From Tools to Trust: A People-Centered Approach to Digital Preservation Assessment

Описание: Stacey Jones, University of Arizona
NDSA Digital Preservation 2025 Conference Session 1B1

What if digital preservation assessment centered people as much as infrastructure? As we finalize the white paper for the IMLS-funded POWRR Peer Assessment Program, our team is reflecting on what we learned—not just about organizational capacity, but about confidence, connection, and care.

This session will preview key findings from the forthcoming white paper, which documents a peer-based training and assessment initiative designed for small and under-resourced organizations. Participants engaged in a structured process using tools like the NDSA Levels of Preservation, DPC RAM, and the NEDCC Digital Assessment Framework. But what stood out most were the relational outcomes: increased self-efficacy, reduced isolation, and a sense of shared purpose.

These insights prompted us to draft a companion framework that explicitly foregrounds people: their support systems, communication patterns, emotional labor, and institutional dynamics. This emergent model reimagines assessment not as a checklist, but as a reflective process that honors trust-building, empathy-driven practice, and the realities of hidden labor.

In this talk, we’ll introduce both the white paper’s findings and the first iteration of our people-centered framework. We’ll invite discussion on how community care and cultural humility might become more deeply embedded in assessment practices across the field.

For anyone who has ever felt that digital preservation work is more human than technical—or who’s seeking assessment tools that meet people where they are—this session offers an alternative lens and practical insights.