Preservation Services at Dartmouth College: Digital Curation Conference

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Digital Curation Conference

Last December I had the opportunity to attend the 6th International Digital Curation Conference in Chicago, IL. The conference was a super fantastic two day event. Reviewing my notes there were lots of excellent presentations -- a few that stood out were:

Robin Rice (presenter) - "Research Data Management Initiatives at the University of Edinburgh". Robin mentioned the concepts of high and low curation:

High curation would be labor intensive and require human intervention (metadata creation would be a good example).
Low curation would be automated (for example checksums or file format validation).

As Dartmouth College Library moves forward with digital preservation these terms and concepts will be helpful in our conversations.

Catherine Ward (presenter) - "Making Sense: Talking Data Management with Researchers". The "Incremental" project was designed to improve research data management within the institution by focusing on providing better advice, training, and support for researchers. It's a very common sense approach and worth referring to as the College designs a program to support data management.

I also participated in a pre-conference, Digital Curation 101 Lite. It was led by Sarah Jones, Martin Donnelly, and Joy Davidson and used the Digital Curation Centre lifecycle model as the basis for the course. It included lots of good advice about knowing your audience and being mindful of language that might scare them off (i.e. data curation).

These notes just scratch the surface of the conference. If you are interested in minding your data and want to learn more about digital curation, follow any of the links in this post. Mark your calendar, the next conference will be held in Bristol, England in December 2011.

Written by Barb Sagraves

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Contributors

Deborah Howe Is the Collections Conservator at Dartmouth College Library. She's been involved in the book community for over 20 years. She is a member of the Guild of Book Workers and teaches classes in the Book Arts program.

Ryland Ianelli Is a cartoonist and Project Specialist in the Dartmouth Preservation Services department. He graduated from Reed College with a BA in Art History in 2008 and, more recently, from the Center for Cartoon Studies with an MFA in Cartooning in 2010. In addition to his work in Preservation and the Digital Production Unit, he is currently drawing and writing for various independently published comics and anthologies.

Barb Sagraves has been head of Preservation Services since its creation in 1995. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan SLIS program, has an MA in Medieval History from Michigan State University, and a BA in History from the University of Oklahoma. In her role as department head, Barb has overall responsibility for the preservation program and policies at Dartmouth College Library and is in charge of the Book Arts Program.

Jenny Mullins has been the Digital Preservation Librarian for Dartmouth College Library since May of 2014. Prior to coming to Dartmouth, she preserved video and audio collections, helped build a digital repository and worked in book and paper conservation labs. Jenny is a member of ALA and co-chair of the Preservation Metadata Interest Group for 2015-17.