Overview

Use of email permeates all aspects of modern life and scholarship. Email increasingly forms significant parts of Library collections and records programs. Specialized attention is necessary to ensure the long-term stewardship of these materials. 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 virtual workshops, and to streamline resolution of technical issues.

The training plan is comprised of:

• An online, asynchronous curriculum aimed at establishing a baseline knowledge of email stewardship for all participants

• Two live, virtual, half-day ePADD workshops to provide hands-on tool practice

• An optional final presentation on depositing email collections from ePADD to the DRS

• Three virtual cohort meetings where participants can share questions, experience, workflows, and policies

The objectives of this training cohort are:

• Expand our knowledge base for email archiving challenges, opportunities, tools (including ePADD, HL's centrally integrated email archiving solution), 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. Staff with current/anticipated responsibility for stewarding email collections will be prioritized, but any staff interested in building email archiving skills are welcome and encouraged to register. Registration will remain open until we reach capacity. 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, 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. All live meetings and workshops will be virtual.

• October 9, 2024, 2-3:30pm ET: Cohort launch meeting (1.5 hours)

• October – December 2024: Complete the Digital Preservation Coalition's Knowledge-to-Know-How: Email Archiving online curriculum in the Harvard Training Portal (estimated ~18 hours)

• December 11, 2024, 2-3:30pm ET: Cohort meeting (1.5 hours)

• January 15, 2025, 2-3pm ET: (OPTIONAL) ePADD installation office hours (1 hour - we may schedule two sessions, depending on need)

• January 29, 2025, 12-4pm ET: ePADD workshop: Part 1 (4 hours)

• February 12, 2025, 12-4pm ET: ePADD workshop: Part 2  (4 hours)

• February 19, 2025, 2-3pm ET: (OPTIONAL) ePADD to DRS deposit presentation (1 hour) 

• March 5, 2025, 2-3:30pm ET: 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 sessions. This requirement is to ensure this opportunity is leveraged by staff that will engage in the community of practice throughout.

Requirements

Before registering for this cohort, please confirm you are able to fulfill the following participation and technical requirements.

Participation

• Completion of the online DPC curriculum (estimated ~18 hours over 3 months)

• Attendance at all cohort meetings and both ePADD workshop days (5 virtual meetings total over 5 months)

Technical

Note: You do not need to download ePADD prior to enrolling, but you will be required to install ePADD on your laptop or desktop prior to the first ePADD workshop in January. This will allow the workshop time to be used most productively.

• Ability to download and use ePADD on a laptop to complete workshop activities, which requires:

  • Operation System: 64-bit, Windows 7 SP1 / 11, Mac OS X 10.13 / 10.14, Ubuntu 16.04 

  • Memory:  > 8 GB RAM 

  • Browser/s:  Chrome 68 or later, Firefox 59 or later

  • Java: Java Runtime Environment 64-bit, version 11 or later required for ePADD version 10 alpha.

• Admin privileges might be required - please consult your local IT group

• Review further information on installing ePADD here: https://www.epaddproject.org/using-epadd/user-guide

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 digipres@HU.onmicrosoft.com.

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 Archiving online curriculum is currently available to all staff in Harvard Training Portal

• Anyone can use ePADD now by reviewing the documentation on the ePADD 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 nurture the cohort dynamic and ensure the scheduled workshops are full.

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 be established for the cohort, and they will continue to be a venue for exchange after the cohort ends. They will also open up to other staff that want to discuss email archiving.