Abstract

A range of information scholarship has investigated data reuse in scientific communities (see Shiue et al., 2021; Wofford et al 2019; Pasquetto, Borgman, & Wofford, 2019; Pasquetto, Randles, & Borgman, 2017; Palmer et al., 2011; Wallis et al., 2013). Work in community and Indigenous archives has likewise explored how community-based users are accessing, repurposing, or accessioning existing data (e.g. Marsh 2022; Carpenter 2019; Powell 2016; Christen 2011). More broadly, archival user studies have explored how scholars and other communities of use are repurposing and reusing archival collections (e.g. Torou et al. 2010; Anderson 2004; Tibbo 2003; Toms and Duff 2002). Yet, there remain many disconnects between heritage collections and users, particularly for communities of color and in specialized genres.

Scholarship studying the work of cultural heritage practitioners illuminates how practitioner biases often result in incorrect, limited, and even biased descriptions of historically marginalized populations. Failures here often result from the challenges present within binarized and essentialized frameworks of archival data description and cataloging (Ramirez, 2015; Wagner, 2022). Thus, the importance of community involvement and co-creation of archival collections is well documented by scholars in the field (Evans 2007; Roued-Cunliffe and Copeland 2017; Somerville and EchoHawk 2011). Indeed, scholarship suggests that communities will continue to engage in archival data production exclusive of institutions, resulting in an absence of representation becoming the problem of institutions, rather than a perceived lack of community involvement (Zavala et al., 2017). These self and communal protective practices mean that institutions interested in community engaged data co-creation, must engage in practices of cultural humility, as well as seek out community-defined models of data use, description and access (e.g. Tai, 2021).

This panel will focus on facilitating archival data reuse in cultural heritage collections via a range of community-oriented work, drawing on interrelated projects with the National Agricultural Library, Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC), and the Library of Congress’ By the People platform. Through these projects we ask what data recovery and reuse means and can mean for different groups and communities, and how various sociotechnical approaches can facilitate (or prevent) access, reuse, and impact over time.

Presenter Bios

Paper 1: Recovering and Reusing Historical Data: Investigating Data Curation Practices Across Disciplines

• Katrina Fenlon, Asst. Prof, University of Maryland-College Park
• Alia Reza, PhD Student, University of Maryland-College Park
• Amanda Sorensen, PhD Student, University of Maryland-College Park

Paper 2: Indigenizing SNAC for Indigenous Access to Colonially-held Collections

• Lydia Curliss, PhD Student, University of Maryland-College Park
• Diana Marsh, Asst. Prof, University of Maryland-College Park

Paper 3: Crowdsourcing Materiality to Improve Access to Cultural Heritage Materials

• Mason Jones, PhD Student, University of Maryland-College Park

Paper 4: Utilizing the the Information Practices of ICT-Based LGBTQIA+ Archives Content Creators to Facilitate Inclusive Content Description

• Travis Wagner, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Maryland-College Park
• Discussant: Christoph Becker, Assoc. Prof., University of Toronto

Details

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Zoom details

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Meeting ID: 939 8269 3924
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Recording

This session will be recorded and made available on AERI YouTube.