Dear NDSA Member:

By now the glow of being a new member of the NDSA has probably started to be replaced with a curiosity about how the Alliance will function and questions about how the various working groups will fit together.

Because the NDSA is a member-defined organization, some of the answers to those questions will be determined by you, the members of the Alliance. Many of you volunteered to participate in organizing activities when you filled out your application for membership. The organizational activities working group will structure the NDSA and determine how the Alliance will handle such issues as membership, leadership, and mission. Meetings to accomplish these goals will take place in early December 2010.

The working groups have already begun kicking off the activities of the Alliance. The NDSA will realize concrete accomplishments through the efforts of the working groups on Content, Standards, Outreach, Innovation and Infrastructure. Each working group will devise its own scope of activity and determine how to accomplish the tasks it identifies for the year ahead. The NDSA Secretariat will provide an LC contact for each working group to assist in organizing listservs, arranging conference calls, and so on.

The LC contacts for each group are drafting scope documents to help each group identify and prioritize tasks. They will also be utilizing the IdeaScale tool (http://www.ndsa.ideascale.com/) to assist in garnering input from everyone. The working groups will need Chairs to help organize their efforts. We hope that in the coming weeks some of the NDSA members will consider volunteering to chair a working group.

NDIIPP will act as secretariat for the NDSA. The Library of Congress's contribution to the NDSA is the same as yours: staff resources and time. NDIIPP will remain focused on digital preservation work and catalyzing communities of interest. The Alliance will be one part of NDIIPP's focus.

If you have any questions please contact Michelle Gallinger, [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

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