Logo for the Society of American Archivists Foundation.

The Society of American Archivists (SAA) has named JSTOR Seeklight, the AI-powered collections processing technology within JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services, the 2025 recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award for Description.

Established in 1984, the award recognizes projects that advance archival description by setting national standards, modeling best practices, and reshaping how archival materials are made discoverable. Recipients are selected by an SAA-appointed subcommittee, including members of the organization’s Description Section. In its announcement, SAA praised JSTOR Seeklight as “a notable example of innovative and forward-thinking development within archival description,” commending its “merging [of] archival principles, technological innovation, and a commitment to sustainable stewardship.”

“To have JSTOR Seeklight recognized with the Coker Award is an extraordinary honor,” said Roger Schonfeld, managing director of JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services. “We’re grateful to the selection subcommittee—Kayla Harris, Betts Coup, and Aimai Reporter—and to Awards Committee co-chairs Alexander Duryee and Audra Eagle Yun—for their thoughtful consideration and for recognizing the vision and values at the heart of this work.”

Developed in close collaboration with archivists and librarians, JSTOR Seeklight combines advanced AI models with professional expertise to support scalable workflows for collection processing, including descriptive metadata creation and refinement. As part of JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services, it works in concert with tools for digital asset management, long-term preservation, and discovery to enable holistic and sustainable collection stewardship.

“This award recognizes the incredible collaboration and work we’ve been privileged to do with the archival community,” said Emilie Hardman, research lead, Archives & Special Collections and senior curator, Reveal Digital, ITHAKA and Syed Amaanullah, senior product manager, ITHAKA. “To everyone who has contributed feedback, tested a workflow, shared a use case, or raised a challenging question: thank you. This recognition belongs to you as much as it does to us.”

JSTOR Seeklight joins a distinguished lineage of Coker Award recipients. Its selection is a testament to the power of practitioner-informed innovation and reflects JSTOR’s broader mission to expand access to knowledge through values-driven, responsible applications of technology. Institutions interested in shaping the future of AI-assisted stewardship are invited to join our charter program—open through August 31, 2025—for early access to JSTOR Seeklight, peer collaboration, charter savings, and the opportunity to lead in the adoption of responsible AI for digital collections.