Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility (DEIJA): Inclusive Metadata Practices for Digital Collections

Includes manuals, guidelines, case studies, resource lists, sample statements about harmful content, and much more!

Archives in Context spoke with A4BLiP’s Anti-Racist Description Working Group members Alexis A. Antracoli, Annalise Berdini, Faith Charlton, Valencia Johnson, and Katy Rawdon on the creation of the Anti-Racist Description Resources and ways that archivists can begin addressing racist and oppressive description in their repositories.

Dorothy Berry talks about a case study at the University of Minnesota Libraries to digitize materials related to African American materials. It explores how historical and current archival practices marginalize material relevant to African American history and culture, and how a mass digitization process can attempt to highlight and re-aggregate those materials. The details of the aggregation process — e.g. the need to use standardized vocabularies to increase aggregation even when those standardized vocabularies privilege majority representation — also reveal important issues in mass digitization and aggregation projects involving the history of marginalized groups.

Built off of Dorothy Berry's Umbra search work, this activity guide will help professionals appreciate user experience at their own institution.

Karen Li-Lun Hwang, Digital Projects and Metadata Librarian of the Metropolitan New York Library Council, wrote this 2018 case study using linked data tools.

This case study by Emily Drabinski analyzes the status of marked and unmarked binaries related to social identities in Library of Congress Subject Headings.

The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world.

"In 1973 the author conducted a seminal research study which concluded that subject analysis for African American studies resources was seriously inadequate and that the area was neglected in research. Twenty years later the author revisits the issues relative to the adequacy of subject analysis for African American studies resources. Specifically, Library of Congress subject headings are examined against the capabilities of online catalogs to retrieve materials relating to this body of literature. The conclusion drawn is that improvements have been made but that problems continue to exist. Prescriptive measures for resolving the remaining problems are offered."

The Queer Metadata Collective is a group of cataloguers, librarians, archivists, scholars, museum and information professionals with a concerted interest in improving the description and classification of queer people in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Special Collections (GLAMS) and other information systems. The Collective’s primary goal is to develop a set of best practices for the description, cataloging, and classification of queer information resources in GLAMS.

The Design for Diversity Learning Toolkit is a prototype exploring the resources and strategies needed to help cultural heritage practitioners advocate for and create more inclusive information systems.

A list of resources related to conscious editing and anti-oppressive metadata practices.