The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) and Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) are delighted to announce an agreement for close coordination and cooperation on their respective Awards programs.

While both organizations will continue with their own Awards programs, the NDSA Excellence Awards will move from an annual to a biennial basis interleaved with the DPC Digital Preservation Awards. Thus, each year the international digital preservation community can look forward to the presentation of a single set of awards. 

Activities performed in the two years prior to an Award’s presentation year are eligible for consideration.  Additionally, each Awards program will invite representative participation of the other on their juries to promote greater consistency in criteria and evaluation as well as helping ensure organizational continuity between the two programs.  Both organizations will also amplify each other’s Award-related communications via their own outreach channels.

The NDSA and DPC each originally focused on national concerns and membership.  However, both now actively encompass and encourage broader international participation.  In view of the overlapping scope of their goals, activities, members, and audience, and to avoid potential confusion regarding eligibility for their respective Awards programs, the NDSA and DPC have agreed to a coordinated Awards framework.

“We are delighted with our new cooperative approach with the DPC,” says Krista Oldham, University Archivist at Texas A&M University and co-chair of the NDSA Excellence Awards Working Group.  “It provides a more consolidated process and greater public visibility for honouring exemplary activity throughout the worldwide digital preservation community.”

”The Digital Preservation Awards are designed to endorse and celebrate outstanding work in digital preservation,” explains Sarah Middleton, Head of Advocacy and Communications for the DPC and coordinator of the Digital Preservation Awards.  “Synchronizing and sharing the spotlight with the NDSA Excellence Awards in this way means we are able to highlight even more work which deserves that recognition.”

The cooperation began last year with the NDSA’s 2021 Excellence Awards when Sharon McMeekin, DPC Head of Workforce Development, joined the NDSA Excellence Awards Working Group.  Kari May, Digital Archives and Preservation Librarian at the University of Pittsburgh and NDSA Excellence Awards Working Group member, is similarly participating on the DPC Judging Panel for its upcoming 2022 Digital Preservation Awards.  There will not be an NDSA Excellence Awards presentation in 2022; that will next take place in 2023 and then every two years thereafter.

The DPC Digital Preservation Awards 2022 are now open for nominations until 0800 UTC, Monday 25^th April: SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY NOW

About the NDSA Excellence Awards

The NDSA began in 2010 as a global network of collaborative partners supplying advocacy, expertise, and support for the preservation of digital heritage, promoting a vision in which all digital material fundamentally important to our cultures receives appropriate, effective, and sustainable stewardship to protect and enhance its persistent value, availability, and (re)use.  The annual NDSA Excellence Awards were established in 2012 to recognize and encourage exemplary achievement in the field of digital preservation stewardship.  Since then, 53 awardees have been honoured in Individual, Organization, Project, Sustainability, Educator, and Future Steward categories presented during the annual NDSA Digital Preservation conferences.

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About the DPC Digital Preservation Awards

The DPC’s Digital Preservation Awards began in 2004 to raise public awareness about digital preservation and to endorse and celebrate outstanding work in the field.  Now a biennial celebration, thirty-one honourees have since been recognized for their work in Collaboration and Cooperation, Research and Innovation, Teaching and Communications, Distinguished Student Work, Safeguarding Digital Legacy, and Outstanding Initiative in Commerce, Industry and the Third Sector. The DPC also awards individual Fellowships to individuals in recognition of their substantial, generous and distinguished contribution to bringing about a sustainable future for our digital assets.

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--sla

 

Stephen Abrams (he/him/his)

Head of Digital Preservation

Preservation Services

 

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+1 617-998-5468

 

90 Mt. Auburn Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

 

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