Working Group on Digital Preservation Education
The strength of the Australasia Preserves community comes from its grass-roots passion to share. Australasia Preserves recognised education and training for digital preservation as a top priority from its beginning. At its first meeting in February 2018 there was discussion around the idea of developing ‘digital preservation carpentry’ lessons. Throughout 2018 more discussion and activities revealed the importance of making sure digital preservation concepts were tightly coupled with tool experimentation. A survey to find out what people were interested in learning most was carried out.A digital preservation carpentry workshop was piloted in February 2019 at the 14th International Digital Curation Conference. Community discussion at the Australasia Preserves February 2019 monthly online meeting resulted in a decision to convene a working group on digital preservation education comprising educators and professionals. Its aim was to further develop and finalise the digital preservation carpentry workshop, and to develop a more formal educational framework for designing and delivering digital preservation training. Material will be hosted by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) and will also be available to communities in other parts of the world. The activities of the working group are actively helping to improve digital preservation practice training and education in the Australasian region.
Digital Preservation Essentials subgroup
Membership:
- Matthew Burgess, State Library of New South Wales
- Carey Garvie, National Archives of Australia
- Lachlan Glanville, University of Melbourne
- Valerie Love, National Library of New Zealand
- Gene Melzack, University of Melbourne
- Peter Neish, University of Melbourne
- Rachel Tropea, University of Melbourne
- Jaye Weatherburn, University of Melbourne
The lessons learnt from the carpentry pilot resulted in Digital Preservation Essentials, a series of modules covering various functions and aspects of digital preservation. Established in March 2019, this subgroup was formed to finalise the content into a two-day workshop focusing on pre-ingest and ingest. This workshop will be tested in March 2020 before the content is finalised and released.
Education Development subgroup
Membership:
- Leisa Gibbons, Curtin University
- Ross Harvey
- Gene Melzack, University of Melbourne
- Jessica Moran, National Library of New Zealand
- Gillian Oliver, Monash University
- Sophie Shilling, Royal Historical Society of Victoria
- Elizabeth Tait, RMIT University
This subgroup was also established in March 2019 with the aim to ascertain appropriate frameworks for Australasian-focused digital preservation training and education, investiage sustainability and other relevent matters. During 2019 it developed the following, shared under a CC-BY-NC-SA license:
Guidelines for Developing and Offering Digital Preservation Training and Education
This guideline indicates what needs to be present in digital preservation training and education developed under the auspices of Australasia Preserves. There are six guidelines covering the primary audience of material developed, the need to consider culturally-specific practices relating to indigenous cultural materials, minimum requirements (such as openness, and equitable access), minimum requirements (e.g., clear learning outcomes, speaker notes, recording of the presentation), other requirements, and where the learning and teaching material is hosted.Developing Online Education and Training Material
Based on the Guidelines, one in particular: that students must have ‘Equitable access: available in multiple modes of delivery (face to face and distance; synchronous and asynchronous) so that the location of the student does not preclude participation’. This document indicates minimum requirements for online offerings so that equitable access is offered. It first notes six minimum requirements that all online material must meet, then gives some examples of additional elements that could be provided.Workshop Evaluation Form
This form contains a series of questions that can be used to evaluate a workshop. Questions can be selected as appropriate for each workshop. Some questions should be used; others are optional.
