NDSA:Public Awareness of Digital Preservation Issues and Challenges

Return to NDSA:Outreach Working Group Home

The activity of raising public awareness is the most significant activity of the NDSA Outreach Working Group. This includes at least two high-level activities:

Authoring/framing/describing the high-level “ Statement of Purpose” that drives any digital preservation public awareness campaign, at whatever level. Is there a single dominant message that the NDSA hopes to propagate regarding the preservation of digital information? Are different messages (or variations on a single message) necessary to reach different audiences? What are the 1-word, 3-word, sentence and paragraph messages that NDSA is trying to propagate?

The NDSA:“Audience” explorations touch on the different audiences for digital preservation information, working to paint a clearer picture of the issues facing each audience, and considering ways that the mission of the NDSA can be presented to each audience. Audiences include the general public, practitioners, funders, legislators, etc.

The high-level messages are then implemented in a number of discrete activities:

• NDSA:Clearinghouse of Digital Preservation Information
• Utilizing social media tools to spread the message
• Large-scale national-level Public Awareness Campaign
• Participation in Digital Preservation BarCamps