The following is a guest post by Barrett Jones, Program Specialist for the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education initiative at the Library.
Right now as I type this post, there is a two-hour Introduction to Digital Preservation online course available from the State Library of North Carolina Digital Information Management Program. On July 25th there’s a class in Charlottesville, Virginia, on the theory and practice of born digital materials and there is a class that same day in Los Angeles on the preservation of digital collections. And the Northeast Document Conservation Center is offering a webinar on metadata concepts on October 18th.
As the program specialist for the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education (DPOE) initiative, it’s my job to know what classes are out there for digital preservation. Actually, let me rephrase that: it’s my job to make sure you know what classes are out there for digital preservation. That’s why I’ve spent the past several months working with the DPOE team to develop a national calendar of digital preservation courses.
This calendar is central to DPOE’s mission, which is to foster national outreach and education to encourage individuals and organizations to actively preserve their digital content. To keep the calendar current, we scan the web daily for new class postings. We also ask providers to submit information about their courses. We’ve contacted hundreds of archivists and librarians across the country to tell them about the calendar.
The calendar is one of a few of the projects we’ve been working on since DPOE started in January 2010. Besides the training calendar, we also conducted a curriculum review to examine the purpose, scope, and objectives of the curricula of five of the major digital preservation training providers in the United States. We conducted a needs assessment survey to gauge the digital preservation training needs of organizations around the country. We worked with digital preservation instructors to establish a set of core principles for digital preservation continuing education. And we’re in the process of creating a train-the-trainer workshop which will be launched this fall.
If you have a class or a workshop on digital preservation, you can list it on the calendar by submitting the information using this form.
Comments (6)
So, the one thing I’ve not quite understood about this is whether it’s kosher to add full-on courses from degree-granting institutions, or whether you’re only looking for continuing-ed opportunities.
Could you clarify? I don’t want to waste your time with a course you’re not interested in!
That’s a good question, Dorothea. We are looking for continuing-ed courses that anyone can attend. Degree programs are outside the scope of this calendar.
Barrett
Mr. Jones,
Thank you so much for spearheading this initiative. I spend a lot of time trying to get individuals to digitize their collections and family archives. It is most important for me to find additional educational resources to stay on top of the long term management and preservation of digital assets whether they are born digital or converted to pixels.
Thank you,
Stephanie
Just curious, what happened to the post discussing Kickstarter?
We determined that the post fell outside our partner organization recognition policies, and so we removed it.
hi I am a Registry Supervisor working for a government Agency which has embarked on a file and document digitization programme,how can you help me find some training in the management and conservation of digital records?