Coordinating Committee

NDSA Announces 2024 Slate of Candidates for Coordinating Committee

NDSA is happy to announce the 2024 slate of Coordinating Committee (CC) candidates. Elections will soon be held for three (3) CC members. The CC is dedicated to ensuring a strategic direction for NDSA, to the advancement of NDSA activities to achieve community goals, and to further communication among digital preservation professionals and NDSA member organizations. The CC is responsible for reviewing and approving NDSA membership applications and publications; updating eligibility standards for membership in the alliance, and other strategic documents; engaging with stakeholders in the community; and working to enroll new members committed to our core mission. The successful candidates will each serve a three-year term. Ballots will be sent to membership organization contacts shortly.

Kari May

Kari is a full-time digital preservationist for the University of Pittsburgh Library System. She became one of the university’s NDSA representatives and a member of the Excellence (Innovation) Awards Working Group (EAWG) in 2019. In 2023, Kari became a Co-Chair for the EAWG and has sought to increase transparency and ensure equity and inclusion in all aspects of EAWG processes by initiating new activities and encouraging more standardization in completing and documenting the awards cycle. Kari has also been a member of the NDSA DigiPres Planning Committee (PC) for 2022 and the 2023 Storage Survey Working Group and is currently a member of the Events Strategy Working Group. Her work with other professional organizations includes Co-Chair of the 2025 BPE Program Committee, member of DLF PC 2020-2024, member of LD4 PC 2022, Digital Preservation Coalition Digital Preservation Awards guest Judge 2022, and member of SAA Collection Management Steering Committee 2023-2025.

Kari feels that digital stewardship challenges continue to expand and require professionals to provide creative solutions supported by limited resources. Working with the Coordinating Committee would offer an opportunity to encourage valuable connections throughout the field of digital stewardship and offer strategies to foster collaboration to maximize benefits for all.

Matt McEniry

Matt McEniry is the Director of the Digital Scholarship Lab at Texas Tech University Libraries. The Lab provides digital preservation, digitization, and data management services for TTU and Lubbock organizations. His areas of expertise include project management, digital preservation, digitization, metadata description, data management, and copyright curation. Matt is currently working on a publication describing the complex working relationships between archives, collection owners, and digitization labs. He has previously presented on his work with community partners and their digital collections at DigiPres 2023 and DigiPres 2024 Redux.

Matt first became involved in the NDSA in 2013 with the Infrastructure Working Group and helped with the Innovation awards until 2015. In 2023 he served on the DigiPres 2023 Planning Committee and is the current co-chair of the Excellence Awards Working Group. He along with his co-chair, Kari May, helped to successfully plan and present the awards at DigiPres 2023. Having worked with the Strategy Team to help update NDSA’s Foundational Strategy, Matt wants to be able to help see these goals and strategies through as part of the Coordinating Committee. He wants to learn from the committee and engage with NDSA on a broader level, especially during this time of transition.

Margo Padilla

Margo Padilla is the Digital Preservation Librarian at New York University where she unifies strategies and processes across the Division of Libraries to facilitate the preservation of digital resources. Prior to NYU, she was the Digital Archivist at the New-York Historical Society where she led the development of infrastructure for collecting, preserving, and providing access to born-digital collections. Margo recently served as a member of the National Best Practices for Archival Accessioning Working Group born-digital accessioning and digital preservation subgroup, and previously participated in Collective Responsibility: National Forum on Labor Practices for Grant-Funded Digital Positions.

Margo received her MLIS with a concentration in Management, Digitization, and Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Records from San José State University and her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Margo is interested in furthering the conversation on reliance on contingent labor in cultural heritage organizations, as well as advancing digital preservation best practices that can be realistically implemented by differently resourced institutions. She brings active engagement to committee work and believes the value of NDSA membership is derived from the collective dedication of the digital preservation community, as exemplified by the Interest and Working Groups.

