New Digital Asset Register Toolkit and Course Now Available!

The new toolkit has been produced as part of the capacity building element of the 'Our Digital Century' program from The National Archives (UK). Caroline Catchpole, Digital Capacity Development Officer with The National Archives (UK), said “the creation and maintenance of a digital asset register is a key part of an organisation’s digital preservation activity. We wanted to create a resource that provided everything needed to get started, enabling practitioners to build their organisation’s digital preservation resilience and capacity. We’re delighted to have been able to collaborate with the DPC on this new resource.”

The Digital Preservation Coalition was commissioned to deliver the toolkit and accompanying resources, with work starting in November 2023. The toolkit includes an introduction to what a DAR is and why it is useful to have one, a step-by-step guide to building and maintaining a DAR, a recommended basic set of information elements to be captured, and guidance on how to capture the information to complete your DAR. It is also accompanied by a template to help plan how to build your DAR, as well as a template for a DAR itself. The DAR template includes descriptions of the information to capture in each field (including example entries), a dashboard that automatically generates stats on your digital content, and guidance on how to edit the template and dashboard. The self-directed online course provides an additional way to consume the guidance, for those who prefer modular learning to reading a longer document.

The toolkit is now available online at the DPC website and as a downloadable PDF, and registration is open for the self-directed course via the DPC’s learning portal. There is also an upcoming #DPClinic event which will delve into the production of the toolkit, its contents, and how to use the accompanying resources.

Find out more on: https://www.dpconline.org/news/dar-toolkit-and-course