iPRES 2025 April Newsletter

Kia ora iPRES Enthusiasts!

A native Kea at Ngā Manu nature reserve. — A native kea at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve in Waikanae, north of Wellington on the Kāpiti Coast. Image credit: WellingtonNZ.

Message from the Conference Chairs

April is here, and we cannot wait to see your submissions! Full Papers, Short Papers, Workshops, Tutorials, Panels, and Poster submissions are all due 14 April, End of day, Anywhere on Earth (AoE). On behalf of the Conference Chairs and Programme Committee Co-Chairs, we are incredibly grateful to everyone who is working on submissions and/or has signed up to be a part of the review process - we could not put on iPRES without you!

There is still time to sign up to be a reviewer if you haven’t already - please fill out the iPRES 2025 Reviewer Form so that we can assign you to submissions that best match your expertise and preferences. We expect to assign approximately three submissions per reviewer; however, this number may vary depending on the total number of submissions. Reviews must be submitted by 23 May 2025, End of Day, Anywhere on Earth. As organisers, we aim to make iPRES 2025 an inclusive, collaborative, caring, and respectful community event for everyone. We ask all those who are participating in any iPRES event or within the iPRES community to be constructive, accepting, and sensitive to the needs and feelings of others. We are a diverse community from a wide range of social, cultural, and professional backgrounds that is committed to inclusivity, accessibility, free expression of ideas, and creating an experience in which everyone feels welcome to learn and exchange ideas in an environment of mutual respect. Our full Diversity and Inclusion statement is now available on the conference website. The iPRES Code of Conduct applies to all meetings, events, working groups, social events, online communication channels (including social media), and other activities organised by or affiliated with iPRES in person, online or in a hybrid model. It also applies to all pre-conference activities, committee meetings, review panels, and planning sessions.

Together, we look forward to building an amazing iPRES conference! – Andrea Goethals (Conference Chair); Valerie Love, Jan Hutař, and Martin Gengenbach (Conference Vice-Chairs)

All about submissions

The 14 April submission deadline is coming up soon for Full Papers, Short Papers, Workshops, Tutorials, Panels, and Poster submissions. Don’t miss out! All submissions must use the iPRES 2025 online submission portal. To use the portal, you'll need to create a login, by entering your email and setting a password. If you have an EventsAir account from a previous event, you’ll still need to create a new account for this conference.

The templates for submissions are available here:

You’ll need to have an ORCID iD as part of the submission process. ORCID iDs uniquely identify researchers and link them to their work and affiliations. If you don’t currently have an ORCID iD, you can register for one for free. Please use the full ORCID format with the https:// prefix, e.g. https://orcid.org/1234-5678-9012-3456, where it asks you to supply your ORCID iD in the submission portal. While we strongly encourage on-site participation for those presenting on the programme to maximise engagement between presenters and attendees, remote presentation opportunities will be available as well. Upon acceptance, the Programme Committee will contact authors to confirm whether the submission will be presented in-person or remotely and schedule accordingly.

Presenting authors of accepted contributions - including remote participants - must register for the conference to confirm their space on the programme. Conference registration will open in June 2025.

Last minute tips for iPRES session types

Papers (Full and Short)

Papers are the core of iPRES conference. They allow you to present your digital preservation activities and research in detail. Read more about what Barbara Signori and Sibyl Schaefer, iPRES 2025 Programme Committee Co-Chairs for Papers and Panels, had to say about submitting a paper for iPRES.

Posters

Posters provide the opportunity to engage directly with conference attendees and highlight emerging issues, works in progress, case studies or projects. Matthew Burgess and Hannah Wang, iPRES 2025 Programme Committee Posters & Lightning Talks Co-Chairs, recently shared some tips and resources for poster contributions on the iPRES website news page.

Poster submissions require an extended abstract that should provide a clear summary of your poster. This includes the topic, key findings or insights, and its relevance to the field of digital preservation.

Poster submissions use the same Microsoft Word Document (.docx) template as Full and Short Papers, and can be up to two (2) pages in length. As with other peer-reviewed contributions, accepted poster abstracts will be included in the conference proceedings.

Workshops, Tutorials, and Panels

Workshop, Tutorial, and Panel submissions use the Workshop, Panel, Tutorial Template, and can be up to two (2) pages in length. The proposal should cover session goals, target audience, format (e.g., hands-on, discussion), presenters (including facilitator if applicable), preferred duration, and any special requirements (e.g., software, space). Successful proposals have the following characteristics:

Workshops: Focus on interactive, hands-on engagement with tools or best practices.
Tutorials: Structured educational sessions aimed at teaching skills relevant to digital preservation.
Panels: Focus on interactive discussions about significant issues or trends in digital preservation.

Read more tips and advice on putting together panel proposals here . For Workshops and Tutorials that are recurring submissions from previous iPRES conferences, please describe whether the material has been significantly updated, so attendees can determine whether to revisit them. For more submission tips and answers to all things iPRES, check out our FAQ page.