Max Prud’homme

Patrice-Andre (Max) Prud’homme, PhD, is the Director of Digital Curation at Oklahoma State University. He provides leadership and management in the areas of digital curation, preservation, and discovery of digital resources, developing and applying digital and computational methods to augment the value of digital archival materials. He recently served on the 2023 NDSA Storage Survey Working Group. He served on the NDSA Membership Working Group, collaborating on writing membership engagement proposals, and on the 2021 NDSA Fixity Survey Working Group. He has also served as a Project Lead, instructor, and advisor in Digital POWRR since its inception in 2011, and helped bring one of the Digital POWRR Institutes to the Oklahoma State University campus in June 2024. He also serves as Digital Archivist for a five-year grant program funded by the Senate Historical Office. He is the former Head of Digital Collections at Illinois State University. Max looks forward to advancing the NDSA mission by advocating for greater collaboration and participation with other communities (including engaging students and new professionals). His goal is to augment sustainable knowledge-sharing in the area of digital stewardship to benefit the greater digital preservation community.

Tuelo Ntlotlang

Tuelo Ntlotlang is a Subject Librarian at Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) Library, who is actively engaged in open science and digital scholarship initiatives. She is enthusiastic about open access and digital preservation activities in BIUST. Tuelo has sold the open science movement to BIUST research community, and then established an institutional repository (BIUSTRE) that focuses on ensuring that BIUST intellectual output remains accessible to the global community. She is also actively involved in advocating for adoption of open science and open access at a national level, working closely with Botswana Open Data Policy Working Group as a secretariat and Botswana Library Consortium Board Members as a treasurer. Furthermore, Tuelo is a standing committee member of IFLA Academic and Research Libraries (ARL) Section serving in the webinar team, where webinars are organized to address the new trends in academic and research libraries globally, including open science and digital preservation.

She is pleased to report that she contributed to IFLA ARL, receiving the Dynamic Unit and Impact Award at the IFLA Conference in 2021. Therefore, Tuelo believes that her strong academic and intellectual abilities coupled with her experiences and skills acquired position her in good stead to perform well on the NDSA Coordinating Committee (CC). Tuelo holds a Master’s degree in library and information studies from University of Botswana. She vows to bring experience and welcomes the opportunity to engage in an environment that she will work with diverse community of peers and colleagues in NDSA Coordinating Committee (CC). Tuelo understands that time and effort will be required to understand, support and represent the interests of the group, therefore she is willing to make that effort.

Kathryn Slover

Kathryn Slover has been the Digital Archivist at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Libraries since August 2020. In this position she leads the exploration, evaluation, and implementation of methods, tools, and systems related to the preservation of born-digital and digitized content. She manages the web archiving program at UTA as well as works with donors and record creators to transfer digital materials to the archives. In addition to her digital preservation work, she also leads the departments collecting efforts related to LGBTQ+ materials in Tarrant County.

Kathryn earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Redlands in 2014 and obtained a Master of Arts in Public History from Middle Tennessee State University in 2016. Prior to her current role at UTA, she previously served as the Electronic Processing Archivist at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (from 2018-2020) and as the Archives Assistant at the Rutherford County Archives (from 2016-2018). She has been a Certified Archivist since 2020 and recently served on the NDSA Storage Survey Working Group from 2023-2024.

Sylvia Umana

Sylvia is a dedicated Digital Collections Librarian at the Namibia University of Science and Technology Library with a deep passion for her role in preserving and managing digital assets. She holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Namibia in 2020, where her area of research focused on the digital preservation of institutional repositories. In her role as the digital collections’ librarian, Sylvia worked on various digitization projects including collaborations with the National Archives of Namibia and Desert Research Foundation of Namibia. She is committed to advancing her knowledge on active digital preservation, and thus continues to explore as she aims to actively implement these in her organization.

With a strong commitment to safeguarding digital collections for future generations, she is eager to expand her expertise and contribute to the evolving field of digital preservation and information management especially in developing countries such as Namibia. Her enthusiasm for learning and her attention to detail drive her mission to ensure the longevity and accessibility of valuable digital resources

Call for Nominations to the NDSA Coordinating Committee

NDSA will be electing three members to its Coordinating Committee (CC) this year, with terms starting in January 2025. CC members serve a three year term and participate in a monthly call to help guide and sustain the organization’s strategy and direction. The Coordinating Committee provides strategic leadership to the organization in coordination with group co-chairs. NDSA is a diverse community with a critical mission, and we seek candidates to join the CC that bring a variety of cultures and orientations, skills, perspectives and experiences, to bear on leadership initiatives. Working on the CC is an opportunity to contribute your leadership for the community as a whole, while collaborating with a wonderful group of dynamic and motivated professionals.

