News from the NDSA
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NDSA Welcomes Three New Members in Quarter Four of 2024
As of December 6, 2024, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its three most recent applicants into the membership. Webrecorder LLC Museum of Glass George Washington’s Mount Vernon Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Webrecorder focuses on high-fidelity browser-based archiving, creating highly accurate archives of websites, which can then be replayed at a later time, including video, maps, 3D models, and other interactive elements that are fully ...
Countdown to the NDSA Excellence Awards 2025: Insights and Inspirations from Our Winners
Every two years the NDSA celebrates the Excellence Awards in recognition and encouragement of exemplary achievement in the field of digital preservation and stewardship. Created in 2012, the awards seek to highlight and commend all forms of creative and meaningful contributions in the field of digital preservation. With 12 months to go until the next round of awards are presented in 2025… we have begun our countdown to the next celebration by inviting our 2023 winners to share their reflectio...
Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2025-2027
Please join me in welcoming the three newly elected Coordinating Committee members: Kari May, Margo Padilla, and Sylvia Umana. Their terms begin January 1, 2025 and run through December 31, 2027. Kari May Kari is a full-time digital preservationist for the University of Pittsburgh Library System. She became one of the university’s NDSA representatives and a member of the Excellence (Innovation) Awards Working Group (EAWG) in 2019. In 2023, Kari became a Co-Chair for the EAWG and has so...
2023 NDSA Storage Survey Report Published
The NDSA is pleased to announce the release of the 2023 Storage Infrastructure Survey Report, available at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/9QP4W From October 24 to November 22, 2023, the 2023 NDSA Storage Infrastructure Survey Working Group conducted a 51-question survey designed to gather information on the technologies and practices used in preservation storage infrastructure. This effort builds upon three previous surveys, conducted in 2011, 2013, and 2019. The survey encouraged response...
Submitting a Notable Nomination: Suggestions from the Excellence Award Working Group
The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) is an organization with a diverse international membership sharing a commitment to digital stewardship and preservation. Its Excellence Awards Working Group (EAWG) is just as diverse and just as committed. Since 2012 this team has come together to select awardees who have offered their significant engagement with the theory and practice of long-term digital preservation stewardship at a level of national or international importance. EAWG member...
NDSA Welcomes One New Member in Quarter 3 of 2024
As of September 2024, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome one new applicant into the membership. Please join me in welcoming our new member! To review our list of members, you can see them here. The Archive and Heritage Digital Curation Group In their application, The Archive and Heritage Digital Curation Group noted that they are “a specialised consulting services that ensure that your archival processes meet regulatory compliance and standards.” They continued to no...
NDSA Announces 2024 Slate of Candidates for Coordinating Committee
NDSA is happy to announce the 2024 slate of Coordinating Committee (CC) candidates. Elections will soon be held for three (3) CC members. The CC is dedicated to ensuring a strategic direction for NDSA, to the advancement of NDSA activities to achieve community goals, and to further communication among digital preservation professionals and NDSA member organizations. The CC is responsible for reviewing and approving NDSA membership applications and publications; updating eligibility standards ...
Member Fee Survey: Feedback Requested
NDSA has been an active membership organization since its founding in 2010. It advocates for the digital stewardship needs of its member organizations, convenes a community of practice, and provides professional development opportunities for its members. Today, NDSA is completely run by volunteers from its member organizations, with administrative assistance subsidized by CLIR. NDSA membership has always been free for any organization committed to long-term digital stewardship. While NDSA has...
Call for Nominations to the NDSA Coordinating Committee
NDSA will be electing three members to its Coordinating Committee (CC) this year, with terms starting in January 2025. CC members serve a three year term and participate in a monthly call to help guide and sustain the organization’s strategy and direction. The Coordinating Committee provides strategic leadership to the organization in coordination with group co-chairs. NDSA is a diverse community with a critical mission, and we seek candidates to join the CC that bring a variety of cultures a...
NDSA Excellence Awards: A history of growth and celebration
For almost a dozen years the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) has been home to the Excellence Awards. From simple beginnings these awards have evolved in response to changes in the field of digital preservation and stewardship, and they will continue to evolve as the field grows and embraces new possibilities. This post offers key points in the history and current practices of the awards. In August of 2011, a guest post from Trevor Owens on the Library of Congress blog The Signal...
NDSA Updates Strategic Activities
As part of the NDSA’s broader organizational alignment activities taking place over the last year, the NDSA Coordinating Committee recently charged a small group of Leadership members to review and update its foundational strategy, which had previously been published in 2019. The updated NDSA Strategy retains the NDSA’s mission, vision, and values. The three top-level goals of the organization remain the same, too: Convening and sustaining an engaged community to advance digital stewardship ...
NDSA Welcomes 1 New Member in Quarter 2 of 2024
As of June 2024, the NDSA Coordinating Committee voted to welcome one new applicant into the membership. This member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your working and interest group calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members! To review our list of members, you can see them here. The Gates Preserve On their website, The Gates Preserve, “believes that archiving is a statement of value. Taking the time t...
The 2021 NDSA Staffing Survey is a 2024 Digital Preservation Award Finalist
The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) has recently announced the finalists for the 2024 Digital Preservation Awards. We are very pleased to announce that the Working Group team behind the revision and reimagining of the 2021 NDSA Staffing Survey are finalists for the International Council on Archives Award for Collaboration & Cooperation. You can read our full award application summary here. The redesign of the 2021 NDSA Staffing Survey was a significant international effort to build a...
NDSA Welcomes Three New Members in Quarter 1 of 2024
As of March 2024, the NDSA Coordinating Committee voted to welcome its three most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your working and interest group calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members! To review our list of members, you can see them here. Bethany Scott, NDSA Coordinating Committee Chair Anderson Archival Anderson Archival seeks to join the...
Shira Peltzman Elected 2024 NDSA Vice Chair
Shira Peltzman, in her second year as a member of the NDSA Coordinating Committee, has been elected by the NDSA Leadership as its 2024 Vice Chair and 2025 Chair. The Vice Chair’s duties include: Managing the annual process to elect new CC members. Facilitating the new member application process. Convening quarterly meetings for the Co-Chairs of Working Groups and Interest Groups. Participating in quarterly meetings between NDSA and CLIR. Along with the Chair, ensuring the NDSA Code of Condu...
2024 NDSA Interest Group Schedule
The NDSA Interest Groups are continuing to meet on a quarterly basis with one meeting a month to help members who have wanted to participate in multiple groups but didn’t have the time for more than one or two calls per month, hopefully allowing participants to more easily attend multiple interest group meetings. The 2024 Interest Group Meeting Schedule is as follows (subject to change). January 9, 1pm EST: Standards and Practices February 1, 12pm EST: Content March 18, 1pm EST: Infrastru...
NDSA seeks expressions of interest for new host organization
NDSA Background NDSA was launched in July 2010 as an initiative of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) of the Library of Congress. For an inaugural four-year term, the Library of Congress provided secretariat and membership management services to the NDSA as well as contributing leadership, expertise, and administrative support. Since January 1, 2016, NDSA’s organizational home has been the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Sele...
Celebrating DigiPres 2023 and Looking Ahead to Next Year
The 2023 Digital Preservation Conference, which wrapped up in St Louis on November 16, was a welcome opportunity to connect with colleagues, hear about their work, and find opportunities for future collaborations. It was also a chance to celebrate groups and individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of digital stewardship. NDSA Leadership is grateful to the conference planning committee, presenters, attendees, and our hosts for making the event such a great success. Whi...
Registration Open for NDSA’s Virtual Event
Registration is now open for NDSA’s Virtual Digital Preservation Conference Redux: Communities of Time and Place. This virtual extension of our November 2023 in-person event will feature a selection of panelists who presented in St. Louis as well as additional presenters bringing in new content, including – but not limited to – more extensive updates from our Excellence Awards Winners as well as updates from NDSA’s Interest and Working Groups. While presentations will be recorded ...
Registration Open for NDSA’s Virtual Event
Registration is now open for NDSA’s Virtual Digital Preservation Conference Redux: Communities of Time and Place. This virtual extension of our November 2023 in-person event will feature a selection of panelists who presented in St. Louis as well as additional presenters bringing in new content, including – but not limited to – more extensive updates from our Excellence Awards Winners as well as updates from NDSA’s Interest and Working Groups. While presentations will be recorded ...
Interested in exploring the intersection between climate change and digital preservation? Join the new Climate Watch Working Group
Global warming and climate change is currently wreaking havoc on the world. As digital preservation professionals, it is our responsibility to mitigate threats that impede our ability to steward digital materials through time. Climate change not only threatens our data through more frequent and more severe weather disasters, but also through reductions in food supply, mass migrations, economic contraction, and political upheaval. In order to start addressing these very real threats, the Clima...
Announcing the 2023 NDSA Excellence Award Winners
2023 Excellence Award Winners We are pleased to highlight the 2023 Excellence Awards winners. Awards are divided into six categories: Future Stewards, Educators, Individuals, Organizations, Projects, and Sustainability Activities. Awards were presented at the 2023 Digital Preservation conference. Read on to learn more about this year’s awardees! Future Stewards Future Stewards are recognized as students and early-career professionals or academics taking a creative approach to advancing know...
Results of the 2022 NDSA Web Archiving Survey Report Now Available
The Web Archiving Survey Working Group is excited to announce the publication of the results of the 2022 Web Archiving Survey. The 2022 survey builds upon surveys previously conducted in 2017, 2016, 2013, and 2011 — and though previous surveys were focused on the United States, the 2022 survey was open to international audiences as well. The 26-question survey was completed by 190 respondents over a 10-day period. This report details the outcomes of the web archiving survey that was distribu...
A Spotlight on Dedication, Creativity, and Effectiveness: Jes Neal on the NDSA Excellence Awards
Jessica C. Neal (she/they) is an archivist, records manager, and memory worker. She is currently the Records Management Project Manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an archival consultant with Vanguard Archives Consulting. Jes’s work centers archives, preservation, data management, and developing ethical frameworks to better steward digital collections and projects that specifically focus on Black-led and -created social movements, oral histories, art, and literary histor...
It’s here, the 2023 NDSA Preservation Storage Infrastructure Survey!
Do you manage and preserve content? If so, we’d like to know about your preservation storage infrastructure! The NDSA Preservation Storage Infrastructure Working Group is back again, with our latest iteration of the NSDA Preservation Storage Infrastructure survey. Please contribute to our longitudinal research designed to gain insight into how organizations worldwide use preservation storage to ensure long-term access to their digital content and to learn how real-world capacity and best prac...
It’s here, the 2023 NDSA Preservation Storage Infrastructure Survey!
Do you manage and preserve content? If so, we’d like to know about your preservation storage infrastructure! The NDSA Preservation Storage Infrastructure Working Group is back again, with our latest iteration of the NSDA Preservation Storage Infrastructure survey. Please contribute to our longitudinal research designed to gain insight into how organizations worldwide use preservation storage to ensure long-term access to their digital content and to learn how real-world capacity and best prac...
Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2024-2026
Please join me in welcoming the three newly elected Coordinating Committee members: Michael Barera, Chelsea Denault, and Jessica Venlet. Their terms begin January 1, 2024 and run through December 31, 2026. Read more about their backgrounds and interest below. Michael Barera Michael Barera has been the Assistant Archivist and Digitization Specialist at the Milwaukee County Historical Society (MCHS) Research Library since June 2022. This position ranges broadly from traditional archival resp...
Catching up with past NDSA Excellence Awards Winners: Tessa Walsh
The NDSA Individual Excellence Award honors individuals making significant contributions to the digital preservation community. In 2019, Tessa Walsh was one of two awardees in this category. Tessa has created an evolving suite of robust open source tools meeting many core needs of the stewardship community in appraising, processing, and reporting upon born-digital collections. At the time of the award, her projects included the Brunnhilde characterization tool; BulkReviewer, for identifying P...
How do you use the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation?
Earlier this year the Levels Steering Group gathered feedback from the community about how the Levels of Digital Preservation were used. Some of our findings have already been shared in the following blog posts – Finding out more about the use of the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation and National Libraries and the Levels of Digital Preservation. This is the third and final blog post in this series. As noted in previous blog posts, there was a modest number of responses to our scenario...
NDSA Welcomes Two New Members in Quarter 3 of 2023
As of September 2023, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its two most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members! To review our list of all members, you can see them here. ~ Bethany Scott, NDSA Coordinating Committee Vice-Chair Loras College Center for Dubuque History The Center for Dubuque Histo...
Catching up with past NDSA Excellence Awards Winners – Arina Melkozernova
In 2021, Arina Melkozernova received the Future Steward award in recognition for her work and advocacy for “community-driven research that adopts Indigenous methodological and analytical frameworks” that contribute to “advancing knowledge across a variety of fields.” One project was the curation and translation in support of “A Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of Covid-19,” created in response to the needs of Indigenous partners during the pandemic. Another project provided assistance t...
NDSA Announces 2023 Slate of Candidates for Coordinating Committee
NDSA is happy to announce the 2023 slate of Coordinating Committee (CC) candidates. Elections will soon be held for three (3) CC members. The CC is dedicated to ensuring a strategic direction for NDSA, to the advancement of NDSA activities to achieve community goals, and to further communication among digital preservation professionals and NDSA member organizations. The CC is responsible for reviewing and approving NDSA membership applications and publications; updating eligibility standards ...
NDSA Strategic Partnership Office Hours at iPRES
If you’re attending iPRES next week, come find NDSA on September 20th, 2:20-3:00pm in HH3! Representatives from NDSA will be holding office hours where members of other digital preservation communities are encouraged to drop in to discuss options for working together. NDSA is looking for strategic partners across digital preservation, repository, and open infrastructure communities to work towards a common goal of advancing and advocating for digital stewardship. We are interested in explorin...
Peer Recognition and Motivation: Krista Oldham on the NDSA Excellence Awards
Krista Oldham is the University Archivist at Texas A&M University, College Station, where her responsibilities include overseeing the acquisition, description, and preservation of University records, as well as supporting and promoting their use. Additionally, Krista provides oversight for the Texas A&M records management program. Prior to starting her position at Texas A&M, Krista worked at Clemson University as the University Archivist, Haverford College as the College Archivis...
Mini-Job Fair at NDSA DigiPres 2023
While large professional organizations like ALA and SAA have organized job fairs to coincide with conferences, NDSA hasn’t yet done this, until now. After noticing people recruiting at digital preservation conferences in the past year, I began to think why not? Well, one good reason is that NDSA is not a dues-collecting professional organization and doesn’t have the same resources or capacity of ALA or SAA. It falls to individuals at member institutions to propose ideas and so I submitted a v...
Catching up with past NDSA Excellence Awards Winners: Project Electron
In 2020, Project Electron received the NDSA Innovation Award in the Project category. It impressed the awards panel with its comprehensive adaptation and extension of traditional archival principles and workflows to digital materials. A multi-year initiative at the Rockefeller Archive Center, it sought to implement sustainable, user-centered, and standards-compliant infrastructure to support the ongoing acquisition, management, and preservation of archival digital records. The panel also appr...
Call for Nominations to the NDSA Coordinating Committee
NDSA will be electing three members to its Coordinating Committee (CC) this year, with terms starting in January 2024. CC members serve a three year term, participate in a monthly call, and meet at the annual Digital Preservation Conference. The Coordinating Committee provides strategic leadership to the organization in coordination with group co-chairs. NDSA is a diverse community with a critical mission, and we seek candidates to join the CC that bring a variety of cultures and orientations...
Catching up with past NDSA Excellence Awards Winners: Dr. Dinesh Katre!
The NDSA Individual Excellence Award honors individuals making significant contributions to the digital preservation community. In 2019, Dr. Dinesh Katre was one of two awardees in this category. Dr. Katre was recognized for his work to advocate for and deploy the Indian National Digital Preservation Programme which provides a robust and comprehensive platform for the effective long-term preservation of digital materials. As Chief Investigator of the Programme’s flagship project to establish ...
National Libraries and the Levels of Digital Preservation
This post is a follow up to the summary post about the survey the NDSA Levels Steering committee released this spring, with the hope of being able to better understand the different scenarios under which institutions deploy the NDSA Levels. While the response rate was very modest, with only twelve individuals/institutions filling out the survey by the deadline date. We noted that among those twelve were three national libraries. Overall, the three national libraries have in common an organi...
Finding out more about the use of the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation
During March-April of 2023 the NDSA Levels Steering Group has been finding out more about how the community uses the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation. We put out a set of questions within a Google Form and invited the wider community to respond to a range of different scenarios, allowing them to describe how they use the Levels in practice. Though only a small number of responses were received (15 in total), there is some really interesting information included about how the Levels are us...
Catching up with past NDSA Excellence Awards Winners: Asociación Iberoamericana de Preservación Digital (APREDIG)
The Asociación Iberoamericana de Preservación Digital (APREDIG) won the 2019 Organization Innovation Award. APREDIG is a nonprofit Ibero-American association founded at the end of 2017 in Barcelona, Spain, with the intention of promoting the importance of digital preservation in Spainish-speaking countries. Its activity has culminated in projects and activities to disseminate a Spanish translation of the original NDSA Levels of Preservation, opening-up significant new opportunities for expand...
Upcoming Levels of Digital Preservation and Environmental considerations discussion
Please join the NDSA Levels Steering Group on August 16th for an open discussion about the intersection of the NDSA Levels and environmental concerns. Wildfires in Canada and excessive heat across the globe this summer make the impact of climate change impossible to ignore. As stewards of digital content, how do we balance our obligations to long-term preservation of digital cultural heritage and the sustainability of our planet? A planet we need in order to bother with digital preservation a...
Programs are Live for CLIR’s 2023 Events: DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and DigiPres
The Council on Library and Information Resources is delighted to announce the release of the full conference programs for our in-person events happening in St. Louis, Missouri, this November: the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Forum and Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2023: Communities of Time and Place. This year’s programs are full of exciting content, and you won’t want to miss them. Explore the Programs Join us for our events on the following dates: November 12: Learn@DLF,...
Programs are Live for CLIR’s 2023 Events: DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and DigiPres
The Council on Library and Information Resources is delighted to announce the release of the full conference programs for our in-person events happening in St. Louis, Missouri, this November: the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Forum and Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2023: Communities of Time and Place. This year’s programs are full of exciting content, and you won’t want to miss them. Explore the Programs Join us for our events on the following dates: November 12: Learn@DLF,...
NDSA Welcomes Four New Members in Quarter Two of 2023
As of June 2023, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its four most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Read the brief introductions of each below, keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members! To review our list of all members, you can see them here. Hamilton College Library and Information Technology Services Hamilton College Library...
Request for Participation in the next Storage Survey Working Group
The latest iteration of the NDSA Storage Survey Working Group is starting up soon. This longitudinal survey has been run three times, with the last survey published in 2019. If you are interested in participating in this group please read the scope of work and complete this form by July 21, 2023. It is expected that work for the survey will start in August 2023 and end about 6-10 months later, with the group meeting about twice monthly. Work would also be done between meetings to review the s...
Registration is Now Open for CLIR’s 2023 Events, Learn@DLF Program Available, Keynotes Announced
The Council on Library and Information Resources is delighted to announce that we have opened registration for our in-person conferences happening in St. Louis, Missouri, this November: the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Forum, Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2023. Our events will take place on the following dates: The DLF Forum (#DLFforum): November 13-15 Learn@DLF pre-conference workshop day (#LearnAtDLF): November 12 NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2023: Communities of Time and...
Registration is Now Open for CLIR’s 2023 Events, Learn@DLF Program Available, Keynotes Announced
The Council on Library and Information Resources is delighted to announce that we have opened registration for our in-person conferences happening in St. Louis, Missouri, this November: the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Forum, Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2023. Our events will take place on the following dates: The DLF Forum (#DLFforum): November 13-15 Learn@DLF pre-conference workshop day (#LearnAtDLF): November 12 NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2023: Communities of Time and...
Now Accepting Nominations for the NDSA 2023 Excellence Awards
Nominations are now being accepted for the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) 2023 Excellence Awards! The biennial NDSA Excellence Awards (previously the annual Innovation Awards) were established to recognize and encourage exemplary achievement in the field of digital preservation stewardship at a level of national or international importance. Seeking to highlight and commend all forms of creative and meaningful contributions in the field of digital preservation, this working group...
DigiPres 2023 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jamie Lee!
We are pleased to announce Dr. Jamie Lee as the keynote speaker for Digital Preservation 2023: Communities of Time and Place (#DigiPres23). Dr. Lee is an Associate Professor of Digital Culture, Information, and Society at the School of Information, University of Arizona, and is a scholar, activist, filmmaker, archivist, oral historian, partner, co-parent, neighbor, and friend. They founded and direct the Arizona Queer Archives (www.arizonaqueerarchives.com) where they train community members ...
NDSA Welcomes Three New Members this First Quarter of 2023
As of March 2023, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its three most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members! To review our list of all members, you can see them here. James Madison University James Madison University Libraries is formally building out their digital preservation program and wor...
NDSA Levels Office Hour April 19th: How do you use the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation?
The NDSA Levels of Preservation Steering Group is interested in finding out how you use the Levels. This information will help others who are using the Levels and may also inform future work. We hope to gather real life activities from a range of different organizations using the Levels, answering specific questions and scenarios of interest to the community. In March, we released this Google form to start gathering your feedback. Now, we are keeping the conversation going via a live communit...
How do you use the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation?
The NDSA Levels of Preservation Steering group would like to find out more about particular scenarios in which the Levels are being used. This information will help others who are using the Levels and may also inform future work. Rather than looking for full and detailed case studies, we hope to gather real life activities from a range of different organizations using the Levels answering specific questions and scenarios of interest to the community. We are interested in the following questi...
