Digital Curator Vocational Education Europe

Kate Fernie MDR Partners

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission'

Funded under the EC’s Leonardo da Vinci programmeAims to support and extend vocational training for digital curators in libraries, archives and museumsStarted on 1st January 2011 for 30 monthsFounding members include HATTII, DCC, DPC and MDR (UK), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), Goettingen University Library and Nestor (Germany), Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale (Italy), Vilnius University Library (Lithuania), uToronto (Canada) and IMLS (USA).

Some basic facts

Focusing on the cultural sectorIdentify and analyse existing training opportunities and methodologiesSurvey training needsIdentify key skills and competencesEstablish an initial curriculum and a frameworkDisseminating the resultsPromoting the results for use by educators in training

Main activities

Some context in Europe

There are an estimated:

47 National libraries, 20,500 Public libraries, 10,000 University libraries, 29,000 Special libraries + School libraries17,600 Museums25 National archives plusAudiovisual archives

NUMERIC report, 2009 http://www.cipfastats.net/default_view.asp?content_ref=9743

Cultural institutions are digitising and collecting digital materials Digital preservation is becoming a key issue

People82000 staffmany involved in digitisation

Training and Education

Professional training for the care of traditional collections is well establishedTraining in long term management of digital assets has been identified as a major issue for employers and staffProfessional development is a lifetime requirement

DPC training needs report, 2004 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/finalReport.pdf

Zach Klein CC BY-NC 2.0

Current availability of vocational education and training?

We launched a survey at the beginning of April 2011 and it is ongoing: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/477850/Survey-on-training-

opportunities-in-digital-curation

Aims to: Analyse the existing offerMap the curriculum landscapeBuild the profile

Initial results

Responses from Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Estonia, Lithuania Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain, UK, Italy, Germany and USACross domain

Topics and learning objectives

Getting started in digital preservationDeepening or updating knowledge– Specific tools, techniques and standards, e.g. dealing with complex

objects, different alphabets– Workflows and enabling infrastructure, e.g. storage– Practices, e.g. preservation planning– IPR and copyright issues– Legislation

Access and reuse– Licencing of learning materials– Managing research data

Fundraising and capacity building

Formats and trainers

Mainly in-person large group workshops with a mixture of lectures and practical exercisesSmall group seminars and hands-on workshopsFew online courses identified so farDelivered mainly by subject specialistsTraining professionals In-house and external trainers

Assessment

Mostly not assessed– Some multiple choice tests– A few written examinations

50% offer an attendance certificate39% offer attendees course credits– 2-4 ECTS

Next steps

Survey of training opportunities is ongoing: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/477850/Survey-on-training-opportunities-in-digital-curation Please respond if you haven’t alreadyWe are launching a companion survey of training needs amongst cultural institutions on 1st JulyIdea is to analyse both the training on offer and the training needs to shape the curriculum frameworkWatch this space!

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Kate.fernie@mdrpartners.com

www.digcur-education.org