If you are interested in joining the NDSA Coordinating Committee (CC) or want to nominate another member, please complete the nomination form by 11:59pm EDT Friday, August 30, 2024, which asks for the name, e-mail address, brief bio/candidate statement (nominee-approved), and NDSA-affiliated institution of the nominee. We particularly encourage and welcome nominations of people from underrepresented groups and sectors.

As members of the NDSA, we join together to form a consortium of more than 270 partnering organizations, including businesses, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, professional associations and universities, all engaged in the long-term preservation of digital information. Committed to preserving access to our national digital heritage, we each offer our diverse skills, perspectives, experiences, cultures and orientations to achieve what we could not do alone.

The CC is dedicated to ensuring a strategic direction for NDSA, to the advancement of NDSA activities to achieve community goals, and to further communication among digital preservation professionals and NDSA member organizations. The CC is responsible for reviewing and approving NDSA membership applications and publications; updating eligibility standards for membership in the alliance, and other strategic documents; engaging with stakeholders in the community; and working to enroll new members committed to our core mission. More information about the duties and responsibilities of CC members can be found at the NDSA’s Leadership Page.

We hope you will give this opportunity serious consideration and we value your continued contributions and leadership in our community.

Any questions can be directed to ndsa [dot] digipres [at] gmail [dot] com.

NDSA Updates Strategic Activities

As part of the NDSA’s broader organizational alignment activities taking place over the last year, the NDSA Coordinating Committee recently charged a small group of Leadership members to review and update its foundational strategy, which had previously been published in 2019.

The updated NDSA Strategy retains the NDSA’s mission, vision, and values. The three top-level goals of the organization remain the same, too:

Convening and sustaining an engaged community to advance digital stewardship theory and practice.
Identifying, communicating, and advocating for the common needs, concerns, standards, and good practices of the community.
Providing outreach, resources, training, and professional development opportunities to bolster the effectiveness, productivity, and continuity of the community.

To provide a meaningful, actionable roadmap towards achieving each of these goals, the NDSA Leadership has outlined specific activities and initiatives to be completed in the next three to five years. Some of these activities include strengthening and stabilizing the NDSA’s shared governance, enhancing membership services with improved outreach and new groups, and increasing transparency through new communication methods and channels.

Please check out the “Goals and Strategies” section of the NDSA 2024 Strategy for the full list of activities and initiatives that you can look forward to in the coming years!

One of the first activities that the NDSA Leadership will begin working towards is investigating avenues to develop a sustainable funding model, including but not limited to restructuring membership options, hosting events, and seeking sponsorships. Towards that end, in the coming weeks we will be sending out a brief survey about funding the NDSA work. Keep an eye out and respond to the survey to make your voice heard! And as always, feel free to reach out to the NDSA Leadership with your thoughts and feedback at ndsa.digipres@gmail.com.

– Bethany Scott, 2024 Coordinating Committee Chair

Shira Peltzman Elected 2024 NDSA Vice Chair

Shira Peltzman, in her second year as a member of the NDSA Coordinating Committee, has been elected by the NDSA Leadership as its 2024 Vice Chair and 2025 Chair. The Vice Chair’s duties include:

Managing the annual process to elect new CC members.
Facilitating the new member application process.
Convening quarterly meetings for the Co-Chairs of Working Groups and Interest Groups.
Participating in quarterly meetings between NDSA and CLIR.
Along with the Chair, ensuring the NDSA Code of Conduct is carried out.

Shira Peltzman (1st CC term, 2023-2025) is the Associate Director for Preservation Digital Strategies at Yale University Library where she provides leadership and direction for digital preservation, media preservation, and preservation imaging. In her role she serves as an advocate for sustainable stewardship and works with stakeholders across campus to champion ambitious preservation initiatives that support enduring access to Yale’s digital collections.

Please join me in congratulating Shira on this new role!

