This panel will focus on the 140-year custodial history of the collections held by the National Anthropological Archives (NAA), as well as examine the practicalities of conducting and managing an assessment project that requires frequent collaboration with IT staff, multiple project archivists, and anthropologists. Panelists will give an overview of the assessment project; how it operates day-to-day; preliminary findings; and the value of the gathered data to the sustainability of the NAA’s collecting policies and needs. The panel will also address parallel efforts to increase accessibility for NAA users, utilizing both the assessment’s findings and data gathered through user studies and a National Science Foundation-funded fellowship in museum anthropology.