Reminder: Call for New Members and Co-Chairs, NDSA Excellence Awards Working Group
The NDSA Excellence Awards Working Group (EAWG) seeks new co-chairs and at-large members! This group relies on volunteer participation from the digital preservation community to publicize the nomination process, review nominations, select the winners, and work closely with the awardees and the DigiPres conference program committee to organize the Awards Ceremony. The group typically meets once a month and works as needed in between regularly scheduled calls to support the awards process. Most...
NDSA Digital Preservation Conference (DigiPres23) Call for Proposals
The NDSA is pleased to announce that the Call for Proposals (CFP) is now open for Digital Preservation 2023: Communities of Time and Place (#DigiPres23) to be held November 15-16, 2023 in person in St. Louis, Missouri at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel. Submissions from members and nonmembers alike are welcome, and you can learn more about session format options through the CFP. The deadline to submit proposals is May 1, 2023 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. Learn more about the conference itsel...
Calls For Proposals For 2023 CLIR Events Are Now Live
The Council on Library and Information Resources is pleased to announce that we have opened Calls for Proposals for our conferences happening in person in St. Louis, MO this November: the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Forum and Learn@DLF and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2023: Communities of Time and Place. For all events, we encourage proposals from members and non-members; regulars and newcomers; digital library practitioners from all sectors (higher education, museums and cultur...
Join us for NDSA Membership Listening Forums
We want to hear from you — whether you’re an NDSA member or not — about your experiences with the NDSA. The NDSA Membership Working Group invites you to attend one of the two listening forums on March 8th at 10am EST/9am CST/7am PST and March 22nd at 2pm EST/1pm CST/11am PST. Following our 2021 survey, part of the Membership Working Group’s charge has been to gather more data on your thoughts on types of memberships, moving to a paid membership model, and how NDSA c...
Call for New Members and Co-Chairs, NDSA Excellence Awards Working Group
The NDSA Excellence Awards were established in 2012 to highlight and commend all forms of creative and meaningful contributions by individual professionals, future stewards, educators, organizations, projects, and sustainability activities to the field of digital preservation. This year’s awards will be presented in person at the Digital Preservation 2023 conference, which will be held in St. Louis, Missouri on November 15-16, 2023. The Excellence Awards depend upon the vital volunteer partic...
Call for Co-chairs for 2023 Storage Survey
NDSA is seeking two volunteers from NDSA member organizations to serve as co-chairs for the next iteration of the Storage Survey. Volunteers should be knowledgeable about, and interested in, digital preservation storage and comfortable with co-leading a group to produce and administer a survey, analyze data, and write and publish a report. Prior experience chairing an NDSA group is not necessary, and NDSA Leadership will provide guidelines for the co-chairs. Responsibilities include: Schedul...
NDSA 2022 Year in Review
As we begin 2023 we wanted to take a moment to look back at NDSA activities over the past year. Please take a look at the things we’ve accomplished and think about how you can participate this year! NDSA Leadership This summer, NDSA Leadership went through an facilitated exercise to discuss NDSA strategy and how we engage with the marketplace of digital preservation service providers. One result of this exercise is a refreshed NDSA Foundational Strategy, which includes tweaks to our ...
NDSA’s Digital Preservation Virtual Event!
NDSA will be hosting a virtual event on February 23, 2023, for those presenters who were unable to participate in the in-person conference in Baltimore last fall. The event, held in collaboration with our host organization, CLIR, will consist of panels and presentations and will take place over Zoom Events. The schedule for this event is available on the website while information regarding registration is forthcoming. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us for this special online eve...
Call for Volunteers for the NDSA DigiPres 2023 Planning Committee
The NDSA calls for volunteers to join our Planning Committee for Digital Preservation 2023. Digital Preservation (DigiPres) is the NDSA’s annual conference – open to members and non-members alike – focused on stewardship, curation, and preservation of digital information and cultural heritage. The 2023 meeting will take place on November 15-16, 2023, in St. Louis, Missouri, just after the DLF Forum. NDSA is an affiliate of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and the Digit...
NDSA Welcomes Two New Members
As of 13 December 2022, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome two recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members. Brigham Young University Brigham Young University‘s library has been involved in digital preservation work for over a decade, primarily preserving master digitized files and in recent ...
Bethany Scott Elected 2023 NDSA Vice Chair by Coordinating Committee
Bethany Scott, recently elected to a 2023-2025 term on the NDSA Coordinating Committee, has been elected by that committee as it’s 2023 Vice Chair and 2024 Chair. The Vice Chair’s duties include: Managing the annual process to elect new CC members Managing and facilitating the new member application process. Conving quarterly meetings for the Co-Chairs of Working Groups and Interest Groups. Participating in quarterly meetings between NDSA and CLIR. Ensuring the NDSA Code of Conduct is carrie...
Reflections from the Open Conversation on the ITHAKA S+R Report: The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems
On October 26, 2022, NDSA hosted an open conversation for the community to discuss the impact of the ITHAKA S+R report, “The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems.” Seventy-four individuals participated in a lively discussion, and notes were recorded in an open Google Doc. Comments from the Zoom chat were also anonymized and added to the document after the event. NDSA Leadership was keen to share some valuable themes and takeaways from this conversation, in...
NASIG’s Digital Preservation Committee Creates Model Digital Preservation Policy
This guest post is from Steve Oberg, Social Media Coordinator at NASIG and Acquisitions and Discovery Services Group Manager at Wheaton College’s Buswell Library. In June of this year, NASIG’s Digital Preservation Committee announced publication of the NASIG Model Digital Preservation Policy, an important new tool designed to help measure, grow, and publicize your organization’s commitment to preserving its scholarship. It includes advice on identifying and taking first steps, as well as more...
Call for Participation: NDSA Membership Working Group
Looking to get involved with NDSA in the new year? We’re looking for members who want to be a part of the conversations that shape our membership models going forward. We will discuss: The feasibility of membership fees, such as paid tiers. Affiliate memberships for individuals vs. institutional memberships. Criteria for evaluating new members. Increasing membership. Early career and student outreach. New member onboarding. View more about the Membership Working Group here. If you are inter...
NDSA Leadership Refreshes Foundational Strategy, Now Includes Transparency and Openness
The NDSA held its 10th annual Digital Preservation conference on October 12-13 in Baltimore, Maryland, you can read some highlights from NDSA Leadership on the NDSA News blog. During the opening ceremony, while sharing my remarks as Chair, I mentioned that NDSA Leadership worked over the summer and fall to refresh our foundational strategy. What better day to talk about our refreshed strategy than World Digital Preservation Day! Our mission statement now reflects that NDSA fosters and incubat...
Highlights from NDSA’s Digital Preservation Conference 2022
The 2022 Digital Preservation (aka DigiPres) conference in Baltimore was a huge success and a fantastic opportunity to connect with colleagues. NDSA Leadership is grateful to the Organizing Committee for putting together an engaging program, to Jes Neal and Stacey Erdman for their thoughtful leadership, and to CLIR and DLF for their support and collaboration. We wanted to take a moment to share some of Leadership’s personal highlights from the days’ events: It was really energizing to be in ...
It’s Here: the 2022-2023 NDSA Web Archiving Survey!
Does your organization have a web archiving program? If so, we’d love to hear more about your web archiving work! The 2022 – 2023 NDSA Web Archiving Survey aims to track the evolution of web archiving programs around the world, and help us better understand what individuals and institutions are collecting (and the kinds of infrastructure needed to help support these collecting efforts). The 2022 – 2023 Survey builds upon surveys previously conducted in 2017, 2016, 2013, and 2011 — and though ...
NDSA Welcomes Six New Members
As of 13 September 2022, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its six most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members. ~ Hannah Wang, Vice Chair of the NDSA Coordinating Committee Africa Media Online Africa Media Online operates a digital trade route enabling the custodians of African collections ...
NDSA to Hold Open Conversations on Ithaka S+R Report: The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems
In July of this year, Ithaka S+R researchers published a long-awaited IMLS funded report on digital preservation and curation systems. This report has generated much discussion and some controversy within the digital preservation community. NDSA sees and appreciates practitioners’ hard work in preserving our collective cultural heritage, work that is apparent not only in community discussions but was also recently studied in the 2019 Storage Infrastructure Survey and the 2021 Staffing Survey....
Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2023-2025
Please join me in welcoming the three newly elected Coordinating Committee members Shira Peltzman, Deon Schutte, and Bethany Scott. Their terms begin January 1, 2023 and run through December 31, 2025. Shira Peltzman is the Digital Archivist for UCLA Library Special Collections where she works with stakeholders on an enterprise-wide basis to preserve and make LSC’s born-digital material accessible to the widest possible audience. As a current member of the NDSA Staffing Survey Working Group, ...
New NDSA Code of Conduct Website
A Code of Conduct webpage is now available sharing information on NDSA’s Code of Conduct practices. The website links to the Code of Conduct itself, but also provides information on how to report code of conduct violations. In most NDSA online spaces, the quickest way to report any concerns or violations is to complete an anonymous form. Other options include reaching out to Chairs of groups or someone in the Leadership group. In addition to this information being available on the websi...
NDSA Interest Group Meetings Open to All
NDSA Interest Groups meet quarterly on a rotating schedule. Meetings are held via Zoom and are open to all. You are invited to attend to learn more about digital preservation, to meet colleagues in other organizations, and to keep up to date on NDSA. Meeting registration is not used, so you are free to drop in as your schedule permits. The three Interest groups focus on the following areas: Infrastructure, Standards and Practices, and Content. Please visit the group webpages to learn more a...
Now Available: The 2021 NDSA Staffing Survey Report
The NDSA Staffing Survey Working Group is excited to announce the publication of the 2021 Staffing Survey Report, now available in the NDSA OSF. The NDSA Staffing Survey is designed to gain insight into current staffing realities for digital preservation programs, and was substantially redesigned in 2021 based on feedback from previous surveys and changes in the field over the past decade. Completed by 269 individuals, the report documents the survey responses related to the following areas...
NDSA Announces 2022 Slate of Candidates for Coordinating Committee
NDSA is happy to announce the 2022 slate of Coordinating Committee (CC) candidates. Elections will soon be held for three (3) CC members. The CC is dedicated to ensuring a strategic direction for NDSA, to the advancement of NDSA activities to achieve community goals, and to further communication among digital preservation professionals and NDSA member organizations. The CC is responsible for reviewing and approving NDSA membership applications and publications; updating eligibility standards ...
Call for Nominations to the NDSA Coordinating Committee – Extended
NDSA will be electing three members to its Coordinating Committee (CC) this year, with terms starting in January 2023. CC members serve a three year term, participate in a monthly call, and meet at the annual Digital Preservation Conference. The Coordinating Committee provides strategic leadership to the organization in coordination with group co-chairs. NDSA is a diverse community with a critical mission, and we seek candidates to join the CC that bring a variety of cultures and orientations...