NDSA seeks expressions of interest for new host organization

NDSA Background

NDSA was launched in July 2010 as an initiative of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) of the Library of Congress. For an inaugural four-year term, the Library of Congress provided secretariat and membership management services to the NDSA as well as contributing leadership, expertise, and administrative support.

Since January 1, 2016, NDSA’s organizational home has been the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Selection of CLIR followed a nationwide search and evaluation of cultural heritage, membership, and technical service organizations, in consultation with NDSA Interest Groups, their members, and external advisors.

NDSA is a global network, based in the United States, that advocates for the digital stewardship needs of its member organizations, convenes a community of practice, and provides professional development opportunities for its members. A heterogeneous membership organization with over 275 organizational members, it represents universities, government and non-profit organizations, commercial businesses, and professional associations.

As a completely volunteer-run organization, with administrative assistance from CLIR, all NDSA programming and publications are made possible through the contributions of its volunteer community. These include:

The NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation, a widely used resource to help digital preservation practitioners build or assess their digital preservation program
A national conference on digital preservation, held on an annual basis since 2016
A series of longitudinal surveys on digital preservation staffing, storage, web archiving, and fixity practices
A bi-annual Excellence Awards program (in coordination with the Digital Preservation Coalition) that recognizes and encourages exemplary achievement in the field of digital preservation

Request for Information

Under its hosting relationship with CLIR, NDSA has thrived and evolved into the active volunteer alliance that it is today. In addition to the activities listed above, NDSA is home to multiple active interest and working groups that foster knowledge exchange between members and regularly publish on critical issues in digital stewardship. There is a strong and engaged Leadership team with healthy turnover and a yearly operational planning process. NDSA has a large membership with growing needs, including training, mentorship opportunities, and more ways to convene as a community of practice.

As NDSA has grown, its support needs from its organizational host have also evolved. NDSA seeks expressions of interest from organizations to host NDSA for the next five years, with opportunity for renewal pending the agreement of both parties.

NDSA has conducted a recent analysis of its needs from a host organization. These needs include the following, though NDSA is open to discussing other modes of support and creative ways to collaborate.

Sustaining our activities

Mission, vision, and values aligned, including supporting a free membership option
Fiscal services (membership, grants, events, financial management)
Robust technical infrastructure suitable for a globally distributed organization
Legal support as needed
Marketing services for promoting and amplifying NDSA messages
Event coordination in support of virtual, in-person, and/or hybrid events

Growing our activities

A virtual educational/curricular platform for training and professional development
A dedicated staff member to support NDSA Leadership and membership services
A leader in digital cultural heritage that can help NDSA continue its work as a national leader and global network for digital preservation

The NDSA host organization will play a critical role in the digital stewardship community, in ongoing activities, and in supporting new NDSA projects and publications. The host will be acknowledged in NDSA communications and at conferences and other events. The NDSA host organization will participate in NDSA leadership through representation on the Coordinating Committee, may contribute expertise through participation in NDSA working groups and working group activities, and will contribute to operations by providing the organizational support listed above.

Organizations interested in an exploratory conversation about hosting and/or partnering with NDSA, please send a brief email to the NDSA Coordinating Committee (Chair: Bethany Scott) at ndsa.digipres@gmail.com by February 29, 2024.

Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2024-2026

Please join me in welcoming the three newly elected Coordinating Committee members: Michael Barera, Chelsea Denault, and Jessica Venlet. Their terms begin January 1, 2024 and run through December 31, 2026. Read more about their backgrounds and interest below.

Michael Barera

Michael Barera has been the Assistant Archivist and Digitization Specialist at the Milwaukee County Historical Society (MCHS) Research Library since June 2022. This position ranges broadly from traditional archival responsibilities such as digitization, processing, and reference to unique and often innovative programs and projects related to Milwaukee history, including creating questions for and calling Milwaukee History Trivia Nights at local breweries and leading historical kayak tours on the Milwaukee River. Michael earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in history from the University of Michigan in 2012 and obtained a Master of Science in Information (MSI) in both Archives and Records Management (ARM) and Preservation of Information (PI) from the University of Michigan School of Information in 2014. Prior to taking his current position at MCHS, he previously served as an Assistant Archivist at the Texas A&M University-Commerce Libraries (from 2015 to 2019) and as the University and Labor Archivist at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries (from 2019 to 2022). He has been a Certified Archivist since 2016.

