Annotated Sources
Caswell, Michelle. Urgent Archives: Enacting Liberatory Memory Work. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003001355.
Urgent Archives reckons with how pervasive and intertwined oppressive and violent practices are within Western archives. Caswell takes us through four chapters that introduce us to how harmful practices and epistemologies are endemic to archival work, how community archives are responding to and working against harmful practices to make archives representative and restorative, and finally how archives can become liberatory and reparative spaces as well as how archivists can work toward those outcomes. Caswell’s book interrogates archival assumptions, policies, and practices in the hope of finding frameworks that move from longstanding violence and erasure toward the possibilities of community archives and community engagement.
Caswell, Michelle, Alda Allina Migoni, Noah Geraci, and Marika Cifor. “‘To Be Able to Imagine Otherwise’: Community Archives and the Importance of Representation.” Archives and Records 38, no. 1 (2017): 5–26 https://doi.org/10.1080/23257962.2016.1260445.
Caswell, Migoni, Geraci, and Cifor advance a new framework for recognizing and quantifying the impact of community archives on marginalized communities. They do so by analyzing interviews with administrators and staff across Southern California. These interviews inspired the authors’ tripartite framework: a person from a marginalized community finds themselves represented within the archive (ontological), members of a marginalized community find themselves represented (epistemological), and members of a marginalized community feel they belong in the archive (social). These three concepts combined result in “representational belonging,” in which marginalized persons and communities feel represented by and a part of the archive. On the other hand, symbolic annihilation refers to underrepresentation or misrepresentation of a marginalized community in archives and culture. Community archives’ largest impact, then, is their ability to work against symbolic annihilation through representational belonging.
Caswell, Michelle, and Marika Cifor. “From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives.” Archivaria 81 (Spring 2016): 23–43. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/687705.
Caswell and Cifor propose a pivot from the rights-based framework used to discuss social justice in archives in favor of a method based in a feminist ethics of care—in particular, based on the practice of radical empathy. A feminist ethics of care shifts toward a reparative and restorative approach that has been elided in rights-based frameworks; it leans on ideas of community and mutual obligation rather than individualism, and it recognizes that injustice is intersectional, is macro and micro, and pervades the public and private. As such, it provides a natural pathway to a more affective and empathetic approach to the work of archives. Empathy can interconnect archivists and materials and bridge the archive and the community, inviting archivists and institutions to partner with the creators of and the communities represented in materials.
Daniel, Dominique. “Documenting the Immigrant and Ethnic Experience in American Archives.” The American Archivist 73, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2010): 82–104. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27802716.
Charting developments in the field since the 1960s, Dominique Daniel shows evolution of what she defines as “ethnic archiving”—the changes in archival processes and theory to document the experiences of immigrants and different ethnic communities. She starts with Howard Zinn’s famous observation of the biases and silences within the archives through the difficulties faced by archivists who sought to address Zinn’s critique: the difficulties of collecting and elevating the records and materials of immigrant and ethnic communities, and the real challenge of and need for building trust and connections with these communities. According to the author, much of this work is buoyed by postmodernism’s popularity and the development of digital technologies for archives. Daniel emphasizes the necessary and integral work of continuing to involve ethnic and immigrant communities in archival processes and to form deeper relationships with them.
Jahnke, Lori M., Kyle Tanaka, and Christopher A. Palazzolo. “Ideology, Policy, and Practice: Structural Barriers to Collections Diversity in Research and College Libraries.” College & Research Libraries 83, no. 2 (2022): 166–183. https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/25342/33207.
Jahnke, Tanaka, and Palazzolo examine the ideologies and practices that undermine efforts to assess and advance collection diversity in libraries. Issues with collection diversity are pervasive in libraries. The authors argue that issues with description, usage reports, staffing and expertise, and budget all hinder collection diversity. These issues are exacerbated by libraries’ struggles to define what constitutes a diverse collection. Suggestions for addressing these fiscal, ideological, and systemic issues include to stay aware of and work against biases when indexing materials, to read and embody as praxis what can be learned from current research on social justice, to engage with usage or other collection data critically to avoid further marginalizing voices, to hire diverse staff and encourage the development of expertise, and to find creative or collaborative uses for libraries’ limited budgets. Tackling structural barriers may offer libraries ways of working toward more diverse collections and supporting that work for years to come.
