We offer regular workshops designed for professionals who steward digital assets and manage data in cultural heritage organisations and beyond. Our workshops provide hands-on experience with accessible software and hardware that can support digital preservation professionals in their practice. Our training also introduces attendees to key frameworks in fields across digital preservation, records management, and digital forensics that are vital to planning and delivery in an organisational setting.
Upskilling staff and ensuring their sustainable learning is an essential component of a successful digital preservation programme. Our workshops ensure that organisations in the cultural heritage sector, and beyond, are empowered to safeguard their collections into the future.
Current workshop rotation
Mastering Metadata for Digital Preservation
This workshop responds to a need to equip digital preservation professionals, archivists, librarians, data managers, and researchers with essential technical skills to efficiently clean, standardise, and enrich metadata to enhance and semi-automate their workflows.
Indicative Topics:
- Identifying and resolving issues in messy metadata using software such as OpenRefine.
- Enhancing metadata interoperability.
- Crosswalking between metadata standards (e.g., Dublin Core, MODS, MARC).
Foundations of Digital Preservation
This is a hands-on workshop designed to introduce the core concepts, tools, and workflows needed to preserve digital content with integrity and sustainability.
Indicative Topics:
- Identifying file formats using tools like DROID and Siegfried
- Understanding the structure of file formats and signatures through hexadecimal editors
- Converting proprietary files to open preservation-friendly formats
- Packaging and validating files for secure storage and transfer
- Ensuring long-term access through file integrity checks
Working with Legacy Media and Forensic Imaging
This hands-on workshop guides participants through the practical steps and tools needed to preserve data from floppy disks, CDs, and hard drives. Participants will gain an understanding of forensic imaging techniques used to capture digital content and facilitate long-term access.
Indicative topics:
- Understanding digital storage media and imaging concepts
- Safe handling and write blocking to prevent data alteration
- Imaging legacy media (e.g., CDs, floppy disks, hard drives) using both closed and open-source software and hardware
- Mounting images and considerations around access
Next Available Dates
View our next available dates via our Linktree or contact us at digitalpreservation@soton.ac.uk.