The Open Preservation Foundation (OPF) and the ePADD Steering and Code Groups are pleased to announce that OPF will now host and maintain the open-source email archiving tool ePADD, supporting the tool’s long-term sustainability and continued development.
“We are delighted to welcome ePADD into the OPF toolset,” said Neil Jefferies, Executive Director of the OPF. “ePADD is absolutely a community-effort success story, from the initial work in 2010 based on the dissertation work of Sudheendra Hangal, then a Ph.D. candidate in the Computer Science department at Stanford, through grassroots funding efforts, leading to the launch of a Steering Group and Code Group<https://www.epaddproject.org/about/governance> to coordinate growing community involvement. We look forward to supporting its continued growth alongside its thriving community.”
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<https://github.com/ePADD/epadd>.
This transition aligns closely with OPF’s mission to advance digital preservation through collaborative, practical approaches and shared solutions. By bringing ePADD into the OPF reference toolset, OPF will provide a stable home for the project, support ongoing maintenance, encourage community participation, and help enable future development.
“Finding a sustainable home for ePADD has been a major priority of the ePADD Steering and Code Groups,” said Sally DeBauche, Digital Archivist at Stanford University Libraries, on behalf of the ePADD Steering Group. “OPF's expertise in maintaining open-source preservation tools, combined with their commitment to community-driven development, makes them the ideal partner to ensure ePADD remains freely available and continues to evolve for years to come.”
As with all OPF-maintained open-source tools, the long-term success of ePADD will depend on collaboration with the wider community. Community members can engage through reporting bugs, contributing code, improving documentation, participating in testing, sharing implementation experiences, and becoming an OPF member<https://openpreservation.org/membership/why-join/>. To stay updated on ePADD developments, join the listserv<https://lists.openpreservation.org/postorius/lists/epadd.lists.openpreservation.org/>, post to the user forum<https://groups.google.com/g/epaddusers>, or join Steering and Code Group meetings. Stay tuned for announcements of a webinar about the partnership, hosted by OPF and the ePADD Steering and Code Groups.
About ePADD
ePADD<https://www.epaddproject.org/home> is free and open-source software for the appraisal, processing, preservation, discovery, and delivery of email archives. Originally developed by Stanford University’s Special Collections & University Archives, ePADD incorporates machine learning and natural language processing technologies to support the management and access of historically and culturally significant email collections. It has become an important resource for memory institutions worldwide, helping them manage complex email collections, improve access for researchers, and support the responsible handling of sensitive information.
About the Open Preservation Foundation
Founded in 2010 as the Open Planets Foundation to steward the results of EU-funded research and development, the Open Preservation Foundation<https://openpreservation.org/> leads collaborative efforts to create, maintain, and develop sustainable, open-source digital preservation tools and supporting resources. OPF builds on practical approaches to advance digital preservation through shared solutions and community engagement.
Received on Mon Oct 19 2026 - 16:37:23 EDT