Our Plugged In, Powered Up strategy sought to tackle issues and priorities identified through a large scale survey of over 300 archive professionals, carried out with Jisc at the beginning of 2019 and a series of focus groups, challenge panels and desk research.
The strategy focused on three main areas of digital archival work: engagement, access and preservation, with a fourth strand focusing on digital skills more widely – including advocacy, conversations with IT and the ability to make informed procurement decisions around software.
The National Archives delivered the project over 20 strands, including:
- Our Novice to Know-How digital preservation training, created by the Digital Preservation Coalition
- The first meetings (in person and online) of the new Digital Archives Learning Exchange (DALE)
- The delivery of the Archives School, a free taught programme in digital preservation, delivered at Kew
- A peer mentoring scheme for archivists looking to engage in more extensive digital work
- Digital preservation workflows to help archives process, preserve and manage born-digital content
- Case studies about digital preservation architecture and the digital journeys of different organisations
- Advocacy resources to help explain the importance of developing digital preservation, access and engagement skills
- Digital engagement grants as part of our Collaborate and Innovate funding scheme
- Supporting the British Library and Birkbeck, University of London, to develop a postgraduate certificate in Computing for Cultural Heritage