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DPOE Makes a Splash Down Under!

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The following is a guest post by Barrie Howard, IT Project Manager at the Library of Congress.

The Digital Preservation Outreach and Education (DPOE) program is pleased to announce a successful outcome for two international Train-the-Trainer workshops. These workshops were recently held in Australia, and are the first of their kind to be held outside of the United States.

The first workshop (May 26-29, 2015) was hosted by the State Library Victoria in Melbourne, sponsored by a collaborative organization of public libraries in Victoria called the Public Libraries Victoria Network (PLVN). The second workshop (June 2-5, 2015) took place in Sydney at the State Library of New South Wales, sponsored by a ten member consortium of national, state and territory libraries of Australia and New Zealand, the National and State Libraries of Australasia (NSLA). In addition to these two international workshops, DPOE has previously delivered four domestic workshops, partnering with organizations across the nation.

Participants and trainers at the workshop in Sydney. Photo credit: State Library of New South Wales.
Participants and trainers at the workshop in Sydney. Photo credit: State Library of New South Wales.

The aim of the DPOE workshop is to produce a corps of trainers, who are equipped to teach others the basic principles and practices of preserving digital materials. In this way, DPOE’s “teach-a-person-to-fish” model extends the benefits of a workshop well beyond only those who can attend. There are many examples of DPOE trainers working together across jurisdictional and organizational boundaries to meet the needs of cultural heritage institutions of all shapes and sizes. DPOE trainers go on to develop training events of their own, and have delivered many webinars and workshops in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and Southeast regions of the United States, which will be replicated in regions across Australia in the coming year. Some of these examples have been highlighted in previous blog posts.

Pictured: Corin Haines, National Library of New Zealand; Lesley Sharp, State Library of South Australia; Alex Byrne, State Library of New South Wales, and instructors Jake Nadal; Mary Molinaro; Amy Rudersdorf. Corin and Lesley are co-managers of the NSLA Digital Skills project, which sponsored the workshops; Alex is the CEO and State Librarian of SLNSWPictured: Photo credit: State Library of New South Wales
Corin Haines, National Library of New Zealand; Lesley Sharp, State Library of South Australia; Alex Byrne, State Library of New South Wales, and instructors Jake Nadal, Mary Molinaro, and Amy Rudersdorf. Photo credit: State Library of New South Wales.

The DPOE Down Under workshops were well received due largely to the exceptional knowledge and leadership of three of the program’s anchor instructors: Mary Molinaro (University of Kentucky Libraries), Jacob Nadal (The Research Collections and Preservation Consortium), and Amy Rudersdorf (Digital Public Library of America). This extremely talented team has provided subject matter expertise to the program in the past. Over the last year, DPOE Program Manager George Coulbourne has convened two meetings of the core instructors to give the training curriculum a significant overhaul. The instructors worked with DPOE staff to review and revise training materials in anticipation of the back-to-back DPOE workshops in Australia, ensuring the curriculum is as relevant and up-to-date as ever.

The workshops are just one way that DPOE fosters outreach and education about digital preservation on a global scale. After a workshop, students graduate and enter into a vibrant network of practitioners, and continue to engage with each other–and the broader digital preservation community–online. DPOE supports this network by providing an email distribution list so practitioners can share information about digital preservation best practices, services, and tools, and to surface stories about their experiences in advancing digital preservation.

Additionally, DPOE maintains a training calendar as a public service to help working professionals discover continuing education, professional development, and training opportunities in the practice of digital preservation. The calendar is updated on a monthly basis, and includes training events hosted by DPOE trainers.

Updated 6/29/15 for typos.

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