Steering Share: Meet Bradley J. Wiles

Steering Shares are an opportunity to find out more about the I&A Steering Committee. This post comes courtesy of the Steering Committee member, Bradley J. Wiles, a PhD student in Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Information Studies.

1. What was your first experience working with archives?

I first encountered archives from the user perspective doing research at a university archives for a local history project. I came away with the impression that these folks (archivists) really have their act together because I was able to get what I needed very rapidly and the specific person I dealt with had an almost preternatural sense of what I would be interested in looking at and what follow-up questions I was going to ask. Needless to say, I was impressed but I didn’t really make much of a distinction between what archivists actually do from what other library and information professionals do. It was only some years later while working in a financial services firm that I started to appreciate the volume and complexity of modern records and how consequential their management (or mismanagement) can be. At that time a friend had been urging me to go to library school but I only decided to do it when I discovered that the program I was looking at offered an archives and records concentration. Since then my career has taken a number of different directions, but I’m somehow always drawn to archives in one way or another.

2. What is an archival issue that means a lot to you?

The most important issue to me underlies or ties into almost every other issue that we as a profession seek to address–that of institutional sustainability. I think making sure we have stable and vibrant institutions–ones that are responsive to changing social conditions and value the profession’s expertise and perspectives–is key to enacting disciplinary and professional priorities related to education, training, job security, opportunity, outreach, diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. We are unable to make progress in any of these areas without a strong foundation composed of the networks of institutions, professional groups, community stakeholders, and external champions who frequently have different ideas of what an archives is or should be in any given time or place. Very few archives exist as independent, self-sustaining entities and are thus dependent on institutional structures to carry out the key activity of any archives–to capture records and information for long term preservation and use. If these basic functions cannot be sustained long term at a societal level, then archives are worthless and all related goals are meaningless.

3. What do you hope to gain by being on the I&A Steering Committee?

I wanted to join the I&A Steering Committee because I believe that the relatively recent adoption of a more activist approach by SAA has been a net positive for the archives profession, but needs to keep moving forward. This section serves a crucial role in helping to keep SAA members apprised of issues that directly impact our institutions, communities, and professional position, and I believe that it can be a leader in shaping SAA’s overall approach to internal and external advocacy. Like others on the Committee, I believe that I have the necessary background and a unique perspective that will positively contribute to the mission of this group and I appreciate being able to collaborate with others who are passionate about advocacy.

4. What can we find you doing outside of the archival profession?

Outside of work, I spend as much time with my children as possible hanging out at Lake Michigan and looking for the best parks and restaurants in the Milwaukee metro region. I also like to write, play, and record music, so maybe if this archives thing doesn’t work out I’ll write the next “Who Let the Dogs Out” or “Mambo No. 5” and then retire early as a gazillionaire one-hit wonder. But for now, I’m busy with dissertation research, teaching, and volunteering on archives projects with a local historical society.

April 14, 2021November 24, 2023 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: Interviews, Steering ShareTags: archives profession, historical societies, inclusion, institutional sustainability, Interviews, job security, library school, outreach, preservation, racial diversity, SAA, volunteering Leave a comment

Archivists on the Issues: Where are all the California Archivists?

Archivists on the Issues is a forum for archivists to discuss the issues we are facing today. Today’s post comes from Joanna Black, the Digital Archivist at the Sierra Club’s William E. Colby Memorial Library.

It started with a discriminatory “bathroom bill” and ended with the absence of almost an entire state’s worth of SAA members. For this upcoming SAA 2019 annual conference in Austin, TX, there will be a considerable gap in representation from California-based archivists, most of whom are employed by the State of California.

Many of us recall in 2017 when the issue was first brought to the attention of SAA members. After the SAA Council narrowly voted to move forward with holding the 2019 annual conference in Texas – a state where legislators tried passing “bathroom bill” SB6^[1] and, when that failed, passed HB 3859^[2] which allows child welfare providers to refuse adoptions to LGBTQ individuals based on “sincerely held religious beliefs” – the SAA Council acknowledged^[3] that Californians will be subject to California State Assembly Bill 1887,^[4] which bans California State employees from traveling on business to Texas. This ban extends to the SAA 2019 annual conference.

Putting aside the appalling nature of HB 3859 and how social justice intersects with the archival profession (which the SAA AGM Program Committee Co-chairs acknowledge here), little attention has been given by SAA leadership on the impact of California archivists’ absence from this year’s conference. Beyond loose commitments to implement “live-streaming and/or other virtual conferencing options”^[5] for those who cannot travel, and with limited evidence^[6] two weeks before the annual conference that this commitment will be adequately honored, the exclusion of most California SAA members should be of concern to all members who value diverse perspectives and inclusion within the organization.

Each SAA annual conference is a chance to share professional values, build partnerships, and exchange ideas. It is one of the most prominent opportunities of the year for members to introduce themselves to greater diversity within the profession. The SAA Archives Records 2019 program website states:^[7]

By attending the Joint Annual Meeting, you can:

• Bring back fresh ideas and new knowledge to benefit all of your colleagues;
• Discover cutting-edge tools and resources in the Exhibit Hall;
• Enhance your professional development by attending a pre-conference course;
• Become a better advocate for the archives, records, and information profession;
• Network with colleagues, who may share new ideas you can implement at your institution or in your classroom; and
• Promote your institution’s profile in the archives community!

