Archives For Black Lives In Philadelphia: Anti-Racist Description Resources

Abstract

Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia (A4BLiP) is a loose association of archivists, librarians, and allied professionals in the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area responding to the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. One of its working groups, the Anti-Racist Description Working Group, worked to address anti-oppressive archival description. The project was inspired by Teressa Raiford, a Portland-based activist and founder of the organization Don’t Shoot PDX, who collaborated with A4BLiP on a conference presentation at the Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon in 2017. The project compiled research and case studies created by archivists across the field into a set of best practice recommendations for an anti-oppressive approach to creating and remediating archival description.