The Year of Content: Learning from Experience Transferring Digital Content across the NDIIPP Network

Abstract

The Library of Congress and the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) network partners declared 2008 “The Year of Content.” As a part of the Year of Content, the NDIIPP network and the Library focused on a program of digital content transfer. The NDIIPP network comprises libraries, archives, universities, research centers, non-profit and for-profit organizations and professional associations across the United States as well as a wide variety of international partners (Anderson 2008). The NDIIPP partners participated in developing and testing standards, best practices, and technological solutions for digital preservation challenges. A number of NDIIPP projects acquired and preserved at-risk digital content and worked to send a copy of the content to the Library for safekeeping. This effort was accomplished in 2008.Selecting, packaging, and sending content highlighted the challenges of content transfer as well as the importance of this element of the preservation lifecycle. Many of the partners found that moving digital content to the Library was beneficial to their own work, refining their own stewardship processes and strengthening common standards and practices in the community.The NDIIPP network gained practical experience moving digital information from one institution to another and, in the process, learned and confirmed digital preservation lessons that inform the ever-changing roles of curators and stewards.