The Archivists Workbench is a project co-sponsored by the Digital Library Federation and the California Digital Library. The project objectives are 1) to initiate a discussion among invited archivists, information technologists, and digital library administrators about the need for a suite of digital tools that will assist archivists and curators in managing their collections and 2) to plan for prototyping such a digital toolset.

Ideally, the archivists workbench will provide for EAD and digital object generation, but also other archival functions such as accessioning, productivity reports, and action recording. It is the shared assumption of the project leaders that a digital toolset will foster a more efficient work flow for archivists and curators, as well as best practice compliant products such as encoded finding aids and digital object wrappers.