The University of Colorado Boulder Libraries are now members of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA), a collaborative consortium of organizations dedicated to the long-term preservation of digital information.
The University Libraries collects cultural heritage materials primarily through the Special Collections, Archives and Preservation department, though we also gather materials through our institutional repository, scholarly outreach work and digital purchases associated with library collections and resources. We collect in a wide range of subjects ranging from Post-Holocaust American Judaism to American music and experimental film, for instance, the filmmaker Stan Brakhage collection. We also collect for regional interests including on nuclear activity in the West and politics. The Libraries recently acquired the congressional records and social media records of the now Governor of Colorado Jared Polis.
Originally an initiative of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program of the Library of Congress, the NDSA's mission is to establish, maintain, and advance the capacity to preserve our nation’s digital resources for the benefit of present and future generations. It is now part of the Digital Library Federation (DLF) at the Council on Library and Information Resources.
CU Boulder Libraries, already a member of DLF, have also begun web archiving and have contracted with Arkivum to use their PERPETUA service for long-term preservation. Media types run from manuscripts and stills to film and audio; we digitize these materials increasingly in-house while running a small born-digital lab for legacy digital media such as floppies or forensic capture of drives.
Joining the NDSA will directly connect the Libraries with hundreds of other institutions that are addressing their own digital preservation efforts, demonstrating that the Libraries are committed to furthering digital preservation efforts going forward.