The Special Collections and Archives (SC&A) department at the University of California, Santa Cruz is housed within the beautiful McHenry library. Tucked away amongst the massive, gentle redwoods, the library is a sanctuary for students looking to discover and explore the written word. SC&A plays a pivotal role in providing students and the general public with the opportunity to handle rare, elusive, and fascinating materials that can often be found nowhere else in the world. Archivist-produced finding aids are an important tool that patrons use when accessing the resources offered by Special Collections. But might these guides be compromised by potentially problematic language? This project has sought to identify issues with problematic language in the finding aids that might contribute to the marginalization of subjects within the historical record. My final report on this audit provides recommendations for steps SC&A might take to ensure that these documents advance an inclusive discourse that promotes appropriate and accurate terminology.
McHenry Library
Process
Before beginning the audit of existing finding aids, I began a survey of the professional literature on the topic of reparative archiving. After conducting my research, I wrote a literature review that brought together the most pertinent and powerful work on reparative archiving. My sponsor and I then identified over twenty finding aids that I began going through line by line. After compiling extensive notes on this portion of the project, I moved into the next phase, which involved keyword searching terms throughout all of the finding aids provided by UCSC. Once this was finished, I created a final report discussing my findings providing recommendations for how Special Collections could begin to address problematic language within the finding aids.
Results
There were three broad types of issues identified in the finding aids. The first issue was the presence of outright offensive or innaccurate language. The second was misleading or innapropriate language that should be updated to reflect the principles of reparative archiving and promote inclusive discourse. The third issue was the use of Mrs. followed by a husband’s first and last name instead of that individual’s name, and the use of Miss followed by a last name instead of
using the first and last name of an individual. These three broad classes allowed me to mbreak down my recommendations for UCSC Special Collections into three priority levels for archivists to focus on.
Priority Rankings for Identified Issues
Highest Priority: The most urgent change that needs to be implemented in the UCSC finding aids
is removing and replacing outright offensive language (not including offensive language in the titles of resources that have been supplied by their creators). Another matter of immediate concern is the use of "Mrs." followed by the first and last name of an individual's husband. Such a pracice effectively erases women's identities from the historical record. Lastly, misleading or inappropriate language in the titles of finding aids themselves must be updated as soon as possible. The most pressing example of this is the title of the collection that refers to "Japanese Relocation", instead of the more appropriate "Japanese Forced Removal and Incarceration" that took place during the second world war.
Medium Priority: There are two seperate categories of issues that rank as slightly less urgent than the three listed above. The first of these two is the capitalization of terms such as "Black" and "Indigenous." For the most part, these terms are capitalized, with the exception of a few instances found in older finding aids. The second issue is misleading or inappropriate language within the finding aids themselves. In many of these instances, the changes that might need to be made are not always easy to ascertain. Updating this terminology will require discussion on the part of archivists, and more research on the current literature surrounding inclusive language. These instances must also be investigated on a case by case basis to ensure that the changes that are made are in line with the principles of reparative archiving.
Lowest Priority: Many titles of resources within finding aids contain offensive language. The majority of this language was supplied by the creators of the resources themselves, and as such, should (usually) not be altered by archivists. However, there might be titles of resources that were assigned or generated by archivists that contain problematic terminology. In these cases, it is recomemended that the titles be updated appropriately. This process will undoubtedly require extensive investments in labor, however. In the meantime, a note warning users of offensive language can be placed within finding aids that contain titles with derogatory expressions. The second item in the lowest priority category is creating a standard practice for the use of Mrs. and Miss to refer to women named in finding aids. It is recommended that archivists familiarize themselves with best practices surrounding the use of these terms and update finding aids accordingly.
