NDSA:Marketing, Outreach and Event Guidance

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Back to the NDSA:Digital Preservation in a Box Overview Page

This section provides links to marketing materials that can be adapted to support specific events that utilize the Box materials. The "News Articles" section collects popular press articles about digital preservation that might be useful as handouts or marketing materials but which are not suitable as instructional materials.

Resources

News Articles

Event Guidance

How to run a Digital Preservation Day event. (The original text of this document was harvested from the Home Movie Day 101 file (www.homemovieday.com/HMD101.pdf) with their permission. More editing is needed.)

What is Digital Preservation in a Box?

"Digital Preservation in a Box" is designed as a gentle introduction to the concepts of preserving digital information. Preserving digital information is a new concept that most people have little experience with. The guidance is basic and is meant to be a place to get started.

This box of resources can be used to provide introductory-level education those who may have little to no knowledge of digital preservation and digital curation issues, to help them with stewarding their own digital information, which might include Photographs, Audio, Video, Electronic mail, Personal documents and Web archives.

The materials are geared towards a general audience who routinely create or manage digital information, but who may need a working knowledge of this area for digital preservation on the job or for training others on how to preserve digital resources. The audience includes library science students and educators; library, archive or other cultural heritage institution employees; others charged with preserving digital information as part of their jobs or for providing digital preservation training.

People are creating their own digital materials in increasingly large quantities, and they are clamoring for simple guidance on how to preserve their own digital materials.

A Digital Preservation Day (DPD) Event is a fun and very rewarding way to make contact with the general public and share essential knowledge about preserving personal digital materials.

What You Need to Know

In order to hold a successful Digital Preservation Day event, there are a few things you need to know. You need to have a venue for your event (which could be virtual); you'll need to have the equipment available to share the materials in the box; you'll need to market and promote your event. We provide details on each of these areas, including some Digital Preservation Day event scenarios, below.

Arranging a Venue

Ideally you'll be doing the event in a public space. You might be inviting strangers. If so, think twice about having it at your home.

Your venue should be relatively easy to find with parking or public transportation available, if possible, unless everyone can be expected to walk.

Some public places like libraries, archives, schools, churches, VFW Halls, college student centers have rooms you can use for free. Bars will sometimes let you put on events, but you’ll run into issues like some people hate bars, kids sometimes can’t get in and drunks might break your stuff and spill beer on your materials.

Use your connections. If you have friends at a movie theater, bowling alley or country club, hit them up for venue help. The ideal situation is to secure a venue where the most likely interested people would already congregate, and this generally means a library or student center on campus.

If you don’t have to pay for a venue, your costs will be low.

Venue Needs

No way around it, you need electrical outlets if you're going to showcase digital technology.

Chairs and tables are also good, but you can make them sit on the floor if need be.

A restroom is highly desirable.

You may need:

  • Chairs for you and the public to sit on
  • Tables for displaying items
  • A box of old Digital artifacts (hard drives, zip drives, floppy drives, old computers, etc.)
  • Flat screen TVs to project videos
  • A sign-in sheet (if you want to gather contact info for future events)
  • Easy-to-understand signs to direct people where to go
  • Pens and pencils
  • Tape
  • Business cards
  • A video camera or still camera to document your event!

What Will the Attendees Want to Know?

There may be no need for announcements during the event, but make sure that all the volunteers are briefed on the way things are going to work. It's useful to prepare a set of "talking points" in advance that will keep everyone on topic.

A common question is “where can I get my materials transferred to another format?” Many times, people bring in materials they haven’t viewed in a while because they don’t have the technology to get at the materials.

Do some research into transfer facilities in your area or have a list prepared in advance. If you're not comfortable giving out specific names then prepare some guidance on how they might find these types of entities on the internet ("Do a search in your favorite web browser for "digital conversion specialists" in your city.") If you do make a list you may want to note that your organization offers the list merely as suggestions, none of the places are officially sanctioned.

Be prepared to talk about receiving donations of "archival" items. Folks will suggest that they have valuable materials that they no longer want to take care of and will conscientiously look for suggestions on organizations that might find them useful. Have a list prepared in advance, though you can't anticipate every question.

The Center for Home Movies (www.centerforhomemovies.com) in Baltimore, MD will take all kinds of home movies in the absence of a suitable local outlet.

Publicizing Your Event

Turnout often depends on exposure (along with the weather and competing events). Basically, the more people who know about your event, the more people you can expect to show up.

  • The Media & the Press Release

We can’t always get on TV or the radio, but we can always try. Press releases should be sent to local news & cultural program departments of local stations. DPD is a good local newsworthy event: history, film, photography, music, preservation.

Your local paper is an easier sell. Use your press release to appeal to the arts editor for a story. At the very least, you should work to get into the Events listing section. If you know in advance about any of the specific films you’ll be showing,

[Sample press releases]

Craigslist.com, available in most areas, has an events listing section. Any other virtual community bulletin boards are helpful.

  • Flyers and Posters

Some people still live in the 20th century and actually read pieces of paper (also known as broadsides). Make your flyer eye-catching (an arty friend may come in handy here): a simple graphic with a minimal amount of informative text (don’t forget the website!).

For instance:

  • Digital Preservation Day
  • Date time location
  • For more info [your event website]

You may have to flyer areas more than once, as flyers tend to disappear. Make use of bulletin boards at the usual places – cafes, grocery stores, Laundromats, schools, etc. Don’t forget to flyer your venue!

  • DPD postcards or stickers.

You’ll want to get a bunch of these and include your local info on them. You can make sticker labels using a computer or copy machine. Mail out the postcards and leave stacks in appropriate places. Also have some available at the event as souvenirs.

Consider sending invitations to local historical organizations, the press, friends, neighbors, family members, local celebrities, filmmakers, museums, cinemas.

  • The Publicity Machine

Your venue might have its own publicity machine. Libraries, rock clubs, movie theaters all have calendars. Get listed! Some places have mailing lists you might be able to infiltrate.

Work with another local historical or library institution. Maybe they’ll help you publicize. If you’re going to suggest people donate to a certain collection, for instance, it will be in that institution’s interest to help you out.

Be aware that crazy people are drawn to free events in public areas. This could add to your event’s atmosphere!

Setting UP

Set up your room before people arrive. Eat - it’s going to be a long day. Set up a literature table. Make sure you have pens for the mailing list.

There are some points that should be brought up during the show, regardless of the formality of your presentation:

  • archival donations
  • storage at home

Many archives are interested in collecting materials. These may be regional collections (Rhode Island Historical Society, for instance) or for film, places like the center for Home Movies. If there is a regional collection in your area, point people toward it.

Home storage conditions are important for the survival of the material. The basic mantra is cool and dry – no basements or attics, stay away from radiators and sinks.

What Will my DPD Event Be Like?

We can’t predict what will happen at your DPD. We do know someone will show up (even if it’s only your friends & relations) and DPD will draw to a close.

The attendees will do what you tell them. Figuring out how you want to run things should help you get an idea of what it will be like.

When it’s over, what are you left with besides an empty feeling of relief? Hopefully, you will have some addresses to send info to next year, you’ll have passed out some great information about what your organization does with digital preservation, you’ll have made some connections, and most importantly you’ll have inspired some people. You’ll definitely have some experience under your belt.

Aftermath

Take your volunteers out for some kind of treat they can all enjoy. Talk to them about their opinions of the show. You should all figure out what went well, what needs to change for the next event. Keep these notes somewhere you’ll find them for your next DPD. Write up your DPD report and share it with the rest of the NDSA and digital preservation community.

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