Digital Preservation Services supports the integrity, authenticity, accessibility, and usability of Harvard University's digital collections. As a central service supporting over 60 libraries, special collections, and archives across Harvard, our portfolio encompasses a broad range of activities that reflect the needs of our stakeholders, including business ownership of central systems, consultation and coordination of preservation activities, facilitation of central memberships, and more. Looking for support on an activity not listed below? Contact the DPS team at digipres@hu.onmicrosoft.com to discuss your needs.

Consultation

Contact the DPS team for assistance with topics including but not limited to:

• Digital preservation and stewardship, both institutional and personal
• Digital Repository Service (DRS), WebAdmin, and BatchBuilder
• Email archiving
• Web archiving
• Digital forensics
• Software preservation and emulation

Digital Accessions Program (DAP)

Read more on the DAP wiki page

• Technical, structural and intellectual characterization of digital accessions 
• Preservation appraisal of digital archival and special collections 
• Forensic disk imaging of common removable media in-house and vendor recommendations for formats not supported in-house  
• Strategies for ingesting digital content into the Digital Repository Service (DRS) 

Preservation Storage Brokerage

• Digital Preservation Services (DRS)
• University of Southern California (USC) storage
• Internet Archive Vault

Email Archiving

• Using ePADD for email archiving
• Email Archiving Education and Training Resources

Web Archiving

• Using Archive-It for web archiving
• Web Archives Education and Training Resources

Memberships

The below institutional memberships are facilitated by Digital Preservation Services. Explore membership benefits through links to the organizations or contact DPS to find out more about how to get involved. Please join the Harvard Library Slack #borndigarchives channel to receive notifications about events and voting opportunities for the below memberships.

BitCurator Consortium (BCC)

The BitCurator Consortium (BCC) is a community of organizations and practitioners responsible for curating born-digital materials using open-source tooling, in particular BitCurator. Many Harvard units are active in the BCC.

• How to get involved in the BCC
• New member form to sign up for communications from BCC

Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC)

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is an international community working towards a sustainable future for digital assets. Membership benefits include access to numerous resources, participating in sub-committees, and education and training. Sign up for events using Harvard Library as your affiliation.

International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC)

The IIPC brings together international organizations united towards a mission to collect, preserve, and make accessible global web resources.

• Join an IIPC Working Group
• Enroll in the IIPC listserv to get announcements on projects, events, and more

NDSA

The NDSA (formerly the National Digital Stewardship Alliance) is a free, member-based organization dedicated to progressing the long-term preservation of digital information. Visit their website to join their Slack channel, enroll in the listserv, attend events, and join Interest and Working Groups

Open Preservation Foundation (OPF)

The Open Preservation Foundation (OPF) coordinates international organizational efforts to advance solutions for the long-term preservation of digital content. Contact the DPS team to find out more about OPF member benefits.

Software Preservation Network (SPN)

The Software Preservation Network (SPN) is a member-based organization that advances collective efforts to preserve software. Colleagues throughout Harvard have worked with SPN since its inception in 2016. In 2021, Harvard University became a consortium member - uniting library units across the institution to engage in software preservation activities.

Harvard colleagues can attend quarterly SPN meetings, engage in working groups, and help plan events. Email the group list and request to be added to get updates on this work.