National Digital Stewardship Alliance - National Information Standards Organization

March 2026 NDSA Recap

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:47:31 -0400

As a reminder, NDSA is publishing monthly posts summarizing the activities taken by the Leadership Team as well as highlighting past and upcoming activities, which can also be found on the calendar. If you are looking to catch up, you can read the February update.

NDSA is working to keep the listserv current with members and as a result, email addresses which bounce back will be removed from the list. You can always sign-up for the updated list at any time with your current email address. NDSA also has Slack available to members. Sign-up to view channels devoted to specific interest groups or job announcements.

Leadership Updates

The Climate Watch Working Group welcomed a new co-chair, Julie Shi, to act as the Lead Coordinator and Logistics. Sylvia Umana has resigned from her position on the Coordinating Committee.

Membership Updates

The NDSA Coordinating Committee voted on new members in the March 2026 Leadership Team meeting as part of the quarterly review of member applications. Look for the new member announcement soon.

Organizational Transition Updates

Website update

Updates to the content and infrastructure of the NDSA website continue. If you see any broken links or other errors, please report those to the chairs of the Communications and Publications Working Group.

Nonprofit Incorporation

NDSA continues to work with our partners at NISO to formally incorporate the organization as a nonprofit. This work is ongoing as members of the NDSA Leadership Team meet with recommended professionals to work through this process.

Interest and Working Group Updates

Interest Groups

The Infrastructure Interest Group has announced meeting topics for the rest of the year including distributed digital preservation networks in June and challenges and opportunities with OCFL adoption in September.

Working Groups

The Conference Planning Working Group held its first full planning committee meeting in March and is working to finalize dates for the 2026 conference and establish subgroups.
The Excellence Awards Working Group is making adjustments and improvements to the judging process and will bring recommended changes to the NDSA Leadership Team for review at a future meeting.
The Fixity Survey Working Group is working on final review of the report with the Communications and Publications Working Group.
The Levels of Preservation Working Group has released version 2.1 of the Levels of Digital Preservation and will resume office hours in the summer after the close of the academic year.
The Staffing Survey Working Group is finishing up the first draft of the survey report.
The Web Archiving Survey Working Group is finishing its review of past surveys and is incorporating considerations for international responders for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adherence.

Upcoming Meetings and Opportunities

Use the NDSA Calendar to look for events of interest and find out when NDSA Leadership meetings are taking place.

The Membership Working Group will be hosting a New Member Orientation Call on April 23 at 1:00 pm Eastern. Both brand new and longstanding NDSA members are welcome and encouraged to attend. Keep an eye on the NDSA-All listserv for an announcement with sign-in details!
The Standards and Practices Interest Group will be hosting their second meeting of the year on April 20. The meeting will be a presentation and discussion that continues to focus on content provenance and authenticity.

Check out the Get Involved webpage for ways to deepen your engagement with NDSA. Current opportunities include:

The longstanding Content Interest Group is currently on hiatus. If you are interested in chairing this group please reach out to Leadership at chair [at] ndsa [dot] com to learn more and talk about group formation.

Announcing Version 2_1 of the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:23:08 -0400

The NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation Working Group is pleased to announce the release of the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation version 2.1, which now incorporates environmental sustainability considerations into the Levels recommendations and resources.

A new supplemental resource, the Environmental Sustainability Guide, is the main update for version 2.1. The new guide aims to help organizations embed environmental sustainability considerations into digital preservation decision-making when using the Levels to measure and guide digital preservation strategy. It includes core concepts that are broadly relevant to all aspects of digital preservation work as well as environmental sustainability decision points that connect with the Storage, Integrity, and Content Functional Areas of the Levels matrix. Focusing on decisions after the point of selection for preservation, the guide is intended to complement existing Levels resources.

In addition to the new guide, version 2.1 includes the following updates:
– Leaf icons on the Levels matrix that correspond to environmental sustainability decision points in the Environmental Sustainability Guide.
– Minor updates to the text of Storage Level 1 and Level 4 and Metadata Level 1 and Level 2 in the matrix.
– Significant updates to the Working Definitions of Terms based on community feedback and new terms introduced in the Environmental Sustainability Guide.
– Minor updates to the Implementation Guidelines, Assessment Tool, and Digital Curation Decision Guide to include environmental sustainability considerations and to emphasize that Level 4 need not be the goal for all organizations in all Functional Areas.

Version 2.1 revisions are not yet reflected in the Levels translations.

