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

Members of the Outreach Working Group education subcommittee:

Helen Vicki George Abby Potter Kris