NDSA:Organizational Outreach

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Strategic Partnerships

One Sentence Description:
The Outreach WG members will facilitate stronger connections to other organizations that have an interest in digital preservation by developing a strategic partnership program. is an organization that can help the NDSA move its work forward on a national scale. Partnership involves looking for commonalities across partner's long-term goals.

Statement of the Problem and Goals for Addressing the Problem:
The Outreach WG members will facilitate stronger connections to other organizations that have an interest in digital preservation by developing a strategic partnership program. A Strategic Partner organization is one that can help the NDSA move its work forward on a national scale. Partnership involves looking for commonalities across partner's long-term goals.

This activity will help build the NDSA brand and develop stronger ties in the digital stewardship ecosystem by engaging established organizations that are already exploring digital stewardship activities to a greater or lesser degree. These outreach efforts would be targeted at the leadership level of different organizations of strategic importance to the NDSA. The outreach would bring the two organizations together to discuss shared concerns and potential future shared actions.

Strategic Value of Activity:

• Helps build NDSA brand
• Puts NDSA in contact with other organizations doing digital stewardship
• Offers opportunity to leverage existing resources towards digital stewardship
• Offers the possibility of future collaborative action

Required Resources:

• Commitment of NDSA members to act as liaisons
• Management of Strategic Partner relations (recordkeeping)
• Need to establish criteria for S.P.

Roadmap:
What are the steps to take in order to accomplish this activity?

1. Establish Strategic Partnership criteria (in progress)
2. Draft document and review
3. Invite member feedback
4. Revise document
5. NDSA vote to amend Membership Agreement (fall 2012 in conjunction w/vote for new Coordinating Committee members)
6. Identify pilot organizations to target
7. Establish NDSA member liaisons
8. Set up a meeting with the organization leadership, either in person or via conference call
9. Get on the organization's conference program to discuss the NDSA

Dissemination of Knowledge:
How will this activity be shared?

• Write a blog post on The Signal
• Encourage publication in organs of partnering organizations
• Make press announcements in library/archive literature
• Send announcements to listservs
• Present at conferences that members are attending

Signifiers of Success and Outcomes:

• Establishment of a half-dozen Strategic Partnerships in the first year.
• Add 2-3 S.P. per year in subsequent years.
• Yearly blog post to update activity
• 2-3 articles in lib/arch press on S.P. activity or increased profile of NDSA
• Wide recognition of S.P. activity as useful for supporting digital stewardship activities across the profession

Background

There are the obvious formal connections (through active NDSA membership) and informal (indirectly through NDSA member participation in those groups), but the need for direct outreach was identified.

The organizations to be engaged include traditional library and archive organizations such as the American Library Association (ALA) and the Society of American Archivists (SAA), but could also include industry associations such as NASCIO and NCSL, vendor associations such as AIIM or the Open Geospatial Consortium, or others.

The NDSA Outreach WG has several tasks. One is to identify the most important organizations to connect with, and then to find a "hook" into the organization, possibly by identifying a place in their strategic plans that touches on digital preservation and stewardship and then finding a way to make an NDSA connection there.

Secondly, we need to clearly identify a short list of things we would ask each organization to do.

Finally, we need a clear and concise list of what the NDSA has to offer each organization.

Organizations

This is a starter list of organizations and please add more. At this point we're just gathering names, though we want to try and keep the list paired down to the most prominent and strategically important (it doesn't have to be exhaustive, in other words). When we've got a healthy list we'll find a way to rank them and vote on the rankings.

• American Library Association (ALA) http://www.ala.org/

(liaison: Vickie Allen)

• Society of American Archivists (SAA) http://www2.archivists.org/

(liaison: Helen Tibbo)

• Medical Library Association

(liaison: Dever Powell)

• American Association of Law Libraries http://www.aallnet.org/

(liaison: Sarah Rhodes)

• Special Libraries Association (SLA)

(potential liaison: Blane Dessy)

• National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)http://www.nascio.org/
• National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) http://www.ncsl.org/
• Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) http://www.aiim.org
• Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE)http://www.alise.org/
• Library of Congress Library Services (Roberta Schaeffer)

• Others?

The "Ask"

What are the five things we want to ask each organization to do? Add your own! (Side note: what is the NDSA protocol for “endorsing” other organizations?)

• Adopt a resolution acknowledging/supporting NDSA
• Make a commitment to work with the NDSA
• Discuss collaborative research with the NDSA
• Create a focus area in their organization dedicated to digital stewardship
• Encourage people to do stewardship
• Join NDSA and "participate in building a distributed national digital collection for the benefit of people now and in the future"

The "Offer"

What are the five things the NDSA can offer to each organization?

• We can offer to bestow the title of "strategic NDSA partner" on an organization that we have a relationship with (what would this entail?)

• Prestige of association with LC/PBS/CUA/Duraspace/etc.
• Specified display of the NDSA logo
• Working with the NDSA is "painless"

• Give the organization the NDSA stamp of approval (should be a low barrier)

• NDSA can supply volunteers to help organizations get started
• NDSA can bring together diverse organizations
• "The strength of the NDSA is the network" - Blane Dessy
• Provide or recommend speakers for conference sessions - P Greenberg
• Provide or recommend speakers for member webinars, training sessions
• Profile/highlight digital preservation efforts and initiatives of strategic partners on NDSA website, in LC Digital Preservation newsletter, Signal posts, etc.

One-Page Summary

See one-page ask/offer summary draft here: NDSA:Media:Ndsa_strategicpartner_summary_20120131.pdf and transcribed below:

Join a diverse and nationwide network of organizations devoted to preserving our national digital heritage.

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA), an initiative of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program at the Library of Congress, is seeking out Strategic Partners who will help us advance the national dialogue on digital preservation.

Becoming a Strategic Partner

Becoming an NDSA Strategic Partner is a free, simple process with significant benefits. As a Strategic Partner, your organization will contribute to the work of the NDSA by:

• Adopting a resolution acknowledging your support of the NDSA

• Incorporating digital stewardship into strategic planning documents

• Establishing or expanding a committee, interest group, or other community dedicated to digital stewardship

• Encouraging digital stewardship programs and initiatives among your members

• Exploring collaborative research opportunities with the NDSA

• Participating in the NDSA’s development of a distributed national digital collection

Benefits of Strategic Partnership

In return for your support, the NDSA will provide your organization with:

• Liaisons to help establish new digital stewardship communities

• An expert speakers bureau for conferences, workshops, and training sessions

• Increased awareness of your organization’s important digital stewardship initiatives through profiles and features published in the popular Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter and The Signal Digital Preservation Blog

• NDSA insignia to be used in online and print materials, designating your organization’s status as an NDSA Strategic Partner and affiliation with the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program at the Library of Congress

Let's tackle the preservation challenges of our digital age together. Take advantage of this opportunity to share ideas, innovation, and information about digital stewardship at a coordinated national level. Become and NDSA Strategic Partner, and join the conversation.