The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) has made the next in its series of Technology Watch Guidance Notes, Defining the Designated Community by Christian Keitel (State Archives of Baden-Württemberg) and Jenny Mitcham (DPC), available on general release today after an exclusive one-month DPC Member preview.

The new Guidance Note describes why knowledge of the users of an archive is valuable for informing digital preservation activity. It summarises the OAIS designated community concept and provides examples and guidance on defining this in practice. It also discusses some of the challenges of the term and its use within the digital preservation community and mentions other approaches that organizations have taken to understand and document their users.

"Designated Communities are a slightly elusive concept in digital preservation - everyone has heard of them but hardly anyone talks about how they use them in any detail”, the authors explain. “In this Guidance Note we have tried to articulate key points relating to this concept whilst also providing practical advice and examples from the community."

The Technology Watch publication series is just one of the ways the DPC supports the digital preservation community. An international charitable foundation which supports digital preservation, the DPC helps its members around the world to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services through community engagement, targeted advocacy work, training and workforce development, capacity building, good practice and standards, and through good management and governance. Its vision is a sustainable future for our digital assets. 

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