Category: DLF Forum News

We’re pleased to announce an exciting addition to the program for Digital Preservation 2016, co-sponsored by National Digital Stewardship Alliance and DLF, which will be held immediately following this year’s DLF Forum.

Dr. Allison Druin joins keynoter Bergis Jules as our closing plenary speaker for the conference. Druin’s talk will take up the conference theme, “building communities of practice,” in the context of “communities of innovation” and her work with America’s National Park Service–presently celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Druin is on two-year leave from her faculty appointment at the University of Maryland’s iSchool while serving as Special Advisor for National Digital Strategy at the National Park Service. Her focus there is on how to better leverage digital tools to excite the next generation of park visitors, to change how the national parks share their stories, and to better preserve our cultural and natural resources.

Druin received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design, her master’s degree from the MIT Media Lab, and her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico’s College of Education. In her previous work as the University of Maryland’s first Chief of Futurist and Co-Director of the Future of Information Alliance (FIA), Druin helped establish a FIA partner network with the National Park Service, Newseum, the Smithsonian, National Geographic and other organizations to explore the opportunities and challenges of the rapidly changing information landscapes. At the University of Maryland, she has served as Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, Associate Dean of Research for the iSchool, and an ADVANCE Professor for STEM Women Initiatives. Druin’s personal research has focused on developing new educational technologies for children. Druin has pioneered the development of new co-design methods that bring product-users into the technology design process. Her team of faculty, staff, and graduate students, recently engaged elementary school kids to help design digital elements of the Every Kid in a Park program; an initiative by the White House and Department of the Interior to give all fourth graders and their families free entrance to national parks. She is currently working with NPS leadership to use co-design methods to reimagine the visitor experience for the Lincoln Memorial.

An abstract for her Digital Preservation 2016 plenary talk follows:

BUILDING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE FOR A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

The speed of change in the digital world makes it difficult to point to just one tool, technology, or “digital infrastructure” that can support all the education, conservation, and historic preservation priorities of the National Park Service. It is that combination of data (content), software (interactivity), and device (context) that can address the priorities of NPS for the next century. It is important to remember that digital infrastructure can change more quickly than physical infrastructure. The power of digital is that it is so malleable for change, but this is also the challenge. The speed of change and the scale of impact, is unprecedented. Digital innovation makes use of a variety of new tools that can address future challenges with novel solutions. Yet, innovation can be disruptive, transformative, and can still be an achievement that leads to new shared infrastructure. Given this landscape of change and opportunity, we have to ask, how do we create communities of practice that can become true communities of innovation? How can we support workforce development, and build leadership pipelines for the digital work we must undertake? The opportunities are there, but the challenges are many when considering constrained resources, silo-ed structures of leadership, and federal regulations. I will talk about these opportunities and challenges for the next century of service.

Learn more about all of our keynote and plenary speakers for the DLF Forum, DLF Liberal Arts Colleges Pre-Conference, and Digital Preservation 2016 here.

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) invites proposals for Digital Preservation 2016, to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 9-10 November 2016.

Digital Preservation is the major meeting and conference of the NDSA—open to members and non-members alike—focusing on tools, techniques, theories and methodologies for digital stewardship and preservation, data curation, the content lifecycle, and related issues. Our 2016 meeting will be the first held in partnership with our new host organization, the Digital Library Federation (DLF). Separate calls are being issued for the DLF Liberal Arts Colleges Pre-Conference (6 November) and 2016 DLF Forum (7-9 November)—all happening in the same location: https://www.diglib.org/DLFforum2016/

Proposals are due by May 15th at 11:59pm Pacific Time.  

About the NDSA and Digital Preservation 2016:

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance is a consortium of more than 160 organizations committed to the long-term preservation and stewardship of digital information and cultural heritage, for the benefit of present and future generations. Digital Preservation 2016 (#digipres16) will help to chart future directions for both the NDSA and digital stewardship, and is expected to be a crucial venue for intellectual exchange, community-building, development of best practices, and national-level agenda-setting in the field.

The conference will be held at the historic Pfister Hotel, just blocks from Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum, restaurants, and nightlife. The hotel has an incredible Victorian art collection, an artist-in-residence program, and a spa. The NDSA strives to create a safe, accessible, welcoming, and inclusive event, and will operate under the DLF Forum’s Code of Conduct. Childcare subsidies for DLF Forum attendees also participating in Digital Preservation 2016 may be extended upon request. Contact ndsa@diglib.org for more information.

Submissions:

250-word proposals describing the presentation/demo/poster are invited (500 words for full panel sessions). Please also include a 50-word short abstract for the program if your submission is selected. Submit proposals online: https://conftool.pro/dlf2016/. Deadline: May 15th, 2016 at 11:59pm PT.

We especially encourage proposals that speak to our conference theme, “Building Communities of Practice.” Submissions are invited in the following lengths and formats:

Talks/Demos: Presentations and demonstrations are allocated 20 minutes each. Speakers should reserve time for interactive exchanges on next steps, possible NDSA community action, and discussion or debate.

Panels: Panel discussions with 4 or more speakers will be given a dedicated session. Organizers are especially encouraged to include as diverse an array of perspectives and voices as possible, and to reserve time for audience Q&A.  

Posters: Poster presenters will have the opportunity to interact with attendees one-on-one or in small groups, to exchange ideas and engage in conversation. (Guidelines for poster sizes will be provided on acceptance.)

Lunchtime Working Group Meetings: NDSA working and interest group chairs are invited to propose group meetings or targeted collaboration sessions. (Lunch provided.)

All submissions will be peer-reviewed by NDSA’s volunteer Program Committee. Presenters will be notified in July and guaranteed a registration slot at the conference.

US Presidential Election Notice:

Attendees arriving early for the DLF Forum (November 7-9) will want to plan ahead for early/absentee voting in the 2016 US Presidential Election. Full, state-by-state nonpartisan ballot information and important voter deadlines are available here: https://www.diglib.org/absentee/.