ArchivesSpace Governance Board update - March 2026
Maggie Hughes
Dear ArchivesSpace members:
As the Chair of the ArchivesSpace Governance Board, I am writing to report on the group’s 3rd Quarter meeting, which was held virtually in two parts on February 11 and 17.
In the first part of the meeting, we discussed the operations report, including the good news about the progress of the newest members of the program team and upcoming release of version 4.2.0 of the application. We began to plan our community session at the upcoming Virtual Member Forum, which will also feature the leaders of the Technical Advisory Council and User Advisory Council. We also reviewed the continued strong financial position of ArchivesSpace, despite continuing uncertainty in the U.S. and world economies overall.
We heard updates from the Lyrasis Organizational Home about some projects underway that involve ArchivesSpace, most notably the Community Supported Technologies Interoperability Project. Consultant Jess Farrell of Redstart Works has been analyzing different types of data collection across the communities and will be proposing the creation of technical specifications to support several use cases that involve ArchivesSpace. One involves creating linkages between ArchivesSpace and DSpace, as well as incorporating support for the SWORD protocol into ArchivesSpace so that it can more easily integrate with any system that uses this protocol. The other involves shared discovery with CollectionSpace. Jess will be reaching out to the communities involved later in the spring for more specific feedback on the user stories and specifications.
In the second part of the meeting, we focused on issues around the rapidly changing field of AI. Consultant Steve Eberhardt and Bridget Almas, Director of Operations for Community Supported Technologies at Lyrasis, presented about the current landscape of AI in cultural heritage and led us in a discussion of possible pathways for ArchivesSpace to consider. Bridget is organizing some wider sessions across the governance of the Community Supported Technologies based at Lyrasis for this spring. These discussions may lead to some events and activities for wider ArchivesSpace community participation later in the year. It will be essential that any AI exploration related to ArchivesSpace be driven by community priorities and aligned with community values.
Considering the future for ArchivesSpace always makes me appreciate the good work our community does and the many possibilities available to us. Please feel free to reach out directly to me or to your elected Board representative if you have ideas or feedback you would like to share.
My best,
Maggie
Maggie Hughes
(she/her)
Manager of Special Collections Processing & Cataloging
Getty Research Institute