Fostering Collaboration Between Research Libraries and Community Archives to Preserve the ‘Network of Mutuality’
Nathan Tallman Ruby Martinez
Despite the potential for mutually beneficial partnerships, collaboration between research libraries and community archives in digital preservation remained limited. This paper explores four key barriers to collaboration: paternalistic attitudes toward community archives, the role of memberships, collection development policies, and incompatible digital preservation workflows. Examining real-world examples, we demonstrate how these barriers hinder joint efforts to secure long-term accessibility of digital materials. The paper concludes by proposing actionable strategies to dismantle these barriers and pave the way for a more inclusive and robust digital preservation ecosystem—one that fosters collaboration between institutions of all sizes and empowers communities to safeguard their digital heritage.
approaches to preservation start 2 preserve