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INSTRUCTIONS: Click [+] located under the column title. Enter your name in the "Subject" field and your response in the "Write something..." field.

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INSTRUCTIONS: Click [+] located under the column title. Enter your name in the "Subject" field and your response in the "Write something..." field.

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Society of American Archivists (SAA) Dictionary of Archives Terminology

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Society of American Archivists (SAA) Dictionary of Archives Terminology

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Not sure what a certain word means in relation to archives? Look it up here.

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Collection Guide/Finding Aid : Description of records that gives the repository physical and intellectual control over the materials and that assists users to gain access to and understand the materials. See our collection guides here.

A collection guide for the Dorianne Laux Papers housed at the SCRC

"Personal Papers" is a series found in the Dorianne Laux Papers. It contains materials related to Dorianne Laux's relationships, early education, and daily life.

A series listed in a collection guide

The extent is described as "Size," in our collection guides and includes linear feet and a summary of the number and types of containers found in the collection. Physical extent is calculated based on the shelf space necessary to store documents.

Statement of extent (labeled as Size) in collection guide

Boxes on shelves

Source of acquisition note in collection guide

An acquisition waiting for processing after arrival at SCRC

SAA's newest resource, the Dictionary of Archives Terminology (DAT), featuresa brand-new online platform for searching archival terms.

The Special Collections Research Center contains a growing collection of archival materials, which can be accessed by searching our digitized collections and archival collection guides. For more information about our collections and services, use our online request form. Please note that due to the NC State University Coronavirus Response, NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center is closed but staff are working remotely and are able to assist with some reference support; we will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.

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Collection Guide/Finding Aid : Description of records that gives the repository physical and intellectual control over the materials and that assists users to gain access to and understand the materials. See our collection guides here. "Personal Papers" is a series found in the Dorianne Laux Papers.

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To continue the "Archival Terms Explained" blog series, today's post features additional terms that may be unfamiliar to new researchers. (For the first post in the series, see Archival Terms Explained) The following are some key terms from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) dictionary and Describing Archives: A Content Standard that a researcher may come across while searching through our collection guides or digitized collections.

Creator: The individual, group, or organization that is responsible for something's production, accumulation, or formation.

For manuscript collections, the creator usually didn't create the material itself, but created the collection by accumulating the material. For example, a collection of correspondence may contain letters written by other individuals but the person known as the creator received those letters and kept them, thus creating the collection.

Individuals or organizations who have secondary responsibility for the creation of a collaborative work or a collection are known as contributors. A collection may have multiple contributors or creators.

Creator in collection guide

Call number: A unique combination of letters and numbers used to identify an item and to facilitate storage and retrieval.

Call number in collection guide

Conditions Governing Access: Information about access restrictions due to the nature of the information in the materials being described, such as those imposed by the donor, by the repository, or by statutory/regulatory requirements.

Generally speaking, there are three types of conditions governing access notes in our collection guides. The collection may be open to researchers, open with limited access, or completely restricted for a duration of time. Please contact the SCRC if you have any questions regarding access of materials.

Conditions governing access note in collection guide

Abstract: A concise summary of the key points of a larger work, often used to assist the reader in determining if that work is likely to be of use.

Abstracts, also known as summaries, contain information found in the biographical/historical and scope and contents notes (see below) in collection guides.

Abstract in collection guide

Biographical/Historical Note: The part of a catalog record or collection guide that places the materials in context by providing basic information about the materials' creator or author.

A biographical note for individuals may include date and place of birth, full and variant forms of the name, occupations, significant accomplishments, places of residence and work, family members, and date and place of death.

Biographical note in collection guide

Scope and Contents: A narrative statement summarizing the characteristics of the described materials, the functions and activities that produced them, and the types of information contained therein.

The scope and contents note may contain information about the specific types and forms of materials present, the dates of the materials, the functions or activities resulting in the creation of the records, and the most significant topics, events, persons, and places represented in the collection.

Scope and contents note in collection guide

To search for additional terms and phrases, the SAA has several resources for archivists and researchers, including a glossary and dictionary. SAA's newest resource, the Dictionary of Archives Terminology (DAT), featuresa brand-new online platform for searching archival terms.

The Special Collections Research Center contains a growing collection of archival materials, which can be accessed by searching our digitized collections and archival collection guides. For more information about our collections and services, use our online request form.

Due to the NC State University Coronavirus Response NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center is open by appointment only* starting on August 10th. Please note that according to Library policies, on-site Library access is limited to NC State students, faculty, staff, and university affiliates with a Wolfpack One Card, including Centennial Campus partners. For requests from these communities, we will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible and will email you when your requested materials are ready so that we can confirm your appointment time. For all other requests, we will respond to your request as soon as possible.

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To continue the "Archival Terms Explained" blog series, today's post features additional terms that may be unfamiliar to new researchers. (For the first post in the series, see Archival Term

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SAA's definition of provenance

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n. (adj., provenancial)PRAH-və-nənss, alsoPROH-və-NAHNSS the origin or source of something information regarding the origins, custody, and ownership of an item or collection (View Citations) (View Citations)

Notes

Provenance 1 is a fundamental principle of archives, referring to the individual, family, or organization that created or received the items in a collection. The principle of provenance or the respect des fonds dictates that records of different origins (provenance) be kept separate to preserve their context.

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n. (adj., provenancial)PRAH-və-nənss, alsoPROH-və-NAHNSS the origin or source of something information regarding the origins, custody, and ownership of an item or collection (View Citations) (View Citations) Provenance 1 is a fundamental principle of archives, referring to the individual, family, or organization that created or received the items in a collection.

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This is a general how-to on handling archival materials when you are in the reading room. Remember, each archive will have their own procedures on how to handle their materials, so please follow them accordingly.

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Handling archival materials at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives

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Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

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HOLLIS is the Harvard Library's catalog. Search HOLLIS for articles, books, manuscript materials, media, and more.

With HOLLIS for Archival Discovery, search for letters, photographs, film and video, print items, digital materials, objects, and other primary sources.

HOLLIS Images is the Harvard Library's dedicated image catalog. It includes content from archives, museums, libraries, and other collections throughout Harvard University.

Use Ask a Librarian to request materials and to confirm availability. To locate materials, use the HOLLIS catalog to start your search. You can limit results to Schlesinger Library holdings in the advanced search mode.

Request Archival Collections has detailed information about what to include when contacting our librarians.

Consult our Research Guides for an introduction by subject to various holdings. The guides are meant to help you begin your research on select topics and are not complete lists of relevant material.

