MetaArchive’s New Mission, Vision, and Values

July 27, 2021

The MetaArchive Cooperative is pleased to introduce the community to MetaArchive’s newly revised Mission, Vision, and Values Statement.

MetaArchive Mission: “To engage in sustainable digital preservation through community collaboration.”

MetaArchive Vision: “Preserving the past, harnessing the present, preparing for the future”

Revising and developing our Mission and Vision began in 2019 as part of the Changing for Continued Impact (CFCI) series. We wanted to ensure that what the MetaArchive stands for and abides by is reflected in our Mission and Vision statements and to revisit our values as a community. This discussion took an entire session of the CFCI process where all members were given time to brainstorm in a shared document and generate a list of potential options for both the Mission and Vision statements. Small groups were assigned to workshop the lists to finalize a few options individually and report back to the community. The end of CFCI did not bring any final decisions as we had so many moving parts coming together at that point. Recently the Leadership Team revisited the previous notes to explore options and continue workshopping. After narrowing down the options, the Leadership Team presented them to the community for feedback.

Our new Values Statement is an updated version of our previous Operational Principles that better reflects our revised Mission and Vision statements:

  • Encourage and support the long-term preservation of digital content;
  • Promote a cooperative, robust, and decentralized approach to digital preservation;
  • Encourage archives, libraries, research institutes, museums, and other such organizations to build their own preservation infrastructures and knowledge rather than outsourcing this core service to external vendors;
  • Encourage the growth of distributed digital preservation networks for preserving copies of replicated content in secure, distributed locations over time;
  • Maintain a minimal overhead and straightforward mechanisms for collaboration;
  • Administer services that have wide applicability to a range of organizations and digital content;
  • Utilize and create open standards and systems;
  • Ensure that digital materials are stored and maintained in migratable formats and data structures;
  • Promote and support high standards for preservation metadata capture;
  • Undertake research and development projects to advance digital preservation best practices

In addition to these values, we support and adhere to the Digital Preservation Declaration of Shared Values.

MetaArchive looks forward to upholding our new guiding statements and supporting our community. If you have any questions please contact Community Facilitator Hannah Wang at hannah.wang@educopia.org.