Libraries, archives, and museums are increasingly asked to navigate complex decisions amid shifting priorities, evolving technologies, constrained resources, and organizational change. While technical best practices remain essential, they do not always help us determine where limited time and effort will make the greatest difference, or how to sustain the people doing this work.
This session introduces Navigating Uncertainty, a human-centered framework/reflection tool developed through the Digital POWRR Peer Assessment Program. Originally created to complement technical assessment frameworks, it helps practitioners reflect on the human and organizational conditions that shape sustainable stewardship, including confidence, institutional support, relationships, resilience, and organizational capacity.
The framework emerged from years of conversations with practitioners participating in Digital POWRR workshops, institutes, and peer assessment cohorts across North America. Hawaiʻi has been an especially meaningful part of that journey through multiple in-person training programs and continued participation in the Peer Assessment Program, bringing together professionals from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations across the islands. Through these experiences, we repeatedly heard about the uncertainty practitioners were navigating: constrained resources, organizational barriers, geographic distance, distributed communities, competing priorities, and the emotional work of stewardship. While every institution's circumstances were different, these conversations revealed common patterns that existing technical assessment frameworks could not fully describe. Navigating Uncertainty was developed to make those experiences more visible and provide a shared language for reflection, conversation, and action.
Although developed within the context of digital preservation and stewardship work, the framework is broadly applicable to libraries, archives, museums, and other stewardship organizations. Through examples and guided reflection, participants will explore how it can support decision-making, mentoring, organizational conversations, and strategic thinking during times of uncertainty. Attendees will receive a printable reflection guide and practical ideas for adapting the framework within their own organizations.