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Schlesinger Library | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

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HOLLIS is the Harvard Library's catalog. Search HOLLIS for articles, books, manuscript materials, media, and more. With HOLLIS for Archival Discovery, search for letters, photographs, film and video, print items, digital materials, objects, and other primary sources. HOLLIS Images is the Harvard Library's dedicated image catalog.

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The Schlesinger Library created these research guides to help you start exploring collections and services.

Need to request materials? Learn about HOLLIS Special Request accounts.

Looking for online resources? Check out the Remote Research guide.

Curious about recent additions to the collections? Explore guides about new archival collections and published materials.

Have a question? Please Ask a Schlesinger Librarian!

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Research Guides: Schlesinger Library Research Guides: Home

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Research Guides: Schlesinger Library Research Guides: Home

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Follow these steps to search the Schlesinger Library catalog: 1. Click on "Catalog & Articles" in the left drop-down field and select "Library Catalog". 2. A new field will pop up called, "All locations". Click on "All location", scroll down and select "Schlesinger Library". 3. Enter your key word search or the name of the item if you already know its, then hit enter. 4. When search results populate below, look at the facets located on the righthand column. Under the "Resource Type" select "Archives/Manuscripts" to narrow your search. 5. Ta-da! You have narrowed your search to archival materials at Schlesinger by your keyword.

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Best Practices, Guidelines, and Toolkits by the Oral History Association

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Best Practices, Guidelines, and Toolkits by the Oral History Association

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Best Practices, Guidelines, and Toolkits - Oral History Association

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For Oral History Practitioners For Archivists / Librarians For Educators

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Great questions to ask yourself about oral history BEFORE you get started.

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UC Irvine Libraries - Oral History Toolkit

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UC Irvine Libraries - Oral History Toolkit

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The UCI Libraries Oral History Toolkit is a free resource designed by the Special Collections and Archives Team for our community members, whether you are interested in conducting a single oral history interview or implementing a large-scale project to document a community or historical event. These six modules can be adapted and scaled to your specific needs. We highlight resources that our community members continue to request, such as sample consent forms, strategies for enhancing access and long-term preservation. Our commitment to fostering (supporting the preservation and access to underrepresented histories) is the driving force behind this Toolkit. This is a living document that we hope to enhance and grow with community feedback. Please contact

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The UCI Libraries Oral History Toolkit is a free resource designed by the Special Collections and Archives Team for our community members, whether you are interested in conducting a single oral history interview or implementing a large-scale project to document a community or historical event.

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© 2012-2021 Oral History Summer School. All Rights Reserved.

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Oral History Master of Arts Blog at Columbia University

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Oral History Master of Arts Blog at Columbia University

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Great blogs on oral history projects and topics. Check out the other resources as well.

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Adriana Ascencio, a Salvadoran-American actress, holds a paper pulp mask that Christine made for her play "Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares" at The Tank in New York City. This was one of the costume pieces that Adriana used while performing in the play.

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Imagining Futures Through the Archives by Victor Betts

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Imagining Futures Through the Archives by Victor Betts

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Image: Justina Williams conducting genetics research ¹

We can agree, I think, that invisible things are not necessarily "not-there"; that a void may be empty, but is not a vacuum. In addition, certain absences are so stressed, so ornate, so planned, they call attention to themselves; arrest us with intentionality and purpose, like neighborhoods that are defined by the population held away from them.

Toni Morrison ²

During the summer of 2019, I was searching through the archives at the North Carolina State University Libraries' Special Collections and Research Center for materials pertaining to Justina Williams. Justina Williams was the first African American academic staff member hired at NC State in 1958-starting her work in the midst of the Jim Crow era and working in the lab of Dr. Kenichi Kojima, a Japanese faculty member in the Department of Genetics during this time. Thirty years later, she retired as the department's Head Research Technician. Although I was not able to find any new traces related to Justina Williams, she did lead me to other fragments pertaining to Asian faculty and scholars. Asians and Asian Americans are almost absent in our collections. This reflects their small demographic population and also dominant narratives of campus history itself, which often center the lives, voices, and perspectives of white men. After nine months of digging through the digitized archives, I developed a historical timeline on Asian and Asian Americans at NC State that is open-sourced and available to anyone with internet access. The Historical State timeline identifies significant figures and moments in the history of the Asian and Asian American community at NC State. The timeline includes information and links to digitized materials, such as photographs, yearbooks, enrollment data, and more. There are also other timelines documenting the history of African American, Native American, GLBT and Latinx communities at NC State. As a Black special collections librarian, this kind of work is the type of intervention I have been thinking through in order to recognize and address the gaps and silences that exist in the archives. Teaching students and researchers both within and outside of our institution how to approach and engage with archival materials provides a way to contextualize the present and help imagine different kinds of futures, especially now in the time of COVID-19 and the past month's movements naming racial injustice.

Image: College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts Class of 1898 ³

Archivists and special collections librarians are in a unique position to help researchers think through the shifts and turns of current events by decentering whiteness and amplifying the voices that have been buried in the archives. Libraries and archives are often seen as depoliticized spaces that view their mission and goals as neutral and objective. However, librarians and archivists of color have long argued that given their institutional history and practices of exclusion, archives and libraries are in fact not neutral, transparent, comprehensive, nor easy to access even today. For example, Professor Jason Miller's research on the absent records of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to NC State in 1966 reveals how white supremacy have shaped what is deemed worthy to preserve. Once we recognize that archives were designed through policies and practices of systemic racism, then we can better understand what is present and visible in the archives and, perhaps more importantly, what is not. How do we confront and address these voids? Knowing that such shortcomings exist, what can archivists do to reconcile these gaps, silences, and unknowns?

One way I have attempted to address these missing narratives and memories is by conducting archival literacy instruction that centers the lived experiences of underrepresented communities. Facilitating critical conversations about how issues of voice and gaze shape the creation of collective memory provides students a useful framework to understand modes of power. By this I mean, critical archival analysis provides context to contemporary issues by connecting us to stories and images of the past that are not part of the dominant narrative. Curated information, like the historical timeline and similar digital public platforms, help make primary sources accessible to users remotely.

"It is imperative that archivists and researchers think beyond what is simply absent from the archives, and continue to focus on how much calculated effort and intention were enacted to exclude others in order to build the archives."

