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Special Collections and Archives Research Center Anti-Racist Actions

We acknowledge that materials in SCARC collections and the language that describes them may be harmful. We are actively working to address our descriptive practices; this guide provides more information regarding our anti-racist actions.

Reparative and Enhanced Description

The Special Collections and Archives Research Center's Speaking of History blog documents a variety of activities engaged in by SCARC as a department, including reparative and enhanced descriptions.

In May 2024, SCARCers presented their work in a session for the Northwest Archivists conference in Spokane, WA. The presentation slides and notes (the presentation was not recorded) are available for download via OSU@ScholarsArchive: Anti-Racist Description Activities in the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center

In September 2024, SCARC unveiled it's 2024-2025 exhibit “Anti-Racist Description Activities in OSU’s Special Collections and Archives Research Center” which showcases the context, behind-the-scenes processes, and various projects reflecting SCARC’s anti-racist description activities over the past several years.

Linked below are blog posts describing completed reparative and enhanced description projects.

Timeline of Activities

2024:

2023:

  • SCARC continued to add "Statements on Description" to finding aids
  • SCARC developed three anti-racist description projects including addressing the use of the “s-word” related to Indigenous communities, the “n-word” related to African-American communities, and “internment” related to Japanese and Japanese-American communities within SCARC collections; there are blog posts sharing information regarding each project linked together by the tag "Reparative Description"

2022:

  • Starting in the 2022-2023 academic year, all SCARCers now have consistent language in their position descriptions that specifies the expectations of continued EDIAR actions; the language reads, "Seeks out and engages in anti-racist educational materials and trainings; engages in department-wide, as well as team-based, conversations regarding the implementation of anti-racist work into SCARC policies and practices; and develops and implements concrete action items regarding anti-racist work within SCARC, as well as this position’s duties." In addition, SCARCers have language listing other position specific EDIAR related duties.    

  • In the summer of 2022 we experimented with the software Trint, an audio transcription software, to provide automated transcription for historic moving image files, creating broader accessibility of these materials to all users. We have a subscription for the 2022-2023 academic year as a pilot project.

  • We participated in the OSULP's "Writing Black History of the Pacific Northwest into Wikipedia" - Oregon State University's fourth annual editathon focused on Black history of the Pacific Northwest. Kimberly Moreland, from Oregon Black Pioneers, gave a presentation about Oregon Black history. During the editathon participants were given online folders containing curated research and information about Black historical people and events. Participants edited and created articles.

  • Staff from SCARC and the OSULP Emerging Technologies and Services Department organized a project to promote equal treatment of men’s and women’s sports materials in OSU’s digital collections. Seeking to dismantle legacy practices that normalized men’s sports while diminishing women’s, we piloted a new description policy and introduced new controlled vocabulary terms in the OSU Sports Media Guides collection in Oregon Digital.

  • We hosted CJ Garcia, OSULP Diversity Scholar (October 2021 - May 2022) who engaged in various SCARC projects including writing the finding aids for the Hmong at OSU and the Corvallis Lesbian Avengers collections, creating a LibGuide for the The Japanese-American Association of Lane County, Oregon, Oral History Collection, and developing metadata for the Oregon Black Pioneers Oral History Collection. 

  • To better relay the physical accessibility of SCARC’s research space prior to a researcher’s appointment, an Accessibility section has been added to the Conducting In-Person Research section of the Welcome to SCARC LibGuide. This section outlines the physical terrain outside the Valley Library, accessible entrances and exits, number of elevators and their locations, the location of gender-neutral / gender-inclusive restrooms in the Library, and doorway clearances into SCARC Reading Room.

  • Offering expanded research digitization services continued to be an essential component of our by-appointment model. It provides our services more equitably to those researchers unable to visit SCARC in person, regardless of the reason. The expansion of research digitization services was formalized as an ongoing collection management task for Public Services Student Archivists in the 2021-2022 academic year.

2021:

2020:

  • Creation of “Statement on Description” field for collection finding aids to include a link to this guide, as well as information specific to the collection’s descriptive language, as well as imagery, and whether or not archivists have reused descriptions provided by a donor or have provided the language themselves.

  • Development of department goals to:
  1. seek out and engage in anti-racist educational materials and trainings;
  2. engage in department wide, as well as team based, conversations regarding the implementation of anti-racist work into our policies and practices; 
  3. develop and implement concrete action items regarding anti-racist work.