Digital Preservation Working Group

The Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG), 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 promoting relevant approaches, standards, practices, and technologies, and liaising 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) (2018-2024; now inactive). 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.