Archivists are positioned to be interdisciplinary and multi-modal, and so I have also been working to establish meaningful and sustainable relationships with campus partners for collaborative projects. One important lesson I learned from my experience with community building in academia is that all work about communities of color should be in constant dialogue with those communities. This same practice should also apply to archives when building collections and other works of memory. Through intentional outreach and community building efforts, I collaborated with the Women's Center and African American Cultural Center on campus to help build content for the Women Center's annual exhibition. The theme for this past academic year was titled Existence as Resistance: The Magic in Blackness where NC State students, staff, faculty, and community members were invited to think about and create radical Black futures through an Afrofuturist lens. Incorporating digitized images from the university archives, we created a section in the exhibit titled, Reimagining Black Futures Through the Archives. Viewers saw historical images of Black life both on and off campus. Our themes invited viewers to critically reimagine these historical records and speculate futures in which Black people live out fully realized lives.

As Toni Morrison states above, "a void may be empty, but is not a vacuum." It is imperative that archivists and researchers think beyond what is simply absent from the archives, and continue to focus on how much calculated effort and intention were enacted to exclude others in order to build the archives. The work of dismantling dominant narratives cannot be solely rectified by somehow hastily filling the gaps in the stories. Rather we must ask ourselves what structures and policies have been and are currently in place today that reinforce and reproduce institutional racism. A reckoning of the archives and archival practices must first take place before any premature reconciliation. We may not be able to fill the voids of individuals or groups in the archives, such as Justina Williams; yet her presence, like so many absented from the archives, tells us much about the systems of power that created such voids in the first place.

Victor Betts is a Libraries Fellow at North Carolina State University Libraries where he works in the Special Collections Research Center. He also holds a dual appointment in the Student Success division where he helps to improve student access to library services and resources, particularly from first generation and underrepresented communities on campus.

¹ University Archives Photograph Collection, Student Life Photographs, 1893-1997, UA023.025, Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries

² Morrison, Toni. "Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature." The Source of Self-regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations. Knopf, 2019, p. 173.

³ University Archives Photograph Collection, People, UA023.024, Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries

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by Victor Betts "Once we recognize that archives were designed through policies and practices of systemic racism, then we can better understand what is present and visible in the archives and, perhaps more importantly, what is not."

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The House Archives Built by Dorothy Berry

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The House Archives Built by Dorothy Berry

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Introduction

I begrudgingly spent a good deal of time in a storefront museum in Ash Grove, Missouri, the Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum. In the classic tradition of African American community archives, this one was curated by a charismatic, self-educated man, dedicated to the memory of Black people in a region that would prefer to forget them. I rolled my eyes at historical anecdotes I thought were corny or in need of references. I sighed when he began his rehearsed introduction: I grew up in the house my great-great-grandparents built in 1873. I knew I wanted to study history in a real way, at a university with credentialed professors and rich with historical documentation.

Decades later, while participating in a virtual symposium from my apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I found myself representing archivists in a group of credentialed professors participating in a discussion on the archives. "The neighborhood is an archive, the woman was an archive, this land is an archive." There was a general excitement around imagining objects, people, and places as archives without any clear definitions. In a fit of pique I finally asked, "If everything is an archive, what meaning does the word have? What is so great about being an archive? Why have we given the word such power?" What I felt, at least subconsciously, was annoyingly provoked, reflecting on the decades of labor my mentors, colleagues, and I have worked trying to unlock ignored Black history from institutional strongholds through whatever means institutional boundaries allow. I realized I resent the joy and expansiveness of the professorially vague the archives because they flit over the struggles for respect and visibility that punctuate my career. I see the archives dancing atop the waves while the burdens of archives pull me farther and farther down.

Academics continuously loosen the concept of the archives in vigorous debate and flowery speech, while hundreds of linear feet of Black history are stacked in secure shelving, unbeknownst and inaccessible to implicated communities. "Why do we even have this?" is a recurring question whispered across institutions as complex histories of provenance and acquisitions lead to single box collections with titles like "Miscellaneous Slavery Documents," a collection of Freedman's Bureau papers and Bills of Sale I recently encountered. In the face of this guilt-inducing backlog, special collections have turned towards digitization as a solution, prioritizing getting images of Black people online and hoping that will be enough. I've commiserated with colleagues about demands to streamline digitization with the feeling that getting things online will increase access- even without full description or detailed metadata, the things that guide digital discovery. Digital collection development has been presented as a liberatory access provider, with the idea that reparative access is primarily a workflow adjustment.

There is an idea born equally from the enormous backlogs of patron requests and from idealism. If everything is digitized, regardless of metadata or image quality, the resulting hoard would solve a host of issues. Researcher discomfort in dealing with racially insensitive reading room staff? Solved. Physical awareness of marginalized status being the only Black person in the building? Solved. Criticisms that existing digital collections are too White? Immediately solved, with references. No longer would there need to be as heavy a focus on the White-supremacy inflected structures of archival repositories- those issues can be fixed in their own time, and researchers can safely access content at home. I want to explore this imaginative avoidance, how institutional possessors of primarily Black collections obfuscate access through rules and roadblocks of their own design.

Archives and The Archives

The conceptual model of the archives, broadly anything that collects/holds references to the past, has become commonplace in humanistic and artistic discussions of memory and history. This model has been used to refer to concepts ranging from the collective memories of a culture to discrete physical objects and their historical contexts. A photo-album becomes an archive, a neighborhood becomes an archive, the stains on a blouse- anything that can hold and spark memory. This has no doubt been to the chagrin of professional archivists with inferiority complexes, underappreciated and undersupported by the faculty who now clutch the archives close. At the same time, it has liberated those outside of the profession to redefine who and what holds historical value. It has also led to a harmful eliding of both the labor of archivists to preserve material history, and the vast wealth of Black history living within unsuspecting institutions. The archives is capricious and expansive, existing outside institutional repositories and representing marginalized peoples. Archives, on the other hand, accept their woeful, hegemonic conception of their holdings. I pull on my professional experience, and the definitions provided by the archival field itself, to trouble this newly accepted view and to explore how foundational concepts in special collections can serve as core elements in the continued ignorance and avoidance of Black history in our midst.

An archive (notice the shift in article), is defined as the materials/permanent records created or collected by an individual or organization because of the "enduring value contained in the information they contain," especially if those materials were kept according to provenance, original order, collective control. [2] Yet, archive as a term has become completely untethered from the tangible. While definitions have become more slippery as the archival field intersects with other disciplines studying the archive, it's important to remember that institutional archives still hold most of the power. Thousands of students are going into debt each year to receive a degree from an ALA accredited institution in order to qualify for employment at formal institutions, often a required qualification for even entry level jobs. Those jobs are pulling their definitions from traditional professional organizations, like the Society of American Archivists, not from more expansive theoretical conceptualizers.

