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is the foundation and the bottleneck: Description work is essential to access but constrained by time, staffing, and outdated systems.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
Reconsidering your digital collections platform: Lessons from MTSU’s move from CONTENTdm to JSTOR Stewardship
Join us for a conversation with Kathleen Schmand (Dean, Walker Library) about Middle Tennessee State University’s move from CONTENTdm to JSTOR Stewardship. Hear how MTSU evaluated its options, worked with JSTOR’s migration team to prepare and move its collections, and what the transition has made possible.
When distinctive collections become part of research
Libraries’ and archives’ collections shared through JSTOR Stewardship can become evidence for research, teaching, and public understanding.
JSTOR Stewardship: A modern foundation
JSTOR rebuilt the infrastructure behind its Digital Stewardship Services while hundreds of institutions continued their work. Learn how this modernization supports accessibility, reliable maintenance, and more flexible ways to organize and connect digital collections.
How Middle Tennessee State University planned its move from CONTENTdm to JSTOR Stewardship
Middle Tennessee State University evaluated seven digital collections platforms before selecting JSTOR Stewardship to replace CONTENTdm. Learn how staff from Walker Library and the Albert Gore Research Center aligned their needs, planned the migration of roughly 30 collections and more than 10,000 items, and are preparing to make distinctive materials easier for researchers to discover.
Are Libraries Prepared for the Second Digital Transformation of Distinctive Collections?
In The Scholarly Kitchen, Roger Schonfeld argues that libraries are entering a second digital transformation for distinctive collections, calling on library leaders to build an “activation infrastructure” that connects processing, digitization, and discovery to maximize their collections’ impact.
Activating distinctive collections: From digitization to discovery with JSTOR Stewardship
Join Roger Schonfeld (JSTOR Stewardship), Jamie Markus (University of Wyoming Libraries), and colleagues from JSTOR to explore how institutions can connect digitization, processing, preservation, and discovery to activate distinctive collections.
What’s new in JSTOR Stewardship: September 2026
Meet the newest JSTOR Stewardship charter participants, explore distinctive collections now available on JSTOR, and discover recent conversations shaping the future of digital stewardship.
Northern Kentucky University joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services charter program
NKU joins the JSTOR Stewardship charter community to expand access to distinctive collections, build sustainable digital workflows, and connect materials with students, researchers, and regional communities.
Building capacity together: Exploring collaborative strategies for digital collections stewardship
Digital collections stewardship depends on more than technology. Lee Dotson examines how SCELC, its member institutions, and JSTOR Stewardship are sharing expertise, support, and infrastructure to make distinctive collections more discoverable, accessible, and sustainable.
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.