Review process

So you’ve put in your submission - what happens next? The iPRES Programme Committee Chairs will arrange for reviewers for all submissions following the close of the first Call for Contributions on 14 April.

Submissions will be assigned to their reviewers no later than 24 April. Peer-review of submissions is scheduled for 28 April - 23 May 2025, with reviews due 23 May 2025, End of Day, Anywhere on Earth. Following the completion of the peer-review, the Programme Committee Chairs will determine which submissions are accepted for the conference based on the scores and comments provided by reviewers. In the event that a submission has received divergent reviews, the Committee Chairs will conduct additional review of those submissions to ensure quality and consistency across the review process.

Authors will be notified of acceptance from 3 June 2025 onward. The conference organisation timeline is available on the Important Dates page on the website.

Sponsor spotlight

Nau mai, haere mai - a very warm welcome to our first set of Kea Sponsors for iPRES 2025!

The Kea, a large parrot endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand’s South Island, is known for its intelligence and adaptability. Kea thrive in rugged alpine environments, using curiosity and ingenuity to survive. Famous for their intellectual prowess in observational learning and solving complex tasks, Kea are considered one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most resilient native birds. Learn more about the Kea on the Department of Conservation’s website. Kea embody the spirit of innovation and resourcefulness, much like the dynamic field of digital preservation, where creativity and problem-solving are paramount. We are proud to introduce the first set of Kea (Gold) Sponsors for iPRES 2025: Clarivate has been revolutionising library technology through connection, collaboration, and innovation. Their products and services help public, academic, government, and specialty libraries, as well as library consortia, modernise in support of the unique communities they serve. With Rosetta’s preservation and digital asset management software and solution, libraries can preserve and showcase their collection of assets, from born-digital to digitised, in a collaborative and simplified way. Rosetta provides a scalable infrastructure that addresses the need to preserve and manage ever-growing digital collections.

Libnova was founded in 2009 with a mission to offer maximum protection for digital assets. Their Libsafe technology, continually refined through research and innovation, represents a cutting-edge digital preservation platform. Over the years, they’ve expanded the boundaries of digital preservation, integrating advancements like machine learning, which streamlines various phases of the preservation process. Today, institutions of all sizes benefit from Libnova’s advanced technology, ensuring their content is safeguarded effectively.

Preservica is changing the way organizations around the world protect and reuse long-term digital information. Their unique Active Digital Preservation software automatically keeps every file alive in future-friendly formats which means you can always access the content you need. Thousands of business, government, academic and cultural organizations trust their proven cloud-hosted platform to safeguard their most valuable digital content. Preservica’s vision is a world where digital preservation is easy and automated, available to institutions of all sizes, and a seamless part of the systems that manage our digital records. We’ll be sharing information about additional sponsors for iPRES 2025 in upcoming newsletters, so stay tuned!

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to partner with iPRES 2025 in Wellington and connect with an international audience of practitioners, researchers, and strategists dedicated to advancing the preservation of our shared digital heritage. There are a variety of sponsorship opportunities available, with both in-person and virtual options to make your organisation stand out at iPRES 2025. You can now book your sponsorship package online.

Even more reasons to come to Wellington this November!

A number of related events and meetups are being planned in Wellington around the conference to allow in-person iPRES attendees maximum impact and engagement, as well as the chance for us to celebrate World Digital Preservation Day on 6 November 2025 together! Here are just some of the kindred events being planned in Wellington around the 2025 iPRES conference:

Rosetta User Group (RUG) annual meeting, 29-31 October 2025
World Digital Preservation Day activities, 6 November 2025
Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) Member Forum and Networking Event, 7 November 2025
And more!

If you would be interested in holding a kindred event at iPRES 2025 in Wellington, please get in touch.

Make sure to check out our website for information on travel to Aotearoa New Zealand, flight discounts and air travel information, getting around Wellington, and accommodation options.

Stay up to date with iPRES!

If you have been forwarded this email, do subscribe to the iPRES Interest mailing list at https://bit.ly/ipres-interest. Have a read through our previous newsletters on the website, or check out the news section of the website with latest blog posts as well.

You can also follow official iPRES 2025 accounts on social media on LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon, Instagram, and YouTube, or follow the hashtag, #iPRES2025.

Look out for the May newsletter, which will include more information about our sustainability efforts and some of the ways we’ll be embedding Aotearoa New Zealand’s unique Māori indigenous culture into the heart of the conference.

Whakatauki / Māori proverb

Whāia e koe te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe, me he maunga teitei Pursue excellence – should you stumble, let it be to a lofty mountain

Ngā manaakitanga / With best wishes, The Programme Committee Co-Chairs:

Andrea Goethals, Angela Puggioni, Barbara Signori, Hannah Wang, Jan Hutař, Matthew Burgess, Micky Lindlar, Sharon McMeekin, Sibyl Schaefer, Tricia Patterson, and Valerie Love