Thank you to all who participated in the process, whether in discussions at the August 2023 Levels open office session that set the direction for this revision, through feedback on early work products at the April 2025 Levels open office session, via public comment on the new guide, or in discussions at iPRES and NDSA DigiPres in October and November 2025. Your contributions helped to shape the final products for version 2.1. The Levels Working Group would also like to thank the Levels Steering Group and the Communications and Publications Working Group for guidance and recommendations throughout the revision.

If you have any questions about the Levels, or would like to translate any of the version 2.1 outputs, please reach out to the Levels Steering Group via our feedback form.

Members of the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation Working Group (2024-2026) included:
Elizabeth La Beaud (co-chair), University of Southern Mississippi and Mississippi Digital Library
Keith Pendergrass (co-chair), Harvard Business School
Edith Halvarsson, The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Sophia van Hoek, Municipality of The Hague
Sibyl Schaefer, University of California, San Diego
Dina Sokolova, Columbia University

February 2026 NDSA Recap

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 09:41:29 -0500

As a reminder, NDSA is now publishing monthly posts summarizing the activities taken by the Leadership Team as well as highlighting what activities are occurring, which can always be found on the calendar. If you are looking to catch up, you can read the January update as well. As a reminder, NDSA has Slack available to members. Sign-up to view channels devoted to specific interest groups or job announcements. Please feel free to utilize this resource!

Leadership Updates

A new Events Steering Group is being formed to provide year-to-year support of all events sponsored by NDSA. The formation of this group was a major recommendation of the Events Strategy Working Group and will initially be co-chaired by Margo Padilla and Chelsea Denault.

Organizational Transition Updates

Member List Update

The new NDSA member mailing list is up and running. Those who were on the original NDSA-ALL list hosted by CLIR were added to the new mailing list. Anyone not already on the new list will need to sign up and be approved before they are able to post messages. The new address to post to this list is: ndsalist [at] ndsa [dot] org.

You can also reach out directly to the NDSA Chair or Secretary via the following dedicated email addresses: chair [at] ndsa [dot] org and secretary [at] ndsa [dot] org.

Website update

The NDSA website has been transferred to a new hosting infrastructure. We are currently working on updating webpages. If you see any broken links or other errors, please report those to the chairs of the Communications and Publications Working Group.

Letter of Support Signed

The File Information Tool Set (FITS) user community requested that NDSA sign on to a letter of support to request transitioning the home of this software from Harvard to the Open Preservation Foundation. The NDSA Leadership team voted on the proposal and chose to sign on to support this work alongside 78 other digital preservation practitioners.

Interest and Working Group Updates

Interest Groups

The Infrastructure Interest Group reviewed the results of the topics poll, with highly requested options being distributed digital preservation strategy, challenges with OCFL adoption, and continuing discussion of FinOps in the cloud.

Working Groups

The Fixity Survey Working Group is currently editing the final sections of the report.
The Levels of Preservation Working Group is completing the review of public comments, finalizing layout, and anticipates publication shortly.
The Staffing Survey Working Group is continuing to work on data visualization related to the survey results as well as drafting the report.
The Web Archiving Survey Working Group is reviewing past surveys and determining the appropriate content for this latest version of the survey.
The Conference Planning Working Group had immense support from the community in filling the planning committee. The first full committee meeting is scheduled.
The Standing Membership Working Group welcomes Lauren Goodley as its newest member and is planning an orientation call that will be open to all new NDSA members.

Upcoming Meetings and Opportunities

Use the NDSA Calendar to look for events of interest and find out when NDSA Leadership meetings are taking place.

The Infrastructure Interest Group will be hosting their first meeting of the year on March 16. The meeting discussion will be a continuation of December’s topic: Finance and FinOps for digital preservation in the cloud.

NDSA is trying something new and has created a webpage to help members find ways to get involved. This page will be updated when new opportunities arise. Check out the new Get Involved webpage. Current opportunities include:

The Membership Working Group is looking for one additional member to join their team. Please reach out to one of the co-chairs listed on the Membership Working Group webpage to express interest or ask questions.
The longstanding Content Interest Group is currently on hiatus. If you are interested in chairing this group please reach out to Leadership at chair [at] ndsa [dot] com to learn more and talk about group formation.

January 2026 NDSA Recap

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:27:15 -0500

This year will continue to be one of change for NDSA as we proceed with our transition to a new host organization. The Leadership Transition Team is working out the myriad details involved, and as an organization we hope to be as transparent and communicative about this process as possible. As a result, we aim to publish monthly posts summarizing recent and upcoming NDSA activities as seen on our calendar. These updates will include summaries of what actions are being taken to continue to steer NDSA towards stability and long-term success as well as highlighting the ongoing work that the invaluable community volunteers have been doing in the NDSA interest, steering, and working groups.