But without the attendance of most California archivists – one of the most diverse blocks of archivists in the world – SAA members should consider how this absence limits perspectives within the conference itself and hinders the exchange of information within the profession as a whole. California is home to some of the most forward-thinking archivists in SAA, but how will their knowledge reach other members? How do California archivists build partnerships with other institutions when most are excluded from this year’s primary networking event? As one archivist from the University of California library system told me last month, “As archivists, we like to discuss inclusivity, but I do not find anything inclusive about holding our national meeting in a place where the majority of the archivists from our largest and most diverse state are unable to attend.”

As a California-based archivist, I am one of the lucky few who will be attending the conference this year (I am not a California State employee). I will be representing my institution as well as all my California colleagues who can not attend. As I prepare to be “on the front line”^[8] of activism in Texas, I reflect on SAA’s Statement on Diversity and Inclusion. Diversity, it reads, encompasses not just “socio-cultural factors” but “professional and geographic factors” that reflect SAA’s “desire for broad participation from archivists working in various locations, repository types and sizes, and professional specializations.”^[9] With little support offered to those California-based archivists excluded from the conference this year, SAA is falling short of its own commitment to “promote diversity and inclusion in all of [SAA’s] professional activities with an eye to ensuring effective representation of our members.”^[10]

The SAA 2019 annual conference promises to address the intersection of social and political issues with the work of archives and archivists.^[11] This also extends to the ways SAA members are able to show up, participate, and grow within the organization and its events. All SAA members should be cognizant of our colleagues, whether from California or elsewhere, who cannot attend the 2019 annual conference. When conference goers come together in Austin next month, let us support not only those whose lives are negatively impacted by the bigotry steeped in bills like HB 3859 but our archivist colleagues as well who, by extension of discriminatory legislation, have been excluded from this year’s gathering.

 

[1] Alexa Ura and Ryan Murphy, “Here’s what the Texas bathroom bill means in plain English,” https://apps.texastribune.org/texas-bathroom-bill-annotated/, (July 13, 2019).

[2] Legislature Of The State Of Texas, Chapter 45. Protection Of Rights Of Conscience For Child Welfare

Services Providers, https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/85R/billtext/pdf/HB03859I.pdf – navpanes=0, (July 13, 2019).

[3] Tanya Zanish-Belcher, “An Open Letter to SAA Members Regarding the Location of the 2019 Annual Meeting,” https://www2.archivists.org/news/2017/an-open-letter-to-saa-members-regarding-the-location-of-the-2019-annual-meeting, (July 13, 2019).

[4] State Of California Department Of Justice Office Of The Attorney General, Prohibition on State-Funded and State-Sponsored Travel to States with Discriminatory Laws, Xavier Becerra. Assembly Bill No. 1887.  https://oag.ca.gov/ab1887 (July 13, 2019).

[5] Zanish-Belcher, https://www2.archivists.org/news/2017/an-open-letter-to-saa-members-regarding-the-location-of-the-2019-annual-meeting.

[6] There is no mention on the program website that any virtual conferencing options will be available to members. However, after reaching out to Carlos R. Salgado, Manager of SAA’s Service Center, regarding the virtual conferencing option, I was told that SAA “will be introducing live streaming this year and will be posting information to the conference website this week” (email received Jul 15, 2019).

[7] “‘Making Your Case’ to Attend,”https://www2.archivists.org/am2019/resources/making-your-case (July 13, 2019).

[8] Zanish-Belcher, https://www2.archivists.org/news/2017/an-open-letter-to-saa-members-regarding-the-location-of-the-2019-annual-meeting.

[9]  SAA Council, “SAA Statement on Diversity and Inclusion,” https://www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-statement-on-diversity-and-inclusion (July 13, 2019).

[10] ibid.

[11] Zanish-Belcher, https://www2.archivists.org/news/2017/an-open-letter-to-saa-members-regarding-the-location-of-the-2019-annual-meeting.

July 18, 2019June 23, 2022 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: Archivists on the IssuesTags: archives profession, inclusion, legislation, LGBTQ+, racial diversity, SAA 1 Comment

Steering Share: Reflections on the Archival Profession

Steering Shares  provide an opportunity to learn more about the I&A Steering Committee and the issues that the committee members care about. This post comes courtesy of committee member Steve Duckworth, University Archivist at Oregon Health & Science University.

It’s my last Steering Share! Until a week ago, I thought I had another year left in my term and now that I find I’m about to be off the team, my perspective on what to write today has changed. I’ve been asked to run for chair or vice-chair for the section to help keep the momentum going, but I’m now really looking forward to a year off (at least) from SAA service. I&A has focused a lot on issues around labor and equity within the profession. I think we’ve raised some good questions and hopefully we’ve helped get people thinking about these big issues.

But personally, I’m conflicted. We have a problem with diversity in the profession (admit it or not – it’s there and don’t come at me with your rebuttals to this claim). We’re underpaid. We’re frequently undervalued. There is a large focus on temporary and other project-based work. And, on the positive side, there is professional movement against all of this. However, I’m not sure where best to focus to help make meaningful change.

Should we try to “diversify” the profession? Should I really be encouraging more people to come into a profession with a fairly limited market for jobs that are also generally underpaid?

Should we try to tamp down on temporary jobs? Does that mean that – overall – even fewer people will be employed? Will it be even harder for recent graduates to get a foot in the door? Will more records go unprocessed and hidden?

