This pilot project will focus on assessing FUL digital collections and finding aids and making recommendations based on audit results. Based on prior literature in critical archival practices to effect social justice (Punzalan & Caswell, 2016), and given the increased level of interest of students, faculty, researchers, and community advocates and allies in archives, this audit should concentrate on the following intersectional areas of exploration [1]:

• Gender and Sexuality
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Class and Social Status
• Disabilities
• Religion & Spirituality

 

These areas can help us identify a variety of lexicon categories and maintain a focused approach to planning our audit. Groupings are broad in nature, meaning, that the concepts within each realm are not meant to be mutually inclusive or exclusive. Once recommendations made by the audit team are presented and approved, we can make better decisions on how to engage in “conscious editing” of records that were reviewed and flagged during this first phase.

1. Punzalan, R. L., & Caswell, M. (2016). Critical directions for archival approaches to social justice. The Library Quarterly, 86(1), 25-42.

• Where are the gaps in our current archival description and presentation practices, as they relate to DEI?
• What about our strong areas? How can we deal with archival silences, especially when we do not have the details we need to correct/enhance our description of under surface populations?
• How can we best contextualize donor-supplied descriptive language?
• At what level of description (e.g., scope notes, cross-referencing)?
• What are some of the tools and resources that we could integrate to implement changes in our description/presentation of historical records?
• Where in our workflows can we bring stakeholders and engage them in our efforts?
• In what ways can we schedule sustainable procedures/practices for future auditing activities?