Taking Action Together: Professional Development and Digital Preservation in the Digital POWRR Project

Abstract

In 2014, the Digital Preserving Digital Objects With Restricted Resources (POWRR) Project published a white paper endorsing a “good enough” approach to digital preservation that other researchers had developed. Starting at a small scale with relatively simple technology, practitioners could build a workflow and expand their capacity or reconfigure it entirely over time. Publications discussing good enough digital preservation took a crucial first step but offered little specific advice on how to move implementation forward. In addition, library and information science schools developed graduate curricula and professional development programs related to digital preservation, often presenting new standards from a conceptual perspective. In 2015, the Digital POWRR Project team began a series of professional development events that provided practitioners with a well-defined, practical path toward sustainable digital stewardship. Many attending information professionals reported becoming aware of standards in the field but remained unsure how to apply them. POWRR workshops and institutes provided hands-on experience with individual applications and invited participants to consider how they could fit together in a customised local workflow. In addition, they emphasised the benefits of a community of practice and advocacy activities within and across organisations. This article reviews the contribution that the Digital POWRR Project has made to digital preservation knowledge, understanding, and professional training by examining the evolution of its instructional model. Drawing on program documentation and evaluation data, it analyses how POWRR translated good enough theory into practice and what can be learned from its emphasis on workflow thinking, peer learning, and incremental action. Project team members found that many practitioners welcomed this perspective. Data show that program activities helped participants overcome their initial hesitation and meet the challenge of expanding digital preservation capacity in their organisations. Substantial majorities of program participants reported that their experience helped them to improve local practice. Professional development activities have long been an integral part of library and information science disciplines. This article suggests that pragmatic training, specifically focusing on good enough methods, community of practice, and advocacy activities, complemented the more theoretical focus of other digital preservation instructional programs and helped practitioners begin taking action.