The definitions I provide have been troubled by others before, but are still conceived as the fundamentals of the professionalized archival field. The primary definition of archive centers three principles and one standard that are key to understanding archives and are prime for reimagining: provenance, original order, collective control/description, and permanence.

Provenance

n. (provenancial, adj.) ~ 1. The origin or source of something. - 2. Information regarding the origins, custody, and ownership of an item or collection. [3]

I grew up in the house my great-grandparents built in 1873. I can hear the cadence of my father's voice reciting this line in the museum to crowds of curious locals, and can see my mother affectionately mouthing the words as he says them again and again. I am a Black, mixed race woman from a working-class background in the curious position of having followed, completely unexpectedly, in my father's footsteps.

I am from the Missouri Ozarks, a region historically known as White Man's Heaven. This is an area where contemporary understandings of the region place all African Americans as interlopers- newcomers to a traditionally White, hardscrabble country home. It is estimated that in the early 20th century, up to 40,000 African Americans left the Ozarks in response to a series of lynching in Springfield, Joplin, and Pierce City. A Missouri State University professor became interested in the hidden and erased histories of African American settlements in the region and began her research- going out in the community and collecting, or extracting depending on the individual perspective, people's stories, photos, memories. As is common in academic archives, what was originally a faculty persons' individual research eventually became a large, institutional collection. That professor made some promises she was unable to keep, and unfortunately passed away suddenly, leaving behind a mass of generally inscrutable notes. The staff archivists have done as good a job as possible to make these materials available and to describe them to the best of their abilities, but are underresourced and somewhat disconnected from local Black communities.

Almost all the Black families in the region offered up their materials to the altar of higher learning, which are all minimally processed, sitting on shelves. Donating family papers to an institutional archive is an act of trust, in the best of possible worlds, and one of generosity. Giving important community records away to preserve for future scholarship is a gift. Provenance looks at material custody, marking the "origin or source of something" in the purest of bureaucratic senses. Here is a photo of a baptism, in a river a few minutes walk from my family homestead, cataloged: date, unknown; individuals, unknown; creator, unknown.

Imagine all your family's photos living under the heading "Katharine G. Lederer Ozarks African American History Collection" with no mention your family as contributors. [ 4]

Almost everything remains unknown except for the professor who made collecting these materials their career's work. The story becomes one of her research journey, and not one of the families and communities represented therein. This is not a rare or unique example. It is a fairly standard story of how materials end up as the property of colleges and universities.

I grew up in the house my great-grandparents built. This photo was taken just a few years before their son got the Spanish flu. These papers are from their wedding. This quilt was made by your great-great grandmother. My father strove to represent Black history in our region from a perspective of the community. While many families donated their materials to the university, mine did not, and when we inherited that house from my uncle Lawrence, my father set about opening a storefront museum filled with photos and artefacts from our family and family's friends, dating back to the 1850s at least. As is so often the case, the provenance for these materials is not about acquisition and purchase records, but is an oral history of the family and region.

As a younger person, I did not appreciate the methodology keeping this knowledge trusted and within the community. I wanted more citations and reference points. My father was not able to finish high school. I made it all the way to two master's degrees, only to realize those citations and reference points have multiple values, the strongest of which is often the ability to prove what you know to be true to those who cannot trust your word. The archive is nebulous, but archives are institutions defining documentary history: the things within the archive are the facts and the things without are suspect. The word holds such power because without archives we have memory, and to value memory as fact requires a transformative mindset that institutions seem to feel they cannot survive.

Original Order

The physical and intellectual collection order established by the creator. [5]

Who is the creator of the records and what is the institutional goal in maintenance? In archives, building from imperialist collecting ideologies, the creator is the collector, sometimes in a logical sense: my personal journals become the Dorothy Berry Collection, sometimes in a sense that leans into erasure-"The Dorothy Berry Collection of Someone Else's Personal Photos." The importance is shifted from the generative to the acquisitive- the creator is not the one who made the memories, but the one who commodifies the memories into a collection. Your memories are ephemeral, you do not own them even though you experienced them. The archival collection is permanent, it was created outside of personal experience.

How do we locate Black joy searching 'Photographs. Snack Bar, undated. (Box 149-AV, Folder 4)' for a single digital picture in a complex object with over one hundred images? [ 6]

This photo is only one of about seventy, digitized into a complex object containing 141 image files as part of a project I managed at the University of Minnesota. The order is maintained from the original donation, and the title comes straight from the folder: "Photographs. Snack Bar, Undated." These photos, from a series of United Service Organization (USO) photos donated by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) are part of a larger collection, which includes thousands of candid photos ranging from World War II through the Vietnam War. The primacy of original order means that for a community member or scholar to find the four photos of African Americans amongst the seventy, you need to scroll through each one; and to find photos of African Americans that weren't already identified in the description, you need to scroll through each photograph and mark the location yourself.

Valuing the collection organizer over the collection's human subjects makes sense in many contexts, but as powerful institutions desire more and more to collect material histories beyond the ruling class, we begin recreating systems of bodily ownership that have now been translated into memory. Who owns the order of Black memory? The person who brought it to the White institution.

Collective Description

Describing a collection as a group, only describing the most important items individually. [7]

The grouping for those YMCA USO photos is "Photograph, Snack Bar." If an archivist wanted to call attention to the cracks of Black joy breaking through the overwhelmingly White assemblage, there is no accepted methodology, unless the repository was already committed to forefronting marginalized histories in a way that subverts a commitment to standards and practices. The 'most important items' is a slippery delineator, a caveat based on a need to balance goals and realities. I have given numerous workshops on describing marginalized peoples' materials in archival collections over the past year. Time and time again, I heard the same concern: People who want to do what they know is right-changing terminology, excluding patently offensive subject headings, modifying priorities-saying that they can't because of systems and standards, as though we did not build those standards ourselves! The mechanisms of objectivity and uniformity seem to have entrapped their own designers. Given the size of many archival collections, only the most important materials can be described at item-level, but importance is gauged by the same standards that tell us it is more important to be in agreement across systems, using terms we know to be wrong, than to locally assert what is right even if it won't sync in an aggregated context.

