Preservation Services at Dartmouth College: Learning New Things-- The 2011 Digital Preservation Management Workshop

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Learning New Things-- The 2011 Digital Preservation Management Workshop

I recently attended the ICPSR Digital Preservation Management workshop, held in June at SUNY Albany. This amazing course is a jam-packed five-day program on the intricacies of developing and managing a digital preservation program within a library or archive setting. No small task, but the amazing instructional team led by Nancy McGovern and Kari Smith was certainly up to the challenge.

The workshop actually started several weeks prior to the first day, with some pre-requisite “homework” to build a good foundation in core digital preservation concepts. If you’re seriously interested in digital preservation and you haven’t read these documents, do so immediately! Yes, some of them are very long and detailed, but this is important stuff and it’s well worth the time.

Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS)
Trusted Digital Repositories: Attributes and Responsibilities
Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet: Ensuring Long-Term Access to Digital Information. Final Report of the Blue Ribbon Task force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access
And of course, the ICPSR Digital Preservation Management Tutorial

I had already read these documents, some of them in great detail with a highlighter, and some of them with just a quick skim, so this was a nice refresher on some of the concepts we need to focus on as we build our digital preservation infrastructure.

I got so much out of this workshop that it’s hard to pare down my notes (see picture below of the giant binder-o-information we received on day one).

But if I had to sum it up in a sentence, I’d say the most useful outcome (other than meeting a bunch of really great digital archivists and librarians) was that I now have enough information to formulate a plan. We’ve been talking for a while about what we need to have to support digital preservation; now we know how to get there.

And, in addition to the awesome binder-o-information, I now have a full-color composite model of the OAIS Functional Entities that lives on the wall above my desk.

Nerdy, yes, but I love that I can look at it every day and see the ultimate goal right in front of me.

Written by Helen Bailey

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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.