Michael ran for NDSA Coordinating Committee for two primary reasons. The first is to bring the perspective of a small but innovative county historical society to the committee. The second is to learn from the committee and engage more deeply with NDSA as a whole, with the ultimate goal of learning more born-digital and digitization best practices that can be realistically implemented at MCHS and thus raise its level of practice.

Chelsea Denault

Chelsea leads the Michigan Digital Preservation Network, a program of the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services with support from the Library of Michigan. As the MDPN’s Coordinator, she works to build a community-centered statewide service focused on leveraging shared resources and expertise to make digital preservation affordable and accessible to all cultural memory institutions. As part of her efforts, Chelsea provides guidance and training on digital preservation in Michigan and leads the MDPN’s policy development and member recruitment. She also serves as the PI for the MDPN’s IMLS-funded grant to explore simplifying digital preservation workflows and provide training for non-technical users at under-resourced institutions in Michigan and beyond. Chelsea has served the NDSA on the DigiPres Conference Planning Committee (2021-2023) and the Long-Term Conference Planning Working Group. She also represents the MDPN in the Private LOCKSS Network (PLN) Community, and contributes to the Cross-PLN Technical Committee and the Shared Messaging Group. Before joining the MDPN, Chelsea was a public historian engaged in community outreach and collections work, and she holds an MA and a PhD in Public History/US History from Loyola University Chicago. Chelsea is guided by the MDPN’s commitment to small, underserved organizations, and plans to represent their needs on the Coordinating Committee.

Jessica Venlet

Jessica Venlet works as the Assistant University Archivist for Digital Records and Records Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries. In this role, she is responsible for a variety of things related to both records management and digital preservation. In particular, she leads the processing and management of born-digital archival materials.

Jessica is drawn to participation with NDSA because of how valuable the resources and network are to her work and to the profession overall. She has recently participated in working groups for the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation Reboot (assessment subgroup), the 2021 NDSA Staffing Survey, and the 2023 NDSA Excellence Awards. She is excited to join the Coordinating Committee and contribute to the continued development of the NDSA organization and all its associated programs and working groups.

We are also grateful to all of the very talented, qualified candidates who participated in this election.

We are indebted to our outgoing Coordinating Committee members, Elizabeth England, Jes Neal, and Linda Tadic, for their service and many contributions. To sustain a vibrant, robust community of practice, we rely on and deeply value the contributions of all members, including those who took part in voting.

~ Bethany Scott, Vice Chair, on behalf of the NDSA Coordinating Committee

NDSA Announces 2023 Slate of Candidates for Coordinating Committee

NDSA is happy to announce the 2023 slate of Coordinating Committee (CC) candidates. Elections will soon be held for three (3) CC members. The CC is dedicated to ensuring a strategic direction for NDSA, to the advancement of NDSA activities to achieve community goals, and to further communication among digital preservation professionals and NDSA member organizations. The CC is responsible for reviewing and approving NDSA membership applications and publications; updating eligibility standards for membership in the alliance, and other strategic documents; engaging with stakeholders in the community; and working to enroll new members committed to our core mission. The successful candidates will each serve a three year term. Ballots will be sent to membership organization contacts in the coming weeks. (Only one vote per organization.)

Michael Barera

Michael is running for NDSA Coordinating Committee for two primary reasons. The first is to bring the perspective of a small but innovative county historical society to the committee. The second is to learn from the committee and engage more deeply with NDSA as a whole, with the ultimate goal of learning more born-digital and digitization best practices that can be realistically implemented at MCHS and thus raise its level of practice.