Leadership Changes

The beginning of a new year means lots of changes to co-chairs for various groups within NDSA.

Lauren Goodley will be joining the Coordinating Committee for a two-year term that arose due to a vacancy
Kathryn Michaelis and Tabitha Samuel will be co-chairing this year’s virtual NDSA DigiPres conference
Jacqueline Devereaux and Matt McEniry will be co-chairing the Levels of Preservation Steering Group
Melissa Wertheimer and Elena Colon-Marrero will be co-chairing the Web Archiving Working Group
Margo Padilla will be one of two co-chairs for the newly formed Events Steering Group (second co-chair to be announced)
John Dewees was elected as the inaugural Secretary for NDSA, a position that was created in the 2025 bylaws revision

Thank you to all those who served on interest, steering, and working groups in 2025, your work is incredibly appreciated!

Organizational Transition Updates

One of the most important aspects of the host organization transition is ensuring a seamless shift of the NDSA-All listserv, which acts as the primary means of communication for the organization. We are slated to fully move away from CLIR’s infrastructure to a new listserv provider by the end of February. Currently NDSA is working with NISO on configuration and migration of the existing email list. It is not expected that current subscribers will need to take any action to sign up for the new listserv. We will communicate about the explicit cutover date and any changes that might be expected in terms of how one posts to the email list post-migration.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is once again accepting grant applications for FY 2026 which are due in March. NDSA Leadership is currently in the process of exploring possibilities associated with this resumption of granting activities by the agency.

Interest and Working Group Updates

Interest Groups

The Standards and Practices Interest Group held an event on January 12 with Kate Murray and Abbey Potter from the Library of Congress on the topic of C2PA and content provenance and authenticity. Meeting minutes and a temporary recording are available to view.

Working Groups

The Fixity Survey Working Group is currently editing the final report.
The Levels of Preservation Working Group is in the midst of ramping up a new revision with a focus on incorporating environmental sustainability more deeply into the resource.
The Staffing Survey Working Group is continuing to work on data visualization related to the survey results as well as drafting the report.
The Conference Planning Working Group has begun in earnest with a call for planning committee members which remains open until February 13. Please fill out the form to help out in putting on this marquee NDSA event in 2026!

Upcoming Meetings

Use the NDSA Calendar to look for events of interest and find out when NDSA Leadership meetings are taking place.

The Infrastructure Interest Group will be hosting their first meeting of the year on March 16 and has distributed a poll to determine what topics should be covered in the 2026 meetings.

The Future of NDSA

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 12:43:51 -0500

As NDSA continues to evolve, the Coordinating Committee and broader leadership team would like to close the year by sharing updates on the current state of the organization and where NDSA is heading in 2026. What follows is an edited version of the presentation given by NDSA Chair Shira Peltzman during the Digital Preservation 2025 session “The State of the NDSA.”

NDSA’s Organizational Transition

Moving to a New Host
Recognizing the urgent need for a long-term sustainability plan, the NDSA Coordinating Committee began actively exploring new hosting options that could place the organization on more stable footing while supporting a transition toward a sustainable self-funding model. After a careful process of assessment, we identified the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) as our preferred partner.

NISO’s mission is to build knowledge, foster discussion, and advance authoritative standards development through collaboration among the cultural, scholarly, scientific, and professional communities—a mission which is well aligned with NDSA’s core activities of conducting longitudinal research and producing and publishing best practices in digital preservation.

In the proposed mutually beneficial partnership, NDSA would maintain its organizational independence while establishing a multi-year management arrangement with NISO that includes agreed upon development, investment, and funding-support metrics, and fosters NDSA’s programmatic growth. Over the past year and a half, NDSA leadership has worked closely with NISO to develop a strategy for creating a durable financial foundation for this partnership. In October, the NISO Board approved NDSA working towards a formal agreement and partnership.

Funding Challenges and Community Support
Early this year, we developed and submitted a two-year proposal to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support NDSA’s transition to a self-sustaining model. The grant would have provided bridge funding to hire a program manager, conduct deep member engagement, and develop a long-term business plan for our organization. Just a week and a half after submission, however, we learned that the proposal would no longer be viable due to federal staffing and budget reductions at IMLS. While disappointing, this setback helped clarify the need for a more independent, diversified approach to sustainability.

