This joint working group, launched in 2016, brings together participants from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, 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 was the Canadian Web Archiving Coalition (CWAC).
This group was responsible for organizing an open forum devoted to digital preservation in Canada, @Risk North 2: Digital Collections, held in Montreal in November 2018, and more recently, @Risk North 3: Safeguarding the Canadian Digital Record, held in Gatineau, Québec in November 2024. DPWG also held a follow up webinar Mobilizing Learnings from @Risk North3: Next Steps for Digital Preservation with a presentation on high-level outcomes of @RN3, as shared in the @Risk North 3 Summit Report, and provide a progress update from the Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG) on these action items. View the webinar recording.
Members (as of July 2025):
- Jennifer Beaufils, Senior Director, Collection Development, Access, and Preservation, Library of Parliament
- Kyle Browness, Director, Digital Collections Operations, Library and Archives Canada
- Corey Davis, Digital Preservation Librarian, University of Victoria
- Noura Elmobayed-Langevin, Archiviste, Division des archives et de la gestion de l’information, Université de Montréal
- Natasha Fisher, Digital Archivist, The ArQuives
- Émilie Fortin, Bibliothécaire aux données de recherche et à la préservation numérique, Université Laval
- Kenton Good, Digital Preservation Librarian, University of Alberta
- Geoff Harder, Associate University Librarian, University of Alberta (Chair; member of ARC)
- Sarah Lake, Visiting Program Officer for Digital Preservation, CARL; Digital Preservation Librarian, Concordia University
- Brett Lougheed, University Archivist/Digital Curator, University of Winnipeg
- Steve Marks, Digital Preservation Librarian, University of Toronto
- James MacGregor, Director, Research Infrastructure and Development, Canadian Research Knowledge Network
- Lisa Miniaci, Directrice de la conservation et de la numérisation, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
- Tristan Müller, Directeur, Direction du développement et de l’expérimentation technologiques, Service des bibliothèques, Université du Québec à Montréal
- Y. G. Rancourt, Digital Stewardship Network Coordinator, COPPUL
- Samantha Read, Digital Initiatives & Data Services Librarian, Angus L. Macdonald Library, St. Francis Xavier University
- Julie Shi, Digital Preservation Librarian, Scholars Portal
- Amanda Tomé, Preservation Coordinator, Digital Research Alliance of Canada
- Natalie Vielfaure, Digital Curation Archivist, University of Manitoba Libraries
- Susan Haigh, CARL (ex officio)
- Elizabeth Kalbfleisch, CARL support & ARC liason
