POWRR Institutes Planning Progress Report

On July 1st, Digital POWRR formally entered Phase 3 of its work thanks to generous grant funding from the IMLS‘s Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. Project staff are currently in the thick of planning and organizing the five two-day long professional institutes that will be held over the course of the next two years. The Institutes continue the POWRR mission of empowering librarians and archivists from small and mid-sized institutions to build skills for curating and preserving digital collections, and can also be viewed as a logical expansion of the original POWRR workshop series. Institutes will incorporate lectures and discussions with expert practitioners drawn from the field, hands-on technical training, engagement with institutional case studies, and one-on-one consultation with instructors on the development of a personalized and actionable digital preservation plan for each participant. Institutes will utilize a modified cohort model to encourage attendees to form communities of practice that will continue after the conclusion of the Institutes.

As was the case with prior POWRR workshops, the Institutes will be offered to participants completely free of charge, and financial assistance to help cover travel and lodging expenses will be offered to participants demonstrating need. Attendance at each event will be limited to 30 participants due to the highly intensive nature of the Institute. Because of this limitation, project staff will utilize an application process to choose attendees who are best suited for the opportunity. POWRR hopes to especially encourage attendance by those serving ethnically and geographically-defined populations that have often struggled to preserve their materials, in part due to a lack of financial resources and available expertise.

Although we do not have firm dates or precise locations nailed down, we can share with you the general timeline we are operating off of for the events at this time. Be assured that staff are currently working with our collaborating institutions (Historically Black Colleges and Universities Library Alliance, the Sustainable Heritage Network, the Appalachian College Association, and the American Association for State and Local History) to nail down the particulars, and we will make those available as details come together for each event.

Stay tuned for an update shortly, as applications for the first POWRR Institute will be available on August 28th!

Upcoming Institute locations and dates:

November 30-December 1, 2017 – Chicago, Illinois area

Late winter/Early spring 2018 – Phoenix, Arizona

Summer 2018 – location TBD

Early October 2018: Atlanta, Georgia

Late winter/early spring 2019: Southern CA