iPRES is the premier international conference on digital preservation, offering a unique platform for the global digital preservation community to:

• present groundbreaking research and innovative projects;

• share practical experiences and best practices;

• discuss emerging trends and challenges;

• collaborate on future directions and solutions.

iPRES 2024 has three themes to guide the discussions, workshops and presentations throughout the conference:

• From document to data: Across sectors from audiovisual preservation, document management and archiving, digitisation in memory institutions to web archiving, a shift is happening from document to data. This shift prompts some fundamental research questions, e.g. about semantic interoperability over time. What are the research opportunities in preserved data? In an Open Science environment, expectations are for peers to be able to access and process existing data seamlessly... what is needed to bridge generations of researchers with preserved data and documents?

• Scaling up: The pioneers of the earliest digitisation & preservation projects are no longer around… Have the choices proven to be sustainable? Are migrations or conversions needed? Does the actual documentation as preserved with the artefacts prove useful? Can the preservation work scale up with influx of new containers and maintenance of existing containers? Can we do that within the boundaries of climate change, budget restrictions and any number of challenges to our institutions? What future tools and technologies do we need? What can AI bring to our mission?

• Start 2 preserve: Keynote speakers at iPRES 2022 in Glasgow and 2023 in Illinois sparked a conversation about the responsibilities around community archiving and lowering the barriers to digital preservation. In fact, it’s never too late to start and never too late to learn new things. The iPRES conference is a great place to share your learning curve, to update and share learning materials and to facilitate the learning of colleagues.

About the hosts

For iPRES 2024, four organisations act as a core consortium: Het Facilitair Bedrijf (Digital Archive Flanders), Ghent University, VRT and meemoo, Flemish Institute for Archives. These are joining forces with more than 20 other organisations in different sectors to ensure the conference is a success. Find out more here.

iPRES is a vibrant international community - open to contributions from anyone. You're welcome to join the preparations for the 2024 edition in Ghent/Flanders.

The call for contributions is now open!

About the venue

Flanders has a rich history and has been active in digital preservation for many years. Over recent years, digital preservation has been gaining momentum. Join in Ghent & Flanders for iPRES 2024! Find out more here.

For more details visit the conference webpages here.