Even attempts at collectively describing specifically Black collections are stymied by the organizational structures and rules that define archival and manuscript description. With little time, funding, and support, collections are often described from the top down in as generalized language as possible, with subject headings standing in as road signs for all the missing detail. Consider two Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) that clarify the bureaucratic nonsense of using the widely accepted descriptors: "African Americans - Music," and "African Americans - Songs and Music." [ 8, 9] I picked these two headings in deference to the fact that many problematized LCSHs are more baldly offensive, but the patent absurdity here illuminates the larger issue of commitment to structure over purpose. "African Americans - Music" is the heading for music by African Americans; "African Americans - Songs and Music" is the heading for music about African Americans. As with provenance and original order, this type of collective description raises the question: Who is this for?, And yet, the answer is already a given: the language serves the systems, not the subjects.

Conclusion

I am certainly not a disciplinary founder, but I am someone who has been working and writing on reparative description for years. I have gotten to a comfortable place saying "We don't have to type that into the finding aid," or "Let's look up the actual name for this person/place/thing," utilizing agency as someone who values my own expertise and who feels responsible for work that I put out into the world. I've freed myself to move past archival stasis by being willing to speak up, realizing that for me, the anxiety around blunt speech is less harmful than the guilt of keeping quiet. Growing up in a small town, I was often furious about the racism around me-it took me years to move beyond that pure rage. I have experienced that anger bubbling below the surface in professional settings where neutrality and passivity are accepted as being equal to the hard work of self-improvement. For the sake of my own calm and well-being, I have reflected, and now understand that I am most angered when I don't speak up-when I have the debates with myself inside my head, instead of out loud with my colleagues. This emboldened agency is often perceived, I'm told, as self-confidence but I experience it more as a survival technique.

Since the summer of 2020 and the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, archives and special collections across the country have been galvanized to forefront Black collections that they had previously ignored and to work towards less offensive description for these materials, in manners ranging from patently-guilt ridden to the thoughtfully executed. The archival field itself is predominately White, leading to top-down change and initiatives led by anyone but Black people. Buildings designed to mimic colonial mansions, with grand plantation columns, have held these materials for decades. The sudden national awareness of clear and present racism has led to a demand for working groups and committees-often led by professionals who have deprioritized this language work for years, and have now been told by administrators that this is an area in which they need to be leaders.

This reflection may sound more troublesome than solution-oriented, but that is part of my goal. It's a fast transition from reparative description as a sort of back-burner special interest for archivists of color to administratively driven fast-tracking in order to make public announcements about search-and-replace corrections for "out-dated" language. There is little space for actually acknowledging and understanding the personal harm and alienation our professional standards have inflicted on both patrons and staff. This is not the first or last time I will say it, but problems that took years to build are not often dismantled in an hour. There are beams of harm stretching out across the order of these collections, their provenance, and their description. It is hard to know which part of the shaky foundation will unsteady a patron and push them out, but it's even harder when we want to jump over the harm and move straight to solutions. I don't want to provide suggestions that get translated as directives, I want to trouble the waters and see what comes up.

I started by stating that this essay was based on my flawed experiences gaining credentialed library education and doing digital collections work at predominately White institutions. These are the rules and regulations of the field, and I've traced the roadblocks they put up around Black memory through our own standardized definitions. I have many trusted colleagues who refuse to work outside of Black collections out of solidarity and self-preservation. Sometimes I think I've unnecessarily made myself punishable by working in those spaces I've chosen, but I always think back to the stacks-the literal stacks of paper documenting Black life throughout primarily White institutions, papers that are often only explored in response to public events or to fill a Black History Month exhibit case.

When archives feel stymied by standards and best practices, digitization can feel liberatory. It feels freeing knowing that someone can look in a collection online and avoid profiling by reading room security. It feels freeing knowing that someone can search digital collections for "African Americans" and not have to request a box titled "Miscellaneous - Negroes" from an apologetic White archivist. Our descriptive systems are often the first interaction patrons have with our institutions, and when the language and systems feel alienating, patrons will take what they need and leave the rest. Archivists worry about archives in the age of digital discovery, wondering who will come to visit us if they can just get the images they want online. The question of who will come visit is rarely asked of the house we have built and whether or not our door has ever been truly open in the first place. We constructed a house from static language centered on privileged experiences, then applied some cheap siding in the form of hastily thrown-together workarounds and inclusion committees. Now we wonder why no one wants to move in and stay.

I grew up in the house my great-great grandparents built in 1873.

Acknowledgements

This piece was originally presented in a highly different form at Black Portraiture[s] V in October, 2019. I want to first and foremost thank my parents, Magdalena and Fr. Moses Berry for cultivating my interest in history and for supporting work. I also want to thank and acknowledge all the Black archivists, curators and self-identified memory workers whose work I am building on-especially my great friend and supporter Holly Smith. Finally, I want to thank the archivists at Missouri State University who kindly let me tour their stacks and work incredibly hard as archivists in a state that chronically underfunds education and the humanities. I deeply appreciate the up//root editorial team, and my hard working reviewers, Katrina Spencer, Rachel E. Winston, and Joyce Gabiola, who helped transition this from an inchoate set of presenters notes to a fully realized essay.

End Notes

1. "Man standing on porch with chair; Photograph," Ozarks Afro-American History Museum Online, accessed June 9, 2021, https://oaahm.omeka.net/items/show/93.

2. "Archives." Pearce-Moses, Robert. A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology. Chicago: The Society of American Archivists. 2005.

3. "Provenance." Pearce-Moses, Robert. A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology. Chicago: The Society of American Archivists. 2005.

4. "Baptism in Little Sac River," Katherine G. Lederer Ozarks African American History Collection. Missouri State Digital Collections, accessed June 9, 2021, https://digitalcollections.missouristate.edu/digital/collection/LedererExhibit/id/212/rec/1

5. "Original Order." Pearce-Moses, Robert. A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology. Chicago: The Society of American Archivists. 2005.

6. National Board of the Young Men's Christian Associations. Armed Services Dept. "Photographs. Snack Bar, undated," YMCA Armed Services Scrapbooks and Photographs (Y.USA.4-5). University of Minnesota Libraries, Kautz Family YMCA Archives, accessed June 9, 2021, http://purl.umn.edu/265186 .

7. "Collective Description." Pearce-Moses, Robert. A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology. Chicago: The Society of American Archivists. 2005.

8. "African Americans--Music" http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85001968

9. "African Americans--Songs and music" http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2011002554

10. "Elderly woman standing on porch holding infant with two boys; Photograph," Ozarks Afro-American History Museum Online, accessed June 9, 2021, https://oaahm.omeka.net/items/show/134.