Call for Nominations to the NDSA Coordinating Committee – Extended
NDSA will be electing three members to its Coordinating Committee (CC) this year, with terms starting in January 2023. CC members serve a three year term, participate in a monthly call, and meet at the annual Digital Preservation Conference. The Coordinating Committee provides strategic leadership to the organization in coordination with group co-chairs. NDSA is a diverse community with a critical mission, and we seek candidates to join the CC that bring a variety of cultures and orientations...
Programs are Live for CLIR’s 2022 Events: DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, DigiPres, DHC Symposium
The Council on Library and Information Resources is delighted to announce the release of the full programs for our in-person conferences happening in Baltimore, MD this October: the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Forum and Learn@DLF, NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2022: Preserving Legacy, and CLIR’s Digitizing Hidden Collections Symposium. This year’s programs are remarkable, and you won’t want to miss them. Explore the Programs Our events will take place on the following dates: The DLF Fo...
NDSA Welcomes Three New Members
As of 14 June 2022, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its three most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members. Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Inc. Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator supports contemporary emerging artists who explore and experiment with new forms and themes that chal...
Registration is Now Open for CLIR’s 2022 Events, Keynotes Announced
The Council on Library and Information Resources is delighted to announce that we have opened registration for our in-person conferences happening in Baltimore, Maryland this October: the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Forum and Learn@DLF, NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2022: Preserving Legacy, and CLIR’s Digitizing Hidden Collections Symposium. Our events will take place on the following dates: The DLF Forum (#DLFforum): October 10-12 Learn@DLF pre-conference workshop day (#LearnAtDLF): O...
Office Hours for the Levels of Digital Preservation
The NDSA Levels Steering Team is excited to announce the introduction of bi-monthly open office hours. In these informal sessions, we will welcome all members of the digital preservation community to chat about the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation and ask questions about their use and how to move forward. The sessions will also be used to gather community input on the future direction of the Levels and “next steps”. To begin, each session will include an open discussion and a...
NDSA Welcomes Four New Members
As of 8 March 2022, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its four most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members. Quantum Corp Quantum Corp’s goal is to be the leading provider of management and storage services for unstructured data. They mainly focus on designing solutions to address the ...
NDSA and DPC Announce Cooperation on Awards Programs
The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) and Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) are delighted to announce an agreement for close coordination and cooperation on their respective awards programs. The NDSA began in 2010 as a global network of collaborative partners supplying advocacy, expertise, and support for the preservation of digital heritage, promoting a vision in which all digital material fundamentally important to our cultures receives appropriate, effective, and sustainable ...
Call for Proposals open for NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2022!
The NDSA is very pleased to announce that the Call for Proposals (CFP) is open for Digital Preservation 2022: Preserving Legacy (#DigiPres22) to be held on October 12-13, 2022 at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. Submissions from members and nonmembers alike are welcome, and you can learn more about session format options through the CFPs. The deadline to submit proposals is Monday, April 25, 2022, at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. View the CFP and Submit &nb...
Calls for Proposals for 2022 CLIR Events are Now Live
CLIR/DLF is delighted to share our Calls for Proposals for CLIR’s 2022 events, happening in person in Baltimore, Maryland. Our events will take place on the following dates: The DLF Forum (#DLFforum, October 10-12), our signature event, includes digital library practitioners and others from member institutions and the broader community, for whom it serves as a meeting place, marketplace, and congress. This year, the Forum’s guiding focus is gratitude. Learn more and check out the C...
Dutch Translation of the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation Matrix
The NDSA is pleased to announce that Version 2 (2019) of the Levels Matrix has been translated into Dutch by Lotte Wijsman. Links to these documents are found below as well as on the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation OSF project page: https://osf.io/qgz98/ V2.0 (2019) If you would be interested in translating the Levels of Digital Preservation V2.0 into another language please contact us at ndsa.digipres@gmail.com. Nederlandse vertaling van de 2019 Niveaus van de Digitale Duurza...
NDSA’s Evolutionary Leadership
Echoing the sentiments of other colleagues, digital preservation is not a state that is achieved; rather it is a comprehensive set of managed activities that are necessary to provide continued access to digital objects, beyond the limits of media failure or technological change. Similarly, leadership within an organization, especially one that is 100% volunteer driven, is not a state that is achieved, but one that is, or should, be constantly evolving. The continuous evolution of leadership c...
Scheduling Changes for NDSA Interest Groups
Starting this month, February 2022, the NDSA Interest Groups will be moving to a rotating quarterly call schedule. This will help members who have wanted to participate in multiple Interest groups but didn’t have the time for two or more calls a month. It will also give Interest Group Co-Chairs more time and flexibility to plan these calls, while also creating opportunities for more cross-group pollination activities, such as quarterly themes and cross-group networking calls. Each Interest G...
2022 Update from the Levels of Digital Preservation Steering Group
What happened with the Levels in 2021? Like many of us, a free recall of what we accomplished in 2021 was a bit harder than expected. However, here is a brief list: The Teaching, Advocacy, and Outreach group finalized their materials and published to OSF for anyone to use (see their blog post for more information) Multiple presentations to various groups interested in the Levels Discussing and responding to feedback provided to us in our feedback form Regular Steering Meetings (seems simple ...
2021 DigiPres Recordings Available… and More!
The recordings of the 2021 Digital Preservation Conference: Embracing Digitality are now available as a playlist on the NDSA YouTube Channel! If you missed a session during the conference – or perhaps didn’t have the opportunity to attend – now is your chance to catch up on all the great stuff you may have missed. Many thanks to our DLF conference counterparts for posting these. Additionally, a page has been created on the NDSA OSF site called NDSA’s Digital Preservation Confere...
Service Opportunities within NDSA
Are you looking to get more involved with NDSA? Do you need to ramp up your service? NDSA is currently recruiting new co-chairs for the Standards & Practices and Content Interest Groups. Interest Group Co-chairs host regular virtual meetings around topics of interest to NDSA members and the digital curation community, participate in monthly Leadership calls, and contribute to the strategic direction of NDSA. Interest groups may also engage in other activities of interest to members, such ...
NDSA Year in Review
Happy New Year! As we begin 2022 we wanted to take a moment to look back at what we’ve done over the past year. One of the big shifts the Leadership team made was starting to review membership applications quarterly – welcoming a total of 23 new members in January, March, June, September, December. More about this process is available on the NDSA membership website along with details for how existing members can learn how to keep their contact information up to date. Interest Groups...
Welcome Seven new NDSA Member Organizations
As of 14 December 2021, the NDSA Leadership voted to welcome its seven most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out; please join me in welcoming our new members. To review our list of members, you can see them here. In addition to approving new memberships, the Coordinating Committee also voted to remove 14 members in 2021. These members were removed ...
2021 NDSA Membership Survey Report
The Task Force on Membership Engagement is excited to announce the publication of the results of the first 2021 NDSA Membership Survey Report. The 22-question survey was completed by 31 respondents over a 2-week period. This report details the outcomes of the inaugural membership survey that was distributed to members in July 2021. Topics discussed below included, membership benefits analysis, mentorship, member engagement, member satisfaction, and alternative membership models/membership due...
Call for Volunteers for the NDSA DigiPres 2022 Planning Committee
The NDSA calls for volunteers to join our Planning Committee for Digital Preservation 2022. Digital Preservation (DigiPres) is the NDSA’s annual conference – open to members and non-members alike – focused on stewardship, curation, and preservation of digital information and cultural heritage. The 2022 meeting will take place on October 12-13, 2022, in Baltimore, Maryland, just after the DLF Forum. NDSA is an affiliate of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) an...
Announcing Member Contact Update Form and Update on Membership Status
NDSA membership contacts are the main point of contact if questions arise about the NDSA membership. These people also receive emails about the annual Coordinating Committee election and any other official correspondence the NDSA Leadership may have. To help keep these contacts up to date, the NDSA has been working on developing a way for organizations to let us know when their Program Representative or Authorized Signatory contact needs to be updated. We have developed a form for you to fill...
It’s here, the 2021 NDSA Staffing Survey!
Do you work at an organization that stewards digital content for long-term preservation? If so, we’d like to hear from you about staffing for digital preservation at your organization. The 2021 NDSA Staffing Survey is designed to gain insight into current and ideal staffing for digital preservation programs. The 2021 Staffing Survey is meant to be answered by individuals and there is no limit on the number of individual respondents per organization. Responses are sought from individuals worl...
Results of the 2021 Fixity Survey and Fixity Case Studies
The 2021 Fixity Survey Working Group is pleased to announce the publication of the results of the 2021 Fixity Survey and corresponding Fixity Case Studies. The 40 question survey was completed by 116 respondents over a month long period. The Report documents the results of each question in the areas of 1) basic information about fixity practices, 2) how fixity is being used, 3) fixity in relation to cloud services, 4) fixity errors, and 5) general demographic information. Several key poi...
Request for Participation in the Web Archiving Survey Working Group
Re-launched in 2021, the Web Archiving Survey Working Group plans to conduct a survey of organizations in the United States and beyond that are actively involved in, or interested in starting, programs to archive content from the Web. This survey, to be published in 2022, will build on previous iterations of the ‘Web Archiving in the United States’ surveys, published in 2017, 2016, 2013, and 2011. 2017 Survey: https://osf.io/3qh6n/ 2016 Survey: https://ndsa.org/documents/WebArchivinginth...
Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2022-2024
Please join me in welcoming the three newly elected Coordinating Committee members Stacey Erdman, Jen Mitcham, and Hannah Wang. Their terms begin January 1, 2022 and run through December 31, 2024. Stacey Erdman is the Digital Preservation & Curation Officer at Arizona State University. In this position, she has responsibility for designing and leading the digital preservation and curation program for ASU Library. She is also currently serving as the Acting Digital Repository Manager at A...
DigiPres 2021 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Tonia Sutherland!
We are pleased to announce Dr. Tonia Sutherland as the keynote speaker for Digital Preservation 2021: Embracing Digitality (#DigiPres21). Dr. Sutherland is an Assistant Professor in the Library and Information Sciences Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where her work focuses on memory, community, and technology. Dr. Sutherland’s book Digital Remains is forthcoming from the University of California Press. Since she will be joining us for the virtual event from Hawaiʻi, her keynote ...
NDSA Welcomes Eight New Members
As of 17 September 2021, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its eight most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members. Botanical Research Institute of Texas The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BIRT) was founded with an institutional commitment to the preservation and dissemination of botan...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: Dorothea Salo
In 2017, Dorothea Salo received the NDSA Innovation Award in the Educators category for her development projects, RADD (Recovering Analog and Digital Data), PROUD (Portable Recovery of Unique Data), and PRAVDA (Portably Reformat Audio and Video to Digital from Analog). These projects were designed to extend the reach of digitization and preservation tools to those without the resources of large-scale memory institutions. Today, she is a Distinguished Faculty Associate in The Information Schoo...
NDSA Announces 2021 Slate of Candidates for Coordinating Committee
NDSA is happy to announce the 2021 slate of Coordinating Committee (CC) candidates. Elections will soon be held for three (3) CC members. The CC is dedicated to ensuring a strategic direction for NDSA, to the advancement of NDSA activities to achieve community goals, and to further communication among digital preservation professionals and NDSA member organizations. The CC is responsible for reviewing and approving NDSA membership applications and publications; updating eligibility standards...