Should we advocate for more visibility and better funding? If we are paid better for our work, where does that money come from? Budgets always have trade-offs. Do I get more money but less staff? Does higher pay necessitate higher workload and stress level? Given our high percentage of academic affiliation, as we push up our requirements, do we also raise qualifications? Will archivists eventually all need a PhD – raising the bar for entrance to the profession even higher?

These are some thoughts that go through my head when someone asks me to serve on a committee or a career panel or teach a course. I honestly really enjoy the work I do and I’d love to have more cool people in the profession, but I’m not sure the profession is one that I can squarely get behind and encourage people to enter. I don’t know.

So this is why I’m looking forward to a little bit of down time. I mean – I’ve been out of library school for just over 5 years and in that time, I’ve held 4 (or so) archival jobs in Philadelphia, PA; Anchorage, AK; Gainesville, FL; and Portland, OR (in that order – that’s a lot of moving). I’ve served on SAA’s Diversity Committee and the I&A Steering Committee (plus local and regional group work). I’ve published articles and written blog posts. I’ve presented at over 10 conferences. I’ve mentored 8 or so other budding archival professionals. And in two weeks I’ll begin teaching an introductory archives course (ironic, right?).

I’m tired! And we all need to take time to clear our heads now and then.

So, thank you to I&A for the chance to meet some amazing people, provide some service to this profession (which I do really enjoy despite what some may think after reading this), and open my eyes to a lot of things I wish I could change.

May 10, 2019June 23, 2022 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: Steering ShareTags: archives profession, library degrees, library school, mentoring, new professionals, professionalism, racial diversity, temporary labor 1 Comment

Steering Share: A Reading List for Practicing Allyship in Archives

Steering Shares are an opportunity to find out more about the I&A Steering Committee. This post comes from I&A Chair Courtney Dean, Head of the Center for Primary Research and Training in UCLA Library Special Collections.

For the final Steering Share of my term as I&A Chair I was planning to provide an update on our section’s temporary labor survey which closed earlier this month. (We had 412 responses!) Instead, when I sat down to write last evening, I quickly found myself going down the wormhole of comments about a recent blog post that was shared via Library Journal’s Twitter account. I won’t go into too much detail (you can look it up yourself) but for those unfamiliar with the situation, a WOC librarian wrote a blog post about the whiteness of library collections, and as so often happens when POC speak truth about racism, the internet trolls came out en masse. (I encourage those of you on Twitter to go in and report them. It’s a quick and somewhat satisfying process.) Appalling enough as it is to have THOUSANDS of strangers leaving vitriolic, hateful, and blatantly racist comments, while also posting photos of the author and details about her workplace, it was especially reprehensible to see other librarians attacking her.

As archivists we’re sometimes inclined to think we don’t have a similar whiteness problem in our field, however one only needs to look at the numbers, or recall the backlash to Dr. Michelle Caswell’s Dismantling White Supremacy session at SAA a few years ago. For all of our talk of diversity, equity, and inclusion, we still struggle to recruit and retain archivists of color, and to acknowledge bias in our collecting practices. To this day I have colleagues who refuse to recognize that archives are not neutral.

Instead of continuing to rely on the on the intellectual and emotional labor of POC colleagues to tirelessly critique and challenge this problematic myth of neutrality, I encourage my fellow white archivists to check out the reading list below and start practicing allyship. We can all be doing better.

Below is a brief reading list in no particular order:

Issues and Advocacy: Archivists On The Issues: Answering The Call For Inclusivity, Summer Espinoza https://issuesandadvocacy.wordpress.com/2018/07/18/archivists-on-the-issues-answering-the-call-for-inclusivity/

Issues and Advocacy: Archivists on the Issues: Reflections on Privilege in the Archives, Summer Espinoza https://issuesandadvocacy.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/archivists-on-the-issues-reflections-on-privilege-in-the-archives/

Issues and Advocacy: #ARCHIVESSOWHITE In The Words Of Jarrett Drake  https://issuesandadvocacy.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/archivessowhite-in-the-words-of-jarrett-drake/

Honma, T. (2005). Trippin’ Over the Color Line: The Invisibility of Race in Library and Information Studies. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 1(2). Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nj0w1mp

Joan M. Schwartz and Terry Cook, “Archives, records, and power: The making of modern memory” Archival Science (2002) 2: 1, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02435628.

Lae’l Hughes-Watkins, “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” Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies vol. 5, (2018) https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol5/iss1/6/

Nicole A. Cook Information Services to Diverse Populations: Developing Culturally Competent Library Professionals (California: ABC-CLIO, 2017)

Mario H. Ramirez (2015) Being Assumed Not to Be: A Critique of Whiteness as an Archival Imperative. The American Archivist: Fall/Winter 2015, Vol. 78, No. 2, pp. 339-356. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081.78.2.339

Expanding #ArchivesForBlackLives to Traditional Archival Repositories, Jarrett Drake, June 27, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/expanding-archivesforblacklives-to-traditional-archival-repositories-b88641e2daf6

Caswell, Michelle (2017).  Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives.Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, 87(3) 223-235. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu.libproxy.csudh.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/692299

Caswell, Michelle & Brilmyer, Gracen (2016).  Identifying & Dismantling White Supremacy in Archives: An Incomplete List of White Privileges in Archives and Action Items for Dismantling Them.  http://www.gracenbrilmyer.com/dismantling_whiteSupremacy_archives3.pdf  

Taylor, Chris (2017). Getting Our House in Order: Moving from Diversity to Inclusion. The American Archivist, 80(1), 19-29. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081.80.1.19

April 22, 2019June 23, 2022 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: Steering ShareTags: anti-racism, archives profession, biases, cultural competence, inclusion, institutional racism, invisibility, memory institutions, racial diversity, racial oppression, SAA, temporary labor, White supremacy, Whiteness Leave a comment

Steering Share from Sara DeCaro

Steering Shares are an opportunity to find out more about the I&A Steering Committee. This post comes courtesy of I&A committee member, Sara DeCaro, University Archivist and Old Castle Museum Director at Baker University Library.

