Nadia Ghasedi
Associate University Librarian for Special Collections, Preservation, and Digital Strategies
Washington University in St. Louis
Mitch Sumner
Head of Digital Preservation, Processing, and Reformatting
Washington University in St. Louis
The session explores the unique challenges presented by the acquisition, preservation, discoverability, and use of born-digital poetry archives. Washington University (WashU) in St. Louis will share its experience leading the Born-Digital Poetry: Planning for the Future of Literary Archives project funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Curation and Stewardship initiative. WashU Libraries is one of many institutions grappling with the challenges of acquiring, processing, serving, and preserving born-digital materials. There is a far-reaching need to look critically at the poet’s creative process within the digital context. Born-digital content within literary collections is often set aside as institutions are far better equipped to work with traditional paper-based archives. Furthermore, to dismantle the white supremacy inherent in cultural institutions, there must be a concerted effort to increase representation within collections. To do so, institutions must engage a new generation of poets, the majority of whom are digital natives. To ensure the long-term accessibility of these future collections, institutions must gain a better understanding of how these writers utilize digital technologies in their creative process.