On ‘Holding the Process’: Paying Attention to the Relations Side of Donor Relations

This article reports on a series of interviews with archivists and recordkeepers conducted as part larger project exploring relationships between grief recordkeeping. Though the were not explicitly focused donor relations, it emerged that relationship donors was particularly emotionally charged one: interview participants described deep complex donors, whom they often knew over long period through difficult or complicated times. Interview also reported feeling unprepared for this emotional work. responds to perceived lack attention paid relations in archival theory education by acknowledging significance stories, feelings relationships. Aligned ever-growing emphasis praxis person-centered approaches, suggests where such approaches are needed relation training, collection preservation relationship-building, recognition different kinds labor.