Guiding Principles
In fall 2022, we worked with inaugural Reparative and Inclusive Description (RID) Survey Scholar, Zoe Hume to develop formal guiding principles for which we base our RID work. Below are her summaries of our guiding principles informed by course readings during the semester-long internship.
- Cultural Humility
The principle of cultural humility demands that we denounce any attempt toward neutrality, recognizing it as an impossibility in archival practice and instead engage in a continuous and visible disclosure of our own positionalities (Tai, 2020). There are three dimensions to cultural humility: (1) lifelong learning and critical self-reflection; (2) recognizing and challenging power imbalances; and (3) institutional accountability.
- Radical Reimagination
Frick and Proffitt (2022) defined radically reimagining descriptive workflows as a process that looks to the foundations of librarianship and the archival profession to envision the systemic changes necessary for change. The word “reimagine” is used to acknowledge the need for creativity in breaking down the power dynamics and biases embedded in current descriptive practices and transforming these workflows in ways that center, honor, and respect people and cultures while also minimizing harm. As a principle, this means not only recognizing how language may harm our users as they access our collections, but also grappling with the deeper, more insidious ways in which our institutions and our practices perpetuate harm from collections to the retention of a diverse and inclusive workforce.
- Radical Empathy
The principle of radical empathy underscores an approach to archival practice and librarianship that focuses on people and connections. Radical empathy involves being open to someone else’s experiences without blurring the boundaries between the self and someone else. When implementing radical empathy, it is crucial to recognize and respect differences without erasing or minimizing them (Caswell & Cifor, 2016). Radical empathy means pushing through our initial, visceral reactions in our archival interactions to prevent ourselves from hiding material or failing to show empathy to those we may think do not deserve it.
- Slow Archiving
Slowing down in archives allows us to focus differently, listen carefully, and act ethically (Christen & Anderson, 2019). It is a decolonial practice that requires we keep colonial structures in view instead of ignoring them in order to tear them down. Slow archiving helps us recognize how archives have traditionally devalued and erased Indigenous knowledge in archival spaces and structures and creates space for new structures to be built. In slow archives, records become flexible, fluid, and ongoing rather than static and historically bound, which is key to promoting a cataloging process that is iterative.
- Trauma-informed Care
To center grief and trauma in libraries and archives, we must adopt trauma-informed approaches that recognize the ways in which our histories and systems have embedded trauma in memory work. The principle of trauma-informed practice comprises five areas: safety, trust and transparency, choice, collaboration, and empowerment (Wright & Laurent, 2021). A trauma-informed approach to archives and libraries also reminds us that just as we must take care of our patrons, we must also take care of ourselves when engaging with potentially harmful and traumatic content.
- Critical Race Praxis
Critical race praxis (CRP) means extending the valuable tools founded in critical race theory into practice, moving beyond the theoretical into the practical (Winston, 2021). In archives and libraries, CRP means disrupting the idea that cultural heritage institutions are capable of neutrality; responding to current events and social issues; taking action to center social justice and recognize our responsibility to our communities; going beyond traditional knowledge systems to embrace multiple ways of knowing; and committing to minimizing harm and providing care for professionals, collections, and patrons alike.
- Collaboration
The principle of collaboration clarifies that people and communities are at the heart of reparative and inclusive description work; however, it is important to be careful not to fall into the trap of using "community" as a buzzword. Archives and libraries must move away from practices that center professionalism in the pursuit of a false neutrality, and they must instead commit to centering people and confronting their failures of care (Jules, 2016). It is crucial to ask people what they want and need from our institutions without expecting them to do the work for us or expecting them to want to work with us.
Bibliography
Caswell, M., & Cifor, M. (2016). From human rights to feminist ethics: Radical empathy in the archives. Archivaria, 81(1), 23-43.
Christen, K., & Anderson, J. (2019). Toward slow archives. Archival Science, 19(2), 87-116.
Frick, R. L., & Proffitt, M. (2022). Reimagine descriptive workflows: A community-informed agenda for reparative and inclusive descriptive practice. OCLC Research. https://doi.org/10.25333/wd4b-bs51
Jules, B. (2016, November 9). Confronting our failure of care around the legacies of marginalized people in the archives [Keynote address]. National Digital Stewardship Alliance Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, WI. https://medium.com/on-archivy/confronting-our-failure-of-care-around-the-legacies-of-marginalized-people-in-the-archives-dc4180397280
Tai, J. (2020). Cultural humility as a framework for anti-oppressive archival description. Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, 3(2).
Winston, R.E. (2021). Praxis for the people: Critical race theory and archival practice. In S.Y. Leung & J.R. López-Knight (Eds.), Knowledge justice: Disrupting library and information studies through critical race theory (pp. 283-298). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Wright, K., & Laurent, N. (2021). Safety, collaboration, and empowerment: Trauma-informed archival practice. Archivaria, (91), 38-73.