UMaine Online

What is Digital Curation?

To study digital curation is to learn how to acquire, organize, present, and preserve information and culture in the age of new media and the Internet. Whether you work in an archive, museum, library, studio, business, doctor’s office, or government office, you’ll learn how to collect, make accessible via database and website, and preserve digital assets ranging from videotapes to photographs to textual records.

Innovative teaching tools

Although taught entirely online, all classes in the program make use of interactive online resources to teach hands-on skills along with broader knowledge about the field. The EAB report highlights the University of Maine’s “free online tutorials that foster individualized learning” to help accommodate “students’ varying levels of technological knowledge.”

UMaine is also one of the only programs to furnish out-of-state students with a tuition comparable to that for in-state students.

Testimonials

• “The DIG program is off to a terrific start as a national standard for the study of digital curation.”
• “Being able to read from Re-collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory, while given lessons by one of the book’s authors…that’s just fantastic!”
• “Well-ordered sequence, and an abundance of reading and informal exchange without an overemphasis on scholarly responses.”
• “The instructors are approachable, personable, and collegial with students.”

A growing field

As they adapt to the digital era, more and more organizations are realizing they need employees with digital curation skills to manage their workflows. According to a recent report from the Education Advisory Board, US employer demand for digital curation professionals grew 60% from 2010 to 2013. The same study found 42% of digital curation jobs advertise salaries offer higher than $75,000, while 80% advertise salaries above $50,000. The fastest-growing sectors for digital curation jobs include education, science, and healthcare.

—2014 Educational Advisory Board report on “Market Demand for Digital Curation Master’s Degree Programs.”

Who needs digital curation?

• An archivist in a photographer’s studio wants to put a database of vintage sailing photos online but doesn’t know where to start.
• A town official is feeling pressure to keep digital records but isn’t sure what formats will be accessible in the long term.
• A curator in a museum is worried that her recordings of stories will be lost once the audio cassettes are no longer playable.
• A healthcare administrator needs to sort through data on drug effectiveness to make policy decisions for his hospital.
• A researcher needs to prepare a data management plan to comply with requirements for a National Science Foundation grant.
• A grad student wants to leverage historical records to create an interactive online map of the Battle of Gettysburg.

  In this age of constantly changing hardware and software, anyone who manages digital files, or has contemplated digitizing an analog collection, can benefit from the University of Maine’s Digital Curation online program.

For more information, visit the Digital Curation website.

DIGITAL CURATION FACULTY

The program draws from faculty expertise in a range of disciplines, including new media, history, art history, computer science, and library science. UMaine’s Digital Curation faculty are renowned in the field for groundbreaking research and publications, including the first academic book on digital preservation, and have earned grants from the NEH, NEA, and other funders for their cutting-edge research in the field. The curriculum’s wide-spectrum approach to the subject of collection management in the digital age may be especially appealing to small-scale institutions, whose staff is often required to offer both cultural and technical support. The following UMaine faculty members are contributors to the Digital Curation program: