Dear Colleagues,
Yesterday’s NDSA Leadership call sparked a timely conversation around digital preservation in times of crisis. Several of us have been in conversations with organizations—small
colleges, historical societies, community archives—in short, anyone who stewards collections and may be preparing for a serious economic downturn. These situations could vary from temporary shutdowns to permanent closures. Many of these organizations also
hold both physical and digital materials—much of which are unique to our cultural record. Given the size and reach of organizations such as the NDSA and our focus on the need for clear succession strategies, we would like to understand, shape, and explore
possible solutions that could minimize or avoid the potential for irretrievable damage or loss of collections due to current (or future) economic and institutional disruption.
But first, we need to get a better understanding of the scope of that need.
The NDSA would like to hear from you, your networks, your colleagues so we can so we can determine the potential scope and likelihood of the problem to help us derive effective
strategies in response, and to coordinate who could lend a hand in implementing that response. We are primarily looking at digital materials but feel free to include information about your physical holdings. So at this information-gathering stage, we ask you
to take a few minutes to fill out this form (15 minutes or so):
