NYU Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) collaborates with Pratt Institute to support the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Network (DPOE-N).
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Pratt Institute $600,000 to support the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Network (DPOE-N) in collaboration with New York University. The DPOE-N builds upon the original DPOE program created in 2010 by the Library of Congress and will become a network of training resources available to cultural heritage professionals nationwide to enhance their digital preservation knowledge and skills, helping support the nation’s libraries, archives and museums during these challenging times. The funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation allows Pratt and New York University to build and restore this important national resource.
A significant component of the grant project is microfunding for digital preservation professional development for cultural heritage professionals. DPOE-N staff will work with participants on educational plans based on individual and institutional needs, which may result in participants taking DPOE-N workshops offered at Pratt or NYU, but may also include those workshops within the larger network, such as available through Society of American Archivists. The grant also allocates funding for emergency hardware support for institutions that are stewarding digital materials that are critically endangered stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We are thrilled to be able to undertake this work with this significant funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and support digital preservation activities across the country,” said Anthony Cocciolo, Dean of Pratt’s School of Information and the principal investigator of the project. The project has been supported since its inception by Pratt’s Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships under the direction of Allison Druin, Associate Provost for Research and Strategic Partnerships.
DPOE-N is a collaboration with the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program (MIAP) at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. “We are excited to collaborate with Pratt on expanding the impact of education and training in this area through the next iteration of DPOE. Digital Preservation is a cornerstone of the NYU MIAP curriculum,” said Dr. Juana Suárez, NYU MIAP Director and Associate Arts Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies.
Documents, photographs, and all forms of audiovisual media—whether scanned from an analog source or “born digital” at the point of creation—have a limited life cycle as digital files in their original setting. Practitioners of digital preservation learn to migrate and manage digital content over time to ensure its ongoing quality and accessibility, even in the face of technological change such as software updates and hardware obsolescence, or disruptive events like natural disasters and economic emergencies.
Pratt Institute, best known for being an art and design college, is also home to the oldest information school in North America: Pratt’s School of Information. Beginning as librarian training courses in 1890, today the school enrolls 230 graduate students across Masters programs in Library and Information Science, Information Experience Design, Museums and Digital Culture, and Data Analytics and Visualization. The School is motivated by its vision to empower people to improve lives and communities through information, knowledge, and culture.
The NYU Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program (MIAP) Program is a unit of the Department of Cinema Studies, part of the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television within NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The Master of Arts degree is a two-year, interdisciplinary course of study that trains future professionals to manage and preserve collections of film, video, digital, and multimedia works. MIAP is a leading academic program in the field of audiovisual preservation. Its ethic of sharing and openness emphasizes continuing education and preservation that serves access and use.
About the NYU Tisch School of the Arts
For over 50 years, the NYU Tisch School of the Arts has drawn on the vast artistic and cultural resources of New York City and New York University to create an extraordinary training ground for artists, scholars, and innovators. Today, students learn their craft in a spirited, risk-taking environment that combines the professional training of a conservatory with the liberal arts education of a premier global university with campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and 11 academic centers around the world. Learn more at www.tisch.nyu.edu.