UC Libraries Forum 2021: Leading with Innovation, Stronger through Collaboration

Between the Fall of 2018, and the winter of 2020, the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC) charged the Digital Preservation Strategy Working Group (DPS WG), consisting of representatives from a majority of the UC campuses, with tasks outlined across multiple phases representing approximately 12 months of work. The initial charge for Phase 1 was to develop a practical, shared vision of digital preservation for library content and outline a roadmap to guide the UC Libraries in advancing that shared vision. The first DPS WG report observed that:

For the majority of UC libraries, there is no dedicated digital preservation unit or staff There is a lack of resources for digital preservation at most campuses There is a need for defined digital preservation policies, workflows, guidance, training, and collaboration.

In 2019, the Digital Preservation Strategy Working Group (DPS WG) focused Phase Two activities on identifying the steps needed to build a community of practice around digital preservation in the UC Library system with the primary goal of preparing a path for collective action in the stewardship of the content types held in common by the ten campuses and CDL. During Phase Two, the DPS WG was charged with answering the questions “how much?” and “what kind?” of digital materials are stewarded by the UC libraries, and with identifying where it may be helpful to collaboratively steward particular content types. To answer the above questions, the initial tasks that the group tackled included developing a taxonomy of content types and a survey instrument, which was used to conduct 34 interviews with 44 data stewards across all ten campus libraries and CDL.

Based on the outcome of the recommendations made during phase 2, the DPS WG focused their final round of activities in Phase 2.5 on outlining the specifics regarding the creation of a standing Digital Preservation Leadership group that would represent a more permanent and sustainable approach toward operationalizing the main recommendations of Phase 2.

This presentation will discuss the results of the Phase 2 survey and the recommendations that were derived from those results. This includes presenting: (1) a summary of the digital assets held by the UC libraries, broken down by content type across all campus libraries; (2) the most significant practical, organizational and economic challenges of stewarding digital content; and (3) the specific areas where this digital preservation can be made easier through collective action, collaboration and shared expertise. A summary of Phase 2.5 will also be discussed, including the formation and creation of the inaugural standing Digital Preservation Leadership Group and a brief summary of its priorities and work plan.