The following post was authored by Michelle Peralta, Resident Archivist for Yale Special Collections, and Christine Weideman, Director.

To be both transparent and accountable, Manuscripts and Archives shared our initial efforts to address bias and discrimination in our work and workplace in early September. Our first step was to create a Statement of Affirmation on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) which was made publicly available on our blog and website. As a next step, we considered how to sustainably and intentionally incorporate DEI efforts into all our areas of work as described in the affirmation statement. We created a DEI Plan of Action that outlines specific tasks and projects staff are undertaking now or will undertake in the next several years. Work is divided among four categories: collections, services, spaces, and workplace.

We consider the Plan of Action to be a living document that is responsive and reflective. We recognize that it will evolve as a result of our experiences and critical analysis of the work we undertake. We are committed to regular reviews of the plan and will modify, revise, or update it as necessary. We will continue to make the plan accessible as a means of documenting our work and commitments.

We welcome all feedback on our plan, affirmation statement, or our DEI efforts.

Manuscripts and Archives: DEI Plan of Action (developed August 2020)

FY 21 (in progress)

Collections

• Develop/roll out website to document impact of 2020 on lives of persons in Greater New Haven area
• Document activities of Grant Hagan Society, student org, to support people of color in Yale School of Music
• Contact Dwight Hall to document student work with New Haven organizations
• Document how Yale student organizations are responding to national protests
• Enhance, correct, and highlight description about our collection material
  • Provide leadership to the Yale Reparative Archival Description (RAD) project

Services

• University Archivist serves on Yale University working group investigating Yale’s entanglement with slavery and connections to the abolition movement.

Spaces

• Conduct audit of physical and virtual spaces to ensure they are inclusive, accessible, and welcoming

Workplace

• Request that diversity competency language be included in all position focus statements or job descriptions so that the importance of inclusivity can be discussed with potential candidates (MSSA recommendation has been passed on to Central HR and is being addressed at the University level)
• Develop internal MSSA group to focus on workplace culture
  • Develop departmental code of conduct to align with YUL community values and MSSA efforts to address bias in collections, services, spaces, and workplace
  • Develop departmental procedures for addressing microaggressions or inappropriate language/behaviors
• Update MSSA’s About page including mission statement, history, and collecting emphases

FY 22 (to be planned)

Collections

• Enhance, correct, and highlight description about our collection material
  • Provide more subject terms for student papers with focus on under-documented populations in New Haven and at Yale, to enhance their discovery and use.
  • Create a LibGuide on our holdings related to minority populations in New Haven and at Yale. Include language about silences and perspectives in MSSA’s collections
  • Create a workflow for staff members to contribute citations and flag MSSA materials/collections documenting under-documented populations in New Haven and at Yale.
  • Create a workflow for staff members to suggest revisions to collection descriptions to make those descriptions more inclusive, accurate, and useful to researchers (pending guidance from RAD)
• Pursue collaborative projects to surface primary sources/collections related to marginalized populations (Grad School placement of grad students in semester projects within the Library; participating in non-MSSA driven projects)

Services

• Develop/provide guidance and parameters for archiving student projects, individual or teams, documenting New Haven and Yale history, and what we can do to assist

The following post was authored by Michelle Peralta, Resident Archivist for Yale Special Collections, Manuscripts and Archives.

During the past several months, staff in Manuscripts and Archives met to discuss our responsibility to address bias and discrimination in our work and workplace. After several lengthy discussions with the entire department, we developed the following Statement of Affirmation. It outlines our commitment to implementing more equitable policies and procedures, remediating prior practices and deepening our understanding of diversity, equity, inclusion issues as they relate to libraries and archives.

In creating our statement, we drew inspiration and guidance from various sources including the Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia and the Alabama Department of Archives and History, as well as the Society of American Archivists.

Our Statement of Affirmation is included on the departmental blog but will also live on our department homepage as a first step in our efforts to improve transparency and communicate more broadly the ways in which we are carrying out this work.

Statement of Affirmation

Manuscripts and Archives (MSSA) affirms our commitment to adhering to the Yale University Library community values and to addressing bias and discrimination in our collections, services, spaces, and workplace.

• In doing this work, we acknowledge the following:
  Archives and archivists are not neutral. Archives exist within systems that have traditionally privileged and welcomed narratives of the wealthy and powerful, particularly cisgender, heterosexual white men, and have often perpetuated practices that marginalize, suppress, and harm those with other perspectives and experiences.
• We cannot fully understand the experience of marginalized communities.
• We are not experts in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work. This work, however, is an ongoing departmental priority and deserves our dedication, engagement, and willingness to act and to listen.
• We recognize our institutional and individual privileges as well as our responsibility to collaborate with local and professional communities in addressing DEI issues.

Moving forward, we strive to do the following:

• Embed our commitment to address DEI issues in our strategic planning, department and unit work plans, and individual goals.
• Embrace transparency in our work so we can be held accountable internally and externally.
• Address biases in our services, collection development and stewardship, descriptive practices, spaces, and workplace.
• Cultivate a safe workplace that empowers staff members and encourages open discussion.
• Educate ourselves and those around us on DEI issues, recognizing the various experiences and engagement of staff with DEI work.
• Assess progress on our efforts at least bi-annually.