NDSA:Mission and Values

Mission Statement [DRAFT 2]

The mission of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance is to establish, expand, and promote [/publicize/sustain] the capacity to preserve our nation's digital resources for the benefit of present and future generations.

Action Statement [DRAFT 2]

Members of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance, an initiative of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, collaborate to preserve access to our national digital heritage by:
•broadening access to our nation's expanding digital heritage •developing and coordinating sustainable infrastructures for the preservation of digital content and resources •advocating standards for the stewardship of digital objects •building a community of practice around the management of distributed digital collections •promoting innovation •facilitating cooperation between government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and commercial entities •fostering the participation of diverse communities and relationships across boundaries •raising public awareness of the enduring value of digital resources and the need for active stewardship of these national treasures

Values Statement [DRAFT 2]

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance and all member organizations are bound as a community by the following values.

Stewardship: Members of the NDSA are committed to managing digital content for current and long-term use. The members of the NDSA are actively committed to ensuring sustained access to the digital content that comprises our national history and empowers us as leaders in the global knowledge economy. Individually, these organizations support the management of digital resources; as an Alliance, we commit to protecting our nation's cultural, scientific, scholarly, and business heritage.

Collaboration: Collaborative work is the centering value of the Alliance, it is a value shared by all members and a priority in work with all organizations and associations. Approaching digital stewardship collaboratively allows the NDSA to coordinate effort, avoid duplicate work, build a community of practice, develop new preservation strategies, flexibly respond to a changing economic landscape, and build relationships to increase capacity to manage content beyond institutional boundaries.

Inclusiveness: The NDSA is a collaborative effort to preserve a distributed national digital collection for the benefit of current and future citizens. We value the range of experience, the potential for innovation, and the fault-tolerance that heterogeneity brings. We believe the preservation of digital information is a pervasive challenge and that engaging across different communities strengthens the nation’s digital preservation practices and increases the likelihood of preserving data now and into the future.

Exchange: Members of the Alliance encourage the open and transparent exchange of ideas, services, and software. This leverages the commitments of each member to increase capacity within and beyond the stewardship network. In this way the act of participation and engagement result in innovations and benefits that can be shared by all.