The introduction to the MSU Digital Curation Planning Project included some possibly unfamiliar terms, such as “digital curation.” Besides providing information and updates on the project itself, this website seeks to offer resources that will help to educate the University community about the research and concepts that inform the project. One great resource on the preservation and management of digital assets is the “Digital Preservation Management: Implementing Short-term Strategies for Long-term Problems” tutorial. More educational resources will be posted on the Resources page of the website. (If a good resource you know of isn’t posted there, please contact Lisa Schmidt at lisa.schmidt@matrix.msu.edu or leave it in the comment section.)
And what exactly is “digital curation”? According to the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), digital curation is “the active management and enhancement of trusted digital resources across the life cycle.” In a word, proper curation ensures that digital objects such as computer files are captured, stored, preserved, and made accessible for the long term.