A field report on archives and special collections
Bridging Capacity and Care explores how archivists and librarians balance care, ethics, and capacity in an evolving field shaped by digital transformation and shifting resources.
Understanding stewardship in a time of transformation
What does it mean to be a good steward of archives when faced with constrained resources, digital transformation, and increased ethical complexity?
Bridging Capacity and Care: A Field Report on Archives and Special Collections is grounded in the lived experiences of archivists and librarians faced with that question everyday.
Drawing on over a year of research—including site visits, interviews, and observational sessions with more than 280 library and archival experts across 24 institutions on two continents—the report captures evolving pressures, aspirations, and resilience, from enduring backlogs, to the promise of post-custodial models.
Special collections and archives have a rare capacity to bridge the past and present. They are not merely custodians of the past; they are active participants in shaping the future of scholarship.
Shared realities and long-term responsibilities
Archivist and special collections professionals across institutions share common challenges and a deep commitment to care. Key takeaways from the report include:
- Stewardship today is a balancing act: Navigating ethical responsibilities, institutional pressures, and limited resources, often all at once.
- Backlogs are more than a processing issue: They shape scholarship by determining what can be discovered, taught, and researched.
- Metadata is the foundation and the bottleneck: Description work is essential to access but constrained by time, staffing, and outdated systems.
- Labor is both visible and invisible: The intellectual, emotional, and technical work of stewardship is often undervalued or unrecognized.
- Community-centered work is reshaping the field: From reparative description to post-custodial models that redefine ethical practice.
- The archival community is redefining success: Moving from traditional metrics to values like collaboration, equity, and long-term impact.
Turning insights into solutions
Bridging Capacity and Care directly informed the creation of JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services, an initiative designed to address the real systemic challenges surfaced by practitioners across the field.
From metadata bottlenecks and digital fragmentation to the need for scalable, community-driven tools, the service was shaped in partnership with archivists and librarians, and grounded in care, collaboration, and sustainability.
A community shaping the future
Join the growing network of archivists, librarians, and researchers who are redefining digital stewardship with JSTOR. Together, we’re building the tools, insights, and shared practices that make collections more discoverable, accessible, and enduring for everyone who relies on them.
The latest from JSTOR Digital Stewardship
Mount Holyoke College joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services to modernize digital collections management
Mount Holyoke College joins JSTOR Stewardship, migrating from Islandora to an integrated platform that unifies digital asset management, preservation, and access.
What’s new in JSTOR Stewardship: April 2026
This month’s JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services update highlights a growing network of libraries, archives, and cultural heritage organizations working to expand access to digital collections. Featured materials include photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Occidental College, a collection of mid-century Malibu matchbooks, and visual records documenting the development of Brasília.
How collaboration with Eastern Michigan and the archival community shaped AI for archival workflows
Working with Eastern Michigan University and archivists across institutions, JSTOR explored how AI can support collections processing. The project focused on generating metadata drafts and building workflows that center review, context, and archival standards.
Middle Tennessee State University will move to JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services for digital asset management, preservation, and access
Middle Tennessee State University joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services, migrating 13,000+ items from CONTENTdm to a unified platform for preservation, management, and expanded discovery on JSTOR.
Like It or Not, AI Has Arrived in Archives. Now Is the Time for Archivists to Take the Reins.
A new perspective on responsible AI in libraries, exploring how institutions can adopt emerging technologies while maintaining trust, transparency, and scholarly values.
What’s new in JSTOR Stewardship: March 2026
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services welcomes new institutions and shares recent collection highlights now available on JSTOR. This update features examples of AI-assisted description, expanded open access materials, and ongoing efforts to support responsible digital collections management.
Parallel paths to innovation: How user research and engineering collaboration shape JSTOR Seeklight
At ITHAKA, innovation happens when user research and engineering exploration move in parallel. This behind-the-scenes look at JSTOR Seeklight shows how collaboration with archivists and technologists shaped an AI-driven tool designed to accelerate collections processing while keeping human expertise at the center.
What we’re hearing from accessibility leaders across higher education
Ahead of updated ADA Title II requirements, we spoke with accessibility leaders at seven public universities about what sustainable progress really looks like. Their focus: prioritization, transparency from providers, and scalable, human-centered solutions that build accessibility into systems.
JSTOR upholds 100% ASPIRE Gold rating for accessibility statement
JSTOR has upheld a Gold 100% ASPIRE rating for its accessibility statement, recognized for clarity, transparency, and meaningful investment in user-centered access.
Interested in connecting the report’s insights to your work?
Our team can help you apply insights from Bridging Capacity and Care to strengthen discovery, preservation, and access through JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services.
Connect with our team
Looking to solve common collections management challenges?
Connect with our team to learn more about JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services.