White paper: Two days dedicated to Dodging the Memory Hole

On Oct. 13–14, 2016, University of Missouri Libraries, in collaboration with the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, UCLA Library and the Educopia Institute, hosted Dodging the Memory Hole 2016: Saving online news at UCLA. The national forum was the fifth event in the DTMH series, which bring together stakeholders to address the theory and practice of born-digital news preservation. The goals of DTMH 2016 included the following:

• Produce and publish an outline for a proposed national agenda for preserving online born-digital news;
• Identify concrete roles for each stakeholder required to accomplish this agenda;
• Facilitate cooperation and knowledge sharing between news technologists and digital preservation experts;
• Examine how technology platforms such as content management systems (CMSs) can be adapted to work with existing digital preservation infrastructure;
• Better prepare students, especially those in library science, archival and museum studies, and information sciences, for the digital preservation needs of 21st Century journalism;
• Identify specific projects that will advance online preservation practice today.
This white paper summarizes the Dodging the Memory Hole 2016: Saving online news event, with overviews of the panels and presentations, details regarding the national agenda, projects produced by groups at the conference as well as projects produced by student scholarship recipients. The paper also outlines impact evaluation of the conference and an action agenda to facilitate work in the future.