ALAO 2019: "Libraries Speak Up! Advocate. Collaborate. Educate."
Who We Are: Spotlighting Diversity in Government Documents
L.E. Eames | @liblarrian | Digital version: bit.ly/EamesALAO19
Project originally created for the University of Washington Libraries, Government Publications, Maps, Microforms and Newspapers Unit
Project originally created for the University of Washington Libraries, Government Publications, Maps, Microforms and Newspapers Unit
Project Background: In the process of planning an update to another guide, I identified an opportunity to further develop diversity and inclusion in the Government Publications guides. To that end, inspired by a National Parks Service project and using our “Sources by Subject” guides as a launch pad, I created the “Who We Are” guides.
Project Methodology:
- Organizing principle: “What stories are told here?” A narrative orientation provided a framework for exploring how gov docs represented identity groups speaking for themselves as well as the government imposing policy on those groups without their input.
- Scope: United States borders. The items selected deal with American domestic policy (with some exceptions). I made the call not to do a “Who We Are” page on Indigenous Americans, because a “Sources by Subject” guide already existed.
- Product: There are 7 sections: African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Jewish Americans, Latinx Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans, Muslim Americans, and Women. The stories are unique to each group and the guides are unified by shared anatomy, some of which is described below.
Project Results
The goal of the project was to daylight alternative ways of using government documents as primary sources, and the final guides are at: guides.lib.uw.edu/research/whoweare. They are designed to grow and expand as new documents are created and new stories are told in policy and in legal precedent.
The goal of the project was to daylight alternative ways of using government documents as primary sources, and the final guides are at: guides.lib.uw.edu/research/whoweare. They are designed to grow and expand as new documents are created and new stories are told in policy and in legal precedent.