Lighting the Way: Improving discovery and delivery for archives and special collections

This webinar will share outcomes and new work from Lighting the Way, an IMLS-funded project focused on improving discovery and delivery for archives and special collections. Through a forum (February 2020) and virtual series of working meetings (April - May 2021), the project engaged stakeholders and experts including archives, library, and technology workers, to build consensus around strategic and technical directions to improve user experience, access, and interoperability across user-facing discovery and delivery systems for archives, and to provide a model for values-driven technology work within archives and special collections. The project has been developed using facilitation guidelines and activities from non-traditional sources, primarily the Liberating Structures framework, which supports engaged, collaborative, and creative problem solving. Project team members and participants will provide an overview of Lighting the Way activities; share their experiences with the facilitated collaborative writing process; and discuss the forthcoming Handbook, the primary written output from the project.