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The Seattle Skyline Photo: © Seattle Pictures

Persistence of Memory:
Stewardship of Digital Assets
November 28–29, 2007
Seattle, WA

 

On November 28–29, 2007, NEDCC presented its popular conference on digital preservation, Persistence of Memory: Stewardship of Digital Assets, in Seattle, Washington. Co-sponsored by OCLC Western Service Center and made possible by a grant from IMLS, the conference drew an audience of 198 participants from 31 states as well as Bermuda and Canada. Participants included librarians, archivists, information specialists, preservation administrators, digital photographers, records analysts, registrars, library technicians, executive directors, digital initiative coordinators, and image processing analysts. Institutions included Arizona Historical Foundation, Archdiocese of Seattle, California Polytechnic State University, Illinois State Geological Survey, Harvard University, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, the National Archives, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the U.S. Government Printing Office, and corporations including Target and Microsoft.

The 2007 Persistence of Memory conference was held at the Hilton Seattle in Washington. Photograph taken by Julie Martin

 

Persistence of Memory, taught by a faculty of national experts, addressed the question of digital longevity. Topics included the All-Important Metadata; Surveying Digital Preservation Readiness; Trusted Digital Repositories; Preserving Audio, Video, and Digital Art; and Business Models for Preservation. The next Persistence of Memory conference will be presented in Chicago on December 9–10, 2008.

Sample comments from participants of Persistence of Memory:

• We are a new local rural museum starting out at ground zero. All of this information will be very useful.

• I have learned a great deal at this conference and will check out many of the websites/reports mentioned in the presentations.

• I have attended the conference before, but the field changes so quickly that I appreciate the opportunity to remain current and learn new things. Thank you so much for all of your hard work!

• In addition to the specific ideas and information I learned, it was incredibly valuable for me, as the sole employee of a tiny institution, to connect with the larger preservation/archival community, find out what issues people are concerned about and working on, and hear what everyone else out there is thinking about this stuff. I really appreciate the opportunity to participate in this conference.

• The conference binder with the PowerPoint presentations was most helpful during the conference since I was able to take notes directly on the appropriate pages. The binder will also be helpful in following up on various topics.

• I was so excited about all of the information that I learned at the conference that upon my return, I immediately spoke to the director of my program about potential sessions for those interested in digital initiatives. I also spoke with the Library’s newspaper about publishing an article.

Persistence of Memory Faculty:

• Liz Bishoff, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Tom Clareson, PALINET
• Paul Conway, University of Michigan
• Robin Dale, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Jim Gemmell, Microsoft Next Media Research Group
• Andy Kolovos, Vermont Folklife Center
• Kirsten Neilsen, California Digital Library
• Richard Rinehart, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
• Katherine Skinner, Emory University
• Sarah Stauderman, Smithsonian Institution Archives
• Simon Tanner, King's College London