OPF Newsletter: Autumn 2026

Welcome to the Autumn edition of the Open Preservation Foundation newsletter! In this issue, learn about our new software releases, new tools, upcoming presentations, and a round-up of our latest news, webinars, and campaigns.

Software releases

veraPDF 1.30.3
The OPF alongside Dual Lab has released veraPDF 1.30.3. This release addresses a number of security issues, amends some validation rules, and has some fixes for the core library and PDF parser.
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jpylyzer 2.3 release candidate
The first release candidate of jpylyzer 2.3 is now available for community testing. Alongside some new features, this release improves the maintainability of the code base, and streamlines the release process.
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Our current release schedule for our tools can be found on our website, here. Our JHOVE GitHub discussion board can be found here.

News

The OPF is the new host of ePADD

Following the launch of the ePADD Steering and Code Groups in 2024, the groups identified continuity and sustainability as key challenges for the project. Under OPF stewardship, ePADD will continue to be maintained as open-source software and remain freely available to the digital preservation community through GitHub. This transition aligns closely with the OPF’s mission to advance digital preservation through collaborative, practical approaches and shared solutions. By bringing ePADD into the OPF reference toolset, we will provide a stable home for the project, support ongoing maintenance, encourage community participation, and help enable future development.
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Preservation in action: Recovering ViPER v1.2

This summer, a file corruption in our ViPER tool was flagged by a user. When we attempted to provide an alternative version, we found that our backups did not go back far enough to recover the original OVA file. In this blog, we’ll cover what went wrong, the investigation that led to the answer, and what we did to rectify the issue.
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Updated Encoded Archival Standards Suite now available

The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) have released the updated version of the Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) Suite. The EAS Suite includes the three standards Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Encoded Archival Context: Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF) and the newest standard, Encoded Archival Context: Functions (EAC-F). They provide different XML formats to use for answering the Who, Why and What of records in XML. We were thrilled to support this version of the EAS Suite by providing the DNS records and supporting web infrastructure needed for making the XML-schemas resolvable online.
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Another jam-packed week for our team at iPRES 2026!

We were delighted to get back to iPRES in Copenhagen this September. The conference – the biggest gathering of the year for any digital preservation practitioners – proved to be another busy edition, with our team leading talks, events, and workshops, and supporting various other events throughout the week. This year was our first iPRES since the passing of much-loved colleague Carl Wilson. With so many of the digital preservation community in attendance, it allowed us to collectively give Carl a fitting tribute following the legacy he has left for the digital preservation field.
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EOSC EDEN update: Join the Digital Curation and Preservation Network

The EOSC EDEN project (of which the OPF is a partner) invites data curators and data preservationists to join the new Digital Curation and Preservation Network (DCPN). The network is for anyone wishing to develop expertise in research data curation, quality management, or long-term preservation, and who commits to advancing FAIR+Time and TRUST principles. The DPCN will kick off with two upcoming events:
Soft launch webinar | 5 November | 14.00-15.00 CET | Registration
In-person meeting | 3-4 February 2027 | Leuven, Belgium | Application
Learn more

Now available to watch back: veraPDF Arlington webinar

The recording of our recent webinar on the veraPDF Arlington model is now available to watch online. The full recording and slides are available for members to view, while a short demo can be found on our YouTube channel (link below). As ever, we are always available to answer any of your burning questions on the tool!
Watch demo

An update to the ongoing work to the OPF wiki

The OPF wiki has long been a valuable resource for the digipres community. Built through collaborative contributions since 2010, the wiki includes old projects such as SCAPE and AQuA, the Catalogue of Policy Elements, File Format Risk Registry, Digipres Q&A, and various examples of datasets and issues. Having lost access to much of the wiki due to issues with a platform it was hosted on, we have been working over the past number of months to make as much of it as possible available to the community once again. Georgia here shares a thorough update on this ongoing work.
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Making Space for Play: Reflections from DPASSH 2026

Georgia reflects on our recent trip to Belfast for the DPASSH conference, where the digital preservation community was invited to explore the benefits of play and experimentation within the field. Despite the “seriousness” of digital preservation, where we spend our time thinking about formats, fixity, storage, metadata, and risk, the conference - Digital Preservation for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities - gave us an opportunity to collaborate and explore how a playful approach can benefit the work we do.
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Podcast: OCFL, IIIF and The Vital Role of Standard

Earlier this year, our Executive Director Neil Jefferies featured on the Epistemicast Podcast to talk about his work at the OPF and the Bodleian Libraries, and the importance of open standards, software and file formats. The podcast series interviews thought leaders in open research, digital knowledge, open academia and free culture.
Listen here

CloudViPER workshop at DLM forum

Following a well-received CloudViPER workshop in Dublin earlier in the year, we’re back in the city to demonstrate it again, this time at the DLM Forum Triennial Meeting. Neil and Darren will present CloudViPER, while Neil will give an update on the OPF more broadly later that day. The meeting will take place 3-5 November, with our presentations taking place Tuesday 3 November.
Download full programme

ICOM-Documentation 2026

Our Executive Director Neil will host a panel discussion at the upcoming ICOM-Documentation Conference, taking place 16-20 November. Under the theme “Documentation in Context: Historical Legacies and Future Directions,” the conference invites museum professionals, researchers, collection managers, archivists, digital specialists, registrars, curators, conservators and community partners to examine how documentation practices shape the ways collections are understood, accessed, interpreted and cared for.
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Open events

OPF Webinar: Ebook Preservation - The Hard Part Isn’t Technical

5 November 2026 | 15.30 CET

Over the past decade, the preservation community has made enormous progress with digital books. We now have robust preservation services, trusted repositories, mature file formats, and an expanding toolkit of standards. Yet ebook preservation remains incomplete. This webinar will explore why collaboration has become as important as technology, and why the future of ebook preservation depends on strengthening the human and organisational infrastructure that surrounds our technical systems.
Register here

Visit our events page to see more of our upcoming webinars.

OPF members benefit from priority registration and exclusive access to our archive of webinar recordings. Any remaining places are made available to the community. Subscribe to our mailing list or follow us on BlueSky to learn more.

Upcoming member events