DPSC Planning Project: Sustainable Community-Owned Partnerships in Digital Preservation

August 2022:

Educopia, partnering with six members of the Digital Preservation Services Collaborative (APTrust, Chronopolis, CLOCKSS, lyrasis, MetaArchive, and Texas Digital Library), has been awarded a grant of $147,688 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to study the needs for and feasibility of a collaborative community-supported digital preservation service. Together, the partners in this project serve over 800 member organizations of varying types and sizes, ranging from university archives to publishers to historical societies.

Through this planning grant, the project team will articulate the need for community-supported, values-driven digital preservation services and develop a design for a future shared service model. By centering a set of shared values that empower communities of practitioners, the project aims to engage in a collaborative, bottom-up process that brings multiple stakeholders into the big tent of planning for the future of digital preservation. 

Hannah Wang and Jessica Meyerson from Educopia will act as Co-Principal Investigators, with Wang serving as Project Director. Partner institution representatives for the project include Bradley Daigle (APTrust), Sibyl Schaefer (Chronopolis), Alicia Wise (CLOCKSS), Lydia Tang (lyrasis), and Courtney Mumma (Texas Digital Library). 

“This project will represent a significant collaboration between six major digital preservation service providers who, up until this point, have made coordinated but unfunded contributions to the field through the sheer power of shared values and goals,” said Wang. “Community-supported digital preservation initiatives foster community empowerment in measurable and visible ways. The continued availability of services that prioritize transparency and accountability to the cultural heritage organizations they serve is necessary for these organizations to grant broad and sustained access to their digital materials.”

The findings and project results will include project recommendations as well as lessons learned that are applicable to other collaborative networks and digital preservation communities, such as advocacy strategies, research and development priorities, practical applications of digital preservation values, and infrastructural pain points. These broader findings may help other networks develop values-driven services in the digital stewardship sector and advocate for the digital preservation needs of cultural heritage organizations. 

“As a provider of community-controlled infrastructure for libraries, TDL welcomes this opportunity to partner with other preservation leaders to empower communities to make digital preservation decisions, especially in light of structural challenges in the field,” said Kristi Park, Executive Director, Texas Digital Library.

This project is a part of a larger effort at Educopia to advance networked approaches to digital preservation and builds on the foundation laid by the DPSC Declaration of Shared Values.

About IMLS

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. They advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. Their vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

October 2022:

The DPSC Planning Project is recruiting up to 30 individuals to serve on two stakeholder groups: the Service User Group and the Advisory Board. These stakeholders will serve as important sources of user requirements and expertise as we plan a robust service model for values-driven, community-supported distributed digital preservation.

Service User Group (up to 20 members)

The Service User Group will consist of (1) practitioners with hands-on digital preservation experience and (2) decision-makers at organizations with a basic knowledge of digital preservation. These stakeholders should be interested in seeing the development of a robust service model for values-driven, community-supported distributed digital preservation. They will be a critical source of input for the project, participating in surveys and interviews during Requirements Gathering. Service User Group criteria and expectations include:

• Must be willing to attend two 75-90 min meetings and a half-day virtual forum in August 2023
• Must be willing to participate in surveys and interviews during Requirements Gathering
• Must be willing to reserve 1-2 hours prior to each meeting to the in-depth review of documentation and proposals
• Must be interested in seeing development of a robust service model for values-driven, community-supported distributed digital preservation
• Must be either a practitioner with hands-on digital preservation experience or a decision-maker at an organization with basic knowledge of digital preservation concepts and practice
• Must represent one or more of the primary Service User Group competencies:
  • Organizations that already use the services offered by project partners (no more than 50%)
  • Organizations that are currently in relationships with for-profit vendors
  • Organizations for whom digital preservation may currently be out of reach, including small- and mid-sized cultural heritage organizations and community archives
• Overall composition goals for the Service User Group:
  • Must be at least 30% practitioners
  • Must be at least 30% organizational decision-makers
• We are seeking to achieve broad and balanced representation across both stakeholder groups. We believe that traditional recruitment practices disproportionately impact the most marginalized people in society in negative ways, including people of color, people from working class backgrounds, women, and LGBTQIA people. Because we believe that collective action is most powerful in creating change when it is informed by many different lived experiences, we strongly encourage expressions of interest from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.

Express your interest in serving on the Service User Group here: https://forms.gle/KKQSSuK9ZFFz4DN76

Advisory Board (up to 10 members)

The Advisory Board will be charged with reviewing project documentation, proposals, and deliverables and asking the hard questions of the project team in terms of assumptions and data underlying decision-making & prioritization, capacity, representation, fiscal stewardship, and management of the service. Advisory Board criteria and expectations include:

• Must be willing to attend a quarterly 75-90 min meeting and a half-day virtual forum in August 2023
• Must be willing to reserve 1-2 hours per month or quarter to the in-depth review of documentation and proposals
• Must be interested in seeing development of a robust service model for values-driven, community-supported distributed digital preservation
• Must represent one or more of the primary Board competencies:
  • Fundraising
  • Business Development (including ability to help with market analysis)
  • Library Administration & Digital Curation Professional, including Representation from Community-based Archives
    Values-Driven, Community-Supported Distributed Digital Preservation Services
  • Innovative Digital Preservation Projects/Programs
  • Technical Expertise
• We are seeking to achieve broad and balanced representation across both stakeholder groups. We believe that traditional recruitment practices disproportionately impact the most marginalized people in society in negative ways, including people of color, people from working class backgrounds, women, and LGBTQIA people. Because we believe that collective action is most powerful in creating change when it is informed by many different lived experiences, we will be actively recruiting people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.

Recruitment for the Advisory Board will be conducted by invitation only.

Introducing the DPSC Planning Project (slide deck)

Express your interest in serving on the Service User Group

March 2023: End User Interview Protocol

April 2023: DPSC Planning Project End User Survey

May 2023: DPSC Planning Project End User Survey Responses

June 2023: Requirements Inputs Gathering Executive Summary

May 2024: Sustainable Community-Owned Partnerships in Digital Preservation: DPSC Planning Project Final Report

June 2024: Webinar Announcement: Sustainable Community-Owned Partnerships in Digital Preservation (Eventbrite)

June 2024: Webinar + Panel Discussion on Sustainable Community-Owned Partnerships in Digital Preservation (Transcript)