The Educopia Institute, partnering with six members of the Digital Preservation Services Collaborative (APTrust, Chronopolis, CLOCKSS, LYRASIS, MetaArchive, and Texas Digital Library), has been awarded a grant of $147,688 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to study the needs for and feasibility of a collaborative community-supported digital preservation service. Together, the partners in this project serve over 800 member organizations of varying types and sizes, ranging from university archives to publishers to historical societies.

Through this planning grant, the project team will articulate the need for community-supported, values-driven digital preservation services and develop a design for a future shared service model. By centering a set of shared values that empower communities of practitioners, the project aims to engage in a collaborative, bottom-up process that brings multiple stakeholders into the big tent of planning for the future of digital preservation. 

Hannah Wang and Jessica Meyerson from Educopia Institute will act as Co-Principal Investigators, with Wang serving as Project Director. Partner institution representatives for the project include Bradley Daigle (APTrust), Sibyl Schaefer (Chronopolis), Alicia Wise (CLOCKSS), Lydia Tang (LYRASIS), and Courtney Mumma (Texas Digital Library). 

“This project will represent a significant collaboration between six major digital preservation service providers who, up until this point, have made coordinated but unfunded contributions to the field through the sheer power of shared values and goals,” said Wang. “Community-supported digital preservation initiatives foster community empowerment in measurable and visible ways. The continued availability of services that prioritize transparency and accountability to the cultural heritage organizations they serve is necessary for these organizations to grant broad and sustained access to their digital materials.”

The findings and project results will include project recommendations as well as lessons learned—such as advocacy strategies, research and development priorities, practical applications of digital preservation values, and infrastructural pain points—that are applicable to other collaborative networks and digital preservation communities. These broader findings may help other networks develop values-driven services in the digital stewardship sector and advocate for the digital preservation needs of cultural heritage organizations. 

“As a provider of community-controlled infrastructure for libraries, TDL welcomes this opportunity to partner with other preservation leaders to empower communities to make digital preservation decisions, especially in light of structural challenges in the field,” said Kristi Park, Executive Director, Texas Digital Library.

This project is a part of a larger effort at Educopia to advance networked approaches to digital preservation and builds on the foundation laid by the DPSC Declaration of Shared Values.

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About IMLS

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. Our vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.