to stick with our program of activities to the best of our ability and to do that we will move all our face-to-face events online. DPC Staff will follow up with anyone already registered and speakers to help support your participation, and we will refund anyone who has paid for attendance.
• We have planned a reception to open our new office in Melbourne on Tuesday 17^th March.  We’re going to move that online too, which means the whole of the DPC is invited to join us.  Details will follow shortly on how to get involved.
• We will establish an online and continuous community forum so that the global digital preservation community can continue to gather for the exchange of ideas and mutual support.

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to announce that digitization and archiving services provider Max Communications is the newest organization to join its Supporter Program.

A longstanding partner within the heritage sector, as well as local government, large media and publishing organizations, Max Communications’ core services include digitization of modern and historical documents, as well as tens of thousands of films, videos, and audio tapes every year.

Having provided digitization and archiving services for the last 20 years, Max Communications offers a range of Software as a Service (SaaS) including DRYAD and SOTERIA; a suite of Archive Management and Digital Preservation services built on AToM and Archivematica respectively.

Given the spread of COVID-19, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is monitoring the advice from the World Health Organisation and guidance of Health Protection Scotland. As our work places particular emphasis on face-to-face activities and travel, we seek to minimize disruption to our work whilst safeguarding the health and wellbeing of participants and staff.

The situation is fluid and we will respond to guidance as it is updated. Therefore, our program, including face-to-face events, will proceed as advertised unless official advice suggests it would be unsafe to do so.