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is the foundation and the bottleneck: Description work is essential to access but constrained by time, staffing, and outdated systems.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
Society of American Archivists: ARCHIVES*RECORDS
The premier U.S. conference for archival professionals, featuring thought leadership on records management, preservation, and access in a rapidly evolving field.
What’s new in JSTOR Stewardship: May 2026
This month’s update shares how institutions are advancing digital stewardship through shared infrastructure, AI-supported workflows, and newly available collections on JSTOR. Featured materials highlight efforts to improve access, description, and long-term care.
ALA Annual Meeting
One of the largest global gatherings of library professionals, offering expansive programming on policy, technology, and the future of libraries.
Midwest Archives Conference
A leading regional forum for archivists to engage with new ideas in preservation, digitization, and inclusive collecting while building professional connections.
Stony Brook University joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services charter program
Stony Brook University joins JSTOR Stewardship’s Tier 3 charter program as its tenth ARL institution, becoming part of a cohort shaping responsible, AI-assisted collections stewardship.
Wayne State University partners with JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services for discovery and impact
Wayne State University joins JSTOR Stewardship to expand access to its digital collections, improve discovery, and support teaching and research through a more integrated platform experience.
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services training: Advanced features
Training for Stewardship participants (Tiers 2-3): use Collection Builder, organize related content, and use lists. One of three sessions in a monthly Stewardship training series.
Funding stewardship, not just scanning: How Hofstra University secured a grant to build long-term access with JSTOR
How Hofstra University is turning a federal grant into lasting access—using JSTOR Stewardship to digitize, describe, preserve, and share Long Island history.
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.
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.