RSP: Digital Preservation Day, Birmingham 27/05/2010

I attended the RSP event in Aston Business School on Thursday 27th May and came away with not only some good advice, but also with the impetus to build on long-held ideas and assumptions. Preservation was the aim of the day, but as so often happens, other forms of repository work kept popping up. When discussing preservation/curation the question was : does your repository/institution have a digital preservation policy? I don't believe any hands went up in the air. Furthermore, with very few of us with steering groups, policy-making seemed relatively unattainable at present. So, the advice then given was to start with baby steps - meet with colleagues/superiors first and discuss the barriers you feel are in place - attempt to conquer these one by one or over a set period of time. Furthermore, yet more education of stakeholders is required so as to demonstrate the value of your repository. Also, we must target that value to user needs. I appreciate that this is repeating the same message, but it seems that is what needs to be done. Keep plugging away, know who your supporters are, communicate your repository's value more effectively. Then repeat all over again! A good repository day with presentations, discussions, good company and yet more food for thought! Nicky Cashman.