Chelsea Denault

Chelsea leads the Michigan Digital Preservation Network, a program of the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services with support from the Library of Michigan. As the MDPN’s Coordinator, she works to build a community-centered statewide service focused on leveraging shared resources and expertise to make digital preservation affordable and accessible to all cultural memory institutions. As part of her efforts, Chelsea provides guidance and training on digital preservation in Michigan and leads the MDPN’s policy development and member recruitment. She also serves as the PI for the MDPN’s IMLS-funded grant to explore simplifying digital preservation workflows and provide training for non-technical users at under-resourced institutions in Michigan and beyond. Chelsea has served the NDSA on the DigiPres Conference Planning Committee (2021-2023) and the Long-Term Conference Planning Working Group. She also represents the MDPN in the Private LOCKSS Network (PLN) Community, and contributes to the Cross-PLN Technical Committee and the Shared Messaging Group. Before joining the MDPN, Chelsea was a public historian engaged in community outreach and collections work, and she holds an MA and a PhD in Public History/US History from Loyola University Chicago. Chelsea is guided by the MDPN’s commitment to small, underserved organizations, and is interested in representing their needs on the Coordinating Committee.

Brenna Edwards

Brenna Edwards is currently Manager for Digital Archives at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Previously, she was Project Digital Archivist at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University. She has a BS from Tennessee Tech University and an MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Outside of work, she can be found either reading, knitting, or watching movies – some of them at the same time!

Having been involved with the 2022 NDSA Staffing Survey and helping plan the 2022 NDSA Conference, Brenna is interested in joining the Coordinating Committee to help further expand the goals of the organization. She has also recently worked with an on-campus digital preservation group focusing on the NDSA Levels and how they can be best implemented across campus. Brenna has also served as co-leader for the DLF Born Digital Description in Finding Aids subgroup of Born Digital Access Working Group to document various ways born digital materials are described in finding aids across a variety of institutions.

Thomas Pulhamus

Tom is the Digital Technology Librarian at the University of Delaware, where he has worked for the past fifteen years. He started as a salaried staff member before his position was professionalized in 2018 and he assumed his current title. Tom works on various facets of digitization and digital preservation for the UD Library, Museums and Press. Currently that work includes developing a digital preservation plan for the UD Library, Museums and Press as well as incorporating reparative justice and harm reduction practices into digitization and digital preservation workflows. Tom is deeply interested in issues of representation and access in digitization and digital preservation and sees the chance to serve on the Coordinating Committee as an opportunity to advance the key operational values of inclusiveness and collaboration. He has served on the DigiPres Planning Committee since 2020 and is also currently a member of the Long Term Conference Planning Working Group. Tom has a BA from Rutgers University, an MA in English from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Danielle Spalenka

Danielle Spalenka is the Digital Preservation Librarian at Indiana University. She provides vision and leadership in the development of digital preservation strategies for departments on the IU campus. She has over 10 years of experience providing education, outreach, consultation, and assessments related to preservation and digital preservation, with a focus on smaller institutions. She has been involved in the Digital POWRR Project in various roles since 2013, including instructor and Project Director. Danielle holds a BA in history from Saint Mary’s College (Notre Dame, IN), and earned her MA-LIS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jessica Venlet

Jessica is drawn to participation with NDSA because of how valuable the resources and network are to her work and to the profession overall. She has recently participated in working groups for the 2019 Levels of Digital Preservation Reboot (assessment subgroup), the 2021 NDSA Staffing Survey, and the 2023 NDSA Excellence Awards. She is excited about the possibility of joining the coordinating committee and contributing to the continued development of the NDSA organization and all its associated programs and working groups.

Call for Nominations to the NDSA Coordinating Committee

NDSA will be electing three members to its Coordinating Committee (CC) this year, with terms starting in January 2024. CC members serve a three year term, participate in a monthly call, and meet at the annual Digital Preservation Conference. The Coordinating Committee provides strategic leadership to the organization in coordination with group co-chairs. NDSA is a diverse community with a critical mission, and we seek candidates to join the CC that bring a variety of cultures and orientations, skills, perspectives and experiences, to bear on leadership initiatives. Working on the CC is an opportunity to contribute your leadership for the community as a whole, while collaborating with a wonderful group of dynamic and motivated professionals.

If you are interested in joining the NDSA Coordinating Committee (CC) or want to nominate another member, please complete the nomination form by 11:59pm EDT Friday, September 8, 2023, which asks for the name, e-mail address, brief bio/candidate statement (nominee-approved), and NDSA-affiliated institution of the nominee. We particularly encourage and welcome nominations of people from underrepresented groups and sectors.