What is your favorite thing about your job or the archives profession?

There are some great things about being a “lone arranger” at a small private college. I have a lot of control over what we collect and projects we choose to take on. I also have a good idea of where the gaps are in representation, and I can actively take steps to fill in those gaps. I noticed, for example, that we don’t have a lot of records from student organizations on campus. These can be a very rich source of information because student organizations often form to meet the needs of historically marginalized groups; that was definitely the case when our African-American student group formed here in the 1970s. I’ve had conversations with them and our fairly new LGTBQIA group about future donations, and the response has been positive.

What made you want to join the I&A Steering Committee?

Archives and archivists, generally speaking, seem to be chronically underfunded and viewed as somehow lesser, or not essential. I’m really tired of that, and I want to do something about it. I know that’s a broad statement, but even if this is just a small thing I can do to enact change, it’s important to me.

What is an archival issue that means a lot to you?

Diversity and inclusion, in both our collections and employment practices. I think one of the most basic things we can do as a society to correct years of injustice towards marginalized people is to make sure their legacies are preserved. Labor issues are also very important to me; I often feel that wages for archivists don’t reflect the level of training and education we have.

December 5, 2018November 24, 2023 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: Interviews, Steering ShareTags: archives profession, Black history, inclusion, Interviews, LGBTQ+, lone arrangers, racial diversity Leave a comment

ICYMI: #NoHateALA

Brought to you by Vice Chair Courtney Dean on behalf of the Issues & Advocacy Section Steering Committee

During the 2018 ALA Annual Conference, ALA Council passed an amendment to the Library Bill of Rights that explicitly defended the right of hate groups to use library meeting room spaces. For the full text, see the information on ALA’s site.

This is something the I&A Steering Committee has been following closely. While neither SAA or I&A have made official statements on this issue, the Steering Committee felt it important to provide our membership with a roundup of information, resources, and petitions related to the recent ALA controversy. We searched for links from a variety of perspectives and found the below, listed in alphabetical order by title. Please feel free to leave links to additional readings in the comments.

 

Draft Resolution to Rescind Meeting Rooms: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, Melissa Cardenas-Dow and other ALA Councilors

Further Response on ALA OIF Hate Group definition response, unsigned

Libraries Can’t Afford to Welcome Hate, Alessandra Seiter

My Bought Sense, or ALA Has Done It Again, April Hathcock

Petition to Revise ALA’s Statement on Hate Speech & Hate Crime, authored by the We Here community

Rethinking “Intellectual Freedom”, Carrie Wade

We Oppose Welcoming Hate into the Library: An Open Letter to ALA, Concerned Archivists Alliance

July 24, 2018June 23, 2022 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: ICYMITags: ALA, Concerned Archivists Alliance, Google Workspace, racial diversity, racial oppression, short blogs, Whiteness Leave a comment

Archivists on the Issues: Reflections on Privilege in the Archives

Archivists on the Issues is a forum for archivists to discuss the issues we are facing today. Today’s post comes from a new regular writer for I&A’s blog, Summer Espinoza. Summer is the Digital Archivist at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

In Fall 2016, Michelle Caswell’s “Archives, Records, and Memory” class at the UCLA Graduate School of Information Studies collectively created the content for the poster “Identifying & Dismantling White Supremacy in Archives”(Caswell, Brilmyer, 2016).  The poster lists five areas to identify and take corrective action towards disassembling the power-structure of white supremacy.  The sections of the poster, identified as an “Incomplete List of White Privileges in Archives and Action Items for Dismantling Them” include appraisal, description, access/use, professional life, and education.  Each section lists privilege and possible actions to create a counteraction.  As an example, in the description section, one privilege is listed as “materials are described using my native language” and actions to counter this as a privilege are “Hire multilingual people as archivists and translators and translate finding aids into appropriate languages” and “Encourage, value, and give credit for language courses in MLIS programs and as continuing education” (Caswell, 2016).  In a related article, “Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives,” Caswell reflects on her experiences and consequential action to bring the conversation into her class as teaching faculty in a national political climate in which her colleagues and students expressed to her fear and anxiety about their rights as residents of the United States (Caswell, 2017).

Though the poster may have come out of a class exercise, it exudes a sense of professional activism.  It provides rules to live by, goals in daily archival work and easily accessible and relevant issues in archival work.  My own professional experiences have made me stop and reflect on the privileges from which I have benefited.

I am a project archivist at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), where the student population is less than 10% white; the largest populations are Latinx (69%) and Black (14%) per CSUDH Institutional Research, 2016.  The campus also has a large population of undocumented students, also known as “Dreamers.”  At the time of my arrival in Spring 2017, the campus Dreamer Success Center provided ally workshops, informational talks about the challenges of being an undocumented student, and discussions about the threatening nature of the United States’ current political climate.

