Harmonizing human infrastructure: A case study of bringing preservation workflows of a library, archive, and museum into alignment

This presentation accompanies a paper accepted to iPres 2021, an international digital preservation conference. The paper abstract is as follows: The Hesburgh Libraries and Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame were awarded a 3-year grant that provided funding for a unified discovery and exhibition platform. Although many digital preservation concerns were outside the scope of the grant, one beneficial output of the project has been renewed discussion and interest around robust digital preservation implementations appropriate for each units’ specific needs. In this paper, we will discuss how our efforts to bring together different types of cultural heritage materials were informed by digital preservation needs. We will describe the flexible, human-centered workflows that the team developed to prioritize education and collaboration, while leaving space for future preservation initiatives. This case study will provide concrete examples of how to bring workflows from disparate library, archive, and museum units into harmony while being sensitive to both current local practices and perceived future needs.