NDSA:Content Case Studies

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Title of Activity or Project
Content Case Studies

One Sentence Description:
The Content Teams of the Content Working Group will develop case studies around a variety of types of content to share compelling stories that demonstrate the value of digital preservation in our communities.

Statement of the Problem and Goals for Addressing the Problem:
A brief paragraph summarizing the issues that the planned activity will address and how that work will help

Content teams decide categories of content that are important in their groups at whatever granularity works best for the exercise (ie. Blogs of NGOs, legal blogs, citizen science, local newspaper websites, digital art, local government information).

Case studies will define:

• Establish Value/Rationale for collecting – what value does the content have? Is anyone collecting it? What factors affect its risk of disappearance—small audience, gnarly formats, proprietary software, tight copyright restrictions, etc.?
• Document recognized opportunities - are there workflows in the creation or distribution of content that preservation could be worked into?
• Description of Target Audiences: who would find value in this content,. is the short-term audience different from the long-term audience? How?
• Outline a plan for educating Stakeholders - how might NDSA or an organization go about raising awareness, and to whom? (content creators, publishers, educators, libraries, researchers, donors)
• What are the obstacles or risk factors? - describe barriers for users/creators/preservationists – what challenges have you/might you face?
• Actionable items – what can we do next, as a community (or individual institution)?

Strategic Value of Activity:

Required Resources:

• Time of working group members

Roadmap:
Content Teams will meet separately to develop case studies, then share more broadly for feedback from other NDSA members in Content Working Group and NDSA-All. Approaches taken will be:

1. Hold conference calls
2. Draft case studies and review by Content Team members
3. Invite broader member feedback
4. Revise document
5. Publish case studies

Dissemination of Knowledge:

• Publish case studies on digitalpreservation.gov and/or other NDSA member websites
• Write a blog post
• Send announcements to listservs
• Present at conferences that members are attending

Signifiers of Success and Outcomes:
Case studies from each Content Team will be developed and shared broadly with all stakeholders, from content producers to cultural heritage organizations. Additional activities for the Content Working Group will emerge from the case studies and dialog about them will bring more awareness to the issues surrounding the featured content types.