Kumbier, Alana, and Julia Starkey. “Access Is Not Problem Solving: Disability Justice and Libraries.” Library Trends 64, no. 3 (2016): 468–491. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/613919.
Kumbier and Starkey explore how the discourse of accessibility in libraries benefits from being put in conversation with disability scholars’ and activists’ work on access. More specifically, they ask that administrators, librarians, and library workers consider disability as more than ADA compliance and a problem to be solved. Rather, library staff should recognize that disability is a fluid and socially constructed experience—one shaped by social, cultural, political, economic, and historic factors—as well as an individual and specific experience that necessitates material accommodations. Library staff must consider both the material and systemic issues of access. Kumbier and Starkey suggest community-informed approaches to determining and addressing issues of access; increased recruitment, education, and support of persons with disabilities by information science graduate programs and libraries; publication of the perspectives of persons with disabilities and disability scholars within library and information science journals; and intersectional understandings of access and accessibility.
O’Neal. Jennifer R. “‘The Right to Know’: Decolonizing Native American Archives.” Journal of Western Archives 6, no. 1 (2015): Article 2. https://doi.org/10.26077/fc99-b022.
O’Neal details efforts to decolonize collections and archives, particularly in the American West. Following Vine Deloria’s “The Right to Know” (1978) as an evaluative framework, she surveys reparative work done to decolonize archives and reconnect Native American communities to their documents, working against archival exclusion, both physically and materially. She also documents efforts to develop Native American archives by and for the community as well as advocacy for the training of Native American librarians and archivists. O’Neal advocates for the inclusion of Native Americans in processing and maintaining their communities’ records and for recognition of the limitations of Western archival theoretical frameworks for Native American collections. She also suggests combining archival theory and processing with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). O’Neal underscores the necessity of access, collaboration, healing, reconciliation, and restoration for decolonization to succeed.
Powell, Chaitra, Holly Smith, Shanee’ Murrain, and Shyla Hearn. “This [Black] Woman’s Work: Exploring Archival Projects that Embrace the Identity of the Memory Worker.” KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 2, no. 1 (2018): Article 5. https://doi.org/10.5334/kula.25.
Powell, Smith, Murrain, and Hearn look through their experiences as Black women archivists in distinct organizations to uncover ways that archives, institutions, and the archival profession can support and sustain Black community archives. They approach this exploration in four sections: advocacy, collaboration, truth, and agency. Each reflects a central approach in each respective author’s experience with Black archives. Each finds ways of connecting the Black community to the archive, involving voices typically erased from or excluded from participating in shaping collection procedures or exhibition curation, for example. This work can be reparative and restorative, though as the authors acknowledge, the work is ongoing. What is required is organizations reassessing and adjusting themselves to partner with Black communities and intentionally re-invest in community relationships fiscally, procedurally, and ideologically.
Proctor, Julia. “Representation in the Collection: Assessing Coverage of LGBTQ Content in an Academic Library Collection.” Collection Management 45, no. 3 (2020): 223–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2019.1708835.
Proctor argues that collection assessment for LGBTQ materials within any library necessitates multiple methods, as the field is an inherently interdisciplinary one. She adopts a variety of approaches to quantitative and qualitative collection assessment, ranging from size/growth, to circulation statistics, list checking, and surveys. In particular, list checking offers a chance for libraries to dive into the particulars of any general statistics and, for example, determine how many LGBTQ materials reflect winners and nominees from LGBTQA literary awards as well as whether the LGBTQ materials are affirming or non-affirming. Proctor points to the difficulties of collection assessment in academic libraries, such as collections that are spread across multiple divisions or discipline- or community-specific libraries and centers. Using multiple collection assessment methods enables libraries to better understand their holdings and gaps, particularly with marginalized communities, whose materials are often multidisciplinary and dispersed.
Thorpe, Kirsten. “Transformative Praxis – Building Spaces for Indigenous Self-Determination in Libraries and Archives.” In the Library with the Lead Pipe: An Open Access, Open Peer Reviewed Journal. January 23, 2019. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2019/transformative-praxis/.
