Digital Preservation Training Programme
Executive Summary
The project's aim was to take the one-week intensive training course which Cornell had already developed and adapt it for the UK needs in two ways. The first adaptation involved taking material which was USA-specific (such as that relating to copyright law) and replace it with material specific to the situation in the UK and Europe. The second adaptation was to rework some of the material, and develop new modules, to address the requirements identified in the UK training needs report (see the Background section for more information on this.) Having made these changes, the project was then funded to deliver one pilot course, with no tuition fees for attendees, and conduct detailed follow-up evaluation on its success. We were then to amend the content as necessary and deliver the course on up to a further 3 occassions, covering the costs of delivery from course fees.
One of the UK-specific adaptations we chose was to make use of the online Handbook 'Preservation Management of Digital Materials' (Jones & Beagrie, 2001) and update some of its content to reflect a changing landscape and specific needs of the course.
We succeeded in all of these aims, although market conditions meant we were only able to run the course on 2 further occassions rather than 3, neither with full attendance. Independent evaluation, and our own, indicated that the course was extremely well received and it has been assessed as offering very good value. However, there are questions about how many institutions are able to release staff for a one-week course, depsite the undoubted benefits that such intensive training offers over the DPC's previous one-day events. We will be continuing to develop the course materials and exploring other.