Hey North Carolina librarians, next week I”ll be kicking off a four-part webinar series on Digital Preservation. Brought to you by ASERL, the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries, these webinars are targeted toward those preserving digital content as part of their jobs, but are open to all. They’re presented by professionals from all over the country. And they’re FREE.

Here’s a synopsis of the four webinars. If you’re interested, I hope you can make it!

“Preservation Planning and Overview of PREMIS for Beginners”
Speaker = Lisa Gregory, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.
This webinar is designed to help participants begin formulating a digital preservation plan for their digital collections. Even if you already have files accumulating, planning and implementing basic digital preservation strategies doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Topics to be covered include what to consider during planning, first steps for implementation, as well as a basic introduction to PREMIS, the Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata.  The goal will be to help you start thinking about preservation as part of your everyday digital workflow.
DATE:  Tuesday, April 2, 2013  |  11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
REGISTER:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/784245138

“Forbearing the Digital Dark Age: Capturing Metadata for Digital Objects”
Speaker = Chris Dietrich, National Park Service.
Metadata is the key to both discovery and long-term accessibility of digital content. This webinar will address metadata for digital photos, documents, audio-video, tabular data, and GIS data. Topics include categories of metadata, metadata standards for different asset types, metadata capture strategies, and metadata software tools. Links to additional resources for digital preservationists will also be provided.
DATE:  Tuesday, April 9, 2013  |  11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
REGISTER:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/545077562

“Management of Incoming Born-Digital Special Collections”
Speaker = Gretchen Gueguen, University of Virginia.
This webinar will cover the basics of getting started with managing born-digital archives. Through basic techniques and practical suggestions, you will learn how to assess your collection, develop a management plan, put basic policies in place, and set up an accessioning workflow. Simple tools to help you do the job will be reviewed along with guides and other resources to help answer your questions.
DATE:  Tuesday, April 16, 2013  |  11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
REGISTER:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/366765338

“Using FITS to Identify File Formats and Extract Metadata”
Speaker = Andrea Goethals, Harvard University.
After an introduction to file formats and technical metadata, a demo of the File Information Tool Set (FITS) will be given. You will learn what it does, how it differs from other format tools, how to use it, how to customize it and how Harvard is using FITS in different ways. No experience with FITS is necessary but if you would like to try it out in advance you can download it from http://code.google.com/p/fits/
DATE:  Tuesday, April 30, 2013  |  11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
REGISTER:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/305875426