This led us to refocus our efforts on launching a one-time member-driven fundraising drive. Launched in May 2025, the campaign sought to raise $60,000 in seed funding to sustain operations and build momentum during our transition to a new host. Thanks to the generosity and hard work of our members and partners, the drive ultimately raised nearly $30,000 – a remarkable achievement given the current funding landscape.

Strategic Planning for the Future
Alongside these initiatives, NDSA leadership has worked closely with NISO in preparation for the proposal that was presented to NISO’s board for a formal hosting arrangement. Toward this end, we’ve developed two key documents that together form the foundation of our shared vision for NDSA that will position us for a more stable and secure future.

The Strategic Plan we created lays out a clear, five-year roadmap for NDSA’s programmatic and organizational growth. It translates our community’s goals into practical, achievable steps – beginning with the exploration and development of a membership fee model, and the hiring of a part-time Program Manager to guide implementation. It outlines how we will:

expand and diversify our revenue base
grow our annual Digital Preservation conference
increase community engagement through new year-round education and training initiatives, and
enhance our research and advocacy efforts

The accompanying Business Case builds on this plan by laying out a practical financial and operational model to make it work. It details how NDSA can balance our revenue streams against the necessary costs of staffing, programming, and shared services under NISO’s support framework. Importantly, it demonstrates how NDSA can retain its independent, volunteer-driven identity while gaining the administrative stability and infrastructure support needed to grow.

NDSA’s Next Steps

In short, during the first six months of 2026 we will take the necessary steps toward a contract that will define the relationship between NISO and NDSA and outline our respective responsibilities. Once the agreement is finalized, it will go back to NISO’s Board for formal approval.

As we move toward a formal partnership with NISO, one important next step is for NDSA to either incorporate as an official legal entity or explore alternative solutions that will provide us with formal legal status. This is a significant but practical step that strengthens our position and supports long-term stability as we formalize our relationship with NISO. It’s also necessary to ensure that both organizations are protected and that our partnership is built on a solid legal foundation. Incorporation will give NDSA the ability to enter into agreements, manage funds, and make decisions independently, and is in line with the journey taken by other community organizations we’ve looked at.

Another major step will be to pursue 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. This designation will formalize NDSA’s role as a public-serving organization and position us to manage and expand our revenue streams responsibly. This is a complex, multi-step process that we expect to initiate in January. Now that we’ve begun to cultivate and plan for new sources of income, it’s important that we have the right legal and fiscal structures in place. Achieving nonprofit status will not only enhance our credibility and transparency, but also open doors to other kinds of funding and charitable contributions, ensuring that every dollar we raise directly supports our mission and community.

In tandem with these legal and fiduciary steps, a critical part of this next phase will be finalizing the terms of the formal contract between NISO and NDSA. This will take the shape of a longer-term, legally binding agreement – ideally a two- to five-year contract – that clearly defines the scope, responsibilities, and expectations of both organizations. To develop this agreement, we’ll need to translate our strategic plan into concrete action, understanding how the plan connects to our daily operations and establishing the structures and roles that will guide our collaboration going forward. A key component of this work will be defining clear boundaries and establishing shared decision-making criteria – determining where work should be carried out by NISO, when it should be contracted out, and what remains within NDSA’s purview. We’ll also build in regular checkpoints and evaluation to ensure ongoing alignment, transparency, and accountability.

NDSA leaders met biweekly with NISO to work through the logistical and operational details of our partnership. As of December 2025, a Memorandum of Understanding has been drafted and signed. This acts as an interim agreement that outlines roles, responsibilities, and expectations for both organizations to cover the transition period until the longer-term contract is finalized.

At the same time, the process of offboarding from CLIR is well underway, initiating the handover process and documenting everything needed to ensure that knowledge, infrastructure, and operations transition cleanly to our new structure. For instance, the current NDSA-ALL listserv will be migrated to a new platform in the coming weeks, and the email address to post to the list will be changing. We plan to migrate existing subscribers to the new listserv and will provide email announcements on both the current and new NDSA-ALL platforms with additional details on posting and accessing listserv messages.

Leadership Updates

The close of 2025 sees three members of the Coordinating Committee conclude their terms: Shira Peltzman, Deon Schutte, and Bethany Scott. Their contributions to the success of NDSA have been innumerable, and they step away with the sincere gratitude of the organization for their dedication, time, and effort. To replace these vacancies, the election for the open Coordinating Committee seats wrapped up in October, with three new members elected: John Dewees, Rebecca Frank, and Danielle Taylor.

