Abstract
Archival descriptive practices have traditionally obfuscated the existence of or excluded entirely the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people. The development of reparative archival description practices compels archivists to reassess how best to elevate the voices of queer creators and subjects within their collections. In addition, the development of LGBTQIA+ community-generated resources allow archivists to more easily understand and implement the perspectives of queer communities to make archival resources more accessible to and discoverable by those communities. This article will discuss how a special collections library is improving the accessibility of their holdings relating to LGBTQIA+ histories by: 1) auditing archival description to identify outdated description and archival silences; 2) reviewing and revising language which obscured LGBTQIA+ relationships; and 3) developing description at the point of accession that highlights queer histories, relationships, and individuals in order to make LGBTQIA materials more accessible to their communities.
Recommended Citation
deGraffenreid, Alexandra and Goodrich, Gideon
(2023)
"Improving Access and Discovery of LGBTQIA+ Materials Across Collection Services Workflows,"
Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: Vol. 10, Article 18.
Available at:
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol10/iss1/18