In an admittedly naive attempt to create a professional space for allyship, I began to investigate the possibility of implementing an oral history project for Dreamers’ narratives, to be accessioned into the University Archives, unaware that this posed a potential risk not to myself but to contributors.  After some initial research and conversations with collaborators, and after wrestling with the responsibilities and possible consequences, I was directed by a concerned party to locate news about a Boston College Irish Republican Army (IRA) oral history collection and the 2016 government-ordered release of restricted content recorded in 2001.

Today, I reflect on my role as an archivist of color at a public university, how I found fear in my position, and the real implications of this particular attempt at inclusivity in the archives without a clear sense of action and acumen in the profession.  The fear I felt was the ease with which the information could be abused, as was the case with the aforementioned IRA oral history collection.

Previously, I experienced this same fear at a community-based private non-profit cultural archive.  In this instance, the emotion was based in possible consequences of increased access and deviation from a “normative narrative” of heroism and reverence.  There were potential tangible consequences to the fiscal health of the organization per se if increased access to content were viewed as the “airing the dirty laundry.”

These two experiences led me to cautious action moving towards inclusivity.  Why?  Chris Taylor’s article (2017), “Getting our House in Order: Moving from Diversity to Inclusion” creates a conversation on the impact of our training, our worldviews and experiences, and how our personal worldview is projected in our professional work (p. 23).  My own professional training and education is far from adequate to effectively maneuver in this conversation that is not yet rooted in any wide-scale and sustained conversations or representation by any governing organization or collective in the field of archives. In both of the aforementioned cases, I recognize a gnawing inadequacy of my professional-self.

With a movement towards dismantling supremacy in archives, there will be challenges and fear of change, and hesitation of being seen as a change-maker.  What is the professional and personal impact of these actions?  How does one engage with the political implications of disrupting an architecture, and what tools can I equip myself with that will diminish negative professional self-doubt, fear of consequences of change, and foster empowerment.  How do we complete the list of white privilege and structural oppression?  What can be built in its place and what authority does such new inclusive structure have?  Will/can archivists dismantle white supremacy in the archives alone, and should we do so, alone?

Archivists, contributors, users, are faced with personal and professional risks and consequences in an emotionally and politically charged topic that systematically misrepresented, and excluded communities of color.  My sense of fear is based in real daily experiences, not as case-studies or theoretical conversation.  Perhaps others feel fear, confusion, hesitation, exhaustion and other emotions that can deflate professional duty, and create a roadblock for future attempts to build a truly inclusive archive.

Sources

• Caswell, Michelle (2017).  Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives. Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, 87(3) 223-235. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu.libproxy.csudh.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/692299
• Caswell, Michelle & Brilmyer, Gracen (2016).  Identifying & Dismantling White Supremacy in Archives: An Incomplete List of White Privileges in Archives and Action Items for Dismantling Them.  http://www.gracenbrilmyer.com/dismantling_whiteSupremacy_archives3.pdf
• Taylor, Chris (2017). Getting Our House in Order: Moving from Diversity to Inclusion. The American Archivist, 80(1), 19-29.

February 9, 2018June 24, 2022 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: Archivists on the IssuesTags: appraisal, archival description, archives profession, community archives, immigration, inclusion, Latino people, memory institutions, non-profits, oral history, patrons, professionalism, racial diversity, racial oppression, selection, undocumented immigrants, White privilege, White supremacy, Whiteness Leave a comment

Great Advocates Panel Recap

On Friday, August 5, a hardy group of archivists gathered first thing in the morning at the Issues & Advocacy Roundtable meeting for donuts, coffee, and the good advice of a few Great Advocates of archives — Dr. David Gracy II, Dr. Rand Jimerson, and Kathleen Roe. We’ve heard from a number of them via the I&A blog, but it’s always great to hear the fire in their voices in real time.

The Twitterati did a great job of tweeting the wisdom and passion shared by Gracy, Jimerson, and Roe, as compiled via Storify. Below are notes and partial transcripts of their comments. It’s by no means perfect, but I hope it conveys the passion and the encouragement of the speakers and gives you some mantras when faced with the opportunity to advocate!

And if anyone wants to collaborate on designing Archivist t-shirts or a fabric (since I don’t wear hats like Rand) – I’m interested.

Thinking about SAA’s involvement with advocacy over the past decades:  What do you think the profession has been most successful in doing?  Where do we need to focus additional attention? What do you think SAA’s advocacy agenda should look like in the future?

Gracy:  We started with Archives Week instead of Archives Month because we figured if we could get seven days – hot dog!
Advocacy was largely an individual activity at the start of SAA.
Misinformed malevolent stereotypes of archivists.

Roe: One of the places we’re most effective at is, if there’s a specific issue in front of us – for example, when SAA advocated to take National Archives independent or NHPRC funding.
We’ve done well when there’s a specific issue.

Jimerson:  Our focus on SAA has long been on crisis intervention. First involvement in NHPRC funding goes back about 35 years.
SAA now, thanks to all of you and your energy and enthusiasm, is getting to the point of advocating for causes and issues before they become pressing.

Roe: I’ve been asked to write a volume on advocacy and outreach as part of the archives fundamental series – we now have embraced this as our responsibility.
What more to do?
We have to stop crisis response. We need to identify those critical issues and not just public policy and awareness – and outline how we’re all going to work towards this.
I heard someone tell the women in the coffee shop that we are basically librarians…Those young ladies down there are primed to learn about archivists. We have to push ourselves forward…be assertive about promoting and targeting specific places to advocate.

