The Library of Congress, in conjunction with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, has named five members to the 2015 class of the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) program. Among those named is Jessica Tieman, who will earn her master's degree from GSLIS this spring.
The NDSR program offers recent master’s degree graduates/doctoral candidates in specialized fields—library science, information science, museum studies, archival studies, and related technology—the opportunity to gain valuable professional experience in digital preservation. Residents will start the program with an intensive digital stewardship workshop at the Library of Congress, followed by specialized project work at one of five host institutions in the Washington, D.C. area. The projects will allow them to acquire hands-on knowledge and skills regarding collection, selection, management, long-term preservation, and accessibility of digital assets. The upcoming 12-month program begins in June 2015.
The residents listed were selected by a committee of experts from the Library of Congress, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and other organizations, including the host institutions:
- John Caldwell of Lutherville, Maryland. Caldwell, who has studied at the University of Maryland, will be resident in the U.S. Senate Historical Office to study and assess current Senate workflows in appraisal, management, ingest, description, and transfer of digital assets. He will benchmark current policies against best practices.
- Valerie Collins of Eagle River, Alaska. Collins, who has studied at Dalhousie University, will be resident at the American Institute of Architects to co-lead testing and implementation of an institutional digital repository system to preserve born-digital records that represent AIA’s intellectual capital or that have permanent value for the history of the architectural profession.
- Nicole Contaxis of Easton, Connecticut. Contaxis, who has studied at the University of California Los Angeles, will be resident at the National Library of Medicine to create a pilot workflow for the curation, preservation, and presentation of a historically valuable software product developed by the National Library of Medicine which is deemed to be historically noteworthy due to its usage by a user community and/or its distinctive technical properties. These are at risk of being lost due to obsolescence.
- Jaime Mears of Deltaville, Virginia. Mears, who has studied at the University of Maryland, will be resident at the D.C. Public Library to create a sustainable, public-focused lab, tools, and instruction for building public knowledge and skills around the complex problems of personal digital record keeping.
- Jessica Tieman of Lincoln, Illinois. Tieman, who has studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will be resident in the Government Publishing Office to certify GPO’s Federal Digital System as a Trustworthy Digital Repository and to conduct an internal audit to help achieve the goal of certification.
For more information about the National Digital Stewardship Residency program, including information about how to be a host, partner or resident for next year’s class, visit the Library of Congress NDSR program page.