1 May 2019
The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) and UNESCO Memory of the World PERSIST Project (UNESCO/MoW/PERSIST) have launched their online Executive Guide on Digital Preservation. The new resource provides practitioners with a combination of generic and specific messages and motivators designed to communicate with senior executives, legislators and budget holders, as well as decision and policy makers with a view to embedding the value of digital preservation at the core of organisations.
The development of the Executive Guide is supported by UNESCO/MoW/PERSIST whose member states each have a role in implementing the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage Including in Digital Form. In order to support UNESCO member states, and all organisations, in their mission to preserve our digital heritage the Executive Guide aims to be as broad reaching as possible.
Interactive and customisable, the Executive Guide is an online and accessible collection of resources, freely available through the DPC website, and contains:
- generic statements defining digital preservation in a range of clear, non-jargon terms which may be understood by various organisation types
- information relating to digital preservation in specific sectors and organisation types
- a summary of the importance of digital preservation generally and specifically
- key motivators for digital preservation which may be relevant to different organisation types
- risks and opportunities related to digital preservation
- downloadable and customisable templates
- useful links to related and relevant resources
- statistics and evidence to be used in supporting the case for digital preservation
Each statement is associated with an organisation type for which it might be most relevant. Currently the Executive Guide contains statements which have been created for (and by) archives, businesses, higher education and research, libraries, museums and galleries.
Users may interrogate the content by organisation type, motivator or by browsing all statements before inserting into customisable PowerPoint or Word templates alongside evidence to support digital preservation, by way of statistics and case studies. Once the messages contained within the Guide have been tailored for use within a specific organisation, customised messages are welcomed as updates for inclusion in future iterations of the resource, and their re-submission into the Executive Guide is encouraged.