One additional vacancy occurred effective December 1; Kari May has chosen to resign from her role as Vice Chair, as well as her seat on the Coordinating Committee. As Kari will not be able to take on the role of Chair in 2026, a Leadership Transition Committee has been convened to take on the responsibilities of the NDSA Chair in a shared capacity, and in the process determine a path forward for the next Vice Chair and Chair, update the bylaws, and broadly continue the work of preparing NDSA for incorporation as a formal and legal entity as well as continue to transition from CLIR to NISO.

As the work of this committee will be extensive, volunteers were solicited from all areas of leadership, including the Coordinating Committee and the chairs of Working Groups and Interest Groups. The members of this Leadership Transition Committee include: Matthew McEniry (co-chair), Stacey Jones (co-chair), Danielle Taylor (secretary), Bethany Scott, Ann Hanlon, Carol Kussmann, Dan Noonan, John Dewees, and Grete Graf.

The Leadership Transition Committee will communicate regularly about the work they are engaged in, logistical changes as they are accomplished, and larger strategic work that is being completed. Please look for announcements via email and the NDSA website, where these updates will be distributed.

In Conclusion

As we look ahead, I want to acknowledge that change can bring questions and uncertainty, especially when it comes to how we sustain NDSA financially. I want to assure you that we are approaching this next phase with the same thoughtfulness and care that have guided us so far.
Developing a membership fee model will require careful analysis and broad consultation. We still have a lot of work to do to fully understand the current economic landscape, and I want to assure you all that no decisions will be taken lightly. We know our community is incredibly varied – representing institutions of different sizes, budgets, and capacities – and we will be deeply mindful of that as we move forward.

Our goal is not simply to introduce a fee that serves to gate-keep, but to design a model that is fair, inclusive, and reflective of the diversity of our membership.

This transition marks an important turning point – one that positions us for greater stability and opens up new opportunities for growth, partnership, and impact. It reflects the strength and maturity of this community and our shared commitment to ensuring that NDSA continues to thrive for many years to come. We invite members to stay engaged, ask questions, and participate in shaping this next chapter of NDSA.

NDSA Welcomes Three New Members in Quarter Four of 2025

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 15:20:10 -0500

As of December 2025, the NDSA Leadership recommended welcoming its three most recent applicants into the membership:

Within the Bard College Libraries, the mission of the Bard College Archives is to collect, preserve, and provide access to materials that document the intellectual and social history of Bard College and its surrounding communities. They support research by students, faculty, scholars, and the public through both physical collections and a growing body of digital resources. Their digital holdings include student newspapers, oral histories, audiovisual collections such as Poetry at Bard and the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series, as well as the Heinrich Blücher Lecture Archive and the Hannah Arendt Personal Library Marginalia Collection, all made openly accessible through its institutional repository. NDSA membership will help them ensure responsible management and long-term access to these expanding digital assets while contributing the perspective of a smaller institution engaged in meaningful digital preservation work.

Kent State University Libraries are interested in joining NDSA as a commitment to long-term digital preservation for their digital assets. Currently, they host digital collections in the institutional repository, Open Access Kent State, and in Special Collections and Archives. The areas of collecting and preserving in these digital collections include the scholarly output of faculty, students and staff, as well as primary sources and rare materials that support teaching and research programs at Kent State University. The Libraries are engaged in digitizing materials for these two platforms at higher resolutions and maintaining a homegrown LOCKSS back-up of all ingested content. In addition to its public facing platforms, they also maintain the digital records of the University and are expanding our current capabilities in this area with the goal of providing long-term access to our users.

The University of Chicago Library seeks to join NDSA as part of its commitment to ensuring the preservation and accessibility of digital scholarship, institutional knowledge, and cultural heritage. The Library has built and maintained a digital preservation repository since 2006, which safeguards more than 300 terabytes of diverse content, including born-digital special collections, research data, and digitized collections across a range of academic disciplines. By storing multiple secure copies of this data in geographically-distributed locations, requiring descriptive and technical metadata at ingest, monitoring fixity, and controlling access to restricted content, the Library demonstrates a commitment to best practices. Its work is guided by recognized standards and assessment models, including the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation and the Digital Preservation Coalition’s Rapid Assessment Model.

Each organization participates in one or more of the various interest and working groups – so keep an eye out for them on your calls, and be sure to give them a shout-out. Please join us in welcoming our new members! You can review the list of members here.

– NDSA Membership Working Group

Call for 2026 NDSA Web Archiving Survey Working Group Members

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 08:49:39 -0500

The Web Archiving Survey Working Group plans to conduct a survey of organizations that are actively involved in, or interested in starting, programs to archive content from the Web; this survey will be the second to include international responses. “2026 Web Archiving Survey Results” will build upon the previous iterations of the web archiving surveys published in 2023, 2017, 2016, 2013, and 2011 to provide long-term analysis and further reflect upon changes in the field.

