Reminder: Organizations interested in hosting the NDSA should send a letter of inquiry by June 30, 2015 to Micah Altman, Chair of the NDSA Coordinating Committee [log in to unmask]

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS: 
Organizational Host for the National Digital Stewardship Alliance

Founded in 2010, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) is a consortium of institutions that are committed to the long-term preservation of digital information. NDSA’s mission is to establish, maintain, and advance the capacity to preserve digital resources for the benefit of present and future generations. The NDSA comprises over 160 participating institutional members. These members come from 45 states and include universities, consortia, professional societies, commercial businesses, professional associations, and government agencies at the federal, state, and local level.

For an inaugural 4-year term, the Library of Congress has provided secretariat and membership management support to the NDSA, contributing working group leadership, expertise, and administrative support. The NDSA Coordinating Committee and The Library of Congress seek proposals (PDF, 99 KB) from organizations to host the NDSA for its next 4-year term.

Over its first four years, NDSA projects have yielded a wide range of outputs that articulate and move forward a national strategy for digital preservation like the National Agenda for Digital Stewardship report and the storage and content surveys and resulting reports. The NDSA also produces tools that document and guide best practices like the Levels of Preservation and numerousdigital content case studies. The NDSA is also a venue for members to highlight accomplishments through the annual Innovation Awards and the Insights interview series. Through an annual meeting, regional workshops, and monthly webinars members also share and learn about current work in digital standards, content, and infrastructure. These projects have extended the state of disciplinary knowledge, advanced the state of digital preservation practice, and disseminated information about needs for and approaches to long-term access to a wide audience. Representatives of a wide range of stakeholders have provided input to the products of the NDSA, and a number of community funders have used NDSA reports to guide their programs.

The NDSA host organization will play a critical role in the digital stewardship community, in ongoing activities, and in developing new NDSA products. The host will be prominently acknowledged in NDSA reports and other products; in NDSA communications; and at conferences and other NDSA events. The NDSA host organization will participate in NDSA leadership as a member of the Coordinating Committee; will contribute expertise through participation in NDSA working groups and working group activities, and will contribute to operations by providing administrative organizational support.

All NDSA member institutions have committed to NDSA principles of stewardship, collaboration, inclusiveness, and transparency; and contribute in-kind effort to working groups, surveys and outreach. Host institutions are expected to commit to NDSA principles for the scope of their NDSA activities; to contribute dedicated effort to leadership and administrative support; and to contribute targeted effort to working group activities of special interest to the host.

Organizations interested in hosting NDSA should send a letter of inquiry (up to one page) by e-mail to the NDSA Coordinating Committee (Chair: Micah Altman, [log in to unmask]) by June 30, 2015.