Greetings Digital Stewardship Colleagues,

Software is both a utility for accessing existing digital collections and cultural heritage in itself. The Software Preservation Network is a commons in which we can think holistically and act collectively to preserve software. SPN’s working groups and affiliated projects coalesce around five key software preservation activity areas including law & policy, metadata & standards, research, technological infrastructure and training & education.

WHO IS SPN?

Since 2015, the Software Preservation Network (SPN) has worked to create a space where organizations from industry, academia, government, cultural heritage, and the public sphere can contribute their skills and capabilities toward collaborative solutions that will ensure persistent access to all software and all software-dependent objects. A dedicated and growing community of practice has formed around SPN as we provide a platform for project-based and programmatic efforts to align.

WHY SUPPORT SPN?

To date, the resources we offer have been built through grant funding and the volunteer efforts of staff from dozens of organizations. Examples include a U.S. Copyright Office 1201 exemption to preserve software, software metadata crosswalk, software preservation webinar series, and a software preservation research toolkit. Some of our most notable initiatives include Fostering a Community of Practice: Software Preservation and Emulation Experts in Libraries and Archives (FCoP), Scaling Emulation and Software Preservation Infrastructure (EaaSI), and Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation. Most recently, in partnership with Harvard's Cyberlaw Clinic, SPN won a proposed exemption for libraries, archives, and museums to break technological protection measures on software in order to preserve and provide research/educational access.

If you value the work we have completed to date, and if you would like to see SPN continue to build our collective capacity for software preservation through research, advocacy, and educational programming, then please consider supporting us for the next two years.

HOW TO SUPPORT SPN?

We are requesting financial support for a two-year start-up period to scale SPN's services and operations. The deadline for submitting Participation Agreements is December 14, 2018. If we are able to garner adequate support between now and December 14, SPN will officially launch as a member/sponsor-funded community on January 1, 2019. Through the financial support of your organization, SPN will be able to continue working toward our goal of “Saving Software, Together”.