The Regional Impact Committee Recommends…

Check out these sessions on digital preservation in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific!

Digital Preservation staff from National Library, Archives New Zealand, Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, and Te Papa Tongarewa in front of Te Wehenga (The Separation) by Cliff Whiting, on the ground floor of Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library of New Zealand.

iPRES conferences are held in rotation around the globe, but this year’s conference is the first time it’s been held in Aotearoa New Zealand, and only the second time in the Southern hemisphere, after Naarm, Melbourne, Australia in 2014. Holding iPRES 2025 in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington presented a unique opportunity to build connections and share digital preservation knowledge and practice across Aotearoa, Australia, and the Pacific, as well as to share our local context with the rest of the world.

On behalf of the Regional Impact Committee, we are so excited to welcome delegates to iPRES 2025 in Wellington and online! Like many of you, we are eagerly exploring the programme and choosing sessions to attend. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to highlight a few of the sessions that the Regional Impact Committee has helped to develop.

The Regional Impact Committee is charged with ensuring that the concentration of digital preservation knowledge and experience that iPRES will bring has a lasting benefit in the region. Committee members have spent the past year delving into the question: 

What digital preservation activities could have a lasting impact to our region, and in particular for under-resourced GLAMIR (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, Iwi, and Records) organisations?

One idea was to put forward iPRES Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions that would allow an exchange of ideas around issues of particular interest to digital preservation practitioners in Aotearoa NZ, Australia, and the wider Pacific. As a result, the Regional Impact Committee is thrilled to recommend the following panels and Birds of a Feather sessions, which were coordinated through the Committee:

• PANEL 2: Stories From the Region: Pragmatic Digital Preservation 

• BIRDS OF A FEATHER 15: Developing an Advocacy Toolkit for promoting IP/Copyright law changes to support digital preservation 

• BIRDS OF A FEATHER Session 16: Pragmatic Digital Preservation in the Pacific: Continuing the Conversation

• BIRDS OF A FEATHER 20: Developing shared regional services for digitisation and digital preservation 

If you are looking for more sessions on digital preservation in the region, also be sure to check these out! While the Regional Impact Committee was not involved in their creation, we are thrilled to see so many sessions supporting this important mahi (work): 

• PANEL 3: AusEAASI In Practice: Emulation Use Cases from Australia

• PANEL 5: From the South: A New Alignment for Digital Preservation

• BIRDS OF A FEATHER 21: No money no resources! How can we make digitisation simple and work within our means

• BIRDS OF A FEATHER 19: Solesolevaki; an indigenous Fijian concept of community effort; many hands make light work.

• PANEL 7: Preservation.exe: Working with ICT in Digital Preservation

• PAPER SESSION 17: Shared Futures: Collaboration Across Cultures and Domains

And of course, our Opening and Closing Keynotes showcase the unique context of digital preservation in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific. 

Another way in which the Regional Impact Committee is building capability within the region is by building relationships and working with Te Pūranga, PARBICA, Australasia Preserves, DPC Australasia, and other regional organisations, so digital preservation outreach activities can continue even after iPRES 2025 is over. Stay tuned for more information about what comes next for the Regional Impact Committee, and its plans for 2026 and beyond...