Digital Preservation 2022 Preserving Legacy - Call for Proposals

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The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) invites proposals for Digital Preservation 2022: Preserving Legacy (#DigiPres22).

How users experience digital spaces is essential to their ability to reflect and build on their digital legacy. In digital preservation work in the cultural heritage sector, it is important to think of the architects and contributors (traditionally humans but also, increasingly, AI) within digital environments. With emerging technologies, how can our work best support a more user-centric approach to digital preservation? How do we use digital preservation to critically address oppression, racism, inequity, injustice, and societal violence and, at the same time, critique digital preservation’s contribution to these contexts? Further, with the advent of blockchain technologies, what is the role of storytelling in digital preservation practice? How do we adapt to, document, and preserve an entirely new sensory environment? What role does digital preservation play for varying mediums of storytelling (film, music, oral history, etc.)?

Please note that proposals do not have to adhere to our conference theme to be considered, but we especially encourage proposals related to preserving the legacies of contributors and users in digital spaces, as well as methods and tools used to accomplish this work.

Storytelling, Autonomy, and Ownership in the Virtual Experience

  • How do we preserve alternative modes of storytelling and virtual experience?
  • How do digital preservation practices perpetuate cultural harms? What amendments are needed to change our profession, digital data, and human relationships with creators/contributors?
  • Do all contributors have personal histories? How do we recover these?
  • What does ownership mean in digital spaces and how it impacts history? What role do we have in their preservation or right to be forgotten?

Digital Preservation, Emerging Technologies, and Environmental Impact

  • Blockchain technologies are becoming viable archiving and digital preservation tools. What are the long-term environmental impacts of blockchain technology?
  • How do these technologies aid in maintaining trustworthy and authentic digital records? (i.e., Are there other options with a smaller/negligible environmental impact?).
  • What impact does the quality vs. quantity dichotomy have on the records we preserve? Do capitalistic demands to “be more productive” make it more difficult to prioritize human histories?

Authenticating the Record

  • How do we identify, adjudicate, and/or evaluate the authentic in mass culture, especially when dealing with the infinitely reproducible/plastic nature of the digital? What impact does this have on the curatorial choices we must make and/or how does it figure into those choices?
  • Integrity (file or otherwise) vs. authenticity: what is the difference? Does it matter in a post-fact/fact-challenged age?
  • How do concerns about authenticity contribute to questions about sustainability in the field?

If you’re interested in presenting on a particular topic and you’re looking for co-presenters, try using our 2022 CLIR Events Unofficial Program Sessions and Connections for connecting with other prospective presenters. Note that the Program Committee and CLIR+DLF Staff do not monitor the document and it is not part of the official submission process.

Submission length and format

Submissions are invited in the following lengths and formats:

  • 45-minute Panels: Panels with 3-4 speakers on a shared topic, and an emphasis on discussion, will be given 45 minutes. In line with the rest of the programming, strong preference will be given to panels that are fully inclusive and reflect a wide range of expression and identity.
  • 45-minute Workshops: Hands-on training sessions on specific tools, techniques, workflows, or concepts. All workshop organizers are asked to provide details on technology needs and learning outcomes for participants.
  • 45-minute Working Group Meetings: NDSA working and interest group chairs are invited to propose group meetings or targeted collaboration sessions.
  • 15-minute Talk/Demos: Presentations and demonstrations are allocated 15 minutes each, and speakers should reserve time within that allotment (3-5 minutes) for interactive exchanges on next steps, possible NDSA community action, and discussion or debate.
  • 2-minute Lightning Talks/Posters: Share your ideas and/or projects in a lightning talk of six slides, in 2 minutes, using one keyword or picture per slide. Presenters will have the option to display posters during the reception that follows. Guidelines for poster sizes will be provided on acceptance.

Submission Requirements:

  • Proposal title
  • Submission format and event: Varies by event
  • First and last names, organizational affiliations, and email addresses for all authors / presenters
  • Abstract (50 words max)
  • Proposal (250 works max for all formats except for panels, up to 500 words)
  • Five keywords for your proposal
  • All submissions are under a CC-BY 4.0 license, which allows for sharing and adaptation of content but which requires appropriate credit and an indication of any changes made by others. Presenters must agree to share their work under this license in the submission form.

Evaluation Criteria

All submissions will be peer-reviewed by NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2022 Program Committee. The DigiPres Planning Committee will give strong preference to programming that is fully inclusive and reflects a wide range of expression and identity. When evaluating proposals, the Planning Committee will:

  • Consider the contribution of the submission to the overall conference program
  • Recommend the proposal on a scale of 0-10 whether to reject or accept the proposal, and
  • Rate their familiarity on a scale of 0-10 (0 being completely new, 10 being very familiar).
  • They may also recommend the proposal for a shorter format. Broader community input will also be solicited through an open community voting process, which will inform the Planning Committee’s final decisions.

Presenters will be notified of their acceptance in June. Presenters will receive support in the form of tutorials, resources, and individual assistance.

The 2022 Call for Proposals closed on May 9, 2022.

About the NDSA and Digital Preservation 2022

The NDSA is a consortium of over 250 organizations committed to the long-term preservation and stewardship of digital information and cultural heritage. Digital Preservation is the major meeting and conference of the NDSA. Open to members and non-members alike, it highlights the theory and practice of digital stewardship and preservation, data curation, the digital object lifecycle, and related issues.

Digital Preservation 2022 (#DigiPres22) is held in partnership with NDSA’s host organization, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Separate calls are being issued for CLIR’s 2022 events, the 2022 DLF Forum (October 10-12) and associated workshop series Learn@DLF (October 9), and the Digitizing Hidden Collections Symposium (October 12-13). NDSA strives to create a safe, accessible, welcoming, and inclusive event, and adheres to DLF’s Code of Conduct.

Questions? Feel free to reach out to ndsa-digipres@lists.clir.org and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.