Arabic Translations Available of the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation
The NDSA is pleased to announce that the 2019 Levels of Preservation documents have been translated into Arabic by our colleagues from Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation’s Qirab project (http://thesaurus-islamicus.org/index.htm). Translations for the Levels of Digital Preservation Matrix and Implementation Guide were completed. Links to these documents are found on the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation OSF site (https://osf.io/qgz98/). If you would be interested in translating the Levels of Dig...
Call for Nominations to the NDSA Coordinating Committee
NDSA will be electing three members to its Coordinating Committee (CC) this year, with terms starting in January 2022. CC members serve a three year term, participate in a monthly call, and meet at the annual Digital Preservation Conference. The Coordinating Committee provides strategic leadership to the organization in coordination with group co-chairs. NDSA is a diverse community with a critical mission, and we seek candidates to join the CC that bring a variety of cultures and orientations...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: ePADD
Nominations are now being accepted for the NDSA 2021 Excellence Awards. In 2017, ePADD won the NDSA Innovation Award in the Project category. At that time, this project was an undertaking to develop free and open-source computational analysis software that facilitates screening, browsing, and access for historically and culturally significant email collections. The software incorporates techniques from computer science and computational linguistics, including natural language processing, name...
Levels of Preservation Teaching, Advocacy, and Outreach Update
The Levels of Preservation Steering Group is pleased to announce the official release of its first round of training support materials for those who want to teach and educate others in the Levels of Preservation. This has been the product of many months’ refinement and editing – not to mention lots of wordsmithing! Our heartfelt thanks go out to Nance McGovern (MIT) and the rest of the TAO group for their hard work on this project. The training support packet includes a comprehensive sl...
NDSA Adds Three New Members
As of 8 June 2021, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its three most recent applicants into the membership. University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) The Crowley Company Matthew Breitbart (Affiliate Member) Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. UCLA is the largest digital library in the University of California system and collects every format, they collect, preserve, and publish petabytes of data. The Crowley Company has provided commercial an...
It’s here, the 2021 NDSA Fixity Survey!
Do you manage and preserve content? If so, we’d like to know what your fixity practices are! The NDSA Fixity Working Group is back again, with our latest iteration of the NSDA Fixity survey. Please contribute to our longitudinal research designed to gain insight into how organizations worldwide use various fixity methods to ensure the stability of their digital content and to learn how real-world capacity and best practices differ. The survey is available until June 18, 2021. The survey is ...
Announcing the NDSA Excellence Awards!
The NDSA Excellence Awards Working Group (formerly the Innovation Awards Working Group) is excited to announce the expansion and renaming of the awards to recognize the important contributions that are being made in the areas of sustainability and maintenance. The NDSA Excellence Awards will highlight and commend all forms of creative and meaningful contributions by individuals, projects, sustainability activities, organizations, future stewards, and educators to the field of digital preserva...
German Translation for the 2019 Levels of Preservation Matrix Now Available
GERMAN TRANSLATION FOR THE 2019 LEVELS OF PRESERVATION MATRIX The 2019 NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation Matrix has been translated into German. Please find a link to the German translation below. Citation information and a link to the German translation is as follows: Lindlar, Micky (Orcid: 0000-0003-3709-5608); Rudnik, Pia (Orcid: 0000-0003-4081-9646) (2021). NDSA 2019 Digital Preservation Levels Translation: German Translation of Version 2.0. 2.0 in German https://osf.io/3na96/ and ...
Call for Proposals open for NDSA Digital Preservation 2021!
The NDSA is very pleased to announce the Call for Proposals is open for Digital Preservation 2021: Embracing Digitality (#DigiPres21) to be held ONLINE this year on November 4th, 2021 during World Digital Preservation Day. Submissions from members and nonmembers alike are welcome, and you can learn more about session format options through the CFP. The deadline to submit proposals is Monday, May 17, at 11:59pm Eastern Time. Digital Preservation 2021 (#DigiPres21) is held in partnership with ...
2021 DLF Forum, DigiPres, and Learn@DLF Calls for Proposals
We’re delighted to share that it’s CFP season for CLIR’s annual events. Based on community feedback, we’ve made the decision to take our events online again in 2021. We look forward to new and better ways to come together—as always, with community at the center. Our events will take place on the following dates: The DLF Forum (#DLFforum, November 1-3), our signature event, includes digital library practitioners and others from member institutions and the broader community, for whom it serve...
Good Migrations: A Checklist for Migrating Your Digital Preservation Infrastructure
My, how time flies. About half a decade ago, in 2015, I became one of the NDSA Infrastructure Interest Group co-chairs. This was part of the NDSA transition from being hosted by the Library of Congress to a new host, which would eventually be CLIR/DLF. Earlier that year, the Infrastructure Working Group (as it was known back then) drafted a document designed to be a checklist for system migrations. The draft was put out to the community for comments, but then, as the influence of the Library ...
Request for Participation in Fixity and Staffing Survey Working Groups
Proposals have been accepted by the NDSA Coordinating Committee for starting up the Staffing Survey Working Group and the Fixity Survey Working Group. Both surveys were last published in 2017. If you are interested in participating in either of these groups please read the scope of work for each and complete the form below by April 2, 2021. It is expected that work for both surveys would start Spring 2021 and end about a year/year and a half later, with groups generally meeting on a monthly b...
NDSA Welcomes Two New Members
Today, the NDSA Coordinating Committee unanimously voted to welcome two new members. Each of these members bring a host of skills and experience to our group. Please help us to welcome: University of Wisconsin – Parkside: UW Parkside’s primary mission is to document the history of the University of Wisconsin – Parkside by collecting both analog and digital materials from across campus, including two predecessor institutions (UW-Kenosha and UW-Racine). Most of their digital...
Call for Volunteers: NDSA Task Force on Membership Engagement and Recruitment
The NDSA Leadership group is spinning up a new group around NDSA Membership and invites you to consider volunteering for the Task Force on Membership Engagement and Recruitment. The focus of the Task Force will be to examine membership engagement, benefits/drawbacks of the current model type, and recruitment efforts of the NDSA. Through research and surveying members of the consortium, a primary goal of the Task Force is to provide recommendations that will move the NDSA towards a culture th...
Three New NDSA Members
Since January 2021, the NDSA Coordinating Committee unanimously voted to welcome three new members. Each of these members bring a host of skills and experience to our group. Please help us to welcome: Arkivum: Arkivum is recognized internationally for its expertise in the archiving and digital preservation of valuable data and digitized assets in large volumes and multiple formats. Colorado State University Libraries: Colorado State University Libraries’ digital preservation activities has f...
Virtual 2020 NDSA Digital Preservation recordings available online!
Session recordings from the virtual 2020 NDSA Digital Preservation conference are now available on NDSA’s YouTube channel, as well as on Aviary. The full program from Digital Preservation 2020: Get Active with Digital Preservation, which took place online November 12, 2020, is free and open to the public. NDSA is an affiliate of the Digital Library Federation (DLF) and the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Each year, NDSA’s annual Digital Preservation conference is held alo...
Announcing Finnish Translations of the 2019 Levels of Preservation Matrix and Assessment Tool
The NDSA is pleased to announce that the 2019 Levels of Preservation documents have been translated into Finnish by our colleagues from CSC – IT Center for Science and the Finnish digital preservation collaboration group. Translations for the Assessment Tool Template and both versions of the Levels of Digital Preservation Matrix were completed. Links to these documents are found on the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation OSF site (https://osf.io/qgz98/) as well as below. Levels of Digital...
Levels of Digital Preservation Digital Curation Decision Guide Published
It is with great pleasure to announce that the Levels of Digital Preservation work continues to roll out. In these waning days of 2020, the Curatorial Team of the Levels has released its first published edition of the Digital Curation Decision Guide. This guide forms the basis of a series of decision points around collections and the implementation of a preservation strategy. It is not just for the preservation specialist but rather, it attempts to highlight the preservation implications of c...
Calls for Volunteers for 2021 Digital Preservation Conference
The NDSA calls for volunteers to join our Planning Committee for the 2021 Digital Preservation conference. Digital Preservation (DigiPres) is the NDSA’s annual conference – open to members and non-members alike – focused on stewardship, curation, and preservation of digital information and cultural heritage. The 2021 meeting will take place on November 10-11th 2021 in St. Louis, Missouri, just after the DLF Forum. NDSA is an affiliate of the Council on Library and Information Res...
Announcing a Portuguese Translation of the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation Matrix
Portuguese Translations of the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation Matrix The NDSA is pleased to announce that Version 2 (2019) of the Levels Matrix has been translated into Portuguese by Laura Vilela R. Rezende. This document enriches the scientific studies on Digital Preservation and Research Data Curation developed by the Brazilian research group of which the researcher is part: The Research Network – DRIADE: Digital Preservation Studies and Practices Links to these documents are ...
10 Additions to NDSA Membership in Summer and Fall 2020
Since the spring of 2020, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome 10 new members. Each of these new members brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Please help us welcome: Arizona State University Library: With many of their materials from local Indigenous and LatinX communities, the Library is working with researchers from these communities to archive and preserve collections and artifacts unique to our region, making them accessible for generations to come. Arkevist: ...
Announcing Spanish Translations for the 2019 and 2013 Levels Matrix
The NDSA is pleased to announce that both the original (2013) and Version 2 (2019) of the Levels Matrix have been translated into Spanish by our colleagues from Mexico and Spain, Dr. David Leija (Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas) and Dr. Miquel Térmens (Universitat de Barcelona). Drs. Leija and Térmens are academic researchers and founders of APREDIG (Ibero-American association for digital preservation), a non-profit organization focused on spreading the importance of good practices of dig...
NDSA Announces Winners of 2020 Innovation Awards
The NDSA established its Innovation Awards in 2012 to recognize and encourage innovation in the field of digital stewardship. Since then, it has honored 39 exemplary educators, future stewards, individuals, institutions, and projects for their efforts in ensuring the ongoing viability and accessibility of our valuable digital heritage. The 2020 NDSA Innovation Awards are generously sponsored by Digital Bedrock. Today, NDSA adds 8 new awardees to that honor roll during the opening plenary cer...
Award Winners: NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation Group
This year’s World Digital Preservation Day (#WDPD) was the biggest yet! With outpourings of research, achievements, practical advice, and fun it was hard to believe that there were also awards as part of that process. On 05 November, the NDSA’s Levels of Digital Preservation Reboot was the recipient of one of the Digital Preservation Coalition’s Digital Preservation Award! We won in the ICA-sponsored category for Collaboration and Cooperation – the first time it has been awarded! This...
Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2021- 2023
Please join me in welcoming the two newly elected Coordinating Committee members Elizabeth England and Jessica Neal, and one re-elected member, Linda Tadic. Their terms begin January 1, 2021 and run through December 31, 2023. Elizabeth England is a Digital Preservation Specialist at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, where she participates in strategic and operational initiatives and services for the preservation of born-digital and digitized records. She previously was ...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: AIMS Project
The AIMS Project (An Inter-Institutional Model for Stewardship) won a 2012 Innovation Award in the Project category. AIMS participants were recognized for their work developing a framework for stewarding born-digital content and filling the gap between applying standards such as OAIS and the necessary workflows and tools for implementation. The responses to this Q&A were provided by AIMS Project participants from Stanford University, University of Hull, and University of Virginia. What ha...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: Mid-Michigan Digital Practitioners
The Mid-Michigan Digital Practitioners (MMDP) won a 2016 Innovation Award in the Organization category. MMDP was recognized for taking an innovative approach to providing support and guidance to the digital preservation community. The responses to this Q&A were provided by Rick Adler, Ed Busch, and Bryan Whitledge. What have you/the project team been doing since receiving an NDSA Innovation Award? Since receiving the award, we have continued to do what we do best – connecting archivists, ...
DLF and NDSA Among Finalists for Digital Preservation Awards 2020
We’re thrilled by today’s announcement that projects from both DLF’s Born-Digital Access Working Group (BDAWG) and NDSA are among the finalists for the Digital Preservation Coalition’s (DPC’s) prestigious Digital Preservation Awards 2020. One of three finalists for the Software Sustainability Institute Award for Research and Innovation, BDAWG is being recognized for its white paper, Levels of Born-Digital Access (LBDA), a set of benchmarks and practical guidelines supporting access to born-...
DPC Digital Preservation Award Finalist: NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation
Today the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) announced the finalists for the Digital Preservation Awards 2020 in the International Council on Archives Collaboration and Cooperation category. We are pleased to announce that the collaboration around the revision work for the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation is a finalist!
Meet the NDSA Coordinating Committee Candidates for the 2020 Election
This year we have four people who have thrown their hats into the ring to run for the NDSA’s Coordinating Committee (CC), of which we will elect three. The CC is dedicated to ensuring a strategic direction for NDSA, to the advancement of NDSA activities to achieve community goals, and to further communication among digital preservation professionals and NDSA member organizations. The CC is responsible for reviewing and approving NDSA membership applications and publications; updating eligibil...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: Martin Gengenbach
Nominations are now being accepted for the NDSA 2020 Innovation Awards. Martin Gengenbach won a 2013 Innovation Award in the Future Steward category. Martin was recognized for his work documenting digital forensics tools and workflows, especially his paper, “The Way We Do it Here: Mapping Digital Forensics Workflows in Collecting Institutions” and his work cataloging the DFXML schema. He is currently the Lead, Preservation at Gates Archive. What have you been doing since receiving an ...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: Samantha Abrams
Nominations are now being accepted for the NDSA 2020 Innovation Awards. Samantha Abrams won a 2016 Innovation Award in the Future Steward category. Samantha was recognized for her work with the Madison Public Library and its Personal Archiving Lab as well as her initiative to create innovative projects and classes. She is currently the Web Resources Collection Librarian for the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation. What have you been doing since receiving an NDSA Innovation Award? Since Ma...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: Archive Team
Nominations are now being accepted for the NDSA 2020 Innovation Awards. Archive Team won a 2013 Innovation Award in the Organization category. Archive Team was recognized for both for its aggressive, vital work in preserving websites and digital content slated for deletion and for its work advocating for the preservation of digital culture within the technology and computing sectors. The answers below were provided by Jason Scott. What has Archive Team been doing since receiving...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: DataUp
Nominations are now being accepted for the NDSA 2020 Innovation Awards. DataUp from the California Digital Library won a 2013 Innovation Award in the Project category. DataUp was recognized for creating an open-source tool uniquely built to assist individuals aiming to preserve research datasets by guiding them through the digital stewardship workflow process from dataset creation and description to the deposit of their datasets into public repositories. The following individuals are r...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: Dr. Anthony Cocciolo
Nominations are now being accepted for the NDSA 2020 Innovation Awards. Anthony Cocciolo won a 2012 Innovation Award in the Individual category. He was recognized for his innovative approaches to teaching digital preservation practices, in particular his work partnering classes with archival institutions to work on the digitization and digital preservation of analog audio collections. Cocciolo is currently the Dean of the Pratt Institute School of Information. What have you been...
Catching up with past NDSA Innovation Awards Winners: Mat Kelly, PhD
Nominations are now being accepted for the NDSA 2020 Innovation Awards. Mat Kelly won a 2012 Innovation Award in the Future Steward category when he was a graduate student at Old Dominion University. He won the award in recognition of his work on WARCreate, a Google Chrome extension that allows users to create a Web ARChive (WARC) file from any browsable web page. Kelly is currently an assistant professor in the Information Science department at Drexel University’s College of Computing...
Happy Birthday to NDSA!
As we close in on the end of July we celebrate 10 years of the NDSA!! NDSA was initiated by the Library of Congress as a way to sustain and increase partnerships created through the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). Participants of NDIIPP were many of the initial members of NDSA. There were 58 members in 2010, with membership now standing at over 250 in 2020. Bill LeFurgy, one of the creators of NDSA, discusses the development and history of N...
Now Accepting Nominations for NDSA 2020 Innovation Awards
Nominations are now open for the NDSA 2020 Innovation Awards! The NDSA established the Awards in 2012 to encourage innovation in the field of digital preservation by highlighting and commending creative individuals, projects, organizations, educators, and future stewards demonstrating originality and excellence in their contributions to the field. The 38 past winners are a veritable who’s-who of impactful leaders advancing digital stewardship theory and practice. Please help acknowledge and ...
Looking for your feedback on the V2.0 of the Levels of Preservation
We can’t believe it’s been almost 9 months since Version 2 of the Levels of Preservation was released at DigiPres 2019! As we continue to move forward with other resources that build on the revised Levels, we wanted to hear from you about how the revisions and associated documents like the Implementation Guidelines and Assessment Tool have worked for you over these past 9 months. If you have used the revised Levels or associated materials, we would love to know how you used them and how the...
Turkish Translations of the 2019 Levels of Preservation Implementation Guide and Matrix
The NDSA is pleased to announce that the 2019 Levels of Preservation documents have been translated into Turkish by Özhan SAĞLIK who is working as a lecturer in the Bursa Uludag University Library. Levels are desired to use for institutions to assess their digital preservation activities in Turkey. Translations were completed for the Implementation Document of the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation, and the black and white version of the Levels of Digital Preservation Matrix. Links to these ...
Now Available: French Translations of the 2019 Levels of Preservation and Associated Documents
The NDSA is pleased to announce that the 2019 Levels of Preservation documents have been translated into French by our colleagues from the French National watch unit on file formats which includes institutions like the National Library of France, the Departmental Archives of Moselle, or the École nationale des Chartes. Translations for the Assessment Tool Documentation and Case Studies, the Assessment Tool Template, the Implementation Document of the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation, and b...
DLF Forum and Fall Events Move Online
Based on the overwhelming responses to our community survey, the number and distribution of proposals for all CFPs, and CLIR’s ongoing monitoring of the pandemic situation, it has become clear to us that for the health and safety of our attendees and presenters, we must transition all of our fall events to a virtual format. We are sorry we won’t be able to explore Baltimore in 2020, but we’re already making arrangements to hold our 2022 events there, so we’ll just have to wait a bit longer t...
NDSA Welcomes Three New Members!
As of April 2020, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its three most recent applicants into the membership. University of Dayton Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) University of California, Berkeley Library This brings the total membership to number over 250 members! Each of these new members brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Dayton works actively to support scholarship teaching and learning; RISD has over 18TB of digital materials and has an IMLS grant to ...
NISO Interview on NDSA’s 2019 Storage Infrastructure Report
Jill O’Neill, NISO Director of Content, recently interviewed Laura Alagna, Carol Kussmann, and Nathan Tallman to discuss NDSA’s recent 2019 Storage Infrastructure Report. The 2019 Storage Infrastructure Report, released by the NDSA in late February, offers a much needed glimpse into how academic librarians are currently handling digital storage for their institutions. In another segment of the NISO Interview series, Jill O’Neill sat down with three of the report authors to d...
2020 NDSA Agenda for Digital Stewardship Released
The NDSA Agenda Working Group is pleased to announce the publication of the 2020 NDSA Agenda for Digital Stewardship! The NDSA Agenda, last published in 2015, represents a complete update around current advances and needs within crucial areas of focus such as digital collections, technological infrastructure, organizational policy and practice, and research priorities. Additionally, the Agenda also builds on results from the 2018 NDSA Institutional Survey on Priority Areas in digital steward...
Teaching, outreach and advocacy for the NDSA Levels of Preservation
In October 2019 after several months of collaboration and hard work, the NDSA was pleased to announce the publication of version 2 of the Levels of Preservation. A follow up blog post on the Digital Preservation Coalition blog highlighted in particular the work of the Revision Working Group and flagged up some of the main changes that were made in moving the original Levels to version 2. Moving forward, the Levels of Preservation reboot effort was more than just the work of the Revision group...
2019 Storage Survey Report Published
The NDSA is pleased to announce the release of the 2019 Storage Infrastructure Survey Report. From May 23 to June 7, 2019, the 2019 NDSA Storage Infrastructure Survey Working Group conducted a survey designed to gather information on the technologies and practices used in preservation storage infrastructure. This effort builds upon two previous surveys, conducted in 2011 and 2013. Unlike these previous iterations, however, the 2019 Storage Infrastructure Survey encouraged responses from both...
CFPs are here! 2020 DLF Forum and Affiliated Events
UPDATE 3/26/2020: The deadline for all CFPs has been extended to Monday, May 11, 2020. For more updates on DLF Forum & COVID-19, please see the Forum website. It’s hard to believe, but CFP season is here once again! Have a great idea for a session to share at one of our events in Baltimore? You’re in luck! We have just issued Calls for Proposals for our conferences happening this November: the DLF Forum (#DLFforum, November 9-11), our Learn@DLF pre-conference (#LearnAtDLF, Novembe...
French Translation of the 2013 Levels of Preservation Now Available
While all of the recent news has been about the Levels of Digital Preservation V2.0, we have an update to share about the 2013 version of the Levels. Our colleagues from the National Library of France (BnF) have translated the original Levels of Preservation into French. Stay tuned for the release of the Levels of Digital Preservation V2.0 in French which more colleagues from the French watch group on formats are currently drafting! If you would be interested in translating the Levels of...
Welcome to 2020! News from your NDSA!
Welcome to 2020! News from your NDSA Greetings one and all. For starters, happy (belated) new year! We have had a lot on the burners this past year and 2020 will be no different. Here are some highlights (past and present): Governance We took a long and deep look at our overall governance structure. But what does that mean, exactly? Well, this time last year parts of the Coordinating Committee were meeting weekly to refocus our documentation and structure of our various components: Coo...
Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2020
Please join me in welcoming the three new 2020 elected Coordinating Committee members: Courtney Mumma, Daniel Noonan, and Nathan Tallman. Courtney C. Mumma, is an archivist and a librarian. She is the Deputy Director of the Texas Digital Library consortium, a collective of university libraries working towards open, sustainable, and secure digital heritage and scholarly communications. She has over a decade of experience in open source software development and maintenance, infrastructure suppo...
NDSA Creates the Communications, Outreach, and Publications Working Group
As part of our ongoing effort to be transparent and informative, the Leadership of the NDSA approved the creation of a new working group to assist with communications about NDSA activities with the NDSA membership and beyond. We are looking for people to join in the effort! Any interest can be expressed by completing the following form by the end of January 2020. Group Purpose: To develop, enhance, and refine the communications strategy with the NDSA membership. Group Activities: The mai...
NDSA Announces the Levels of Digital Preservation 2.0
After over a year of hard work, the Levels of Digital Preservation Working group announces the Levels of Digital Preservation 2.0! In 2018 the NDSA sent out a call to the larger digital preservation community asking for interest in updating the Levels of Preservation. Response was high – 125 individuals responded! NDSA then convened the Levels of Preservation Working group, which divided up into subgroups to tackle the many areas the community wanted to see addressed in a Levels Reboot...
NDSA Announces Winners of 2019 Innovation Awards
NDSA Announces Winners of 2019 Innovation Awards For release October 16, 2019 The NDSA established its Innovation Awards in 2011 to recognize and encourage innovation in the field of digital stewardship, https://ndsa.org/awards/. Since then, it has honored 34 exemplary individuals, institutions, projects, educators, and future stewards for their efforts in ensuring the ongoing viability and accessibility of valuable digital heritage. Today, NDSA adds 5 new awardees to that honor roll during t...
Full Programs NOW LIVE for DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s Digital Preservation!
We are thrilled to announce the release of the full program for our 2019 DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and Digital Preservation 2019: Critical Junctures, taking place October 13-17 in Tampa, Florida. This year’s program is remarkable, and you won’t want to miss it. Browse the programs! We are especially grateful to our volunteer Reviewers and Program Committee, without whom this fabulous program would not have come together. And, thank you to all who submitted proposals. This year’s fi...
Registration NOW OPEN for DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s Digital Preservation!
The time has come! We are delighted to announce the opening of registration for the 2019 DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and Digital Preservation 2019: Critical Junctures, taking place October 13-17 in Tampa, Florida. Be among the first to secure the early bird rate and start planning for yet another memorable week with DLF. Register today! (button) https://forum2019.diglib.org/registration/ The DLF Forum (#DLFforum, October 14-16), our signature event, welcomes digital library practiti...
New NDSA Member Announcement
We are pleased to welcome our most recent members to NDSA! They have all come on board since 2019. As this community grows, I want to encourage each of you to continue your commitment to advancing the understanding and implementation of digital stewardship across all sectors. We rely on your collective knowledge and experience to advocate effectively for preservation - without you, there is no NDSA. Here are some statements from new members taken from their membership applications about their...
DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2019 CFPs are here!
It’s hard to believe, but CFP season is here! Have a great idea for a session to share at one of our events in Tampa? You’re in luck! We have just issued Calls for Proposals for our conferences happening this October: the DLF Forum (#DLFforum, October 14-16), our Learn@DLF pre-conference (#learnatdlf, October 13), and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2019: Critical Junctures (#digipres19, October 16-17). For all events, we welcome submissions from members and nonmembers alike. Stude...
NDSA Levels of Preservation Reboot Project Implementation Subgroup Survey
As many of you will remember, a very smart group of people–including Megan Phillips, Jefferson Bailey, Andrea Goethals, and Trevor Owens–helped the NDSA launched its Levels of Preservation guidelines in 2013. Since then, they’ve become a fixture in the digital preservation community, influencing practice and helping people make the case for robust infrastructure. The original intent of the “Levels” was to create a set of recommendations for either preservation practitioners who were just star...
Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members
We are pleased to announce and welcome four new members to the National Digital Stewardship Alliance Coordinating Committee, Stephen Abrams, Salwa Ismail, Linda Tadic, and Paige Walker! Stephen Abrams is head of Harvard University’s newly-established digital preservation program. Stephen is particularly interested in promoting the national agenda’s recommendations regarding the need for a robust evidence base to ground and guide practice, which aligns with the research program of his doctoral...
Announcing publication of NDSA’s 2017 Web Archiving Survey Report
The National Digital Stewardship Alliance is pleased to announce the release of the 2017 Web Archiving Survey Report. From October 2 to November 20, 2017, a working group of volunteers representing five NDSA member institutions and interest groups conducted a survey of organizations in the United States actively involved in, or planning to start, programs to archive content from the Web. This effort builds upon and extends a broader effort begun in three earlier surveys, which the working gro...
Marina Georgieva on the liaison between digital collections and digital preservation
Marina Georgieva presented a poster at Digital Preservation 2018. Please read on for a closer look at her work, one of the many great offerings from this year’s event. For more posters, please visit https://osf.io/view/ndsa2018/. Marina holds Master’s Degree in Library Science with Information Technology concentration from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. She’s currently Visiting Digital Collections Librarian at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas. Her passio...
2018 NDSA Coordinating Committee Candidates
This winter, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance turns its attention to leadership renewal. We gratefully thank our outgoing Coordinating Committee members, Micah Altman and Robin Ruggaber, for their leadership, service, and many contributions. Members of the NDSA Coordinating Committee serve staggered three year terms. Following a public call for nominations, we are presenting to members a slate of 4 candidates running for the Coordinating Committee. Between now and December 17, NDSA m...
NDSA Coordinating Committee Nominations & Election
[Nov 15 update: the nominations deadline has been extended to Nov 25!] Dear NDSA Community,As members of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance we join together to form a consortium of over 236 partnering organizations, including universities, professional associations, businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, all engaged in the long-term preservation of digital information. Committed to preserving access to our national digital heritage, we each offer our diverse skil...
Announcing the 2018 NDSA Award Winners
We are delighted to announce the recipients of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s (NDSA) annual Innovation Awards! Individual Awards: George Edward McCain Organization Award: Texas Digital Library Project Award: UC Guidelines for Born-Digital Archival Description Educator Awards: Heather Moulaison Sandy Future Steward Award: Raven Bishop These awards highlight and commend creative individuals, projects, organizations, educators, and future stewards demonstrating originality and excel...
DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, & NDSA’s DigiPres 2018 Program now live!
THE PROGRAM IS HERE! We are pleased to share the full program for the 2018 DLF Forum, Learn@DLF (our brand new pre-conference workshop day), & Digital Preservation 2018: In/visible Work—on our Forum website. Check it out Registration is now open for Learn@DLF Check out the amazing program for Learn@DLF here. If you would like to register for Learn@DLF, but have already registered for the Forum and/or Digital Preservation 2018, please contact us at forum@diglib.org! Registratio...
Nominations open for NDSA 2018 Innovation Awards
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2018 Innovation Awards for the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA)! The NDSA established the Innovation Awards in 2012 to recognize and encourage innovation in the field of digital stewardship. These awards focus on recognizing excellence in the following areas: Individuals making a significant, innovative contribution to the digital preservation community. Projects whose goals or outcomes represent an inventive, meaningful addition to th...
NDSA Coordinating Committee Member Dr. Helen Tibbo honored with IU ILS Distinguished Alumni Award
Helen Tibbo has been honored with the 41st Distinguished Alumni Award from the Information and Library Science program at the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering (SICE). Tibbo, a 1983 graduate of the then-IU School of Library and Information Science, is currently the Director of the Professional Science Master’s Degree in Digital Curation and an Alumni Distinguished Professor for the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. T...
Registration for the 2018 DLF Forum and DigiPres is NOW OPEN!
The time has come! We are delighted to announce the opening of registration for the 2018 Forum and Digital Preservation 2018, taking place October 15-18 just outside of Las Vegas. Be among the first to secure the early bird rate and start planning for yet another memorable event. Register today! You’ll join guests like Anasuya Sengupta, our Forum keynote speaker, who will present her talk, “Decolonizing Knowledge, Decolonizing the Internet: an agenda for collective action.” Stay for DigiPres ...
Community Voting for the DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and Digital Preservation 2018
The proposals are in for the DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2018! Now it’s time to shape the program. From May 9 – May 21, proposals will be open for public voting through the DLF community voting app: voting.diglib.org. During this period, community members will be able to review titles and the short versions of abstracts, and cast votes based on their interest in seeing certain presentations as part of the DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s DigiPres18. After votin...
Announcing Publication of the NDSA’s 2017 Fixity Practices Survey
Earlier this year NDSA requested your participation in a survey about your institution’s current fixity practices. The NDSA Fixity Survey Working Group is happy to announce the publication of the 2017 Fixity Survey Report. The report summarizes the results of the 2017 survey, including both broad trends and detailed information captured in the survey about respondent’s fixity practices. The Fixity Survey Working Group would like to thank the 89 organizations who took the time to complete th...
NDSA Member Profile: Sally Vermaaten of the Gates Archive
NDSA Member Profiles is a new collaborative series from the Interest Groups of the NDSA. The series is inspired by past NDSA traditions such as Insights Interviews, and aims to build on and expand these types of interviews with featured NDSA members to allow for better shared communication and collaboration around the work of digital stewardship and preservation. Topics range from member questions and insights for the NDSA community to sharing failures, discoveries, and anything else in betwe...
Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members
We are pleased to announce and welcome two new members to the National Digital Stewardship Alliance Coordinating Committee, Karen Cariani and Sibyl Schaefer! Karen Cariani is Senior Director of the WGBH Media Library and Archives (MLA) and WGBH Project Director for the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB). Sibyl Schaefer is the Chronopolis Program Manager and Digital Preservation Analyst for Research Data Curation at the University of California, San Diego. She currently serves as t...
2017 NDSA Coordinating Committee Candidates
This winter, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance turns its attention to leadership renewal. We gratefully thank our outgoing Coordinating Committee member, Jim Corridan, for his service and many contributions. And we are pleased to welcome a new co-chair for our Infrastructure Working Group, Nathan Tallman — you can learn more about NDSA leadership on the NDSA page. Members of the NDSA Coordinating Committee serve staggered three year terms. Following a public call for nominations, we a...
NDSA Member Profile: Matt Schultz of Grand Valley State University Libraries
NDSA Member Profiles is a new collaborative series from the Interest Groups of the NDSA. The series is inspired by past NDSA traditions such as Insights Interviews, and aims to build on and expand these types of interviews with featured NDSA members to allow for better shared communication and collaboration around the work of digital stewardship and preservation. Topics range from member questions and insights for the NDSA community to sharing failures, discoveries, and anything else in betwe...
Call for Nominees: NDSA Coordinating Committee
Members of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance join together to form a consortium of over 220 partnering organizations, including universities, professional associations, businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, all committed to the long-term preservation of digital information. Committed to preserving access to our national digital heritage, we each offer our diverse skills, perspectives, experiences, cultures and orientations to achieve what we could not do alone....
