The 2010 Best Practices Exchange will take place in Phoenix, Arizona, Wednesday, 29 September through Friday, 1 October. The program may also include a one day pre-conference workshop on digital preservation management. The presentations are collaborative and informal. The program will include a variety of tracks covering all aspects of digital curation:
The program will feature presentations from the four States Initiatives projects funded by the Library of Congress, National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). The projects include:
New York State hosted “Tackling Technology Together: Best Practices Exchange 2009” in Albany—the founding settlement of New Netherland and the crossroads of the Northeast—at the University at Albany, State University of New York, on 2-4 September 2009. The Best Practices Exchange (BPE) brought together archivists, attorneys, information technology professionals, librarians, educators, product developers, records managers, and others interested in the management and preservation of digital information in state government. .
The Montana State Library, the Montana Historical Society Research Center, the State Law Library of Montana and the Montana Records and Information Management Division of the Secretary of State’s Office hosted the third annual Exchange May 21-23 in Helena. Attending were 83 information professionals from 25 states. 37 presentations were offered covering 5 tracks: Identification & Acquisition, Description, Discovery & Access, Collection Management & Preservation and Project Management. The keynote speaker was Roy Tennant, Senior Program Manager, OCLC. Other guests speakers included Sara Groves, MSL Marketing and Communications Coordinator, and Lucy Barber, National Historical Publications and Records Commission Direct for Technology Initiatives who spoke on marketing and grant writing. Attendee notes from the sessions are posted in the forum.
The second annual conference was hosted by the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records and held at the San Marcos Hotel in Chandler, Arizona. The Exchange was attended by approximately 100 librarians and archivists from 32 states. The two and a half day event included 56 presentations covering 6 subject tracks: Metadata and Discovery, Access, Preservation, Technology, Project Management and Outreach, and Emerging Issues. Brewster Kahle of Internet Archive and Commissioner Jeff Hatch-Miller of the Arizona Corporation Commission were on hand as guest speakers. Presentation materials that have been posted online can be found at http://www.bpexchange.org/2007/presentations_chron.htm and attendee notes from the sessions are posted in the forum.
The State Library of North Carolina and the North Carolina State Archives hosted the first annual Best Practices Exchange in 2006 at the Hilton Hotel in charming Wilmington, North Carolina.