- The conversation primarily focused on practical ways we can approach anti-racism in our daily work in digital libraries.
- The Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia released anti-racist description documentation last year. They provide a lot of practical guidelines for implementing conscious editing practices for archival and digital library description.
- A particular point of interest in the guidelines was the part about using active voice in description to embed responsibility.
- Additionally, the discussion around the need to add context to our materials that may present a very particular or one-sided points of view and especially around sensitive materials that require additional context.
- We agreed that many of these practices could also be implemented to correct historical misogynistic and homophobic language in collection and item descriptions.
- There is also a case study on conscious editing from UNC Chapel Hill
- FSU graduate student working in Special Collections worked on a project to remediate racist language in finding aids related to share-cropping records. He also created a libguide related to the project:
- The group expressed interest in the potential for having a guest webinar with a speaker who has experience working on conscious editing projects.
- Some additional resources to consider:
- The Anti-racism Digital Library and Thesaurus (ADL/T), a research and development initiative which serves as a clearinghouse for anti-racism related resources: https://sacred.omeka.net/
- Extensive list of resources related to various aspects of librarianship including a section on archives: https://www.library.wisc.edu/gwslibrarian/bibliographies/disrupting-whiteness-in-libraries/
- Self-care is an important part of considering our mental and physical health during times of distress. While we did not have time to extensively discuss self-care during our discussion hour, we expressed the need to make time for self care. Below are some resources related to self-care practices and how to develop self-care plans.
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/click-here-happiness/201812/self-care-12-ways-take-better-care-yourself
- https://schools.au.reachout.com/articles/developing-a-self-care-plan
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/6-self-care-steps-for-a-pandemic-always-important-now-essential-2020041619563
- https://www.glamour.com/story/black-women-self-care
- https://www.self.com/story/white-people-self-care
Our next discussion will take place on Thursday, June 25 from 1-2pm ET. You can register here:
https://fsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/uZQkd-6trzIjqtO13eR1ouGvuSI76DXF0g
View notes from our previous conversations in our news section: https://sunshinestatedigitalnetwork.wordpress.com/news/
Sunshine State Digital Network 