ULA Annual Conference 2026

From 2021 to 2023, BYU Library commissioned an in-house, interdivisional task force to holistically examine the extant personnel, systems, and workflows allocated to managing our wide range of digital content types. The aim was to identify the gaps and better coordinate the future access to and care of digital content. We created a set of guiding principles for the library administration and staff that oriented planning and discussion. These helped us trace commonalities between issues or solutions. We believe they are general enough to pass on to other institutions. They guide library staff in addressing the future digital curation questions that will surely arise with increasing frequency, complexity, and diversity. In brief, they are: 1. The Expectation of Change 2. The Expectation of Rapid Growth 3. The Expectation of Digital Access 4. An Embrace of Experimentation 5. Cross-divisional Co-ownership and Collaboration 6. Resource Requirements 7. The Necessity (and Present Difficulty) of Achieving a Full Lifecycle 8. The Urgency of Resolution 9. Documentation. In this presentation, we will elaborate on these principles and describe how they informed our task force’s deliberations, how they are currently influencing our strategic directions, and how they can be practically applied elsewhere.