The District of Columbia Library Association hosted an excellent presentation and discussion this week on digital preservation and the progress that has been made over the past 10 years through the Library of Congress National Digitial Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP). Barrie Howard, a Project Management Professional working on the NDIIPP program presented a summary of the program to date and highlighted some of the innovative tools and resources that have been developed through the NDIIPP program.

Over 30 people attended the session, hosted by DCLA-Board Member Jessica McGilvray at the ALA Washington Offices in Dupont Circle. Attendees came from a wide variety of libraries and experiences but everyone walked away with a broad understanding of the challenges of digital preservation as well as the rewards of preserving our cultural heritage. Mr. Howard talked about a number of efforts the Library of Congress has undertaken in the name of digital preservation including the establishment of standards, the development of tools, and a variety of pilot projects including archiving the entire contents of Twitter.

This free event happened just down the street from the Computers in Libraries (CIL) Conference where 2,000 people had traveled to Washington, DC to learn from similar sessions. DCLA's program complemented the CIL event and offered the library community something we all need: a chance to learn from our peers. This event was the final event for the DCLA Emerging Technology Interest Group (ETIG) for the 2010/2011 program calendar. The ETIG was co-chaired this year by Sally Stokes and Judine Slaughter. New co-chairs are being sought for the 2011/2012 program calendar and the ETIG will begin to plan new events as early as this summer.

The next DCLA event is scheduled for Saturday, April 2, 2011. The event is a workshop about creating Sister Libraries between local libraries and libraries in communities all over the globe. Registration is now open for that event as well as for the April 29 Joint Spring Workshop. This year's Joint Spring Workshop is about Strategic Planning for Libraries. For more information about upcoming DCLA events, visit the calendar at: http://www.dcla.org/calendar