This week, KU Leuven joined the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), a non-profit organisation that supports their members in the digital preservation of data. They support the activities of the digital preservation community through networking, knowledge sharing, training, staff development, sharing best practices, etc.
KU Leuven-LIBIS is responsible for the long-term preservation of KU Leuven's digitised and digital born library, archival heritage and research collections. Digital preservation is a highly specialised field in which changing technology has a heavy impact on the accessibility and long-term usability of digital files. Just think of format changes, software that is no longer maintained to reading formats, ....
Given the valuable digital collections that LIBIS manages for KU Leuven Libraries, the University Archives, KADOC, the institutional data repository RDR, etc., this joining the DPC coalition is necessary to continue implementing and integrating rapidly evolving technologies and practices also within the KU Leuven institution.
By joining DPC, KU Leuven joins a group of more than 60 dedicated institutions of Higher Education and Research. KU Leuven looks forward to learning from their experiences and sharing its own in order to actively contribute to current and future challenges around preservation and further build its community.
More information can be found here.