As archivists, we know that our description of collections can highlight or obscure stories depending on the choices we make and the results can be either inviting or alienating to our users. We also know that archives and archivists are not exempt from the biases that plague our society and that those biases are obvious not just in what we collect but also in how we present those collections to the public. Without careful attention, it's easy to imply that certain communities are neither present nor welcome in archives. For the past four years, collection services staff at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library have been actively working to revise our descriptive policies and practices to center transparency and inclusiveness, affirm marginalized identities, and combat erasure and exclusion from the historical record. As a Predominantly White Institution that collects archival materials from traditionally marginalized communities, we are obligated as archivists to ensure our description of those materials is reflective of and welcoming to the originating communities. My presentation will give an overview of how we've approached this work at Rose Library, including discussion of goals, workflows, policy/guideline changes, and recommendations.
Sarah Quigley, CA, is Head of Collection Processing at Emory University's Rose Library. She has a BA in History and a MS in Information Studies, both from the University of Texas at Austin. She has worked with a variety of collections in her career, including legal and political collections, Southern historical collections, African American collections, and British and Irish Literature collections. She is committed to principled, ethical, transparent, and inclusive arrangement and description of archival collections. Sarah was formerly an instructor in the Clayton State University Master of Archival Studies Program and has taught several arrangement and description workshops and webinars.
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