Dsg 2015-01-029

Announcements

Jim will discuss the DSG's use of Podio at next week's DSG meeting. Ernesto Valencia is available to stop by to hear more about how we are using Podio.

DRS Project Toolkit CFP Updates

The DRS Project Toolkit CFP was circulated and discussed with the library's department liaisons. Feedback on the CFP concerned:

• the time frame of the submissions period. The DSG decided to extend the deadline for the CFP to Monday, March 30.
• the short length of the CFP and whether this would be clear to applicants. Julia mentioned that the CFP is similar to Tier 1 grant applications, so interested faculty should not be surprised by the brevity of the form.
• Additional feedback led to minor modifications to the form: asking applicants to specify their status (faculty, staff, grad student), removing the option for attachments.
• More broadly, we discussed the importance of keeping liaisons in the loop of DSG projects and initiatives. Names of various liaisons should be updated to Podio, and communication should be regular / ongoing with liaisons so that they can keep departments informed on relevant DSG initiatives / notify the DSG of potential collaborators.

We also discussed the circulation of the CFP / the mechanics of doing so. Specifically:

• E-mailing liaisons (using the channels they have for communication with departments)
• Twitter (both our own account and submitting Twitter content to Jen Anderle for her accounts; Jim will do this.
• Blog: Sarah Sweeney will write a brief blog post, which we will then push through to the library's main blog.
• The NUDigital listserv, an e-mail to NULab faculty, a message to BostonDH (after projects are accepted to highlight work being done with the DSG).

Annual Project Review Plans / Updates

The rest of our meeting centered on a discussion of plans for DSG annual project review work / areas the DSG might want to focus on in this process. Specifically, Amanda outlined:

• Updates on administrative matters tied to projects: ensuring we have up-to-date information on students working on projects, when students are graduating / leaving projects, changes in management, etc.
• Encouragement of best practices: ensuring that projects are disciplined in particular areas (preservation, documentation, project management)
• Encouragement of community participation

We had a specific discussion about preservation efforts on DSG projects / checking in to make sure that projects were thinking about these issues and employing best practices:

• We discussed the need for an area on the DSG site where we provided information on preservation: there's a need to let projects know what is already being captured by the library and what content they might want to save in addition to this material.
• We talked about the use of Archive-It by Archives and Special Collections: there are costs tied to its use at certain points (which we need to clarify with Michelle Romero). Julia noted that the DSG and its projects should think of Archive-It as a memory strategy, not a sustainability strategy.

We also discussed the implementation of annual reports for projects to inform the DSG of pertinent information and updates. We would like projects to provide us with some of these updates in a manner suitable to a blog post that we can share with the public. The update form could be created in Podio via the Webform app.

• In terms of timeline, we anticipate requesting project updates / documentation in April / May.
• We also discussed scheduling meetings around this time between project leads, DSG staff, and relevant library liaisons to keep everyone updated on progress. Jim will attend these meetings, in addition to a rotation of DSG staff (the idea here being that staff members who work with particular projects might have the opportunity to get a sense of the wider scope of the DSG).