Among those attending the DigCCurr II Winter Institute, were, clockwise from top, Jake Carlson, Data Research Scientist at Purdue University; Dianne Dietrich, Research Data & Metadata Librarian at Cornell University; Brian Westra, Science Data Services Librarian at University of Oregon; and Seamus Ross, Dean of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto and one of the Institute's instructors.
Jan. 19 - The DigCCurr II (Digital Curation Curriculum) project hosted a Winter Institute and Symposium January 6-8 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC at CH) continuing its efforts to promote and foster digital curation practices and a community of digital curation professionals.
After attending the DigCCurr Summer 2009 Institute on June 21-26, the 13 attendees participating in the Winter Institute returned to Chapel Hill on January 6th and 7th, 2010. Professionals from universities and institutions in Oregon, Kentucky, Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and Canada presented updates on their plans and progress since the summer.
The Winter Institute sessions, which included intensive group discussions on topics including workflow, policy and data management, supported one of DigCCurr’s primary missions: to build a community of professionals who can draw on each other’s lessons and successes as they implement digital curation at their own institutions and organizations. By presenting the work they have accomplished in the last six months, the participants were able to receive valuable feedback that will be used to help shape the course of their projects in the future.
Themes that emerged over the course of the two days included the importance of building partnerships and alliances within the institution, particularly with colleagues who provide information technology services; the importance of developing a shared vocabulary of terms and concepts so that communication is productive; and the importance of leveraging the value of projects to benefit whole institutions and larger audiences.
Attendees also had the opportunity to tap the combined knowledge and experience of the Institute leaders:
• From the School of Information and Library Science at the UNC at CH: Dr. Cal Lee, Dr. Richard Marciano, and Dr. Helen Tibbo
• Dr. Nancy McGovern, Digital Preservation Officer at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan
• Dr. Seamus Ross, Dean of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto
Following the Institute was a public symposium on January 8, 2010: “Engaging Communities for the Curation of Digital Products of Scholarly Endeavors,” which attracted about 45 attendees. The Symposium addressed issues of engagement with three communities: curators, creators and users. Panel presentations on each community focus were followed by group discussions that enabled the audience to share their views and experiences with the panel speakers and with one another.
Some of the major lessons that emerged from the day were the importance of communication and community; that curation is “ceaseless engagement”; the line between curators, creators and users is not as definitive as one may imagine; and that digital curation projects require multiple skill sets in order to be successful.
The Symposium panelists for the event were:
• Robert Allen, professor of American Studies at the College of Arts and Sciences at the UNC at CH
• Jonathan Crabtree, assistant director for Archives and Information Technology at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the UNC at CH
• Christopher (Cal) Lee, Assistant Professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the UNC at CH
• Nancy McGovern, Digital Preservation officer at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan
• Richard Marciano, professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the UNC at CH
• Paul Marty, associate professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at Florida State University
• Seamus Ross, dean of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto
• Kalpana Shankar, assistant professor at the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University
• Helen Tibbo, professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the UNC at CH
