The Framing the Digital Curation Curriculum Conference, held in the grand surroundings of Banca CR Firenze, Florence on 6-7 May 2013, was organised by the DigCurV project funded by the European Commission’s Leonardo da Vinci programme to establish a curriculum framework for vocational training for digital curators in the library, archive, museum and cultural heritage sectors.
The aim of the conference was to promote discussion and consensus-building amongst stakeholders about criteria and requirements necessary to develop training courses for professionals in digital curation and preservation in the cultural heritage sector.
It is possible to argue that digital curation curriculum development in North American library schools is at a more advanced stage than their UK equivalents nevertheless there was a strong Scottish presence at the conference with thought-provoking presentations by William Kilbride (Executive Director, Digital Preservation Coalition) – A future with no history meets a history with no future: how much do we need to know about digital preservation and by Laura Molloy and Ann Gow (HATII, University of Glasgow) – the Curriculum Framework as well as a presentation on the ‘DIY’ RDM Training Kit for Librarians, developed at EDINA & Data Library in conjunction with User Services Division, given by yours truly.
In keeping with this preservation theme there’s a commonly accepted theory that you will not find the British royal family in the same place at the same time in case of an assasination attempt, terrorist attack, or natural disaster. With this, and the threateningly large, heavy yet impressive chandelier in mind (see picture above), it was encouraging to observe that the assembled digital curation curriculum and preservation expertise was dispersed throughout the auditorium lest a loose ceiling screw could have resulted in all existing knowledge in this area being lost in one fell swoop!!
All presentations are available on the conference website: http://www.digcur-education.org/eng/International-Conference/Programme
Stuart Macdonald
Associate Data Librarian