Research-in-Practice

Overview

The Software Preservation Network endeavors to ensure that research and memory institutions and related entities understand the rapidly changing landscape of software preservation so they may make informed decisions about their collections, workflows, and service portfolios. Through our affiliated projects and the focused work of the Research-in-Practice Working Group, SPN infuses all of its work with a powerful combination of curiosity and rigor. 

Working Group

In support of the Software Preservation Network’s (SPN) mission to preserve software through community engagement, infrastructure support, and knowledge generation, the Research Working Group facilitates research projects that bring individuals and organizations with diverse perspectives and interests together to document and analyze the landscape of software preservation and access. The Working Group aims to explore frameworks for sustainable, transparent, community-based research and to advocate for innovative models of research that accelerates practice. Research Working Group members also play a crucial advisory role in research activities initiated by other SPN Working Groups.

Members: Claire Fox, Yale University; Dan Johnson, University of Notre Dame; Wendy Hagenmaier, Yale University; Cynde Moya, Swinburne University of Technology

Past Members: Alexandra Chassanoff, MIT Libraries; Seth Erickson, University of California Santa Barbara; Jessica Benner, Carnegie Mellon University; Eric Kaltman, California State University Channel Islands; Monique Lassere, University of Arizona; Katherine Thornton, Yale University; Christa Williford, Council for Library and Information Resources; Lauren Work, University of Virginia

Current goals:

• Create a resource for the SPN website by the end of 2024 to index which organizations are collecting which software titles and types. This data would be used during 2025-2026 to develop a strategy for collaborative software collection development that empowers documentation of the diversity of software creators and users.
• Collaborate with allied communities of practice and partner organizations to host a virtual writing “sprint” in 2025 to produce guidance materials for practitioners in research and memory organizations who seek to curate, preserve, and provide research access to software.

Past research:

• Supporting Software Preservation Services in Research and Memory Organizations, a survey- and interview-based study of concepts, skill sets, barriers, and future directions related to software preservation work in research and memory organizations, conducted from 2019-2022.

Resources