digital curation and curating digitally

i spent several days this past week with a group (primarily comprised of archivists and librarians it seemed) celebrating the launch of a Digital Curation Institute at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information.

within the world of libraries and archives 'digital curation' has come to stand for the active management of electronic records and digital archives. it's a post-facto approach to the custody of a digital legacy

this a far cry from the kinds of things that museums do when they think about curating digitally. this is one place where Library-Archive-Museum convergence isn't happening. ... as i've said before, user models in these three types of institutions are very different, and that has a strong influence on programs and policy.

throughout the week i spoke for an active definition of curation, that included the strongly felt responsibility to interpet, and to create an on-going engagement with collections that constantly re-presents them in new contexts, institutional and personal. curation is not just about keeping.

here are the slides from my talk.