Reading "What’s Wrong with Digital Stewardship: Evaluating the Organization of Digital Preservation Programs from Practitioners’ Perspectives" and I am struck by the parallels btw historic "normie" library pres issues and those that #digipres has identified.

thread 1/12

These quotes could come from either field:

“It’s not ‘set and forget,’ There is no ‘this thing is preserved’"

"standards are aspirational and represent a scenario for their institutional context that remains out of reach for the time being"

"commonly cited the lack of human and material resources as inhibiting factors."

"lack of administrative support potentially stems from the fact that long-term goals cannot, by
their nature, be as easily recognized and rewarded."

"the constant need to advocate for their work in the absence of support"

"when asked to describe the type of
professional who would succeed at practicing digital stewardship within their orgs,
participants frequently cited qualities helpful for building bridges & filling gaps."

"their lack of policy- and decision-making authority to carry out the stewardship initiatives they had been hired to implement."

"a desire to empower more workers across other departments within their organizations to do the work of ... independently"

"Digital stewardship," [FD note: or normie preservation] "by nature, should be assessed and measured according to timetables that fit well outside of these organizational models."

It speaks to the talent of the authors ( @landlibrarian @shirapeltzman @VickySteeves @jy_kim29 @peggygriesinger) & interviewees that they identify these issues that have been stumbling blocks of library & archives preservation for decades (& maybe never written about in 1 place?)

Which is all to say this is an important article that accurately portrays the struggles that academic research libraries have in implementing and prioritizing preservation activities of their print & digital collections over long time horizons that libraries claim to strive for.

Follow up thought: traditional library preservation programs were started and funded in response to large, international disasters and the tangible/haptic threat of loss of knowledge. Digipres may have to wait for massive measurable disaster losses before securing permanent $$$

I think that there may also be a "weakness" that digital resources are accessed through a screen interface that may prevent users/funders from emotionally connecting with digital collections, thus lessening their willingness to fund programs.

/fin