The National Digital Stewardship Residency program at the Folger Shakespeare Library

During the period of September 2013 to May 2014, the Folger Shakespeare Library served as one of ten host institutions in the IMLS/Library of Congress National Digital Stewardship Residency Program.

Program Description

The National Digital Stewardship Residency Program (NDSR), created in partnership by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Library of Congress, is a program which aims to build a “dedicated community of professionals who will advance our nation's capabilities in managing, preserving, and making accessible the digital record of human achievement.”

A nine-month program, it provides the opportunity for recent graduates of master’s programs in relevant fields to complete a practical residency at various institutions in the Washington, D.C. area. Individuals accepted into the program complete an intensive digital stewardship immersion workshop at the Library of Congress, after which they are transferred to a selected host institution to work on digital stewardship projects that compliment the NDSR program learning objectives.

Project Description

The official project description for the 2013-14 Folger Shakespeare Library Resident Digital Archivist was as follows:

“To establish local routines and best practices for archiving and preserving two types of born‐digital material: 1) born‐digital content created by Folger Shakespeare Library staff in support of the institution's mission and 2) born‐digital content collected by the Folger including primary source materials related to Shakespeare productions, interpretations, editions, and criticism to the present.”

The NDSResident worked to document and enhance local digital stewardship practices at the Library. Project deliverables included a file-format and technical metadata inventory of the born-digital assets created in the Folger Theatre and Production departments in addition to a Digital Asset Management and Digital Repository needs report for Folger administrators. The 2013-14 resident also worked to enhance and create new Folger web archive collections and documentation related to local workflows and collection description guidelines. The NDSR-created May 2014 Folger Shakespeare Library Web Archives report can be accessed here.