Dear Members of the DLF Community,

The Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Network is pleased to
announce that applications for an upcoming free workshop are now open. You
can submit your application here: https://airtable.com/shrinSn6Np7uXah8O.


OPERATIONS AND SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE PROFESSIONALS

This workshop will be held via Zoom on September 28 & 29, 2022 from 1:00
PM-3:00 PM Eastern time.

This workshop is tuition-free thanks to generous support from the Mellon
Foundation. The deadline to complete and submit this application
is September 16, 2022. Successful applicants will be notified by September
23.

INTRODUCTION:

As cultural heritage practitioners, we perform a variety of tasks to
document, manage, and preserve cultural heritage materials. Some of these
tasks necessitate hands-on piecemeal work with physical and digital
collections materials, whereas others may be managed by an ecosystem of
software tools, such as databases, project management software, and
collection management and digital preservation systems. One frame of
reference we can use to characterize the latter is operations and systems
management. In this workshop, participants will learn how to identify
opportunities to operationalize cultural heritage work, tools that can
support operations and systems management, and how to engage in thoughtful
action and collaboration with colleagues to meet institutional needs.

WORKSHOP STRUCTURE:

Day One (2 hours)

We will start by defining what operations and systems management is,
especially in terms of how it has been historically applied within and
throughout the manufacturing and service industries. With this definition
in mind, we will turn our eye to the cultural heritage sector, and ask,
what does operations and systems management look like in terms of archival
and digital preservation work? We will provide concrete examples here of
tools, methodologies and approaches we have taken in our own work at two
major collecting institutions.

After a break, we will pose a question: is there a way to perform
operations management in a way that centers and honors the worker, the
creator whose works the institution is stewarding, and our communities
at-large? We will also provide concrete examples here of what certain
institutions (or individuals/teams at institutions) are doing in the field
to accomplish this.

Day Two (2 hours)

Day 2 will be an interactive, skill-building opportunity for new
professionals to gain experience planning, implementing, and maintaining
systems in archives. Over the course of the workshop, participants will be
guided through playing a role-playing game (RPG) in which they are tasked
with implementing a brand-new system or initiative. Through the rolling of
di, participants will build up their character’s characteristics, and be
led on a journey by workshop facilitators where they will encounter certain
challenges and opportunities. They must use what they have learned on Day 1
(or invent new strategies) to navigate through to the end of a fictional
project. The day will end with a facilitated discussion about each
participant’s experiences, and what they may have learned along the way.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Participants will learn how to articulate problems/challenges relating to
digital preservation operations and map a user’s journey re: cultural
heritage systems/technology
Participants will learn how to write communication plans, system
requirements, and implementation plans
Participants will gain a better understanding of the shadow administrative
infrastructures that underlie processing and descriptive work
Participants will be:
introduced to systems that support operations, broadly, such as databases,
spreadsheets, and common applications/software
Introduced to systems “ecosystems” (clusters/chains of solutions)
Understand what skills may be required to support, advocate for, and
maintain systems
Recognize red flags that may make certain efforts or projects hard to
implement or maintain

INSTRUCTORS:

Dinah Handel is the Digitization Service Manager at Stanford Libraries,
where she supports digitization services and digital access to collections.
Previously, she was the Mass Digitization Coordinator at the New York
Public Library and was a NDSR-NY resident at CUNY TV. She holds an MLIS
from Pratt Institute in New York, and a BA from Hampshire College.

Mary Kidd currently works as the Systems and Operations Manager in the
Preservation Department at the New York Public Library. She leads a team
developing systems-based tools to streamline special collections operations
and reporting. Previously, she worked as Project Lead for the Andrew W.
Mellon-funded project Preserve This Podcast, and was a National Digital
Stewardship Resident at the New York Public Radio Archives. She lives and
works in Brooklyn, NY.

For more information on the workshop and DPOE-N, please visit our website:
https://www.dpoe.network/upcoming-workshops-2/.

For any questions, send an email to Natalie Baur, Program Director,
[log in to unmask]


*Natalie Baur* | Program Director for DPOE-N

*PRATT INSTITUTE*
School of Information
144 West 14th Street | Manhattan 6 | New York, NY 10011-7301
phone: 212.647.7682 | fax: 212.367.2492 | [log in to unmask]