Information Industry News
The Digital Library Federation (DLF) announced the 2023 Excellence Awards winners on November 16, 2023. The Awards are divided into the following categories: Future Stewards, Educators, Individuals, Organizations, Projects, and Sustainability Activities.
In the Future Stewards category: Sophia van Hoek for work pertaining to the National Archives of the Netherlands.
In the Educator category: Ashley Blewer for work pertaining to the creation of open educational resources that demystify digital preservation practices and tools.
In the Individual category: Stephen Abrams for his lifetime work in this area but as well for his work at Harvard securing the funding needed to completely re-think a digital preservation infrastructure for the next generation.
In the the Organizations category: Grupo de Preservación Digital, For their work in continued advocacy for sustainable preservation of digital heritage materials, for their leadership in advancing practices and policies, and for their offering educational opportunities to the digital preservation community.
In the Projects category: The Reliable, Robust, and Resilient Digital Infrastructure for Nuclear Decommissioning project. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is charged with the complicated task of decommissioning and cleaning the seventeen principal nuclear energy plants in the UK. The work involved the preservation of data with an extended life cycle and significant security requirements. During the initial phase of the project, the team worked to understand legacy systems and data and adapt current systems to ensure long-term viability.
In the Sustainability category: Dr. David S.H. Rosenthal & Victoria Reich. LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Things Safe) was David Rosenthal and Vicky Reich’s brainchild and was at the leading edge of a global wave of digital preservation initiatives in the early 21st century. The effectiveness and reliability of LOCKSS software has been validated through rigorous third-party evaluation, including ongoing certification of the CLOCKSS archive as a trustworthy digital repository under the TRAC standard since 2014.
For additional details, the full text of the Digital Library Federation announcement may be found here.