We hope you will give this opportunity serious consideration and we value your continued contributions and leadership in our community.

Any questions can be directed to ndsa.digipres@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Bethany Scott, Vice Chair

Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2023-2025

Please join me in welcoming the three newly elected Coordinating Committee members Shira Peltzman, Deon Schutte, and Bethany Scott. Their terms begin January 1, 2023 and run through December 31, 2025.

Shira Peltzman is the Digital Archivist for UCLA Library Special Collections where she works with stakeholders on an enterprise-wide basis to preserve and make LSC’s born-digital material accessible to the widest possible audience. As a current member of the NDSA Staffing Survey Working Group, she has seen firsthand the importance of undertaking this work collectively and the impact that it has on the field. Shira is interested in serving as a member of the NDSA Coordinating Committee because she would like to help guide and coordinate this work to maximize the quality, relevance, consistency, and overall effectiveness of the publications that come out of all Interest and Working Groups.

Deon Schutte worked as a freelance typesetter in the educational publishing industry in South Africa for many years. In 2018 he completed his B.INF (Bachelor of Information Science) through the University of South Africa and his B.INF Honours in 2019. Deon is a MPhil (Master of Philosophy, specializing in Digital Curation) candidate at the University of Cape Town. His research interests are hermeneutics, heuristics, and sensemaking as cognitive processes that support the curation of archival arrangements. Deon serves as the Chair of the Association of Southern African Indexers and Bibliographers, and he is a Fellow of the South African Chefs Association. He works at Africa Media Online as the project manager of a team that is tasked with the organizing and arrangement, prior to digitisation, of the extensive personal archive of one of the prominent politicians of the anti-Apartheid struggle.

Bethany Scott is the Head of Preservation & Reformatting at the University of Houston Libraries. In this role she provides strategic leadership for the Libraries’ physical and digital preservation programs, and digitization and reformatting services for the Libraries and its patrons. Bethany also serves as Product Owner of the Libraries’ open-source digital access and preservation ecosystem, which incorporates Avalon, Hyrax, Archivematica, and ArchivesSpace. Her areas of expertise include digital preservation, born-digital archives, scanning and imaging, and reuse of archival metadata.

We are also grateful to the very talented, qualified individuals who participated in this election.

We are indebted to our outgoing Coordinating Committee members, Courtney Mumma, Dan Noonan, and Nathan Tallman, for their service and many contributions. To sustain a vibrant, robust community of practice, we rely on and deeply value the contributions of all members, including those who took part in voting.

Hannah Wang, Vice Chair

On behalf of the NDSA Coordinating Committee

Call for Nominations to the NDSA Coordinating Committee – Extended

NDSA will be electing three members to its Coordinating Committee (CC) this year, with terms starting in January 2023. CC members serve a three year term, participate in a monthly call, and meet at the annual Digital Preservation Conference. The Coordinating Committee provides strategic leadership to the organization in coordination with group co-chairs. NDSA is a diverse community with a critical mission, and we seek candidates to join the CC that bring a variety of cultures and orientations, skills, perspectives and experiences, to bear on leadership initiatives. Working on the CC is an opportunity to contribute your leadership for the community as a whole, while collaborating with a wonderful group of dynamic and motivated professionals.

If you are interested in joining the NDSA Coordinating Committee (CC) or want to nominate another member, please complete the nomination form by 11:59pm EDT Friday, August 19, 2022 which asks for the name, e-mail address, brief bio/candidate statement (nominee-approved), and NDSA-affiliated institution of the nominee. We particularly encourage and welcome nominations of people from underrepresented groups and sectors.

As members of the NDSA, we join together to form a consortium of more than 260 partnering organizations, including businesses, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, professional associations and universities, all engaged in the long-term preservation of digital information. Committed to preserving access to our national digital heritage, we each offer our diverse skills, perspectives, experiences, cultures and orientations to achieve what we could not do alone.

We hope you will give this opportunity serious consideration and we value your continued contributions and leadership in our community.

Any questions can be directed to ndsa.digipres@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Hannah Wang, Vice Chair