Seminar: Ethical Outreach with Culturally Sensitive Content: Practices, Provocation, and Power

Abstract

Preparing timely and meaningful exhibits and outreach events is a crucial part of special collections and archives librarianship. Accomplishing this task in contemporary society often means engaging the public with materials that reflect histories of violence, racism, and oppression. Attendees of this seminar will learn from outreach specialists, collection curators, and faculty partners, who will share effective and responsible approaches to special collections outreach with these materials. Building upon previous conversations on this theme as it relates to other professional functions, this seminar turns the focus to the particular challenges related to outreach practices including exhibits, social media, and community events that purposefully engage the public with these materials and themes. Presenters will engage with questions such as: How do we present these materials ethically and conscientiously in the special collections outreach environment, and remain attentive to the risks of replicating these histories when presenting materials that document violent, racist, or oppressive acts? How do we call attention, in exhibits and outreach, to the materials that are missing both from the historical record and from our collections? How can we work to center voices representing oppressed communities both in the collections we highlight, and in the expertise we engage in all stages of the outreach process? How do we prepare special collections librarians and archivists in the profession to accomplish this work? This seminar is brought to you by the RBMS Instruction and Outreach Committee and the RBMS Diversity Committee. Moderator: Grace Adeneye, University of Delaware