RLUK Inclusive Collections, Inclusive Libraries | Building inclusive and diverse collections
Channel: ResearchLibrariesUK
Date: 2023-03-28

Inclusive Collections, Inclusive Libraries is an RLUK programme of events that aims to foster conversation around decolonisation and inclusive practice in collecting, describing, presenting, and engaging with content in research library collections. It seeks to raise awareness about the opportunities and challenges of dealing with, contextualising, and engaging with offensive collections while also identifying and sharing examples of good practice.

https://www.rluk.ac.uk/icil/

This seminar brought together the recently graduated RLUK/TNA Professional Fellows to discuss the results of their projects. The 2022-2023 Professional Fellows investigated pressing issues around diversity and inclusion in cultural collections. Their projects looked at the opportunities and challenges involved in developing inclusive collections as well as best practices in surfacing diverse identities in catalogues and representing marginalised histories and voices. Their work also explored the value of understanding the needs of users and engaging with different communities in the process.

The RLUK/TNA Professional Fellowship Scheme enables staff from both organisations to gain experience and insight from one another, strengthen and diversify the relationship between them, and to overcome some of the collective challenges facing research and cultural organisations. 

Diversity and inclusion in UK archival collection development
Jenny Shaw, Collections Development Manager, Wellcome Collection

Documenting Complex Histories: Inclusive Cataloguing and the Women’s Aid Archive
Holly Smith, Project Archivist, Women’s Aid Federation of England Archive, University of Leeds

Capturing Diversity: Challenging normative assumptions of Records Subjects
Rachael Minott, Joint Head of Diversity Equity and Inclusion, The National Archives