Gracy: We’re moving to a point dealing with this where archival education needs revision so that advocacy isn’t just a topic…but becomes part of every topic we deal with.
A principal advocate is the reference archivist! People are primed to understand more and learn more.

What role do you think the I&A Roundtable can play regarding advocacy?

Gracy: Keeping going – the more you do it, the more you’ll see an area to go a little farther.

Jimerson: [I&A can] hold SAA’s feet to the fire and don’t let them back down on taking stances on important issues…Things like Wikileaks are archival issues, not just political issues.
SAA Council doesn’t respond to reports – give them information and ask them to take a specific action.

Roe: When people say SAA or Council should do something – well, SAA is us…Research teams help provide important background. When I was president, I spent 20 hours a week on SAA business so didn’t have time for much else. Research teams help flesh out the issues for folks to take stance.
Put your feet on the ground. Don’t wait for us to do it. It’s up to members to provide critical mass.

Frank Boles (from audience): Also, be ready to compromise. Understand that a president is trying to find a position that 5,000 people can support. There can be three passionate people and several thousand who haven’t heard of it. Educate the other members so that they validate your cause.

Twitter question: What are your solutions for getting students engaged in the issues occupying the profession, not just the theories?

Jimerson: One of the questions I’ve always posed to students is, is advocacy something that you do with leftover time or….

Gracy: Have assignments that require students to get in touch with someone in the field, someone dealing with the issues. Gets students more familiar with matters folks are dealing with in the field.

Sarah Quigley (from audience): If your professor’s attitude is that advocacy isn’t optional, students get that – learn that.

Roe: Use the resources in your class that SAA provides regarding outreach and advocacy.
Elsie Finch article–“Making Sure They Want It: Managing Successful Public Programs”–outreach is an administrative function.

Gracy: Advocacy is a leadership function! Only one presidential address has had the word leadership in the title – in the 1950s.
Think about it in terms of what we consider the breadth of leadership to be.

At this Annual Meeting and in recent months, SAA members and leaders have had many discussions about diversity and inclusion. What do you see as the relationship between advocacy and diversity and inclusion within SAA and within the archives profession?

Jimerson: Like the speaker said yesterday, we need to think of these as verbs not nouns. We need to have that as a fundamental aspect.

Roe: Learning the cultural competency so that we can work effectively regarding diversity and inclusion. That education is a critical piece because we cannot be effective advocates for archives if we’re not advocating for all.
Until we lift every voice, we fail…that’s a big job for us to learn.

As archivists, we believe our profession has a value to society (serves the public interest; contributes to a greater good).  We are also encouraged to know our audience, target our message, define the action we want to achieve, and gain allies for our cause–which seems to work well when advocating for specific action from government officials, administrators, and organizations.  But how do we apply those principles when advocating for the value of the profession among the amorphous group we call “the public”?  How do we, in a targeted way, reach “the public” and convince them that archives matters?  And then evaluate the results and refine our approach?

Gracy: There are groups within the public that we have a connection with, like genealogists and historians. Large groups with associations, so there’s an institutional way to work toward the public at large.
Enjoy archives! Enjoy talking about archives! If people find you having a good time, if archives appears to be fun – they’ll join you! If people don’t see you having fun…I hate to say the word dusty.
People just seeing you having a good time is going to go a long way.
Listen to yourself and what you’re saying about archives – have a good time.

Jimerson: There is no general public. You’re not talking to everybody all at once. There are specific audiences and new audiences.
I wear my archivist hat all the time – people ask and I launch into a short explanation of what archivists are and what we do.
“Well that sounds interesting.” “You bet it is!”

Roe: Chunk off those people and launch an effective campaign at them. Lawyers, tech people…Identify people and go get those pieces.
It’s a step at a time, a person at a time, a group at a time – we have to intentionally pick groups.

Gracy: You’re hearing passion in all these voices. How it’s presented is as important as the message.

In one minute each, what point about advocacy do each of you most want to leave us with?

Jimerson: Do it now, do it all the time, don’t let up, it’s never over.

Roe: Be absolutely relentless. It’s all the time. The old Methodist saying, “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the people you can, for as long as ever you can.”

Gracy: If it’s in your mind that it’s essential, you’ll have a good time with it, and you won’t worry about having a pre-planned speech. It’ll be part of who you are.
Our motto should be “yes we can” not “oh god, do I have to.”
There’s a recessive gene – we like to recess into the archives. But we have a messianic gene – we all believe! Go out and get it!

Stephanie Bennett is a new member of the Issues and Advocacy Roundtable Steering Committee. She is the Collections Archivist for Wake Forest University, which is also her alma mater. She holds an MSLIS with an Archives Management concentration from Simmons College and is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists

August 18, 2016December 5, 2022 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: News from I&ATags: archives profession, cultural competence, genealogy, Great Advocates, inclusion, Interviews, outreach, patrons, professionalism, racial diversity, Research Teams, SAA 1 Comment

If Not Us, Then Who?

Archivists on the Issues is a forum for archivists to discuss the issues we are facing today. Below is a post from Verónica Reyes-Escudero about cultural competence in archives.  If you have an issue you would like to write about for this blog series or a previous post that you would like to respond to, please email archivesissues@gmail.com.

