Resources

• Presentation slides - download pptx
• LUX: Yale Collections Discovery https://lux.collections.yale.edu/
• Reimagine Descriptive Workflows: A Community-informed Agenda for Reparative and Inclusive Descriptive Practice https://oc.lc/reimagine-workflows
• Beyond the Silos of the LAMs Collaboration Among Libraries, Archives and Museums https://oc.lc/silos-lams-report

Presenters

Robert Sanderson, Director for Cultural Heritage Metadata, Yale University
Elizabeth Williams, Director for Cross-Collection Initiatives, Yale University

Description

Yale University has chartered a Bias Awareness and Responsibility Committee, with members representing several units across campus. The committee is charged with

• considering issues of implicit and explicit bias within the knowledge systems that manage the university’s heritage collections data,
• understanding the impact of exposing this biased data to users in multiple channels (including via the new cross-collection discovery platform, LUX),
• and developing a series of recommendations to address these concerns. 

After an initial 12 months of exploration and discussion, the committee has produced a values statement and made recommendations on processes and areas for ongoing remediation of bias in collections. 

This webinar described the process of arriving at consensus around a challenging topic, as well as outlining the recommendations themselves. 

This webinar will be useful for collections managers, librarians, archivists, and anyone with responsibility for describing cultural heritage knowledge hoping to gain a deeper understanding of issues around bias, transparency, and humility in description.