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To Learn More Contact
Matt Schultz
Principal Investigator
Grand Valley State University Libraries
616-331-5072
schultzm@gvsu.edu

The goals of The Statewide & Regional Stepping Stones to the National Digital Platform Project are to conduct research and develop organizational resources to help establish and proliferate new collaborative and sustainable distributed digital preservation (DDP) networks across the country at the state/regional level where scaling to broader national networks has already been most effectively demonstrated.

A few noteworthy examples of successful state/regional networks that are already in existence include the Historically Black Colleges & University Library Alliance (HBCU LA), the Alabama Digital Preservation Network (ADPNet), the Indiana Digital Preservation Network (InDiPres), and the Texas Digital Library.

Building on these network exemplars and using Michigan as a testbed and starting point, this one-year planning grant (December 2018-November 2019) will produce a set of unique community-building resources to plan the state’s own future network and guide the launch of new networks at other state/regional levels.

Specifically, we will produce:

• Model Agreements (legal, financial, administrative, etc.);
• Policy Templates (content selection, data security, data privacy, etc.); and a
• Collaboration Toolkit (best practices on network building)

For national impact these project products will be developed as generalized, adaptable, yet comprehensive resources for addressing all of the unique opportunities and challenges that other states/regions might face in establishing and streamlining their own networks.

The project will achieve impact at both state/regional and national levels through rigorous evaluation by our state/regional partners and through strategically leveraging review and feedback from national-level communities like the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) and the Digital Library Federation (DLF).

See our Project Research page for details on how we will accomplish the ambitious goals of the project.