To support endowment and bridge funding for the expansion of the center's fieldservice program and internships and for upgrading microfilm equipment.

To support relocation costs and an increase in endowment for operating costs, the Field Service Office, and educational and training programs.

To support an annual SCHOOL FOR SCANNING conference and three workshops each year entitled TO FILM OR TO SCAN, offered around the country for staff in libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations.

The SCHOOL for SCANNING conference and two workshops entitled TO FILM or TO SCAN, offered around the country for staff in libraries, archives, and historical organizations.

Two SCHOOL FOR SCANNING conferences and four workshops entitled TO FILM OR TO SCAN, offered around the country for staff in libraries, archives, and historical organizations.

A preservation field service program that provides surveys, workshops and seminars, technical consultations, and disaster assistance to institutions in the Northeast.

NEDCC requests support to strengthen and expand the impact of its field service program to meet the evolving needs of its region for preservation education and information. NEDCC will respond to the changing information landscape by developing new models for incorporating training on digital preservation into its traditional preservation outreach programs. Its goals for the coming grant period are to take a more proactive approach to planning education programs, to target different programs to audiences at different levels, and to adjust the service mix to increase earned income. Using interest from an endowment fund together with increased earned income, it seeks to develop long-term support for the key position of Field Service Director.

The development and implementation of training activities and tools for conducting digital preservation assessments at libraries, archives, and museums nationwide.

NEDCC requests support to prepare and present a collaborative Digital Assessment Training program. This program will approach digital preservation assessment and training through case-study assessments, shadowing opportunities, workshops, and a Digital Assessment Institute. A culminating Digital Preservation and Assessment Symposium will provide an opportunity to discuss outcomes, next steps, and sustainability. NEDCC will work with other Regional Alliance for Preservation (RAP) centers along with digital preservation practitioners and educators to develop a framework for identifying and assessing core elements of digital preservation practice.

A preservation field service program that provides assessments, workshops and seminars (in-person and online), technical consultations, and disaster assistance to libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage repositories, predominantly in the Northeast.

With a respected history as a preservation and conservation resource for organizations of all sizes, the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) effectively increases the knowledge and skills of collections care professionals—at all levels—in the long-term care and stewardship of paper-based and photographic collections, audiovisual materials, and digital objects. Through workshops, webinars, in-person conferences, reference services, disaster assistance, print and online resources, assessments, and consultations, NEDCC helps institutions better understand and address their preservation challenges so that their vital humanities collections remain accessible into the future. NEDCC’s basic field services programs remain the staple of our work and will continue unabated. As our clients’ needs change, NEDCC expands its expertise and services. With this grant, we propose to continue to transform our services with both the design of new services and the improvement of existing ones.

The continuation and expansion of field service activities, including preservation assessments, emergency assistance, educational workshops and webinars, and writing and updating educational publications.

As a respected preservation and conservation resource for collecting organizations of all sizes, the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) will continue to provide preservation field services with the goal of increasing the knowledge and skills of collections care professionals—at all levels—in the long-term care and stewardship of paper-based and photographic collections, audiovisual materials, and digital objects. Through this project, NEDCC will provide 4 one-day hands-on emergency preparedness and response workshops in at-risk areas along the Gulf Coast and in California; 4 general preservation pre-assessments; “Ask NEDCC” reference service; 24/7 collections emergency hotline; and student registration discounts for web courses. Funding will support staff time to update the free Preservation Leaflets, maintain free online resources and textbooks, develop 4 new webinars, and deliver 6 free preservation training webinars.

Four workshops entitled Stewardship of Digital Assets, which would be offered around the country for staff in libraries, archives, and historical organizations.

NEDCC seeks to launch a national program of two-day workshops on digital preservation entitled Stewardship of Digital Assets. The need for training on this topic was highlighted through NEDCC's recent work in conducting ten pilot surveys of the digital preservation needs of museums and libraries. The survey consultants noted a need for staff training on digital preservation at every institution surveyed. Four workshops will be offered in four different locations. Each will serve 30-35 professionals from smaller and medium-sized institutions that are not likely to build their own trusted digital repositories. The workshops will emphasize the use of third-party certified digital repositories and will build an understanding of the need for a digital survey to help with institution-wide planning for digital preservation.

A preservation field service program that provides surveys, workshops and seminars, technical consultations, and disaster assistance to libraries, archives, and historical organizations in the Northeast.

NEDCC requests support to expand the impact of its regional field service program to meet the changing needs of its audience, especially for training and technical assistance on preserving long-term access to digital content. The basic activities of NEDCC's field service program, i.e., workshops, surveys, publications, reference service, and disaster assistance, will continue. NEDCC will respond to the changing information landscape by integrating digital preservation into its traditional outreach programs and refining its pilot procedures for conducting digital preservation surveys. Objectives are: 1) to meet the needs of small and mid-size institutions for basic preservation training; 2) to meet the needs of institutions that are ready for training at a more advanced level; 3) to develop innovative conferences and publications on digital preservation; 4) and to cooperate with other RAP centers to leverage the national impact of its outreach activities.

A preservation field service program that provides surveys, workshops and seminars, technical consultations, and disaster assistance to libraries, archives, and historical organizations in the Northeast.

In 2013 and 2014, NEDCC will strengthen and expand accessible pathways to preservation education by delivering comprehensive physical and digital collections care information to both regional and national audiences, with an increasing focus on online learning opportunities. NEDCC will offer in-person workshops, web-based workshops, webinars, online courses, hybrid in-person and webcast conferences, consultations, assessments, reference services, disaster assistance, publications, and resources on the care of humanities collections. Curriculum, conferences, and survey reports will address the traditional needs of preserving tangible materials as well as new preservation challenges posed by digital humanities collections.

A Tier II project to develop open-source software and workflows to reformat audio recordings on DAT tapes according to preservation standards.

This project seeks to address the lack of accessible tools and preservation workflows for accurately transferring audio and metadata from DAT tapes. DAT tapes are at a much higher risk than many older audio formats, and are very likely to contain unique content. The goal of this project is to make the transfer of audio data from DAT tape as straightforward and verifiable as it would be to transfer a Broadcast WAVE file from a modern audio recorder. We plan to meet these objectives by updating long-abandoned open-source DAT transfer applications to work with modern computers, developing multiple strategies for transferring data with DAT players and DDS drives (a technology that facilitates direct data transfer), building more robust metadata standards that account for the unique properties of DATs, and facilitating an outreach program to give managers of DAT collections accessible, easy-to-follow guidance to save unique audio hidden on this obsolete format.

To support the field services program, which provides information, training, and on-site evaluation services to archives, libraries, historical societies, and museums throughout the Northeast, and to support the purchase of microfilm-ing equipment in order to upgrade NEDCC's preservation microfilming capability.

To support a conference for persons involved with or planning cooperative preservation programs. The conference aims to strengthen existing centers, encourage new efforts, and provide a means for establishing ongoing communication among centers.

To support continuation of the Field Services Program, which provides reference services, preservation workshops, disaster assistance, and on-site preservation surveys for humanities institutions in the Northeast.

To support 12 preservation microfilming workshops for supervisory staff of libraries and archives.

To support the field services program, which surveys preservation needs, holds workshops and seminars, and offers technical advice and disaster assistance to institutions in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

To support the field services program, which provides surveys, workshops and seminars, technical consultations, and disaster assistance to institutions in the Northeast.