News

At its meeting today, the DPC Board approved the creation of a new Web Archiving and Preservation Task Force.

The DPC Web Archiving and Preservation Task Force will allow members to share best practice to support their local priorities. It will identify, examine and review current policy in web archiving and preservation. It will provide a mutually supportive environment for continued policy development for members and a mechanism through which non-members can engage with web archiving policy.  In this way the Task Force will help to ensure that our generation can carve an appropriate legacy from the complexity and volatility of the web.

Click here for more details including Terms of Reference, the roadmap for 2010-11 and membership.

Taking the long view for digital creativity: Scottish Arts Council joins the Digital Preservation Coalition

The Scottish Arts Council has taken a significant step to securing a lasting legacy from Scotland's digital creativity by joining the Digital Preservation Coalition. In doing so it joins a growing number of strategic bodies and memory institutions taking steps to ensure that digital objects can be accessible to future generation.

'The Scottish Arts Council takes digital preservation seriously', explained Kate Wallace, Senior Research Officer, Scottish Arts Council.  'Preserving a digital legacy for future generations of artists, organisations and the public gives greater access and can inspire learning.'

Preserving our digital heritage: Digital Preservation Coalition and British Library Preservation Advisory Centre join forces to build digital preservation skills

The British Library Preservation Advisory Centre and the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) signed a major new memorandum of understanding on Tuesday 19 January.

Focussing on training and skills development, the first joint initiative will be an event on the preservation of digital objects aimed at librarians, archivists and technical staff involved in the creation and care of digital content. Fostering a culture of shared responsibility for and understanding of digital content amongst those caring for library and archive materials is a goal of both organisations.

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome as members the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, acting jointly through the 'SWISH Partnership'.

'The Royal Commissions collect, record and interpret information on the architectural, industrial, archaeological and maritime heritage of our countries,' explained Kirsty Lingstadt of RCAHMS.  'We have been doing this for more than a hundred years so our archives are vast and continue to expand.'

'Our digital collections are growing rapidly. Between us we curate more than 300,000 digital objects totalling over 11TB and we expect this to increase by more than 50000 objects and 3TB annually. We have very diverse types of data including GIS data, vector graphics and laser scanning.

The DPC is pleased to announce that the Archaeology Data Service at the University of York has become the latest organisation to join the coalition.

'The Archaeology Data service is a national data archive for archaeology and related disciplines in the UK', explained Prof Julian Richards, director of the ADS.  'We are the mandated archive for archaeological data for the AHRC and NERC and work closely with a variety of national agencies such as English Heritage, to ensure the long term preservation and dissemination of digital data. We currently curate more than 250 archives covering thousands of archaeological projects, as well as a wealth of digital library resources.  There is a broad range of data types and several terabytes of data.'

A List Apart, December 8, 2009 

SUMMARY: Feeding the Web. Our Web sites are important assets and curating them is an essential part of our overall organizational strategy. Balancing timely and timeless content, using analytics to better understand users' needs and managing the conversation flow are the building blocks for success in any business. Read on for more reasons not to skimp on Web site management when it's budget time.

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, December 7, 2009

SUMMARY: "Designing for cavemen." That's how Nielsen describes his approach toward Web design that takes into account human limitations in short-term memory (for instance, the average human brain can hold only seven chunks of information at a time and these fade from memory within 20 seconds). Check out the article for some suggestions on how to create menus that are manageable (too short is almost as bad as too long) and create a common sense Web navigation strategy that makes the most of those precious 20 seconds.

The DPC is not responsible for the content of remote websites. If you are a DPC member and would like to syndicate content to this page please contact us.