In September 2015, IMLS awarded CLIR a grant to investigate the early impacts of the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) programs, in order to inform subsequent development of similar programs by others with a vested interest in building professional capacity to preserve digital information.

Keepers of Our Digital Future provides a formative evaluation of the early residencies, based on surveys and interviews with NDSR participants and supervisors from the Washington, D.C., New York, and Boston programs. The authors offer a series of findings and recommendations for future programs, noting that as the model is reproduced, there is a greater need for national-level coordination and communication across programs.