Imagine all your family's photos living under the heading "Katharine G. Lederer Ozarks African American History Collection" with no mention your family as contributors. [ 4]

How do we locate Black joy searching 'Photographs. Snack Bar, undated. (Box 149-AV, Folder 4)' for a single digital picture in a complex object with over one hundred images? [ 6]

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The current trend focusing on liberating the concept of archives from physical institutions has served to mentally leave behind Black collections held in predominantly white institutions. Dorothy Berry reflects on the conflict of archives versus the archives, and how the fundamental structures of ar

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Remembering is Resistance by Jacquelyn Ogorchukwu Iyamah

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Remembering is Resistance by Jacquelyn Ogorchukwu Iyamah

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Remembering is Resistance - GIDA Journal

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Shop Stockists Stories News Press Contact About 2 Shop Stockists Stories News Press Contact About Remembering is Resistance: Archival Practices to Disrupt Memoricide by Jacquelyn Ogorchukwu Iyamah Photography by Stephen Miller March 2024 | GIDA LIBRARY "How is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?"

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The Dorothy Berry Collection of What Are Black Archives, 2023

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The Dorothy Berry Collection of What Are Black Archives, 2023

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The Dorothy Berry Collection of What Are Black Archives

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The Dorothy Berry Collection of What Are Black Archives, 2023 by Dorothy Berry Creator: Berry, Dorothy (1989-) Extent: Linear Feet: Infinite Containers: Innumerable Fo…

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Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression by Jacques Derrida

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Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression by Jacques Derrida

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Open access copy from UC Santa Cruz. High theory ;)

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Urgent Archives: Enacting Liberatory Memory Work by Michelle Caswell

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Urgent Archives: Enacting Liberatory Memory Work by Michelle Caswell

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Cultural Humility as a Framework for Anti-Oppressive Archival Description by Jessica Tai

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Cultural Humility as a Framework for Anti-Oppressive Archival Description by Jessica Tai

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Authors

Jessica Tai Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Abstract

This essay argues for the necessity for mainstream archival institutions to audit for oppressive, euphemistic or misrepresentative language within their archival description, and will advocate for the redescription of collections to be undertaken through a framework of cultural humility. Prioritizing critical self-reflection, institutional accountability, and by recognizing and challenging power imbalances, archivists can facilitate the rectification of false historical narratives and oppressive language that continues to be created and remain in the collection description of mainstream archives. This article will examine what steps are necessary to describe and re-describe material through a lens of cultural humility, foregrounding the development of an ethical descriptive practice as an iterative and cyclical process rather than one that is linear with a finite date of achievement. The resulting recommendations will serve as a call for archivists and archival institutions to continually develop a descriptive practice that is transparent, critically self-reflective and community-centered.

Pre-print first published online 10/01/2020

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Cultural Humility as a Framework for Anti-Oppressive Archival Description

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Jessica Tai Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library This essay argues for the necessity for mainstream archival institutions to audit for oppressive, euphemistic or misrepresentative language within their archival description, and will advocate for the redescription of collections to be undertaken through a framework of cultural humility.

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Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Approach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices by Lae'l Hughes-Watkins

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Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Approach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices by Lae'l Hughes-Watkins

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Trauma-Informed Interviewing Resources

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2021 Writer-in-Residence

Jorge writes:

"My life is marked by institutional boundaries - school, the military, and incarceration. I've struggle to transcend those boundaries through my writing, to make sense of my place in this world and my path through it.

My father was mixed Creole and Spanish, and my indigenous mother crossed the Rio Bravo to escape an abusive husband at 15. I grew up in the Texas Panhandle until my father lost his job as a farm foreman, and we pursued the crops for three years, along with waves of other displaced families. Restless, I left school at 17, enrolled in the Army and found myself in a 52-ton tank in Germany, trying desperately to fit in with the Vietnam vets rotating over to Europe. Fitting in with them meant adopting a cynical, seen-it-all attitude and ingesting copious amounts of illicit drugs. Lucky to get out with an honorable discharge, I drifted back to South Texas, found myself in jail for DWI, and was tossed out of a 12-man tank with my pants around my ankles in 1977, blood leaking from my body after being sexually abused. Two weeks later I walked into a Beeville fast food joint with my father's 30.06 and began my descent into self-destructiveness and predation.

I paroled from prison for the last time in 2008, having spent 27 of 32 years in Texas cages. I wrote my way sane while incarcerated, publishing poetry and essays in dozens of journals, opinion pieces for newspapers across the country, and a book where I tried to explain to Texas families seeking answers about prison and spurned by prison officials. I decided after my release that I would do all I could to ensure other human beings didn't face the same dehumanization as I and others had, and I've tried - as an organizer, a policy analyst, a writer, and as a human. I've not always succeeded, but I listen well and I chronicle the stories and pain I see, and it is my honor to share those with TAVP and those who support its mission.

For those who seek more details, I am the SW Region Director for Policy and Advocacy at LatinoJustice PRLDEF. I've worked at the Prison Policy Initiative, the Center for Community Change, Grassroots Leadership, and at the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. I hope I have not left too negative a legacy at any of those places, as I learned from them all.

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Resources - texas after violence project

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RESOURCES ReportsToolsTrainings Reports Tools Children who are Impacted by a Family Member's Death Sentence or Execution This fact sheet offers guidance for supporting children who have family members on death row or who have been executed after serving a death sentence. The tool provides information on what children may be experiencing and how you can [...]

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Trauma-Informed Approach to Archives by Matthew Mathieson of Amnesty International

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Trauma-Informed Approach to Archives by Matthew Mathieson of Amnesty International

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Crisis Evidence Lab | Amnesty International

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As Amnesty International's Archivist, I was delighted to be asked by the Crisis Evidence Lab to discuss the impact of vicarious trauma from an archive and recordkeeping perspective. Our archive holds the collective institutional memory of the Amnesty International - International Secretariat (AIIS), dating back to the organization's foundation in 1961. The collection includes records related to the development of the organization, six decades of campaigns against human rights violations, and sensitive information on thousands of human rights defenders.

The impact of working with documents containing potentially traumatic content has historically not been particularly well understood or explored within the archives and recordkeeping sectors. Discussions around the subject have largely been informal, and traditionally not covered in academic courses. As archivists, we are often encouraged to think of ourselves as impartial. Our training teaches us to be neutral 'custodians' of records, and to leave their interpretation to the user. This has extended to the potential harmful effects of viewing traumatic content. Existing guidance is primarily geared towards how users of archives could be impacted, rather than archive workers.

However, the position of the neutral recordkeeper has been challenged in recent years, as archival documents have played key roles in truth and reconciliation commissions. In countries like South Africa and Canada, archival documents helped hold perpetrators of abuse accountable for their actions and victims obtain justice.

