Created in 2004 to raise awareness about digital preservation, the Digital Preservation Awards are the most prominent celebration of achievement for those people and organisations that have made significant and innovative contributions to ensuring our digital memory is accessible tomorrow.

‘In its early years, the Digital Preservation Award was a niche category in the Conservation Awards’, explained Laura Mitchell, chair of the DPC. ‘But year on year the judges have been impressed by the increasing quality, range and number of nominations.’

‘I’m delighted to report that, once again, we have had a record number of applications which demonstrate an incredible depth of insight and subtlety in approach to the thorny question of how to make our digital memory accessible tomorrow. ’

The judges have shortlisted thirteen projects in 4 categories:

The OPF Award for Research and Innovation which recognises excellence in practical research and innovation activities.

• Jpylyzer by the KB (Royal Library of the Netherlands) and partners
• The SPRUCE Project by The University of Leeds and partners
• bwFLA Functional Long Term Archiving and Access by the University of Freiburg and partners

The NCDD Award for Teaching and Communications, recognising excellence in outreach, training and advocacy

• Practical Digital Preservation: a how to guide for organizations of any size by Adrian Brown
• Skilling the Information Professional by the Aberystwyth University
• Introduction to Digital Curation: An open online UCLeXtend Course by University College London

The DPC Award for the Most Distinguished Student Work in Digital Preservation, encouraging and recognising student work in digital preservation.

• Voices from a Disused Quarry by Kerry Evans, Ann McDonald and Sarah Vaughan, University of Aberystwyth
• Game Preservation in the UK by Alasdair Bachell, University of Glasgow
• Emulation v Format Conversion by Victoria Sloyan, University College London

The DPC Award for Safeguarding the Digital Legacy, which celebrates the practical application of preservation tools to protect at-risk digital objects.

• Conservation and Re-enactment of Digital Art Ready-Made, by the University of Freiburg and Partners
• Carcanet Press Email Archive, University of Manchester
• Inspiring Ireland, Digital Repository of Ireland and Partners
• The Cloud and the Cow, Archives and Records Council of Wales

‘The competition this year has been terrific’, said Louise Lawson of Tate, chair of the judges. ‘Very many strong applications, which would have won the competition outright in previous years, have not even made the shortlist this time around.’

The Digital Preservation Awards have been celebrating excellence for 10 years now and is being supported by some leading organisations in the field including the NCDD and Open Planets Foundation. Hosted by the Wellcome Trust, their newly refurbished London premises will add to the glamour of the awards ceremony on Monday 17th November.

The finalists will attract significant publicity and a deserved career boost, both at organisation and individual level. Those who walk away with a Digital Preservation Award on the night can be proud to claim to be amongst the best projects and practitioners within a rapidly growing and international field.

‘Our next step is to open the shortlist to public scrutiny’, explained William Kilbride of the DPC. ‘We will be giving instructions shortly on how members of the DPC can vote for their favourite candidates.

‘We have decided not to shortlist for the ‘The DPC Award for the Most Outstanding Digital Preservation Initiative in Industry’. Although the field was strong the judges didn’t feel it was competitive enough. We will be making a separate announcement about that in due course.

Notes:

For more about the Digital Preservation Awards see: http://www.dpconline.org/advocacy/awards
For more about the Digital Preservation Coalition see: http://www.dpconline.org/
For press interviews contact William Kilbride on (william_at_dpconline.org)