With crucial funding support from the US Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), administered in California by the State Librarian, the CDL coordinated a 1-year collaborative planning initiative (October 2018 – September 2019) with the following key objectives:
- Identify key challenges facing finding aid aggregators.
- Uncover and validate high-level stakeholder (archivists, researchers, etc.) requirements and needs for finding aid aggregations.
- Explore the possibilities of shared infrastructure and services among current finding aid aggregators, to test the theory that collaboration will benefit our organizations, contributors, and end users. If so, identify potential shared infrastructure and service models.
- Determine if there is collective interest and capacity to collaborate on developing shared infrastructure.
- Develop a concrete action plan for next steps based on the shared needs, interests and available resources within the community of finding aid aggregators. Discussions of viable collaboration models and sustainability strategies will be included.
Developing a collective understanding of requirements and challenges was a necessary first step for establishing the trajectory of any future finding aid aggregation effort. The planning initiative produced the following key deliverables.
Group | Role | Member resources |
|---|---|---|
Core Partners | This group comprised representatives from state and regional archival description aggregators. Members did not represent their institution but rather leveraged their background and experience within the field to inform the group's work. Expectations for Core Partners:
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Advisory Partners | This group comprised representatives from state and regional projects or programs that provide some form of support for finding aid and archival description aggregation, but who did not have capacity at this time to be Core Partners. This group also included those entities no longer providing services, as well as those planning to do so in the future. Expectations for Advisory Partners:
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Expert Advisors | Advisors were invited to the project symposium to advise, inspire, and contribute to the discussions in a variety of key areas. This group included representatives from organizations that provide services that are part of the archival description ecosystem, as well as organizational development, community engagement, and sustainability. Expectations:
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Project Team | Jodi Allison-Bunnell (AB Consulting): Jodi’s responsibilities included: providing leadership and research analyst support services for surveying and establishing a profile of finding aid aggregators and related organizations; facilitating stakeholder discussions; and assisting in the creation of a final report and recommendations. Adrian Turner (California Digital Library, Senior Product Manager): Adrian’s responsibilities included: coordinating project activities; supporting CDL's administration of the LSTA-funded project; and serving as a Core Partner, drawing from his experience with CDL's Online Archive of California (OAC) service. |
Grant Proposal
