Overview

Digital Preservation Services (DPS) is hosting an email archiving training cohort for Harvard staff from fall 2024 - winter 2025. The cohort will be limited to 20 participants to facilitate focused discussions, live workshops, and to streamline resolution of technical issues. Registered participants will be required to attend all activities to maintain engagement and ____.

The training plan consists of an online, asynchronous curriculum aimed at establishing a baseline knowledge for all participants, followed by two live, half-day ePADD workshops to provide hands-on tool practice. There will be an optional final presentation on depositing email collections from ePADD to the DRS. Throughout the entire training timeline, registered participants will convene as a cohort that can share questions, experience, workflows, and policies.

The objectives of the this training cohort are:

• Expand knowledge base for email archiving challenges, opportunities, tools, and techniques 
• Train staff on how to use ePADD to appraise, process, preserve, and facilitate access to email collections 
• Demonstrate how to ingest an ePADD package into the DRS for preservation 
• Trial a targeted training curriculum for born-digital upskilling 
• Nurture a born-digital community of practice through the cohort

Anticipated outcomes from this training opportunity are:

• Participants acquire a deeper understanding of how to steward email in their collections, including how to use tools to acquire, appraise, process, preserve, and offer discovery and access for users 
• Learning materials are documented and recorded to enable future reference and asynchronous participation for all staff members 
  • Note: This only applies to the live trainings and presentations, and there will be privacy options for staff that prefer not to be recorded. Cohort-specific meetings will not be recorded. 
• Future born-digital training efforts will be equipped with a pilot cohort and training curriculum to build and iterate on for an emerging community of practice

** Registration is limited to 20 participants for this training cohort and will be accepted on a first-come basis, with priority offered to staff that have responsibilities for stewarding email collections. Please review the below information to confirm the opportunity aligns with your professional goals and that you can fulfill the participation and technical requirements. **

Audience

This training opportunity is targeted at the following staff:

• Primary audience: Harvard library/archives/museum staff that are currently responsible for email stewardship in their collections. Registration preference will be offered to this group, but it is not a requirement for registration and participation.
• Secondary audience/s: Any Harvard staff that either anticipate being responsible for email archives stewardship in the future, or even staff that are interested in building their skills in this area for future professional opportunities.

Note: If you are interested in participating but are unable to for whatever reason (registration limits, schedule conflicts, etc.), many of the training materials will be made permanently available for all staff to utilize asynchronously.

Timeline

The timeline below includes approximate dates and time durations so staff can assess their ability to participate.

• October 9, 2024: Cohort launch meeting (1.5 hours)
• October – December 2024: Complete the Digital Preservation Coalition's Knowledge-to-Know-How: Email Preservation online curriculum in the Harvard Training Portal (estimated ~18 hours)
• December 11, 2024: Cohort meeting (1.5 hours)
• January 15, 2025: (OPTIONAL) ePADD installation office hours (1 hour)
• January 29, 2025: ePADD workshop: Part 1 (4 hours)
• February 12, 2025: ePADD workshop: Part 2  (4 hours)
• February 19, 2025: (OPTIONAL) ePADD to DRS deposit presentation (1 hour) 
• March 5, 2025: Final cohort meeting (1.5 hours)

Registered participants must be available to attend/complete all above meetings and activities, with the exception of the indicated optional . This requirement is to ensure this opportunity is leveraged by staff that will engage in the community of practice throughout.

Requirements

Participation

Technical

Questions and Answers

The Q&A below outlines anticipated questions as well as questions asked by library stakeholders. If you have a question about this training opportunity that is not addressed on this wiki, please contact Digital Preservation Services at .

If I will not be able to participate in this training cohort, can I still have access to the training materials?

Many of the materials are already available or will be made available after the live trainings, for all staff:

• Digital Preservation Coalition's Knowledge-to-Know-How: Email Preservation online curriculum is currently available to all staff in Harvard Training Portal
• Anyone can use ePADD now by reviewing the documentation on the LTS wiki and the ePADD website
• The two live ePADD workshops and the ePADD-to-DRS presentation will be recorded and available to all staff afterwards

The cohort meetings and ePADD installation troubleshooting session will not be recorded and are only accessible to registered participants.

What if I can participate in all but one of the required cohort activities - can I still register?

If you have an existing scheduling conflict, you can miss one required session out of the five (three cohort meetings and two ePADD workshops). Registered participants cannot miss more than one session and will preferably be available for all five. This is so registration spots are reserved for people that are available to remain engaged for the duration of the training, to amply nurture the cohort dynamic.

Will there be future training cohorts?

The short answer is: we do not know, but we hope so! This initial training cohort will help the library calibrate what works well and what could work better for future opportunities.

I am concerned about privacy during the recorded sessions. What are my options?

During the ePADD workshops and ePADD-to-DRS deposit presentation, only the speaker and speaker's screen will be recorded. If a participant vocally asks a question or shares their screen for help, they will be recorded. Anyone that does not want to be recorded will be able to use the chat to ask questions, and the facilitator will announce the question to the teacher. 

Will the cohort maintain connection after the training is completed?

An email list and Slack channel will