The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is delighted to announce a new program of work in the USA, which will support existing and new members across the Americas. Led by a new DPC-dedicated staff member based in the USA, this work will bring greater attention and access to good practice and excellence within the dynamic digital preservation community from across the region.

 

“Digital preservation is a global challenge and needs a community scaled to match,” explains Jane Winters, Chair of the DPC Board. “As the DPC continues to grow internationally, the Board recognizes the need to engage with and provide access to the DPC’s activities for all members on an equal footing, wherever they are in the world.”

 

Founded in 2002 by its first members in the UK and Ireland, the DPC’s membership has now grown to incorporate 156 members in 24 countries around the world, including 18 across the Americas. With staff in the UK, Australia and the Netherlands, the DPC works with its network of organizations to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services through community engagement, targeted advocacy work, training and workforce development, capacity building, and sharing good practice and standards.

 

By establishing a USA-based resource, DPC hopes to expand its collaboration with the established, robust digital preservation community in the Americas to complement, celebrate and sustain their activities and amplify them for DPC members around the world.

 

The new DPC-dedicated staff member will be given an organizational home by the New York City-based nonprofit ITHAKA. ITHAKA provides digital preservation and other infrastructure and advisory services for the global academic community, most notably Portico, and is a long-time DPC member organization. Recruitment for the new staff member will begin in the next few weeks.

 

Kate Wittenberg, Managing Director of Portico, the preservation service of ITHAKA, is excited by this development saying: “This collaboration between two leading preservation organizations provides an important base to support and expand the digital preservation community here in the USA, Canada and more broadly across the Americas. Having greater capacity locally and direct channels to experts and practitioners around the world will be critically important as we work towards meeting the growing challenges of digital preservation around the globe.”

 

After a period of planning and development and through its arrangement with ITHAKA, the DPC will deliver a program of face-to-face events for members in the Americas, as well as facilitating knowledge exchange between organizations in the region through briefing days, working groups and task forces.

 

Jon Shaw, University Librarian for Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt University was encouraged by the news, saying: “The DPC’s extensive resources and international network have provided invaluable benefits for our libraries. As a Full Member of the DPC located in the U.S., we have unique opportunities to broaden our impact in preserving cultural heritage by collaborating with other member organizations on a global scale.”

 

The DPC is an international charitable foundation and world class network of expertise which helps its members around the world. Its vision is a secure digital legacy.

Read more: https://www.dpconline.org/news/dpc-extends-global-presence-to-the-usa

 

*Apologies for cross-posting*

 

Sarah Middleton | she/her

Head of Advocacy and Community Engagement

Digital Preservation Coalition

37 Tanner Row, York, YO1 6WP

 

http://www.dpconline.org/

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