Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG)

This joint working group, launched in 2016, brings together participants from the Canadian Council of Archives, Canadiana.org, Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL), Library & Archives Canada, Scholars Portal / Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), CARL, and several Canadian research libraries.

This group works towards the long-term stewardship of Canada’s digital scholarly record and multi-format documentary heritage, and supports the specific mandate of CARL’s Advancing Research Committee to preserve Canada’s scholarly record and documentary heritage in all its forms. Its work includes assessing digital preservation capacity, available resources, and funding opportunities within the Canadian research community, and identifying and promote relevant approaches, standards, practices, and technologies, and liaise with relevant international efforts in order to cultivate an appropriate knowledge of the broader field of digital preservation within Canada.

An off-shoot of this group is the Canadian Web Archiving Coalition (CWAC).

This group was responsible for organizing a one-day open forum devoted to digital preservation in Canada, @Risk North 2: Digital Collections, held in Montreal in November 2018.

Members (as of October 2023):

  • Kyle Browness, Director, Digital Collections Operations, Library and Archives Canada
  • Corey Davis, Digital Preservation Librarian, University of Victoria
  • Jason Friedman, Senior Manager, Heritage Services, Canadian Research Knowledge Network
  • Kenton Good, Head, Digital Preservation Services, University of Alberta
  • Susan Haigh (ex officio), Executive Director, Canadian Association of Research Libraries – Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada
  • Geoff Harder, Associate University Librarian, University of Alberta (president)
  • Steve Marks, Digital Preservation Librarian, University of Toronto
  • Lisa Miniaci, Directrice de la conservation et de la numérisation, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
  • Y. G. Rancourt, Digital Stewardship Network Coordinator, COPPUL
  • Jean-François Ruest, Spécialiste en ressources documentaires, Bibliothèque de l’Université Laval
  • Julie Shi, Digital Preservation Librarian, Scholars Portal

DPWG Terms of Reference (PDF)