After a successful two-year seed funded period, the Software Preservation Network (SPN) is now welcoming new members for the year 2021 and beyond. By investing $5,000 per year, your organization will join a vibrant community of practice committed to ensuring long-term access to software through community engagement, infrastructure support, and knowledge generation. 

Since 2016, SPN has united colleagues from design firms, history of computing museums, research data repositories, university libraries, art museums, and the open source software community around critical questions and collaborative solutions to software preservation challenges. In January 2019, SPN launched a two-year seed funded effort to secure SPN as a sustainable, community-owned organization. Over the last two years, SPN has successfully cultivated a healthy community of practice focused on building field-level capacity for long-term access and reuse of software. SPN members design and complete research into evolving practice, affiliated projects and working groups identify common needs that allow SPN member organizations to make strategic digital curation decisions, and the nimble SPN staff provides the training and coordination necessary to distribute software preservation skills across a broader set of individuals. 

As we look to the future, we recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic is presenting unprecedented challenges to organizations and individuals across the information stewardship landscape. The pandemic is also highlighting the critical role that member communities play in organizational resilience and continuing support of the research enterprise. 

By investing in SPN, your organization will join a network of software preservation professionals that are distributing the risk and lowering the actual cost of the work for any one organization, while simultaneously sharing ownership over the strategic direction of the field and the use of collective resources.

If you would like an opportunity to ask questions and hear directly from SPN members and staff, register for our upcoming virtual info session on September 17 at 12:00 pm ET. In the meantime, for more information on the Software Preservation Network, check out our membership flyer, visit our Get Involved page, or reach out to SPN’s community facilitator, Jess Farrell, at <jess.farrell@educopia.org>.

The SPN Return on Investment: What are our members saying?

 

"SPN is a unique organization—it brings people together from a broader swath of the landscape than other digital preservation/curation communities. We are a community of various institutional and international perspectives, unbound by the silos and hierarchy that can limit this kind of transformational work." Quote by Wendy Hagenmaier, Georgia Tech.
SPN is a unique organization—it brings people together from a broader swath of the landscape than other digital preservation/curation communities. We are a community of various institutional and international perspectives, unbound by the silos and hierarchy that can limit this kind of transformational work.” -Wendy Hagenmaier, Georgia Tech.

 

"The University of Arizona Libraries has found tremendous value in SPN membership via the Fostering Communities of Practice project where we connected the Network’s expertise with the work of local software preservation practitioners and the Libraries’ Digital Preservation Lab. Our Lab has also benefited from SPN through access to the EaaSI platform, which is helping us explore software-specific digital preservation workflows." Quote by Sarah Shreeves, University of Arizona.
The University of Arizona Libraries has found tremendous value in SPN membership via the Fostering Communities of Practice project where we connected the Network’s expertise with the work of local software preservation practitioners and the Libraries’ Digital Preservation Lab. Our Lab has also benefited from SPN through access to the EaaSI platform, which is helping us explore software-specific digital preservation workflows.” -Sarah Shreeves, University of Arizona

 

"SPN has been a phenomenal community to be a part of, especially because of the many types of institutions involved. Having a lot of different GLAMs involved means that the strategies for scaffolding legal, technical, and social infrastructure will be more robust and adopt-able by many, which ultimately helps the entire software preservation endeavor." Quote by Vicky Steeves, New York University
“SPN has been a phenomenal community to be a part of, especially because of the many types of institutions involved. Having a lot of different GLAMs involved means that the strategies for scaffolding legal, technical, and social infrastructure will be more robust and adopt-able by many, which ultimately helps the entire software preservation endeavor.” -Vicky Steeves, New York University

 

Preferred citation:

Software Preservation Network. Saving Software, Together: SPN Welcomes New Members for 2021 and Beyond. Software Preservation Network. https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/join-spn-2021/