We’re Gonna Make It: Lessons from Coordinating a Campus Collaboration

Securing digital materials for the future requires a village. To be precise, a village with ongoing resources, funding, and technical expertise to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of technology.

Recognizing this dilemma, the Digital Preservation Group at the University of Texas at Austin reformed in 2021. The goal was to provide a space for practitioners across the Forty Acres to share their challenges in developing and sustaining digital preservation solutions. From fall 2022 to spring 2023, the group developed a shared digital preservation standard for on-campus repositories.

This presentation will use our group as a case study to reflect on the art of coordinating a campus-wide collaboration. It will delve into various methods the co-facilitators used to structure a meaningful discussion over six months and maintain purposeful engagement during each meeting. Attendees will also learn about the challenges and successes of bringing together repositories different in sizes and specialties to the same virtual meeting room.