Digital Repository Of Ireland Digital Preservation Award
Given all of the invaluable artefacts, documents and related material lost in the destruction of the city during the Easter Rising of 1916 it is fitting that the Digital Repository of Ireland marks the occasion with its inaugural Decade of Centenaries Digital Preservation Award.
The Digital Repository of Ireland believes that digital heritage is at risk of destruction and loss if action is not taken. Digital decay is the gradual decay of digital content - lost data that cannot be accessed because computers no longer understand the legacy formats. The solution is digital preservation – active ongoing data management, including changing formats, standards, and software.
The ‘Decade of Centenaries’ marks a significant period in modern Irish history and provides an important juncture for both national reflection and commemoration. It, as an exercise in public history and national, cultural memory, seeks to (re)engage and educate the general public through events, exhibitions, both online and physical, public lectures, etc., on pivotal and sometimes contentious Irish moments that shape our current understandings of the Irish political, social and economic sphere within the national and international context.
To coincide with this programme of events the Digital Repository of Ireland launched the Decade of Centenaries Digital Preservation Award, which aims to support custodians of heritage material in digitally preserving their holdings relating to the Decade of Centenaries. We are grateful for funding from the Irish Research Council through their New Foundations programme.
We are currently engaging with winning contributors to provide best practice guidance and digital preservation services for these collections. The collections will be publicly launched at DRI’s Digital Preservation for the Arts, Social Sciences and the Humanities (DPASSH) conference held in June 2015.