Dear Colleagues,

After a successful two-year seed funded period, the Software Preservation Network (SPN) is now welcoming new members for the year 2021 and beyond. By investing $5,000 per year, your organization will join a vibrant community of practice committed to ensuring long-term access to software through community engagement, infrastructure support, and knowledge generation. 

Since 2016, SPN has united colleagues from design firms, history of computing museums, research data repositories, university libraries, art museums, and the open source software community around critical questions and collaborative solutions to software preservation challenges. 

In January 2019, SPN launched a two-year seed funded effort to secure SPN as a sustainable, community-owned organization. Over the last two years, SPN has successfully cultivated a healthy community of practice focused on building field-level capacity for long term access and reuse of software. SPN members design and complete research into evolving practice, affiliated projects and working groups identify common needs that allow SPN member organizations to make strategic digital curation decisions, and the nimble SPN staff provides the training and coordination necessary to distribute software preservation skills across a broader set of individuals. 

As we look to the future, we recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic is presenting unprecedented challenges to organizations and individuals across the information stewardship landscape. The pandemic is also highlighting the critical role that member communities play in organizational resilience and continuing support of the research enterprise. 

By investing in SPN, your organization will join a network of software preservation professionals that are distributing the risk and lowering the actual cost of the work for any one organization, while simultaneously sharing ownership over the strategic direction of the field and the use of collective resources.

If you would like an opportunity to ask questions and hear directly from current SPN members and staff, register for our upcoming virtual information session on September 17 at 12:00 pm ET. 

In the meantime, for more information on the Software Preservation Network, check out our membership flyer, visit our Get Involved page, or reach out to SPN’s community facilitator, Jess Farrell, at <[log in to unmask]>.

With many thanks, and best wishes,

Hannah