The Python Study Group is organized to support archivists and digital preservation practitioners learning Python programming. Our goal is to create a welcoming study space that focuses specifically on the cultivation of skills supporting library and archives’ tasks and workflows.

This group aims to establish and foster an open and non-judgmental space that supports accountability for practitioners as they learn and implement Python together. Following our Summer 2021 pilot phase, we look forward to opening up participation to a much broader audience of archivists, librarians, and digital preservation practitioners–we hope you will join us!

Python Study Group Startup Coordinators:

  • Shira Peltzman, Digital Archivist, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Jessica Farrell, Community Facilitator, Educopia Institute
  • David Cirella, Yale University Libraries
  • Sara Thomson, University of Edinburgh
  • Dorothy Waugh, University of York
  • John Moran, Term Archivist, University of British Columbia
  • Kathryn Slover, Digital Archivist, University of Texas at Arlington
  • Juulia Ahvensalmi, St. George’s University of London
  • Liz Holdzkom, Digital Collections Specialist, Library of Congress
  • Allison Olsen, Digital Archivist, University of Pennsylvania
  • Elizabeth Walker, Digital Archivist, Yukon Government
  • Louise Pichel, Assistant Archivist, Museum of Freemasonry
  • Emily Sommers, Digital Records Archivist, University of Toronto
  • Dianne Dietrich, Digital Projects Librarian, Cornell University
  • Sharon McMeekin, Head of Workforce Development, Digital Preservation Coalition
  • Paul Wheatley, Head of Research and Practice, Digital Preservation Coalition

Resources and News

An Update on the Python Study Group Pilot

Python Study Group

Happy World Digital Preservation Day!  Today, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) and the BitCurator Consortium (BCC) are excited to announce the transition of the BCC’s Python Study Groups pilot to a program and a new benefit for DPC and BCC members hosted by the DPC. … Read more →

BCC Launches Python Study Group Pilot

Python Study Group

If you were able to attend the 2020 BitCurator User Forum, you may recall that participants expressed keen interest in the possibility of a study group to support archivists and digital preservation practitioners learning Python. This lively discussion emerged during the session “Jargon of/and pedagogy: … Read more →

BitCurator Consortium Documentation

Python Study Group Motivation and Goals

Python Study Group

As Jane Austen once wrote, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that scripting and coding skills have the potential to create efficiencies and improvements in all kinds of digital archives and digital preservation workflows.” Or at least she might have if she were an archivist … Read more →

View all Python

Become a member

Membership is open to libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions worldwide that seek a collaborative community within which they may explore and apply forensics approaches and solutions to their digital collections.

Join Today