The National Archives and Jisc are delighted to welcome the British Library as a new partner in the delivery and organisation of the interdisciplinary Discovering Collections: Discovering Communities (DCDC) conference series.
The series is one of the largest cross cultural sector conferences in the UK and sees archivists, librarians, heritage professionals, and academics exploring ways of enhancing cross-sector collaboration between professional communities during a time of great change. This exciting new partnership positions the series to expand its reach as it goes forward into its second decade.
Founding DCDC partner, Research Libraries UK (RLUK) will be stepping back from the formal partnership to focus on other priorities. RLUK will continue to give its support and advice to the partnership informally. Dr Valerie Johnson, Director of Research and Collections for The National Archives said,
‘We want to thank RLUK for everything they have done to build DCDC since the first conference back in 2013:  building the DCDC reputation and brand, navigating successfully through the huge challenges posed by COVID and setting us on such a positive course even as they step back. The DCDC principles of collaboration and inclusion, breaking new ground and sharing best practice will continue strongly.’
Neil Grindley, Director of Content and Discovery at Jisc said,
‘We are delighted now to welcome British Library to DCDC and look forward together to evolving and growing DCDC, drawing on the strengths of the three partners. In particular we welcome the British Library’s strengths in research, presentation and engagement and their global visibility as we reach out to new audiences and networks.’
David Prosser, Executive Director, RLUK said,
‘It has been a privilege to nurture the DCDC conference series to its current status and we are proud of our association with it. We look forward to seeing it go from strength to strength with its new leading partners and we wish them every success.’
Liz Jolly, Chief Librarian at the British Library said:
‘We are excited to join this ground-breaking and interdisciplinary initiative which is doing so much to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration across diverse sectors. We share our partners’ commitment to the core DCDC principles of collaboration and inclusion and look forward to fostering new collaborations in the library sector through the wider DCDC network.’
Attracting more than 400 delegates each year, individual DCDC conferences bring together speakers and delegates from across the UK, Europe, and internationally, to explore a range of issues, from the impact of collections to digital transformation.
Dates and formats for the next in the series will be announced by the partners in due course. If you have any enquiries regarding DCDC, please contact: [email protected]
