Eastern Kentucky University Libraries Digital Preservation Consultation

FAIN: PG-233696-16

Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond, KY 40475-3102)
Jackie Couture (Project Director: May 2015 to February 2018)

A preservation assessment of digital collections maintained by the university library, comprising 5,500 items.  Materials include faculty research, student newspapers, photographs, manuscripts, and oral history recordings documenting the history of the university and surrounding eastern Kentucky region, in addition to supporting various fields of research interest among faculty. Among the subjects covered in digitized oral histories are Appalachian culture, transportation, farming, coal mining, politics, the Great Depression, and the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps.

EKU Libraries requests funds to hire a consultant to assist in the preparation of a Digital Preservation Plan to aid in long-term preservation of the Library's digital assets. These assets include the research, creative works, and history of Eastern Kentucky University that are found in the Encompass Digital Archive. The works in this archive span the breadth of the disciplines and majors at EKU, including those in the humanities. Equally important are the digital and digitized collections found in Special Collections and Archives. These collections offer students and researchers around the world unique resources to enhance social, cultural and political scholarship in the humanities. The ethnographic potential of these materials as well as the place based educational tools that they provide make them increasingly important to the Appalachian service region of Eastern Kentucky University.