NLI hosts annual Digital Collecting and Preservation Event 2024

This was the 6^th annual Digital Collecting and Preservation Event at the NLI, following on from a similar workshop with the DPC last year on writing a digital preservation policy. This year marked a return to the NLI on Kildare St, with the event hosted in our brand-new Joly Theatre.

Digital Collecting and Preservation is a shared challenge across Ireland and across organisations of all shapes and sizes. NLI is very keen to share knowledge and facilitate events that bring the sector together so that we can all learn from each other. As the NLI is preparing to procure a new digital preservation system, we felt that this topic would be relevant across the sector in Ireland. There were over 40 attendees that included members from CONUL, ARA, CNCI, Local Authorities, both North and South, and all four provinces of Ireland.

Sharon McMeekin and Paul Wheatley from the DPC led the workshop after an introduction by the Director of the NLI, Dr. Audrey Whitty. The DPC is a membership organisation that aims to exchange good practices within the field of digital preservation, fostering a global community of practice that the NLI is proud to belong to. They recently updated their Digital Preservation Procurement Toolkit to v2.0, a resource that the NLI has already used when preparing to upgrade our repository system.

The DPC guided attendees through the full cycle of preparing, procuring and onboarding a digital preservation system. This included building a business case, understanding your organisation's unique context and needs, potential pitfalls and lessons learned.

Four case studies were presented on various approaches to figuring out requirements and procuring a digital preservation system. These included Maeve Gebruers from the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Harriet Wheelock from the Royal College of Physicians Ireland, Paul Stokes from JISC and Maria Ryan of the NLI Web Archive.  Speakers shared their experiences with procuring a digital preservation system. The importance of talking to colleagues, communication with vendors and allowing sufficient time to engage with the procurement process were highlighted during the case studies. The event allowed for experience sharing and networking amongst attendees, which is essential in approaching the challenges and opportunities of preserving and making digital material accessible.

We are already looking ahead to our 2025 event, which will be a little different than normal. The NLI is delighted to be hosting the No Time to Wait Conference in late 2025. If you’re not familiar with No Time to Wait, it is a three-day, international conference dedicated to open media, open standards and digital preservation, now in its 9^th year. This a great opportunity for Irish practitioners to learn from and engage with international peers, and to share our own experience and expertise. So, start thinking of what you might like to present on, look out for the call for papers, and we hope to see you all there!