Existing guidance is primarily geared towards how users of archives could be impacted, rather than archive workers

One of the key functions of the archives and recordkeeping profession is to ensure the permanent preservation of evidence. This evidence could be in the form of a paper document, or an email or video, and could contain something as innocuous as a decision taken in a meeting, or as traumatic as a photograph of a torture victim. In my experience, archivists are often so concerned with assessing documents for these 'evidential' qualities that we have rarely stopped to assess the psychological consequences of viewing large quantities of distressing material. However, within the archival community in recent years, there has been a call to action to engage with this important aspect of our work more thoroughly.

One of the key functions of the archives and recordkeeping profession is to ensure the permanent preservation of evidence. This evidence could be in the form of a paper document, or an email or video, and could contain something as innocuous as a decision taken in a meeting, or as traumatic as a photograph of a torture victim.

Developments in the sector: a trauma-informed approach

In June 2023, I attended a talk led by Nicola Laurent and Kirsten Wright, both based at the University of Melbourne Find & Connect Project and members of the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA). Laurent and Wright have advocated extensively for organizations to adopt what they define as a 'trauma-informed approach' to managing archives, and for the sector to recognize the impact of vicarious or secondary trauma in archives as well as the emotional labour undertaken by archivists in their day-to-day work. This is clearly highly relevant to those working with human rights documentation, which is likely to contain distressing material. The AIIS archive, for example, contains detailed written survivor testimonies and case files as well as photographs of torture and murder, which can often be hidden innocuously inside paper files.

The aim of Laurent and Wright's work has not been to "change what your organization does, but how it does it". They have been involved in the creation of an online course and workshop on 'implementing trauma-informed archival practice' which encourages greater dialogue around how to approach archives containing traumatic material for both users and recordkeepers. As part of the talk, the results of a recent survey examining trauma in archives were discussed. The survey received around 1,000 responses in English, French and Spanish. The questions that were asked included:

Is the potential for traumatic experiences in archives well understood?

How widespread are experiences?

What support is available?

Nicola Laurent and Kirsten Wright's survey results in the report 'Understanding the International landscape of trauma and archives'. International Council of Archives, February 2023.

The results of the survey can be viewed on the International Council on Archiveswebsite, and key findings included:

87% of respondents believed people can experience trauma when consulting archives.

68% of respondents had been exposed to content they found distressing or traumatic.

92% of respondents were not taught about these concepts as part of their academic education.

This work has now spread to other countries. The UK & Ireland Archives and Records Association has created Emotional Support Guidelines for archive workers. The Society of American Archivists have also compiled resources to support archivists working with traumatic content, while ASA have a page on their website about how to respond immediately after viewing traumatic content.

Suggested coping mechanisms include:

Breathe slowly and deeply -try to concentrate on the feeling of your breath flowing in and out of your body.

Ground yourself - put your feet on the floor and push them into the ground. Try and focus on the feeling of your feet being grounded on the floor.

Remove yourself from the environment - go for a walk or sit outside in the fresh air.

Complete a mindfulness exercise - if possible, find one in advance that you can refer to and are comfortable with.

Take time to process what happened - reflect on what just occurred, rest and reset by thinking about what you want to happen going forward. This could be for 30 seconds, 30 minutes, or however long you need. You can find examples in advance which you can prepare to guide you through this process.

While research into the subject is still at an early stage, Laurent and Wright argue that trauma requires an organizational, rather than a personal response. They recommend that organizations formally recognize their responsibilities with regard to supporting their staff and that training is provided. Clear labelling and descriptions of content by record creators is a useful tool in preparing archivists for potentially traumatic encounters.

© Amnesty International

Other informal solutions have also emerged, like a trauma-informed archives ' Community of Practice '. Established on Discord, the space allows professionals worldwide to share resources and discuss issues directly with their peers.

With more widespread acknowledgement that vicarious trauma can undoubtedly affect archivists and recordkeepers, organizations will be better placed to identify warning signs and support their staff appropriately. Upon joining Amnesty International in 2023, I was made aware of the support that was available to me in the form of a network of psychological first aiders, who have been trained in trauma-focused psychological first aid. They can provide peer support for colleagues who are displaying signs of psychological distress, or are potentially at risk of psychological harm. I would encourage anyone involved in open-source investigations or archive work to follow these steps and seek advice when encountering materials that could cause vicarious trauma.
Other blogs by the Evidence Lab on the issue of vicarious trauma, including Jenna Mayhew's Vicarious Trauma Guide, published following Amnesty's participation in Digital Verification Corps summit in Mexico City in September 2022 are available here.

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As Amnesty International's Archivist, I was delighted to be asked by the Crisis Evidence Lab to discuss the impact of vicarious trauma from an archive and recordkeeping perspective. Our archive holds the collective institutional memory of the Amnesty International - International Secretariat (AIIS), dating back to the organization's foundation in 1961.

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The StoryCorps Archive includes voices from across the United States and around the world. Explore our growing collection of tens of thousands of interviews.

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ARCHIVES FOR BLACK LIVES IN PHILADELPHIA

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ARCHIVES FOR BLACK LIVES IN PHILADELPHIA

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ANTI-RACIST DESCRIPTION RESOURCES

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Community-Driven Archives Initiative | ASU Library

