advocacy – the DLG B

It’s time again to recognize the role of #archives, #archivists, #libraries, and #librarians in preserving digital records today on #WDPD2023!

Are you a custodian of cultural heritage materials?

Have you made them available online?

Have you thoughtfully considered long-term preservation as well as access to your materials?

One of the main mottos of digital preservation is “Digitization is NOT Digital Preservation.”

That is to say, the digitization and hosting of your items online are great for access, but this is still not preservation.

We completely understand that most people don’t have the bandwidth to thoughtfully consider long-term preservation as well as access–but please remember there are people and resources that you can call upon to ensure your digital content is preserved.

World Digital Preservation Day is our opportunity to remind you that digital preservation professionals can teach you:

- some of the easiest ways for people to get started with digital preservation at their institutions or with their personal materials.
- what people should preserve first.
- what happens when people don’t put together a plan to preserve their digital content.
- Contact us if you have questions.

DIGITAL LIBRARY OF GEORGIA RESOURCES ON DIGITAL PRESERVATION

- The DLG has several webinars available for you to see ways digital preservation has been approached in Georgia and other Southern states:
  - Our Georgia Archives Month 2023 webinar: Digital Preservation 101: Intro to Digital Preservation Basics (Josh Kitchens, Georgia Public Library Service)
  - Digital Preservation for Libraries: What It Is, Why You Need It, and How You Can Get Started, Mary Willoughby (Digital Library of Georgia), GPLS Tech Bootcamp 2019
  - Preservation in a Digital World, Ashley Shull (Athens-Clarke County Public Library), Brandon Pieczko (University of Georgia), Mary Willoughby (Digital Library of Georgia), GALILEO Annual Conference 2019
  - What’s in Your Bag? Practical tools and strategies for scalable digital preservation, Society of Georgia Archivists Annual Meeting 2018
  - An Introduction to Digital Preservation, Elizabeth La Beaud (Mississippi Digital Library), 2019

- The DLG also offers a slate of digital preservation services that we encourage you to contact us about, should you have any questions.

MORE RESOURCES ON DIGITAL PRESERVATION

For non-digital preservationists:
- Visit the World Digital Preservation Day website
- Read the series of “Discover Good Practice Technology Watch Publications”, prepared and organized by the Digital Preservation Coalition, and designed for non-digital preservationists!
- Take a look at Amy Rudersdorf’s article on “The benefits and drawbacks of DIY digital preservation”
- There is also helpful information in the American Library Association (ALA)’s LibGuides on digital preservation.

For professionals (librarians, archivists, curators) wanting to dig deeper:

- Read last year’s WDPD2022 posts from other blogs around the world
- Take a look at the Library of Congress’ Recommended Formats Statement for 2023-2024 to just get a taste of some best practices.
- Browse through NDSA and DLF’s Digital Preservation Glossary.
- Read more about The Digital Preservation Coalition
- Look at the revised 2nd edition of the Digital Preservation Handbook, a great place to start for getting started with digital preservation
- Nominate at-risk digital materials at The Bit List of Digitally Endangered Species
- Consult the Executive Guide on Digital Preservation, to help talk to others in your organization about digital preservation
- Find helpful online modules on how to train your staff on digital preservation
- Find timely information on how to manage digital preservation from the Exact Editions blog, and articles on preservation authored by staff at the University of Michigan Library on their blog.
- GitHub also has great content on digital preservation tools and strategies

FOLLOW WORLD DIGITAL PRESERVATION DAY ON SOCIAL MEDIA

- - Follow #WDPD2023 today, as well as: @CLIRnews, @dpc_chat, @ICArchive, @matthewpburgess, @NDSA2, @CLIRDLF, @digipreserve, and @Sarah_DPC beyond to keep up with what some of our leading digital preservationists have to say!

Happy National Library Week and School Library Month 2022!

National Library Week is April 3 – 9, 2022

Books are great, but for us to fully appreciate the value of libraries, we also need to recognize that they offer a broader spectrum of opportunities to promote proactive models of learning through access to technology, multimedia content, and educational programs.

A perfect example of this kind of work comes from our partners at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, who planned an exhibit around the Atlanta Student Movement, the 1960s civil rights movement whose heart was centered within Atlanta’s six historically black institutions of higher learning – Atlanta University, Clark College, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College.

AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library built programming around an exhibit titled “Start Something: Activism and the Atlanta Student Movement,” and invited American lawyer, historian, and academic administrator Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin to speak on Atlanta’s protracted struggle for civil rights from World War II to 1980 as covered in her award-winning book, Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement.

Responsive library staff not only recognized this opportunity to build physical space for learning around this event for the communities they serve, but they also saw the potential for these resources to serve future users.

They made this happen by recording Dr. Brown-Nagin’s presentation, making it accessible online, and enabling its aggregation through the Digital Library of Georgia.

You can see this talk now at: https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/auu_auc-lib-lectures.

It’s part of the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library Lectures collection, one of several collections of work created by librarians held by that library.

Photo of Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin speaking at a lectern — Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin Lecture and Q and A Session, November 9, 2017

With all of that to think about, let’s all celebrate National Library Week 2022 the way the American Library Association recommends:

Visiting our libraries, which may include:

Your local library
Your school library
Your favorite virtual and digital libraries

You can follow us in the following places, and interact with the hashtag #MyLibrary.

April is School Library Month 2022

If you would like to learn more about what school librarians do, here is a brief bit of information from the American Association of School Librarians (AASL)’s web site: “School librarians work with both students and teachers to facilitate access to information in a wide variety of formats, instruct students and teachers how to acquire, evaluate, and use the information and the technology needed in this process, and introduce children and young adults to literature and other resources to broaden their horizons. As a collaborator, change agent, and leader, the school librarian develops, promotes, and implements a program that will help prepare students to be effective users of ideas and information, a lifelong skill.”

School Library Month is AASL’s celebration of school librarians and their programs. April 2022 marks the 37th year that school librarians have celebrated school library month.

For more information about school librarians here in Georgia and nationwide, visit the following websites:

AASL – The American Association of School Librarians
The division of the American Library Association that advocates for school librarians and media specialists.
https://www.ala.org/aasl/

GLMA – The Georgia Library Media Association
The largest professional association in Georgia advocating for school librarians and media specialists.
http://www.glma-inc.org

Georgia Association of School Librarians
The Georgia Association of School Librarians seeks to bring together information professionals from all patron and student age groups to improve information literacy in Georgia.
https://gla.georgialibraries.org/divisions/georgia-association-of-school-librarians/

A big thank you to all of our school librarians for all of the work they do to manage school libraries and provide resources amidst changing school library environments!

Download our School Library Month 2022 poster here

and interact with the hashtag #AASLslm

Digital Library of Georgia social media:

GALILEO social media:

Have a great week!

Tag: advocacy

November 2 is World Digital Preservation Day 2023!

It’s National Library Week and School Library Month 2022!