Digital Preservation Management Five-Day Workshops

ICPSR, the world's largest archive of social science data and part of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, is pleased to continue the Digital Preservation Management workshops that were initially developed at Cornell University Library.

We are pleased to announce that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will host the final scheduled five-day workshop June 13-18, 2010 in Cambridge MA.

Workshop Goal

Promote Practical and Responsible Stewardship of Digital Assets

The goals of the workshop are to foster critical thinking in a technological realm and provide the means for exercising practical and responsible stewardship of digital assets in an age of technological uncertainty. The workshop sessions are geared towards making a digital preservation program doable for any organization and all of the sessions include as many relevant examples as we can fit.

Workshop Audience

The workshop series is intended for managers who are or will be responsible for digital preservation programs in libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions.

Instruction Team

Dr. Nancy Y. McGovern has been a developer of the workshop series since its inception at Cornell in 2003 and continues to serve as the director and primary instructor with a team of expert instructors. The Keynote speaker for the October workshop will be Martha Anderson, Director of Program Management for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) at the Library of Congress.

Content

The workshop includes presentations, group discussions, exercises, individual assignments, and a keynote presentation by an international expert in digital presentation. Workshop attendees explore the range of components needed to develop an effective digital preservation program. Workshop materials include action plans for organizations to complete that incorporate technical, financial, organizational, and policy aspects encompassing the full life cycle of digital objects. The resulting organization-specific digital preservation plans define strategies for organizations to implement now, while research and development goes forward in creating longer-term solutions that can be incorporated into the program framework. Workshop curriculum is continually updated to reflect the latest community standards and practice.

The workshop builds on the Digital Preservation Online Tutorial–a prerequisite for the workshop.

A few notes about sessions:

• There are three core pieces (legs) of the program: the organizational infrastructure, technological infrastructure, and requisite resources (Five Stages of Organizational Development addresses the organizational context for a digital preservation program, Working with OAIS addresses the technological infrastructure for a DP program, and Resources is the third piece)
• Action Plans are a workshop takeaway – a to-do list for developing the policies and practice at home institutions
• Repositories, Tools and Workflows examines recent research and developments in the DP community
• Virtual Field Trip is an interactive session with instructors
• Readiness addresses self-assessment and audit issues for developing a DP program
• Preservation-in-Action is a series of case studies by a range of organizations about their DP programs

Additional Information

Please use the following links to learn more regarding the workshops and how to attend:

• Instruction Team
• Tuition and Registration Process
• Travel and Lodging

The workshop organizers welcome your questions and comments at digital-preservation@icpsr.umich.edu