Thorpe shows a possible way toward decolonizing and Indigenizing libraries and archives as well as their practices. In particular, Thorpe advocates for Indigenous self-determination in libraries and archives, enabling Indigenous persons to participate in and influence historical narratives, protocols, and representation. Drawing on Martin Nakata’s Indigenous Standpoint Theory and Cultural Interface, autoethnography, and Indigenous critical theory, Thorpe encourages libraries and archives to apply Indigenous research methodologies critically; adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a framework for policy and project changes; seek input from communities on programming, research, and protocols as well as what to prioritize when decolonizing and Indigenizing collections; critically reflect on and decolonize organizational structures; ethically engage with Indigenous communities on decision-making; commit to the hard work of reallocating labor, time, and resources to decolonize and Indigenize collections; and advocate for professional associations to incorporate Indigenous perspectives.
Additional Resources
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Alex Brown (they/them) [@QueenOfRats]. “There Absolutely Is a Difference. We Serve Individuals but Pretend They Are the Community.” Tweet. Twitter, August 18, 2021. https://twitter.com/QueenOfRats/status/1427985206976253956.
Bear, Suzy. “Building Libraries One Book At a Time.” In Aboriginal and Visible Minority Librarians: Oral Histories from Canada. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442236813/Aboriginal-and-Visible-Minority-Librarians-Oral-Histories-from-Canada.
Berry, Dorothy. “Hide and Seek: Organizing Hidden Collections.” Los Angeles Archivists Collective (blog), September 8, 2017. https://www.laacollective.org/work/hide-and-seek-organizing-hidden-collections-for-umbra-search-african-american-history.
Blume, Rachel, and Allyson Roylance. “Decolonization in Collection Development: Developing an Authentic Authorship Workflow.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 46, no. 5 (September 2020): 102175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102175.
Bowers, Jennifer, Katherine Crowe, and Peggy Keeran. “‘If You Want the History of a White Man, You Go to the Library’ : Critiquing Our Legacy, Addressing Our Library Collections Gaps.” Collection Management 42, no. 3–4 (October 2, 2017): 159–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2017.1329104.
Buchsbaum, Julianne. “Academic Libraries and the Remaking of the Canon: Implications for Collection Development Librarians.” Library Philosophy and Practice, June 8, 2009. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/266.
Caswell, Michelle, and Marika Cifor. “From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives.” Archivaria 81 (Spring 2016): 23–43.
Caswell, Michelle, Marika Cifor, and Mario H. Ramirez. “‘To Suddenly Discover Yourself Existing’: Uncovering the Impact of Community Archives.” The American Archivist 79, no. 1 (June 2016): 56–81. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081.79.1.56.
Chetty, Pria, Eve Gray, Cynthia Jimes, Ph.D., Bob Jolliffe, Julian Jonker, Rebecca Kahn, Kerryn McKay, et al. “Access to Knowledge in South Africa.” Part of the Access to Knowledge Research Series. Cape Town, South Africa; New Haven, CT: The Intellectual Property Law Research Unit, University of Cape Town, in collaboration with the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, 2009. https://edulibpretoria.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/access-to-knowledge-in-sa.pdf.
Coffee, Kevin. “Cultural Inclusion, Exclusion and the Formative Roles of Museums.” Museum Management and Curatorship 23, no. 3 (September 1, 2008): 261–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647770802234078.
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Craft, Anna R. “Creating Connections, Building Community: The Role of Oral History Collections in Documenting and Sharing Campus Diversity.” Serials Review 44, no. 3 (July 3, 2018): 232–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2018.1513750.
Daniel, Dominique. “Documenting the Immigrant and Ethnic Experience in American Archives.” The American Archivist 73, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2010): 82–104. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.73.1.k2837h27wv1201hv.
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Drake, Jarrett M. “How Libraries Can Trump the Trend to Make America Hate Again.” On Archivy (blog), April 24, 2017. https://medium.com/on-archivy/how-libraries-can-trump-the-trend-to-make-america-hate-again-8a4170df1906.
Dunbar, Anthony W. “Introducing Critical Race Theory to Archival Discourse: Getting the Conversation Started.” Archival Science 6, no. 1 (March 1, 2006): 109–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-006-9022-6.
Fuller-Gregory, Christina. “DEI Audits: The Whole Picture | Equity.” Library Journal. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/DEI-Audits-The-Whole-Picture-Equity.
Gonzalez, Melissa. “Diversity Collection Audit & Assessment.” University of West Florida University Libraries, n.d. https://libguides.uwf.edu/divassess.
Gujilde, Paolo P. Moving Beyond Buzzwords: Belonging in Library Collections. Vol. 48. Advances in Librarianship. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0065-283020210000048004/full/html.
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