The Digital Curation Exchange has been created to serve as a “town center” for the practitioners, researchers, educators, and students of digital curation. We provide forums for discussion, repositories for documents, as well as links to valuable tools and resources. Most importantly, this site is designed to provide an environment in which you can engage with the rich community of digital curation practitioners, researchers, students and educators.

More than just a resting place for materials, DCE serves as a starting point for discussions on topics about and for digital curation. We encourage all members to share their knowledge, thoughts, and digital curation materials by using any of the links under the Contribute tab above. If you are not already a member, it's quick and easy to join. Just click the 'Create new account' link under the login box. Once your account is activated you will be able to add materials, post comments, participate in discussions in the forum, add events to the calendar, and create your own blog posts. This is a free and open space for the exchange of digital curation information and we welcome practitioners, educators and researchers to join and participate.

How to Use DCE

1. Create an account. Once you have created an account, you will be able to post comments, join discussions, and add your own material to the site. To create an account, just click the 'Create a new account' button on the left and follow the directions.
2. Comment on posts. To add a comment on comment-enabled posts, click the 'Add a new comment' link below the post, type your comment in the box, and click 'Save'.
3. Start discussions on the Forum. Click the 'Forum' tab a the top and start or add to discussion threads.
4. Use the Contribute tab.
• Add materials to the "About Digital Curation" and "For Digital Curation" sections
• Share your thoughts and experiences in your own blog
5. Join a group. You can join one of the existing open groups during your sign up process, or at anytime after you become a member. Note: make sure to check the 'Group details' box under 'Block configuration' on your account page. This will enable you to easily create posts to your group. You can view all of the open groups by clicking the 'People' tab above and then the 'Groups' tab. Open groups will allow you to join right away by clicking the 'Join' link on the Groups page.
6. Create a group. If you have your own digital curation group, and you would like to organize your members in this space, you can create a public or private group. To do this, click the 'People' tab above and then click 'Create group'tab and follow the directions.
7. Post to your group spaces. You can post to your groups in two ways: 1.When you are in your group space, you will see a box with your group name and several links to create different types of content. Use any of these links to add material to your group, and 2. When you create a blog post, you may click the 'Groups' link under the body box and select the group(s) in which you would like the post to appear. If you are posting to a private group, always make sure that the appropriate group is selected and the 'Public' box is not checked.
8. Add structure to your group posts by using the book feature. When you have many posts in a group, it can get a little messy. Adding some book structure can make it a easier to find certain materials. Follow these steps to create a book in your group:
   • Create a "container" for the book
   • Create a blog or wiki post in your group and include a brief description of the book container in the body of the post
   • Click the 'Book outline' link under the body box
   • Select 'create new book' from the pull down menu
   • Click the 'Save' button
   • Add a "page" to your book
   • Create a blog or wiki post in your group
   • Click the 'Book outline' link under the body box
   • Select which book you would like to contain your post from the pull down menu. Note: The 'container' or 'book' will be the parent post and the 'pages' will be the child posts
   • Be sure to check that the post is being posted to the correct group by clicking the 'Groups' link under the body and highlighting the group you are posting to
   • Click the 'Save' button
   • Books that have been created in your groups will show up in your 'Book Navigation' block on the left.

You may also reference the Drupal.org End user guide for general instructions on using Drupal sites.

The Digital Curation Exchange is supported by IMLS funds awarded to the Closing the Digital Curation Gap Project [IMLS Sponsor Award #LG-05-09-0040] and was initiated under the DigCCurr II project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information & Library Science.