On Tuesday 26 Nov, the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) hosted an online training session called ‘Creating Inclusive Digital Collections’ about inclusive approaches to creating metadata and describing cultural heritage collections.
This event was aimed at digital archivists, cultural heritage professionals, community archivists, curators, librarians, and all those interested in learning more about enriching archives through community engagement, participatory practices, and inclusive interpretive strategies.
The aim of the event was to introduce participants to:
- The need for a more inclusive and respectful approach to describing digital cultural heritage collections
- Practical resources and toolkits available to help detect harmful language, address bias, and implement inclusive interpretive strategies when describing cultural heritage content
- Queer-affirmative interpretive strategies that can be applied to describing cultural heritage collections
- Methodologies for embedding working with communities into cultural heritage practices when creating metadata and curating collections
The event was chaired by Beulah Ezeugo, an artist and curator whose practice engages with postcolonial geographies, archival practices, and collective memory. The speakers included Margaret Middleton, an independent exhibit designer and museum consultant, and Sofie Taes, a cultural heritage professional who has been working for over a decade at the Department of Cultural Studies (CS Digital) of KU Leuven, mostly in international projects in the digital humanities and digital cultural heritage sectors.
Margaret’s talk focused on ‘Queer Possibility in Museums’. Queer possibility is ‘an interpretive strategy that uplifts the marginalised narratives of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) historical figures and objects of queer significance’ (Middleton, 2020, ‘Queer Possibility’). Margaret began their presentation by providing an overview of how museums have traditionally marginalised or erased queer narratives by not including queer histories in museum content. This practice of erasure is due to ‘unspoken rules’ around describing LGBTQ historical figures: the LGBTQ identity of an artist or historical figure is only disclosed if they self-described that way; we are certain (there is ‘proof’); or we think it’s relevant. Margaret stressed the importance of challenging current practice and cis-heteronormative worldviews by naming queerness in cases where museum content seems to depict queer stories, rather than relying on the ‘burden of proof’, so that people can see themselves reflected in museum or archival collections. Queerness is not shameful; therefore, naming queerness should be legitimised as an inclusive interpretive practice, ‘especially as so much of historical interpretation is about making inferences and best guesses’. As Margaret states in their presentation ‘queerness is great, let’s look for it’. They introduced three queer-affirmative interpretive strategies that can be applied to describing cultural collections: inferential; descriptive; and imaginative. The implementation of these strategies can be used both to name queer actuality and posit queer possibility, leading to a more queer-positive experience for museum visitors. Learn more about these strategies by watching the event recording, accessing Margaret’s presentation on Slideshare, and accessing the educational resources on Margaret’s website.
Sofie’s talk focused on ‘DE-BIASing digital collections through participation: a community engagement methodology’. Sofie spoke about her work as part of the DE-BIAS project, which aims to promote a more inclusive and respectful approach to the description of digital collections and the telling of stories and histories of minoritised communities. The project developed an AI-powered tool to automatically detect problematic terms in cultural heritage metadata and provide information about the problematic background of the terms. The tool uses vocabularies that combine offensive language with contextual information and suggestions for appropriate terms. The project also championed the importance of embedding community engagement into cultural practices. Sofie highlighted the importance of the ‘nothing about us without us’ motto, which is used to communicate the idea that no policy should be decided by any representative without the full and direct participation of members of the group(s) affected by that policy. The project focused on developing meaningful partnerships through community engagement methodologies, leading to the development of a new resource: Community Engagement Methodology: Resources, Reflections, Recommendations. Watch the recording to learn more about how working with communities and using tools to detect harmful language can lead to a more inclusive and respectful approach to the description of digital collections from cultural heritage institutions. Access Sofie’s presentation on Slideshare.
After the talks, Beulah chaired an engaging Q&A session with the audience about the topics discussed during the event. We are grateful to the event chair and the speakers for facilitating an important conversation around inclusive approaches to creating metadata and describing cultural heritage collections. We were delighted to attract an international audience of almost 200 registrants eager to learn more about inclusive practices and community engagement methodologies.
If you missed the event, you can watch the recording on the DRI Vimeo Channel, or access the video below.
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