DCDC21 | Speed presentations: Building open and discoverable collections
Channel: ResearchLibrariesUK
Date: 2021-07-05

DCDC stands for Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities. It is a cross-sectoral conference, hosted by The National Archives, RLUK and Jisc, that brings together the GLAMA sectors (galleries, libraries, archives, museums and academia) to shine a light on our shared experiences, innovations, interests and concerns. The DCDC21 Conference explored how crisis can act as a catalyst for change within libraries, archives, museums, and cultural organisations. https://dcdcconference.com/

Enabling equitable access to collections: Manage Your Collections and Discovery
Caroline Catchpole, The National Archives

The National Archives has been collecting records of archival collections from across the UK since the 19th century. In 2017, with the launch of Manage Your Collections, we significantly improved the scope of this activity by giving archive services the ability to create and manage their own digital catalogue content in Discovery. 

Locked out/locked down: the case of Libya
Charlotte Roueche, Society for Libyan Studies

Since 2011 Libya has been in a state of crisis and civil war. The Society for Libyan Studies has worked in the country for many years, and holds rich records of its heritage. Lack of access in person has led us to engage with these resources, and work to make them useful to colleagues in Libya as they seek to rebuild their education system, and the curation of their heritage. It is also inspiring collaboration with other British and European collections. 

Redistributing the Archive
Alexandra Leigh, City, University of London / The National Archives

The increasing use of digital technologies to access, store, and work with archival documents reflects an ongoing shift in how researchers work with archival material, a trend which has only been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This talk will present empirical work that examines the key role researchers play in enacting the archive. It will examine how the shift in research practices beyond the archive will impact how archival meaning is made and suggest implications for the design of digital archival systems to support such practices. 

Why Open GLAM? Looking into the future of open access to cultural heritage
Brigitte Vézina, Creative Commons

Cultural heritage institutions have been doing significant work on digitization for the last twenty years. The results of those efforts have been paying off, with more institutions adopting open access policies to share that digitised heritage with the world. However, thanks to the Survey of GLAM Open Access Policies and Practices (McCarthy & Wallace), we know that these institutions are only a small number. This short presentation will explore why is important to still talk about copyright and open access to cultural heritage and how can we better address other relevant ethical concerns beyond copyright when dealing with digitized cultural heritage.

Definitely not business as usual - capturing the UK Government response to COVID-19 on the web
Claire Newing, The National Archives

The National Archives has been archiving UK central government web content since 2003. Capturing the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic presented us with unprecedented challenges in 2020, needing us to work outside of our long established business as usual processes. This talk will outline the challenges and the approaches we took to tackling them.