Announcing the 2017 NDSA Award Winners
We are delighted to announce the recipients of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s (NDSA) annual Innovation Awards! Individual Awards: Rebecca Guenther & Karen Cariani Organization Award: The Digital Preservation Network Project Award: The ePadd Project Educator Awards: George Coulbourne & Dorothea Salo Future Steward Award: Elizabeth England These awards highlight and commend creative individuals, projects, organizations, educators, and future stewards demonstrating origina...
Announcing Publication of the NDSA Digital Preservation Staffing Survey Report
Earlier this year NDSA requested your participation in a survey about how organizations worldwide were addressing digital preservation staffing and related issues. The NDSA Staffing Survey Working Group is happy to announce the publication of the 2017 Digital Preservation Staffing Survey Report. The report summarizes the results of the 2017 survey, including information on participants type of organization and size, as well as information on how organizations view their digital preservation ...
NDSA Survey on Fixity Practices
Does your organization manage and preserve digital content? If so, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) is interested in hearing from you! Building off of the NDSA publication Checking Your Digital Content, the NDSA Fixity Working Group is conducting a survey of institutions with digital preservation responsibilities to gain insight into how organizations worldwide use various fixity methods to ensure the stability of their digital content and to learn how real-world capacity and ...
NDSA Innovation Award Nominations Now Open!
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2017 Innovation Awards for the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA)! The NDSA established the Innovation Awards in 2012 to recognize and encourage innovation in the field of digital stewardship. These awards focus on recognizing excellence in the following areas: Individuals making a significant, innovative contribution to the digital preservation community. Projects whose goals or outcomes represent an inventive, meaningful addition to th...
Your Participation is Requested in the NDSA Digital Preservation Staffing Survey
Curious about how other institutions staff their digital repositories? Or, how they hope to align staff responsibilities as they grow? Members of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance have formed the Staffing Survey Working Group to survey repositories internationally for insights into these questions. Our survey will explore how organizations worldwide are addressing digital preservation staffing, scoping and structural questions. The results of this survey will build on the knowledge g...
Digital Preservation, Ethical Care, and the Tribal Stewardship Cohort Program: An NDSA interview with Kimberly Christen
This interview comes to us from Jefferson Bailey & Maria Praetzellis, Internet Archive & NDSA Innovation Working Group. Kim Christen We are very excited to talk with Kimberly Christen, Associate Professor and Director, Digital Technology and Culture Program, Director of Digital Projects, Native American Programs, and Co-Director, Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University. Kim speaks on behalf of the Tribal Stewardship Cohort Program, which was award...
2016 NDSA Web Archiving Survey Report is now available
The National Digital Stewardship Alliance is pleased to announce the release of the 2016 Web Archiving Survey Report (PDF). From January 20 to February 16, 2016, a team representing multiple NDSA member institutions and interest groups conducted a survey of organizations in the United States actively involved in, or planning to start, programs to archive content from the Web. This effort built upon a similar survey undertaken by NDSA in late 2011 and published online in June 2012 and a second...
Collaboration, Openness, and Preservation: An NDSA Interview with Dave Rice
We are very excited to talk with Dave Rice. He was awarded an Innovation Award from the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) in 2016 for his creative work in bringing together people and organizations from different communities to result in useful standards and practices. Follow Dave’s work at dericed.com, and you can find all of our interviews with the NDSA Innovation Award winners here. We learned more about Dave and his work in the following interview: You were selected for your w...
NDSA Call for Volunteers: Digital Preservation 2017
The National Digital Stewardship Alliance calls for volunteers from NDSA member organizations to join the Planning Committee for Digital Preservation 2017. Digital Preservation is the NDSA’s major meeting and conference—open to members and non-members alike—focusing on digital stewardship and preservation, data curation, and related issues. This year, it will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 25-26, 2017 after the DLF Forum. Logistical arrangements will be handled by the Digital Li...
“Archives have never been neutral:” An NDSA Interview with Jarrett Drake
We are very excited to talk with Jarrett Drake, digital archivist at Princeton University’s Mudd Manuscript Library. He was awarded an Innovation Award from the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) in 2016 for his work in challenging and re-examining the practices of archiving and documenting history, particularly relating to preserving the under-represented voices in history. Follow his writings here, and you can find all of our interviews with the NDSA Innovation Award winners here....
Innovation Sharing and Knowledge Exchange in Mid-Michigan: An NDSA Interview with MMDP
Nicole Garrett Smeltekop Matt Schultz Every year, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance recognizes and encourages innovation in the field of digital preservation stewardship through its Innovation Awards. We’re thrilled to continue our interview series with two planning committee members of the Mid-Michigan Digital Practitioners group (MMDP), Nicole Garrett Smeltekop and Matt Schultz. The MMDP received NDSA’s Innovation Award for organizations due to its taking an innovative a...
NDSA Future Steward on Community Web Archiving: An Interview with Samantha Abrams
Every year, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) recognizes and encourages innovation in the field of digital preservation stewardship through its Innovation Awards. We’re delighted to talk with Samantha Abrams, recipient of the 2016 NDSA Future Steward Award, which recognizes emerging leaders taking a creative approach to advancing knowledge of digital preservation issues and practices. You can find all of our interviews with the NDSA Innovation Award winners here. Samantha...
Announcing the 2016 NDSA Award Winners
We are delighted to announce the recipients of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s (NDSA) annual Innovation Awards! This year, the NDSA annual innovation awards committee reviewed eighteen exceptional nominations from across the country. These awards highlight and commend creative individuals, projects, organizations, and future stewards demonstrating originality and excellence in their contributions to the field of digital preservation. The awardees will be recognized publicly durin...
Full schedules! 2016 DLF Forum & LAC Pre-Conference, Digital Preservation 2016
Thanks to the hard work of three separate program committees, CLIR/DLF staff members, countless volunteer reviewers, and the wider community who proposed sessions in response to our calls, we are very pleased to announce the programs for: DLF’s Liberal Arts Colleges Pre-Conference the 2016 DLF Forum and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2016 All three conference programs are available to browse now! We hope you’ll join us in Milwaukee this November, to hear exciting keynote and ...
NDSA’s closing plenary speaker is Allison Druin!
We’re pleased to announce an exciting addition to the program for Digital Preservation 2016, co-sponsored by National Digital Stewardship Alliance and DLF, which will be held immediately following this year’s DLF Forum. Allison Druin Dr. Allison Druin joins keynoter Bergis Jules as our closing plenary speaker for the conference. Druin’s talk will take up the conference theme, “building communities of practice,” in the context of “communities of innovation&#...
NDSA's closing plenary speaker is Allison Druin!
We’re pleased to announce an exciting addition to the program for Digital Preservation 2016, co-sponsored by National Digital Stewardship Alliance and DLF, which will be held immediately following this year’s DLF Forum. Allison DruinDr. Allison Druin joins keynoter Bergis Jules as our closing plenary speaker for the conference. Druin’s talk will take up the conference theme, “building communities of practice,” in the context of “communities of innovation...
2016 NDSA Coordinating Committee Candidates
This summer the National Digital Stewardship Alliance turns its attention to leadership renewal. We gratefully thank our outgoing working group chairs and Coordinating Committee members for their service across the transition period to our new home at the Digital Library Federation. And we are pleased to welcome new chairs for our working groups — you can learn more about all of these people on the NDSA Leadership page. Members of the NDSA Coordinating Committee serve staggered three year ter...
Community Voting for DLF Forum, DLF LAC Pre-Conference, and Digital Preservation 2016
The proposals are in for our week of three great events in Milwaukee this November: the DLF Forum, the DLF Liberal Arts Colleges Pre-Conference, and Digital Preservation 2016. Now it’s time to shape the program! From June 8- June 20, proposals will be open for public voting through our brand-new DLF community voting app: voting.diglib.org. During this period, community members will be able to review titles and abstracts, and cast votes based on their interest in seeing certain presentat...
call for nominees: NDSA Coordinating Committee
Members of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance join together to form a consortium of over 165 partnering organizations, including universities, professional associations, businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, all committed to the long-term preservation of digital information. Committed to preserving access to our national digital heritage, we each offer our diverse skills, perspectives, experiences, cultures and orientations to achieve what we could not do alone....
Deadlines Extended! DLF LAC Pre-Conference, DLF Forum, and Digital Preservation 2016
We heard your wishes for more time to get a proposal in for one of these three great events coming to Milwaukee in November, so the planning committees for the DLF Liberal Arts Colleges Pre-Conference and Digital Preservation 2016 invite submissions in all categories until Monday, May 23, at 11:59PM PST. You can also still submit a proposal of any type for the DLF Forum until the same extended deadline, and proposals for Lightning Talks are particularly encouraged. Access all three CFPs here:...
NDSA's Digital Preservation 2016 keynoter is Bergis Jules!
We are very pleased to announce that Bergis Jules is our keynote speaker for Digital Preservation 2016 in Milwaukee! The theme for the NDSA conference is “Building Communities of Practice,” and Jules’ keynote on the afternoon of November 9 will help kick off the major meeting and conference of the NDSA—open to NDSA members and non-members alike—focusing on tools, techniques, theories and methodologies for digital stewardship and preservation, data curation, the content lifecycle, ...
Call for Proposals: Digital Preservation 2016: “Building Communities of Practice”
The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) invites proposals for Digital Preservation 2016, to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 9-10 November 2016. Digital Preservation is the major meeting and conference of the NDSA—open to members and non-members alike—focusing on tools, techniques, theories and methodologies for digital stewardship and preservation, data curation, the content lifecycle, and related issues. Our 2016 meeting will be the first held in partnership with our new host orga...
Program Committee, Digital Preservation 2016
We had a terrific response to our call for volunteers to help plan the NDSA‘s revived conference, Digital Preservation, and are pleased to announce the 2016 Program Committee! Helen Tibbo, UNC-Chapel Hill (chair) Nicky Agate, Modern Language Association Mitch Brodsky, New York Philharmonic Aaron Collie, Michigan State University George Coulbourne, Library of Congress Heidi Dowding, Indiana University Bonnie Gordon, Rockefeller Archive Center Carol Kussmann, University of Minnesota Marg...
NDSA calls for volunteers: Digital Preservation 2016
The National Digital Stewardship Alliance calls for volunteers from NDSA member organizations to join the Program Committee for Digital Preservation 2016. Digital Preservation is the NDSA’s major meeting and conference—open to members and non-members alike—focusing on digital stewardship and preservation, data curation, and related issues. This year, it will be held at the historic Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 9-10 November 2016, in conjunction with the 2016 DLF Forum (7-9 November)...
Digital Library Federation to Host National Digital Stewardship Alliance
Washington, DC, October 19, 2015—The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) today announced that it has selected the Digital Library Federation (DLF), a program of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), to serve as NDSA’s institutional home starting in January 2016. The selection and announcement follows a nationwide search and evaluation of cultural heritage, membership, and technical service organizations, in consultation with NDSA working groups, their members, ...