Facilitating and Illuminating Emergent Futures for Archival Discovery and Delivery: The Final Report of the Lighting the Way Project

Between September 2019 and August 2021, Stanford University Libraries facilitated Lighting the Way: illuminating the future of discovery and delivery for archives, with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The project focused on exploring how networks of people and technology impact archival discovery and delivery (how people find, access, and use material from archives and special collections). The project focused on engaging directly with practitioners – archives, library, and technology workers – involved in this work, across roles, job functions, areas of expertise, and levels of positional power. The project's goals included mapping the ecosystem of archival discovery and delivery; developing conceptual and actionable recommendations for technical, ethical, and practical concerns; building a shared understanding between practitioners responsible for this work; and activating a diverse group of project participants to adopt the recommendations and findings developed during the project.

The project engaged participants through two primary events: an in-person Forum of 71 participants held in February 2020, and a virtual Working Meeting with 52 participants held across four two-hour sessions in April-May 2021. The project’s meetings applied methodologies and conceptual models used in human-centered design using participatory, generative facilitation methods like the Liberating Structures framework. These facilitation methods gave participants freedom to explore topics of interest within a common conceptual structure. These methods were chosen because of their use of engaging activities that could center the expertise of the Forum participants and maximize participation by using a variety of communication methods and modes. Our experience with these methods showed that participants could bring their individual experience to bear in collaborative exercises to develop future-oriented visions of how to transform archival discovery and delivery. Assessment of the Forum and Working Meeting demonstrated a high level of satisfaction across the two events, with a significant increase in participation satisfaction in the Working Meeting in comparison to the Forum. Project participants also contributed a set of ten chapters to The Lighting the Way Handbook, an edited volume including case studies, analysis of how standards and best practices impact archival discovery and delivery, and emergent opportunities that amplify existing efforts.

Through analysis of participant and project advisor feedback, the outcomes of individual facilitated activities, and the contributions to The Lighting the Way Handbook, the project team identified a set of insights across the project that resonate with larger professional trends. These insights include 1) viewing archival discovery as an ecosystem of systems and people; 2) the interconnection between collaboration, power, and organizational positioning of this work; 3) the value of care-focused, generative facilitation methods to strategic planning for archival programs; and 4) the importance of early-stage collaboration and communities of practice to support similar efforts.

With these insights in mind, the project team provides a set of four recommendations to sustain the work undertaken by the Lighting the Way project and to inform the evolution of archival discovery and delivery that require investment and practitioners to step into leadership roles: 1) develop new communities of practice that work in alignment with existing ones; 2) prioritize collaborative opportunities for strategy that explore new working relationships; 3) adopt and apply generative and care-focused facilitation methods to inform strategic planning; and 4) understand the resourcing required and value the labor necessary to undertake strategic opportunities. The project team will support this work through the creation of a new community of practice focused on exploring technical strategy for archives that will continue to apply the facilitated methods used in the project, and through other prospective engagement activities.