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Three Reasons You’ll Want to Attend the NDSA Philadelphia Regional Meeting, January 23-24

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Independence Hall. Philadelphia 1876 / Theodore Poleni. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.03855
Independence Hall. Philadelphia 1876 / Theodore Poleni. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.03855

The Library Company of Philadelphia will be hosting Philadelphia’s first National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Regional Meeting and Unconference on January 23 and 24.  This is part of an initiative across the country for NDSA member organizations to host day-long events, or “NDSA Regional Meetings,” that provide networking and collaboration opportunities for members and highlight the work of regional institutions.

If you’re local to the Philadelphia region or if you’ll be in town for ALA Midwinter, I’d encourage you to check out the program. It’s a free event (!) and there are a few excellent reasons you’ll want to attend.

Learn More About the NDSA

The NDSA is a dynamic organization with more than 150 partner organizations, including universities, government and nonprofit organizations, commercial businesses, and professional associations. It’s self-organized, with the work being decided and driven by professionals contributing work to 5 working groups. The NDSA recently celebrated its third birthday and you can read more about its history and accomplishments here.

At the Philly Regional Meeting, there will be two talks on the NDSA: one on the Levels of Preservation and another on the NDSA and the National Agenda for Digital Stewardship.  If you aren’t an NDSA member but you’re interested hearing if the NDSA is a good fit for your organization, please consider attending.

Everyone Wants Standards for Digital Preservation

A focus of this Regional Meeting will be on looking at standards in digital preservation and how different communities use them to preserve and manage their digital collections. The meeting is structured so that you’ll have the opportunity to hear from speakers, like Emily Gore from the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), Ian Bogus from the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, and George Blood from George Blood Video, on their different approaches to metadata standards used to manage their digital resources (Thursday evening).  You’ll also have the opportunity to collaborate during the unconference (Friday morning) on specific challenges or issues on any topic you want to explore with your fellow practitioners in a fun, informal way.

Connect Locally to Your Professional Peers

Creating professional relationships is important, and staying connected to what’s going on in your given field is equally important. NDSA Regional Meetings are particularly great professional development opportunities as a means to connect and network with a local community of practice for digital stewardship. You’ll have the chance to meet face-to-face with your professional peers, ask for advice or help, share ideas and work and generally broaden your knowledge of digital stewardship issues.  If your organization is an NDSA member, this is a great time to meet with others in the area. And as I mentioned before, even if your organization isn’t member but you are local to the Philly area, you’re encouraged to attend!

This is the third NDSA Regional Meeting. The Boston Regional Meeting took place in May 2013, organized and hosted by WGBH and Harvard Library. Metropolitan New York Library Council hosted the NYC Regional Meeting last June.  Other NDSA member organizations have expressed interest in organizing and hosting regional meetings later in 2014 in other parts of the country (DC-metro area and in the Midwest).

For the Philadelphia Regional Meeting, registration for the unconference on Friday, January 24 is sold out, but there are plenty of spots open for the Thursday, January 23 reception and talks.

Register for #NDSAPhilly today. We’d love to see you there!

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