NDSA:Outreach Meeting Minutes 04-14-14

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Monday April 14, 2014, 3:00 p.m. EDT

Agenda

A presentation from George Coulbourne of the Digital Preservation Outreach & Education program and Kris Nelson from the National Digital Stewardship Residency.

Participants

About 10-15 folks were on the lively 4/14 call.

Meeting Notes

George Coulbourne and Kris Nelson of the Library of Congress discussed current activities in the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education program (http://digitalpreservation.gov/education/) and talked about the work they’ve done with the National Digital Stewardship Residency program (http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsr/).

Digital preservation educational outreach at the LOC George Coulbourne

• The need was proven by a national ed needs assessment, 2010 and 2012
• Results indicated a need for more economical and accessible digital education training for working professionals
• The top-ranked method was face-to-face followed by webinars
• Further conversations let us know that train-the-trainer programs as well as residency programs were wanted
• Nancy McGovern, Helen Tibbo, Katherine Skinner and others have helped develop the curriculum
• Targeted at the entry level digital steward
• Goal is to pass on how to teach these modules
• Done in 3 and a half days
• Have reached out to small and large institutions
• Alaska—wanted to do it all themselves so that they could control usage of culturally significant artifacts
• Curriculum can be changed easily to meet the needs of different groups
• Cost of the workshop is 6-25K depend on how much the organizers want to subsidize
• 24 people per session
• Intention is to have a training hub in each of the six national regions
• Over 1500 professionals have been trained nationally from public private and academic sectors
• Major goal is to partner to pilot a regional hub program
• Training dollars are being dramatically cut so it is more challenging to provide for accessible and cost effective training per region
• All working professionals can benefit from the program in rural and metro areas
• To cover the nations training needs effectively and cost effectively collaborations are essential; the money is just not there
• Working to build stable partnerships in the public and private sectors
• Would like to develop training on line

It was suggested that a simple web site–read and quiz might be a useful dissemination tool, "programmed instruction"

National Digital Stewardship Residency program Kris Nelson

• Residency program, implemented in Sept 2013 for post-masters graduates to come to DC for a residency in in archival studies; placement in one of ten institutions in DC
• Rigorous selection process; received 9 months of hands-on training to complement what they earned in their grad studies
• Attend conferences and enrichment sessions
• They keep unofficial potfolio/blogs about the progress they made throughout the residency program
• In 2013-2014 they attended multiple conferences
• Residents put a symposium together and invite guest speakers
• Wraps up on May 30 with a capstone meeting to recognize their accomplishments
• Next cohort changes will include:
• Residents and hosting orgs would prefer that it lasts for a year rather than 9 months
• Workshop at the beginning would be useful
• Update policies
• Need to have mentors to help students hone their skills
• 70% of this cohort have already been hired

The plan is to pull out the best practices from each iteration of the program; build some capacity so that we can build out an ongoing residency program

NC State had a program where they had 2 year employees who were “fellows”, not focused on digi curation or preservation; if a group of libraries wanted to share a position might be possible

Have to be careful of who is hosting; they are supposed to actually get instruction and mentoring rather than just filling in at an institution

The group decided that it would be best to continue conversations on educational issues by starting and "education subcommittee" of the Outreach group. Inauguarl members of the Outreach Working Group education subcommittee:

Helen Tibbo Vicki George Coulbourne Abby Potter Kris Nelson