“My mother would turn over in her grave if she knew her papers were going to the Yankees.” One of my donors spoke these words as he considered donation of his mother’s papers with us. As a donor of Mexican decent, his words captured his fears and misgivings about donating his family’s legacy to a U.S. academic institution. Two years into our relationship, he was on a visit to our archive, and I was demonstrating what we had to offer to preserve, process, and make his mother’s invaluable papers accessible. We were standing by one of the stacks. I could see he was delighted by the future we offered for his mother’s papers – preservation, organization, access – especially in light of their state in his home. But anxiety came over him as he contemplated the decision. What would it mean to him – to his extended family? to his mother’s legacy? – to deposit her papers in a place, institution, and a nation representative of so deep a history of marginalization, even rejection? I understood his misgivings – the tremble of his voice — the knot in his throat. And I didn’t just understand: I knew it, too.

I recently co-authored a book with Patricia Montiel-Overall and Annabel Nuñez entitled Latinos in Libraries, Museums, and Archives: Cultural Competence in Action! – An Asset based approach. The Issues & Advocacy (I&A) Roundtable generously invited me to blog on cultural competence in archives after the book was announced on the Archives listserv. When my colleagues and I began to discuss writing about working with Latinos, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to take on the task. But my professional service had led me to see the importance – the imperative – to write about cultural competence in our field. For me, the opportunity was timely: Dr. Montiel-Overall had written on the topic of cultural competence, and I had already presented widely on building relationships with donors from underrepresented communities. Our colleague Annabelle Nuñez had long worked as a health sciences librarian, brokering relationships between community and colleagues in Public Health.

I did not take on a book lightly. It was a substantial commitment for all of us. We would necessarily sacrifice evenings, early mornings – and, for me, the only family day each week with my small children. And, as a minority faculty, I wondered whether or not research on diversity and cultural competence would be taken seriously. (I’m sure there are one or more studies on how research by minority faculty is discounted – especially when they research diversity.) After many cafecitos to discuss our ideas and experiences, we decided the issues, and our commitment to them, was too important. If not us, then who?

In my now longish library career as a librarian, I’ve immersed myself in several areas, including more than twelve years in special collections. As Associate Librarian and Borderlands Curator for Special Collections at the University of Arizona Libraries, I’ve worked with many donors with misgivings just like the one I mentioned above. Slowly, I began to realize I brought assets and competencies into my work with donors I was otherwise taking for granted.

Special Collections Librarians and Archivists working with the Latino and other communities face a variety of challenges in pursuit of collections. We heed the calls to acquire materials from various underrepresented communities. We join our efforts to those of other institutions. Yet we’ve hardly considered the skills necessary to work within, and with, these communities. As we wrote Latinos in Libraries, Museums, and Archives, we had long conversations about our respective clients, donors, patrons. Most importantly, we recognized the importance of tacit knowledge. We began to tease out long-ago learned behaviors and knowledge so deeply held it was second-nature, and hardly valued. It did not escape me what we were delving into what might be described – perhaps diminished – as “soft skills.” But I know now, through our experience and the research, these competencies are essential, hard-won, even painful insights to our communities. Trust and relationships with our underrepresented communities cannot be taken for granted. Research, identity, and the historical record depend on trust and relationships. While the Latino community is our book’s focus, the suggestions will ring familiar to anyone working with other underrepresented communities.

There is much to be said. A previous post delves into some of that conversation already. What I offer here are some competencies necessary for work with the Latino community, and brief thoughts on their importance.

In Latinos in Libraries, Museums, and Archives, we listed characteristics of a culturally competent professional. I have used all of them in my work as an intermediary between donors and my home institution. My cultural awareness – of myself and others – and my awareness of context and history has informed my actions many times. I am of “the same background” – in my case Mexican – but I see, understand, and appreciate differences and the nuances of the Mexican community. I understand how various factors affect how we communicate and relate to one another. We are varied. We cannot be depicted or represented with the same brush. And who we are affords us assets: ties to others, knowledge of resources, the ability to speak more than one language, and the knowledge of the place and significance of experience found in archival material. By practicing an ethic of caring, librarians and archivists doing the hard work of building trust with the disenfranchised and disregarded learn respect and patience, and the importance of an open mind, an open heart, authenticity and genuine commitment to building trust.

Culturally-competent librarians and archivists alone are not enough. To be successful, our institutions must understand and support commitments to diversifying collections and nurture cultural competency. Institutions must do the important work of self-reflection. What institutional values are in place? Have the parent institution and the library established standards for diversity? Are the institution’s or library’s statements about diversity focused, manageable, and clear? Or are they too broad? Has the institution committed resources to meaningful diversity projects?

Anyone working with donors knows the necessity of managing expectations. When building trust with the Latino community or any other underrepresented communities, we know missteps can take enormous energy and time to repair – or prove irreparable. Our institutions must understand their commitment is paramount. We cannot be looking over our shoulders, wondering about institutional support. And, given past experiences, many of our donors are looking over our shoulders at our institutions, and they are dubious about the depth of commitment. Our knowledge of our own institutions and archival standards and ethics go hand-in-hand with our cultural competencies.

The end to my donor’s story proved something of a fairy tale, as several things came together. Standing there in the stacks and shelves, voice trembling, my donor decided to donate his mother’s papers. His family, learning about the deposit, and with some additional relationship-building, donated still more material. Their collections afforded the opportunity for our inaugural Spanish-language finding aid. At an event to celebrate the launch of a related, bilingual digital exhibit, long-standing family differences were set aside to celebrate an extraordinary legacy and an archive preserved, open for research, and accessible.

