Blooming Archive – Renewal • Growth • Continuity
🌸 Welcome!
Welcome to the Spring edition of the E-ARK Forum newsletter, the first in our new quarterly series as we move forward under the auspices of the DLM Forum. This edition embraces a “Blooming Archive” theme – focused on renewal, growth, and continuity.
📦 Renewal: Our Mission
E-ARK’s mission is to provide Open Source specifications, software, Reference Architecture, training and knowledge in order to preserve digital data for the short, medium and long terms.
We are part of the DLM Forum, together with the DILCIS Board which maintains the E-ARK specifications, and we work with the Open Preservation Foundation on open standards and validation of the E-ARK specifications. We also participate in key initiatives such as the CEN TC/468 “Preservation of digital information” which created the Technical Specifications TS 18170.
For over a decade we have worked closely with various organisations across different sectors to help them describe, transmit, preserve and reuse digital records and materials. Together, we have developed sustainable processes that support data sovereignty and digital resilience.
Our work with our vibrant user communities continues today and we welcome new members to subscribe online at https://www.e-ark-foundation.eu/ for our quarterly newsletter. Also join our E-ARK LinkedIn group https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8343650/ where you can keep updated on the latest news and reach out to the team with your questions and ideas and post your latest E-ARK-related updates!
🌿 Growth: Recent Meetings and Webinar
We have held two recent E-ARK Forum meetings, the first following the DLM Forum meeting in November 2025 in Copenhagen, having as the aim to brainstorm our future mission and main tasks in the absence of funding. Our next meeting took place at the Swiss Federal Archives in Bern just after the March DLM Forum meeting, and was attended by over 50 people, many new to E-ARK and including some from major Solution Providers. The main themes of emerging interest were:
- intermediate as well as final archives; digital environments; archive systems and interfaces; Archiving by Design; long-term digital preservation;
- Data Spaces; trends coming from the EU;
- E-ARK specifications; OCFL; GeoCITS, interoperability; test data; RiC;
- Use cases, especially for small companies; GLAM sector;
- E-ARK tools: database archiving, DBPTK, earkweb, and Reference Architecture;
- archives as data; archives and AI;
- E-ARK curriculum.
On 3 March 2026, we hosted an E‑ARK Forum webinar on ‘An End‑to‑End Preservation Solution for Digital Cultural Heritage’, exploring practical workflows and tools. The recording is available here.
🌿 3DHM specification review spring 2026
The DILCIS Board (https://dilcis.eu/) is happy to announce the opening of the review of the new eArchiving specification and supporting guideline for the E-ARK Content Information Type Specification for 3D Heritage Models (CITS 3DHM). Created as part of the eArchiving Initiative under the European Commission’s Digital Europe programme, this specification is the latest enhancement of the core of eArchiving.
The call for comments has now opened! The call is open until May 29, 2026. Please support the digital preservation community with your thoughts and opinions and feel free to distribute this amongst your colleagues!
Further details about the review as well as access to the draft documents are available here: Current reviews.
🔗 Continuity: New Resource on Data Spaces and Sustainability
Data Spaces: check out our publication on Enhancing Data Space Trust and Sustainability through Long-term Archiving Practices here.
E-ARK Forum members have also held meetings with the tems Media Data Space team, and with the Data Spaces Support Centre DSSC to investigate common areas of interest.
🔗 Looking Ahead
** Watch out for our very short upcoming survey – we want to know how E-ARK is being used in the wild. **
Come and meet us! There will be E-ARK activity at the following events:
- Radenci Conference, 20–22 May 2026; István Alföldi and Jože Škofljanec will represent the E-ARK Subforum in the workshop “Archiving by Design Toolbox: Presenting Tools and Their Adaptation Potential”, jointly organised with the EAG Archiving by Design subgroup.
- Digital Heritage Summit, 25–29 May 2026, Cyprus University of Technology, Janet Anderson and David Anderson will be present to contribute on digital preservation of Digital Cultural Heritage.
- DLM Forum Triennial Conference, 3–5 November 2026, Dublin, where there will be an E-ARK meeting plus presentations on E-ARK.
🌸 Get in touch!
We would love to hear from you – whether you want to share challenges, successes, use cases, or ideas for the future, please feel free to contact us at info@eark.online
May 2026