Before work begins in earnest, the Web Archiving Survey Working Group Co-Chairs (Melissa Wertheimer and Elena Colón-Marrero) seek 3-4 additional Working Group volunteers to:

Review previous studies
Design a new survey
Publish the survey and collect responses,
Review the survey responses and write the report
Present results and work at related upcoming conferences.

Volunteers should represent a range of institutions, types, and locations, and explicitly include one student working towards their Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies (or a recent graduate) in order to engage them with the National Digital Stewardship Alliance and its members.

It’s estimated that joining the Web Archiving Survey Working Group will be a 1 year commitment (4-5 hours of work per month), with work beginning in December 2025.

Those interested in serving should complete the volunteer interest form by Monday, December 15, 2025 (EOB). Co-Chairs will review the responses and reach out with next steps soon thereafter.

Questions? Please email both Co-Chairs, Melissa Wertheimer (mwer [at] loc [dot]) and Elena Colón-Marrero (emcolonm [at] umich [dot] edu) with any questions.

See NDSA’s Web Archiving Group page for more information.

Announcing the New NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2026-2029

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 08:09:37 -0400

NDSA Coordinating Committee (CC) is pleased to announce that our new members who will work with us for the 2026-2029 term are:

John Dewees
Rebecca Frank
Danielle Taylor

Our New Members

John Dewees served as one of the co-chairs for the 2025 NDSA Digital Preservation conference. He has seen this experience as an opportunity to see how many dedicated and generous individuals work to keep NDSA moving forward. He decided to run as a “first time CC member to help act with care to steward the organization and provide support to the folks who put so much work into keeping things going.” John has worked in the LAM space for 20 years, specifically working in digital preservation focused areas for the past 8. He has always sought to be active within the professional service arenas that were available and at whatever level they work- the local, state, or national level. John hopes his action-oriented approach to service work, strong organizational and communication skills, and sense of care for our increasingly fragile cultural memory community will be a boon to the NDSA Coordinating Committee. More information about John can be found at: https://johndewees.com/

Rebecca Frank is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, affiliated with ICPSR and the Einstein Center Digital Future in Berlin, Germany. Her experiences across academic institutions in the US and Germany have given her skills for building and sustaining collaborative communities that span borders and institutions. Rebecca has had firsthand experiences where knowledge exchange and shared expertise have advanced both theory and practice in digital stewardship. Rebecca’s research on risk, trust, and standards has helped her recognize the critical importance of identifying and addressing common challenges in promoting best practices and building capacity for digital preservation. She has worked with individuals and organizations from different cultural contexts. These opportunities have taught her to listen carefully to diverse stakeholder groups. Rebecca is passionate about creating opportunities for people to develop skills and advance their careers in digital stewardship and incorporates this passion into her work as an educator. She sees the NDSA as a strong and vital voice for the preservation and stewardship of digital information in the midst of current challenges. She looks forward to contributing to that mission. More information about Rebecca can be found at: https://www.si.umich.edu/people/rebecca-frank and https://rebeccadfrank.com/

Danielle Taylor is the Digital Preservation Librarian at Indiana University Libraries. She is responsible for assessing and meeting the digital preservation needs of various library departments. She plays a lead role in establishing a cohesive digital preservation program and is manager of the Born-Digital Preservation Lab. Prior to joining IU Libraries in the Digital Collections Services department, she was the Digital Initiatives & Preservation Archivist at the Filson Historical Society (Louisville, KY), Preservation Specialist with the Northeast Document Conservation Center, Project Director for the Digital POWRR Project, and Curator of Manuscripts at the Regional History Center & University Archives at Northern Illinois University. She holds a BA in history from Saint Mary’s College (IN) and an MA-LIS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Some Key Takeaways

The interest and enthusiasm shown throughout this election was heartening. With eight strong candidates on the ballot, it was a tight race until the very last day. Throughout the voting period, different candidates were tied or as many as four candidates sat within one vote of each other. Even at the end, our selected members included a tie. The level of participation from our institutional members during this election was wonderful and set the highest number of votes currently documented for a CC Members election.

The Coordinating Committee wants to thank all candidates who stood on the ballot this year. We are grateful for your interest in the work and evolution of the NDSA. We look forward to working with you via other NDSA opportunities and encourage you to consider running again in our next Members election.