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Mission ASU Library’s Community-Driven Archives (CDA) Initiative is reimagining and transforming 21st century academic libraries and archives by developing and implementing innovative solutions that address inequities, erasure, and trauma. Our award winning initiative advances ASU’s research and public service mission by creating a collaborative culture that models reparative justice, diversity, inclusion and broadens access to and preservation of knowledge. , Vision and Values Empathy and Reparative Action We seek to… Build relationships with historically marginalized communities in Arizona by cultivating trust and mutual respect. Acknowledge the legacy of White supremacy in Arizona and historical trauma by dismantling traditional power structures that exclude. Break cycles of erasure through the collaborative development of CDA collections, programs and services. Ensure community members are truly able to engage at all levels of the preservation process and share stewardship responsibilities. Collective Memory and Knowledge We aim to… Work with communities to redefine the traditional definition and function of an archive. Center the lived experiences and knowledge of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) memory keepers. Create intergenerational and intersectional safe spaces that support lifelong learning and reimagine archives as spaces of inclusion. Support community-driven projects that use archival material, storytelling and memory keeping as healing tools. Equitable Access Our initiative… Provides free access to archival training, archive starter kits, technology and other educational resources that empower our patrons. Supports community archivists as they establish their own archives outside of the university for future generations. Facilitates the donation of archival material to ASU Library’s Black Collections, Chicano/a Research Collection, Greater Arizona Collection and University Archives. Provides access to our collections in our reading room and digital repository. Improves metadata to enable culturally relevant searching and access to archival collections and library resources. , More than research and preservation, CDA is helping historically marginalized communities process and remember by centering their knowledge. Seeing yourself in history, probably for the first time, and then reflecting on it leads to personal and collective healing. We humanize ourselves and others when we take action, work with archives, and share our stories. Nancy Liliana GodoyDirector and Associate Archivist , ASU Events , News and blog More news ASU Library welcomes first cohort of ‘memory keepers’ to a new fellowship This fall the ASU Library welcomes seven students to the Community Archivist Fellowship Program, which seeks to inspire community and tribal college students to become professionally trained archivists or librarians. “This program is extremely crucial because Black, Indigenous, and People of Color ... Read more about the “ASU Library welcomes first cohort of ‘memory keepers’ to a new fellowship ” article Community college students invited to apply for Community Archivist Fellowship Become a memory keeper for your community! The Community Archivist Fellowship Program at the ASU Library seeks to inspire community college students to become professionally trained archivists or librarians. Students will be introduced to community-driven archives and work closely with archivists an... Read more about the “Community college students invited to apply for Community Archivist Fellowship ” article ASU student-produced podcast focuses on community history, memory, healing Looking for a new podcast to listen to this summer? The Community-Driven Archives Initiative at the ASU Library recently launched a new podcast series titled “Archives Glow” about community history, memory and healing. Episodes highlight the importance of BIPOC experiences and storytelling, center t... Read more about the “ASU student-produced podcast focuses on community history, memory, healing” article Japanese American family’s history now part of ASU Library archives A new archival collection donated by a Japanese American family is now part of the ASU Library. The Ohnick Family Papers document the lives and experiences of a Japanese American family living across the American West in the 19th and 20th centuries. Beginning in 1848, the collection includes corres... Read more about the “Japanese American family’s history now part of ASU Library archives” article

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The Community-Driven Archives at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries

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The Community-Driven Archives at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries

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Who We Are
About Us

The Community-Driven Archives project at the University Libraries, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, partnered with historically underrepresented history keepers in telling, sharing, and preserving their stories. Local history keepers steward stories and historical materials to make them available to current and future generations.

This four-year project, from March 2017 through March 2021, was based in the Southern Historical Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library.

Through the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, our Community-Driven Archives Team (CDAT) built and sustained meaningful partnerships with history keepers throughout the American South.

Our Approach

The CDA team has supported our collaborators in making decisions about their historical materials that will best support their community's needs and goals."

We are responding to calls for change. Due to the legacy of racism and other forms of oppression, institutional archives are missing the stories and materials of historically marginalized communities.
Increasingly, community groups and changemakers are calling on archival institutions like the Wilson Special Collections Library and our funders to respond directly to damage done through archival gaps and silences.

Through the University Libraries' Community-Driven Archives (CDA) project, we are rethinking archives, from top-down collecting to the custodial model of housing communities' materials at our institution.

Our approach to collaboration aims to find the right home for historical records, regardless of whether they come under the care of Carolina libraries. It supports communities across the American South in preserving, protecting, and sharing their histories.

We acknowledge that there is no one way to do this work and that, at its heart, community-based collaboration is relational and fluid.

Archivist in a Backpack

The signature program of our Community-Driven Archives project was Archivist in a Backpack. The idea behind Archivist in a Backpack was simple: documenting personal, family, local, and community histories requires tools.

Our community partners across the American South received a backpack filled with tools to support their archival projects. Our team provided the starter kit along with hands-on support and training.
Learn more about the Archivist in a Backpack program.

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About Us The Community-Driven Archives project at the University Libraries, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, partnered with historically underrepresented history keepers in telling, sharing, and preserving their stories. Local history keepers steward stories and historical materials to make them available to current and future generations.

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UC Irvine Prison Pandemic Digital Archive

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UC Irvine Prison Pandemic Digital Archive

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Hundreds dead. Thousands infected. Stories from the inside.

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Vol. 3 No. 2 (2021): Radical Empathy in Archival Practice

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Vol. 3 No. 2 (2021): Radical Empathy in Archival Practice

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Vol. 3 No. 2 (2021): Radical Empathy in Archival Practice

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Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies

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South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)

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South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)

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South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)

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South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)

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SAADA digitally documents, preserves, and shares stories of South Asian Americans.

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Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project

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Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project

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Digital repository on Japanese American incarceration and Japanese internment

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Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment

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120,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated during World War II. Learn about this unprecedented denial of civil liberties and why it still matters today.

Learn about Japanese American history and the legacy of WWII incarceration by exploring personal stories from those who lived through it.

History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Join us in putting the lessons of Japanese American WWII incarceration into action today.

Densho Content Director Brian Niiya answers a question about the origin of the concentration camps where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II.

Percussionist, composer, and interdisciplinary artist Paul Kikuchi speaks with Densho Community Curator Erin Shigaki about the influences of his ancestors, identity, and community on his art. Kikuchi shares, "How easily...

Thank you to everyone who tuned in on October 5 for Densho's 2023 virtual fundraiser, Our Voices Will Not Be Silenced!

Stay Informed: Join The Mailing List

Campu: A Podcast

Campu weaves together the voices of survivors to spin narratives out of the seemingly mundane things that gave shape to the incarceration experience: rocks, fences, food, paper. Follow along as hosts Hana and Noah Maruyama move far beyond the standard Japanese American incarceration 101 and into more intimate and lesser-known corners of this history.

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Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment

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Preserving Japanese American stories of the past for the generations of tomorrow.

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INSTRUCTIONS: Click [+] located under the column title. Enter your name in the "Subject" field and your response in the "Write something incredible" field.

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INSTRUCTIONS: Click [+] located under the column title. Enter your name in the "Subject" field and your response in the "Write something incredible" field.

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What is your top takeaway from our time together? You can add more than one if you'd like.

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Archives for the People: Building Ethical Community Archives”

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Archives for the People: Building Ethical Community Archives”

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RBS-Mellon CHF Webinar Panel: “Archives for the People: Building Ethical Community Archives”

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Archival Conversations (A Two-Part RBS CHF Series): The Ethics of Selling and Acquisitions

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Archival Conversations (A Two-Part RBS CHF Series): Realities of Archival Diaspora

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My top takeaway from Victor Betts meeting with UCSD's GROW Winter 2026 Cohort Class is the numerous resources he provided! It is very helpful to see for reference as well as how this work is recognized as a career.