New Roles for New Times: Digital Curation for Preservation

March 2011,

Tyler Walters, Virginia Tech;
Katherine Skinner, Educopia Institute

Report Prepared for the Association of Research Libraries

In the 21st century, ARL libraries are increasingly exploring and adopting a range of new roles in serving research institutions, researchers, scholars, and students, making the time ripe for ARL to organize a new report cluster focusing on key new roles. The New Roles for New Times series will identify and delineate emerging roles and present research on early experiences among member libraries in developing the roles and delivering services. Each report will describe an emerging role, articulating the audience affected by the new role and the benefits various constituencies experience as a result of the new role.
The reports will highlight existing work, report authors’ findings, and offer analysis of trends, best practices, and key issues.
The New Roles for New Times report, “Digital Curation for Preservation,” explores how research libraries are attempting to add value in the chain of events that produce new research knowledge and information. Digital curation refers to the actions people take to maintain and add value to digital information over its lifecycle, including the processes used when creating digital content. Digital preservation focuses on the “series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary.” In this report, we highlight the intersection of these actions, specifically focusing on how digital curation must facilitate the preservation of our shared digital memory.

ARL [SOURCE]

MetaArchive Cooperative [SOURCE]