Library news

World Digital Preservation Day, 7 November 2024

As we mark World Digital Preservation Day (WDPD) today, 7 November, the importance of safeguarding our digital heritage has never been more critical.

The University is a proud member of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), which promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing among organisations dedicated to preserving digital content. We support the DPC’s initiatives which emphasize the need for sustainable practices to address the unique challenges posed by rapidly evolving technology.

Across the University our staff have been contributing to this effort:

• Digital Humanities have led ground-breaking projects involving the cultural heritage sector, Legacies of Catalogue Descriptions and Curatorial Voice: Opportunities for Digital Scholarship and Critical Cataloguing for Digital Preservation. Today, to coincide with WDPD, Laurisa Sastoque (Digital Preservation Training Officer), will be releasing a new file integrity checking activity for digital preservation training, available on Zenodo.
• Over the last two years the Doctoral College, iSolutions and the Library have worked together to ensure all higher degree theses deposited in our institutional repository are in the PDF/A format. This ensures that these documents are preserved in a standardised, long-lasting format that is resistant to obsolescence, maintaining the integrity of academic work and making it accessible to researchers and the public for years to come.
• The University/SUSU collaborative collection, Real Student Stories: Journeys of the Othered, provides moving insights into diverse student experiences. The Digital Scholarship team in the library worked on this project which underscores the value of preserving personal narratives and cultural histories in the digital realm.

As we celebrate World Digital Preservation Day, let’s reflect on the importance of protecting our digital heritage and supporting innovative practices that ensure its longevity.

Questions? Please contact our Research Data team at researchdata@soton.ac.uk