The CC also wants to thank our institutional members for their time and attention in this process. We sincerely appreciate your interest in and support of the work of the Coordinating Committee and the NDSA. We encourage you all to take advantage of more opportunities to work with us and connect with others in the digital preservation community. Getting involved is as easy as joining the NDSA Slack Workspace or one of our groups.

We look forward to working with you!

Announcing the 2025 NDSA Excellence Award Winners

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 08:39:13 -0400

The Excellence Award Working Group is pleased to share the winners for the 2025 NDSA Excellence Awards, which were presented at the 2025 NDSA Digital Preservation Conference.

Submissions for the awards reflected an incredibly impressive range of work and contributions to the community. Many thanks to all who took the time to write and submit your nominations for the 2025 Excellence Awards.

Awards are divided into six categories, four of which were awarded this year: Individual, Educator, Organizations, and Projects.

Congratulations to this year’s awardees!

Individual

Individuals are recognized for making a significant contribution to the digital preservation community through advances in theory or practice.

This year’s awardee in the Individual category is Tyler Walters.

Since the 1990s, Tyler Walters has led local, regional, and national developments in digital preservation. Most recently, as Dean of University Libraries at Virginia Tech University, Tyler brings together technologies, policies, and people to sustain and preserve digital materials. The teams supported by Tyler have launched multiple preservation and access platforms, serving different types of digital materials and different communities of users, including most recently the Virginia Tech Digital Library. The transparency with which Virginia Tech’s Digital Preservation policy and procedures are publicly documented are a model for digital preservation practitioners at other institutions. Likewise, Tyler’s work has established new library units and positions to strengthen efforts in digital curation and preservation. Tyler’s nominators noted nine positions created during an overall expansion of digital library and preservation efforts, all of which are connected in part or in whole to the ongoing work of digital preservation.

In addition to his work at Virginia Tech, Tyler has demonstrated sustained leadership in the wider digital preservation field. He is active on the board of the Academic Preservation Trust (AP Trust), and has served as Board Chair since 2022. Tyler also had a founding role in the creation of the NDSA, where he served as the inaugural chair of the NDSA Coordinating Committee. He has also served on boards of directors of DuraSpace (chair, 2018-19), Educopia Institute, and LYRASIS. Apart from organizational work, he is active in outreach and education. He was the lead author of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) publication New Roles for New Times: Digital Curation for Preservation, and has taught courses through the NEDCC, the University of Arizona, and San Jose State University.

These experiences, and those at Virginia Tech, emphasize Tyler’s commitment to collaboration in digital preservation–across staff roles and departments, and between institutions both nationally and internationally.

Congratulations to Tyler!

Educator

The Educator Award recognizes academics, trainers, and curricular endeavors promoting effective and inventive approaches to digital preservation education through academic programs, partnerships, professional development opportunities, and curriculum development.

This year’s awardee for the Educator Award is Folasade Adepoju.

Folasade is a librarian, a union leader, literacy advocate, and champion for education, gender rights, and environmental sustainability. Currently serving as Assistant Director in the Public Services department at the National Library of Nigeria Headquarters in Abuja, she has dedicated her career to advancing climate literacy, information accessibility, and library development across Nigeria. Folasade is being recognized for her accomplishments in advancing digital preservation education and advocacy at the national and international level. Through a series of webinars initiated in November 2024, Folasade designs and delivers impactful professional development programs, integrating digital preservation principles into academic curricula.

She has led initiatives like the “Unlocking millions of Nigerian memories for digital preservation,” which mobilized resources, forged partnerships, and implemented scalable strategies to safeguard Nigeria’s digital heritage. Her hands-on teaching, collaborative approach with other colleagues in the digital preservation field, and her ability to convey complex frameworks in accessible terms have significantly strengthened the capacity of practitioners across under-resourced regions—especially in Nigeria and broader West Africa. Her work has reached over 500 library and information students in Nigeria, as well as 170 librarians from 7 countries.

Folasade is also lauded for her mentorship. One nominator writes, “Folasade [has] gone beyond her professional duties… to inspire and mentor countless individuals, empowering them with the skills and knowledge to carry forward the crucial work of preserving our digital heritage. Her efforts are not just about bridging the knowledge and methodology gap but about changing lives, especially for those from underrepresented communities, forgotten heroes, and histories that have long been left [out of the historical record].”

Congratulations to Folasade!

Organization

Organizations are recognized for innovative approaches to providing support and guidance to the digital preservation community.

This year’s awardee in the Organizations category is the Data Rescue Project.