At an interview in preparation for the same event, my donor was asked what made him decide to donate the archive to our institution. I was there to translate. He spoke of me, our relationship, and my institution. You were authentic with me, he said. I could see that you were a serious person. And you had the institution behind you to do what needed to be done.

Verónica Reyes-Escudero is Associate Librarian and Borderlands Curator at the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections.

June 27, 2016June 24, 2022 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: Archivists on the IssuesTags: academia, archives profession, cultural competence, donors, GLAM institutions, Latino people, libraries, Mexican history, patrons, racial diversity, underrepresented communities 2 Comments

ICYMI: Simmons College DERAIL Forum Highlights Student Research and Advocacy in Archives and LIS

Our ICYMI series provide summaries of presentations, publications, webinars, and other educational opportunities that are of interest to I&A members. We keep a running list of upcoming events. If you’re interested in writing a post for ICYMI, please refer to our sign up sheet. In this post, Des Alaniz, Joyce Gabiola and Caroline Gardner recap the DERAIL Forum, held at Simmons College.

The first-annual Diversity, Equity, Race, Accessibility and Identity in LIS (DERAIL) Forum held on March 26^th at Simmons College in Boston, marked the culmination of several months of student-coordinated efforts to address social justice and inclusion within the Simmons College School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) and beyond. In April 2015, DERAIL logistics coordinator and SLIS archives student Joyce Gabiola virtually attended University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign’s (UIUC) LIS Education Symposium and was inspired by the coordinators’ leadership and efforts to empower students to critically examine LIS education. In their first semester of graduate school, Joyce wrote their first research paper about implementing “diversity” in core LIS curriculum because they realized “it was unlikely that we were going to explicitly address how race, ethnicity, white privilege, white supremacy, class, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, and intersectionality play a structural role in information, technology, workplaces, and in our relationships with colleagues.” After the Symposium, Joyce felt a similar event could be one way to fill this void at Simmons.

While DERAIL was originally intended to create a safe space for SLIS students to engage in meaningful conversations on topics not explicitly addressed in our classrooms, we also implemented a virtual component to allow Simmons faculty/staff, LIS educators and students at other institutions, and practitioners to participate. Although in-person attendance was intentionally limited to current students and recent alumni (within one year of graduation), DERAIL found tremendous support and interest from virtual attendees (and non-attendees) – both LIS professionals and students in other MSLIS programs – who were able to watch DERAIL via live-stream and participate in discussions through moderated Twitter chats and GoToWebinar. In addition, we were honored that a graduate student from Queens College in New York attended in-person, as well as one of the coordinators of UIUC’s LIS Education Symposium.

The wide range of topics presented at DERAIL represent the existing research, interests, and concerns of current students and recent alumni. Some of the presentations examined librarians and LIS professionals as workers (Professionally Underpaid: Systemic Issues in the LIS Field), the meaning of accessible libraries in policy and practice (Accessible Libraries: Essential and Often Forgotten), and the deployment of ‘diversity’ language in LIS outreach efforts (Words of Welcome: The Language and Structure of Diversity Policies and Initiatives in LIS Outreach). Archival student perspectives were also represented, in oral history projects (Inknography: Challenging the Model Minority Stereotype with Tattoos and Oral Histories) discussions about the role of archives in providing resources for anti-racism work on college campuses (Race, Archives, and Campus Communities), and a panel specifically centering on reconsidering the relationships between archives and archival users (Coming In Like a Wrecking Ball: Deconstructing Archival Authority).  All the presentations were critically engaging and highlighted the biases and systemic inequities in the standards and culture of the professions as well as in the curricula of graduate programs. At DERAIL, our views were challenged and the knowledge we’ve gained in our classes and work environments was shared with members of our student and practitioner communities. These critical conversations continue to affect how we approach our work as students, new graduates, and emerging professionals.

DERAIL provided the rare opportunity for LIS students to discuss their research on “uncomfortable topics” that impact our experiences as patrons, practitioners, educators, and students of information environments. For organizers, presenters, and attendees, DERAIL not only shaped our relationships to our fellow students and participants, but also brought wider recognition of the value of student contributions to the development and reconsideration of “professional” domains. All presentation slides and handouts are currently available online at the DERAIL Forum Program. Follow the Forum on Twitter (@derailforum) to receive info on DERAIL 2017!

Joyce Gabiola recently earned a MSLIS in Archives Management at Simmons College, where they were instrumental in the School of Library and Information Science’s creation of the Dean’s Fellow for Diversity and Inclusion as well as the Task Force for Diversity and Inclusion. They are an ARL/SAA Mosaic Fellow, ARL IRDW Scholar, and ALA Spectrum Scholar. Joyce is excited to begin the doctoral program in Information Studies (Archives) at UCLA this Fall.

Desiree Alaniz is a dual degree master’s student in Archives/History at Simmons College and served as Communications Coordinator for DERAIL 2016. She also blogs at Hack Library School and tweets @litlegoldenage.

May 24, 2016June 24, 2022 by issuesandadvocacy Categories: ICYMITags: accessibility, anti-racism, archives profession, biases, class oppression, gender oppression, Google Workspace, inclusion, institutional racism, library school, oral history, outreach, patrons, professionalism, racial diversity, racial oppression, social justice, White privilege, White supremacy, Whiteness Leave a comment