As of March 2023, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its three most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members! To review our list of all members, you can see them here.
James Madison University
James Madison University Libraries is formally building out their digital preservation program and working closely with AV materials from our Special Collections. They also recognize the pressing need to more strategically engage with web archiving, to capture more fully the complete context of the creative and scholarly activities from our communities. They are developing integrations between their preservation system and their discovery and description systems, and look forward to being part of NDSA to more comprehensively engage with the wider community on these points.
Namibia University of Science and Technology
The Namibia University of Science and Technology Library Digital Collections is responsible for the acquisition, arrangement, description, indexing, storage, disposal, and dissemination of NUST’s historically valuable institutional documents such as study programmes, past exam papers, annual reports, VHS tapes that have been converted to mp4 videos, audio and images taken during NUST events. Through joining the NDSA, they plan to benchmark and explore more ways to ensure long-term preservation and access for this valuable content.
Syracuse University Libraries
While Syracuse University Libraries has been committed to confronting the implications, challenges, and rewards of digital preservation for many years, they have more recently formalized this commitment. In 2021, they established a new Department of Digital Stewardship, which signals both their commitment to digital stewardship in all its forms, providing support to digital scholarship by centering activities of digital production, provision of access, description, object management, and digital preservation. This new department also provides an organizational framework and locus for this activity at Syracuse University Libraries. By joining NDSA, Syracuse University Libraries furthers its commitment and capacity to this work.