In the United States, under the current administration, the federal government is removing, altering, and threatening the long-term access to federally funded research created by and for the American public. The individuals involved with the Data Rescue Project (DRP) saw an opportunity for action. As the nominator noted, “the grassroots response to this event, exemplified by the Data Rescue Project (DRP), has prevented the crisis from becoming a disaster, and deserves recognition. While previous changes in administration have resulted in modifications to websites, that information loss was mitigated by the End of Term crawl through the Internet Archive. However, this approach is insufficient for datasets.” Since February 2025, the DRP has served as a central support for those safeguarding US digital government data resources. This includes coordinating volunteers, enabling communication across collaborators, educating participants on robust data curation practices, and advocating for the long term preservation of and access to federally funded research. Through their volunteer coordination, documentation on data curation for data rescue, Data Rescue Tracker, and Data Rescue Event toolkit, the DRP is setting forth a playbook for future data rescue moments.

Top row, left to right: Sebastian Majstorovic, Lynda Kellam, Lena Bohman
Middle row, l-r: Tess Grynoch, Amy Nurnberger
Bottom row, l-r: Halle Burns, Kathleen Burlingame, Mikala Narlock

The DRP is a strong advocate for the responsible stewardship of these datasets – and highlighting the impact losing these datasets would have. Through frequent interviews with media nationally and internationally, capturing data user stories related to specific datasets, and maintaining several communication channels, the DRP is a vocal supporter of data rescue and preservation.

Congratulations to the Data Rescue project!

Project

Projects are recognized for activities whose goals or outcomes represent an inventive, meaningful addition to the understanding or processes required for successful, sustainable digital preservation stewardship.

This year’s awardee in the Projects category is BACKER: Building Archival Capacity for Keeping Electronic Records.

The project represents an effort by the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) and State Electronic Records Institute’s (SERI) work to build on years of previous SERI work, extending the impact of electronic records management and digital preservation education and training among the 56 state, territory, and District of Columbia archives. This work was specifically designed to increase capacities within these agencies, and was designed to be accomplished in a 4-year timeframe which responded to the time and budgetary constraints of CoSA members.

The BACKER project delivered to CoSA consultants and members updated self-assessment tools and best practices guidelines for state archives’ digital preservation programs; provided direct assistance and mentoring to improve digital preservation programs, including digitization planning and related policy development; accelerated development and implementation of digital preservation planning and cultural competence awareness and skill-building through educational and training programs; and produced a robust series of accompanying publications in a variety of formats that facilitate continued learning and sharing among archives staff, allied organizations, and other stakeholders.

BACKER coordinator Nick Connizzo wrote in the project’s final report, “How state and territorial archives prioritize provenance and authenticity, reliability and auditability, and digital accessibility will have a significant effect on citizens’ ability to trust the information they share with and receive from their governments, and therefore how they trust government itself. Archives and the records they possess can be the foundations of government trust.”

It is within this lens of transparency and public record that these already impressive professional resources and tools take on an even greater impact.

Congratulations to the BACKER project team!

Excellence Awards Working Group

The 2025 Excellence Awards Working Group was led by co-chairs Jessica Venlet (University of Michigan Library) and Matt McEniry (Texas Tech University Library), with members Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez (UC Irvine Libraries), John Dewees (University of Rochester), Brian Dietz (NC State University Libraries), Doreen Dixon (Clemson University Library), Brenna Edwards (Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin), [Matthew] Farrell (Duke University Libraries), Sarah Middleton (Digital Preservation Coalition Representative), and Lauren Work (Yale University Library).

Excellence Awards Ceremony at Digital Preservation 2025

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:22:40 -0400

Join us on Day 2 of Digital Preservation 2025 to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of our colleagues! Tune in on October 10 at 3:45 pm (Eastern), where the Excellence Awards Working Group will present the awards, including remarks from the honorees and a question and answer session.

The biennial NDSA Excellence Awards were established in 2012 to recognize and encourage exemplary achievement in the field of digital preservation stewardship at a level of national or international importance. This year awards will be announced in the following categories:

Individual Award: Recognizing those individuals making a significant contribution to the digital preservation community through advances in theory or practice.
Organization Award: Recognizing those organizations providing support, guidance, advocacy, or leadership for the digital preservation community.
Project Award: Recognizing those activities whose goals or outcomes make a significant contribution or strategic or conceptual understanding necessary for successful digital preservation stewardship.
Educator Award: Recognizing academics, trainers, and curricular endeavors promoting effective and inventive approaches to digital preservation education through academic programs, partnerships, professional development opportunities, and curriculum development.