Revitalizing CoPAR for the Digital Age

June 2 to 3, 2016 University of Maryland, College Park
Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

In the 1990s, the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records (CoPAR) was founded to help “anthropologists, librarians, archivists, information specialists and others preserve and provide access to the record of human diversity and the history of the discipline.” Over the past 20 years, the field of Anthropology has changed dramatically, as have the records anthropologists produce. Today, the preservation and stewardship of anthropological records face new challenges as anthropologists create records in many formats, both analog and digital, as expectations for immediate, digital access grow among users, and as collection managers face challenges of digitizing, preserving, and providing access to heterogeneous materials. In this complex informationscape, anthropological repositories and professionals face the challenge of providing access to these records while also maintaining their cultural particularities, both in their ethical use and management, given the history of their collection and purpose, and given broader cultural protocols required.

This workshop brings together previous CoPAR participants and current experts in ethnographic archives, fieldwork, and legacy data preservation, access, and reuse. By inviting a range of stakeholders in the full life cycle of anthropological records–their creators, keepers, and re-users–we aim to create a roadmap for the preservation of anthropological research products in the digital age.

Program

Workshop Participants

Workshop Resources