TS4A

Technology Strategy For Archives Working Group (TS4A) Next Meeting: In-person at DLF 2022 Tues 2022-10-11 at 11:30am - 12:15pm EST (Schedule)

Google Drive DLF-TS4A Listserv

The Technology Strategy for Archives Working Group (TS4A) is a community of practice organized through DLF focused on supporting archives and technology workers, management, and leadership by:

• Providing a space for strategic planning and visioning to support holistic and programmatic practitioner-led planning of the social and technical ecosystem of systems and people that support archives programs.
• Sharing information about emerging initiatives and to explore opportunities for early stage collaboration across institutions.
• Applying facilitation methods that are generative and care-focused to support creative and inclusive approaches to envision strategy and future planning.
• Potentially steering participant-driven subgroups dedicated to specific needs or challenges, and providing ideas about how to connect and collaborate with others outside TS4A to support the work.

TS4A is open to anyone interested in these topics regardless of formal role, experience, or institutional affiliation. Your institution does not need to be a DLF member to participate. Participants are encouraged to bring strategic challenges and other topics from their own institutions to assist with their own local planning.

Activities

• The group intends to hold quarterly meetings on Zoom as working sessions to allow its members to practice collaborative strategic planning. The group leadership cultivates future topics with TS4A members and identifies facilitators for activities and discussions.
• Occasionally, TS4A also holds in-person meetings at conferences like Digital Library Federation Forum and the Society of American Archivists, and may hold online discussions in the form of Twitter Chats or other open community calls.
• In addition, the group also maintains an email discussion list for announcements, discussion, and to share information.
• Finally, TS4A collaborates with other groups, such as the DLF Born Digital Access Working Group, the International Image Interoperability Framework Archives Community Group, and Sections of the Society of American Archivists, to advance activities of mutual interest.

History

TS4A originated as a result of the findings of Lighting the Way, a two-year IMLS-funded project focused on improving archival discovery and delivery through practitioner-led strategic planning. Our work found that effective strategic planning and transformational change requires collaboration across many people with varying expertise and levels of positional power. Project participants identified the importance of facilitated working sessions and the desire to have further opportunities to collaborate on strategy with colleagues across institutions. We also found that sharing and collaborating on early stage work is valuable for archives and technology workers given the sector’s tendency to present only on completed work. More detail on the project’s findings can be found in its final report.