The BitCurator Consortium promotes the development of innovative, sustainable curation of born-digital materials by any organization responsible for caring for such materials. Our organizational vision is to address the articulated needs of the BCC community—training, collaboration, research, software development, documentation, integration, scripts—while advocating for the expansion of digital forensics practice worldwide.

BCC achieves its mission through the following activities:

  • Building a relationship network among archivists, curators, and librarians charged with preserving digital content
  • Hosting an annual forum
  • Compiling documentation and scripts
  • Conducting new research in digital forensics that addresses specific, practical member concerns
  • Developing advocacy and awareness materials and programs that articulate the unique value of digital forensics
  • Providing training and learning opportunities for professionals and students to develop needed skills and competencies
  • Gathering statistics that track trends, needs, and developments in digital forensics
  • Exploring collective arrangements that allow libraries, archives, and museums to negotiate effectively with key vendors

Governance and Strategic Directions

BCC Executive Council, standing committees, and staff work collaboratively while seeking input from BCC membership to guide the community in making progress towards its goals. From the outset, the BitCurator Consortium has been defined by sharing, knowledge exchange, and community support.

BitCurator Consortium Charter

The BCC charter was developed in 2014-2015 and revised via a community participation and voting process in 2020.
View Charter

Executive Council

This elected group provides top-level leadership on critical decisions, formalizes documentation, and ensures ongoing programmatic success.
View More

Strategic Directions

The Strategic Directions for 2022-2024 were guided by our governance structure and outline our priorities and activities over the next two years to ensure the sustainability, functionality, and ongoing relevance of the BitCurator environment, as well as the continued growth of digital forensics in cultural heritage institutions worldwide.

View Strategic Plan

Our Members

Membership in the BitCurator Consortium is open to institutions responsible for the curation of born-digital materials. We encourage you to contact us with any questions about the consortium.

Members

Charter Members

Commitments

The BCC is committed to fostering an open, inclusive, and safe environment.

BCC Code of Conduct

Inclusivity Statement


Committees and Groups

The activities of the BitCurator Consortium (BCC) standing committees and groups support the mission of the BCC and ensure our programmatic goals are achieved.

Committees and groups are comprised of volunteers from member organizations or as approved by group chairs and will make an annual call for new members.

Active Committees and Groups

Inactive Committees

History

Today’s libraries, archives, and museums actively acquire digital content in many forms and formats that demand attention and stabilization, from floppies to optical disks to hard drives.

To address these complex activities, the BitCurator open source software environment was developed under the leadership of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science and the University of Maryland, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities.

Timeline

2010

2010

Publication of Digital Forensics and Born-Digital Content in Cultural Heritage Collections (Washington DC: CLIR Report)

2011

2011

BitCurator project undertaken by the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (SILS) and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) and funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation

2012

2012

BitCurator Environment beta release

2013

2013

Publication of Born Digital: Guidance for Donors, Dealers, and Archival Repositories (Washington DC: CLIR Report)

2014

2014

BitCurator Consortium formed

2014

2014

BitCurator Access project undertaken by the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (SILS) and funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation

2015

2015

First BitCurator Users Forum hosted in Chapel Hill, NC

2016

2016

BitCurator NLP project undertaken by the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (SILS) and funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation

2018

2018

BitCuratorEdu project undertaken by the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (SILS) and the Educopia Institute and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

2019

2019

Consortium grows to over 30 members