Case Study Participant 7

1. What would you say are the soft skills or attributes and types of knowledge that are necessary for getting started with decolonisation in a role that is similar to yours? 

Regarding cataloguing & discovery – An understanding of the standpoint of individuals from the groups you are essentially hoping to reach through your work. i.e. individuals will obviously feel differently about the same issues and a one size fits all approach is not suitable. Listening to others is very important. Also a knowledge of the history of the subjects/ issues, or knowing where to look for guidance is very important. We cannot know about the complexities of all the subjects in our collections but we need to know where to look for information, and know when we need to seek external contribution.

2. Please give examples of where soft skills and personal attributes have proven useful to you during any stage of collection-based decolonisation.

Creating content warnings and glossaries for historical collections. This involved a large group of people and we needed to listen to each other. It also took a long time before the work was passed to one person to finalise. Listening was key to this work, as was not rushing it. Attention to detail was very important as so many drafts were created and it was easy to edit out key changes to text.

3. How can someone starting out in a similar role get an introduction to collection-based decolonisation and develop a basic skill-set/ knowledge/ awareness? What can this process entail? Please suggest any resources and approaches. 

https://culturalheritageterminology.co.uk/ was an incredibly helpful resource, and from here we researched subject specific websites e.g.s of charities for relevant disabilities etc. 

4. How does an advanced collection-based decolonisation skillset/ expert knowledge look like from your perspective (including soft and specialised skills)? 

Our role should be to have a skill set that is relevant to our roles as librarians/ archivists etc. We cannot be expected (nor should try) to be experts in the subjects of the collections we hold. These are often wide ranging and complex. Instead we need to develop our skills in creating, for e.g good catalogue data, that facilitates and enhances access using content warnings and glossaries as suitable. Also listening to user groups and responding to their feedback and adapting our content in response. We should also know of places that hold relevant collections on subjects (e.g. we are often asked for collections that ‘tell the other side’) so information sharing across organisations would be beneficial. Being able to signpost support for researchers as well. We’re information professionals and I think this is where our expert knowledge should lie.

5. How can someone in a similar role further develop their skills/ knowledge/ awareness in collection-based decolonisation and build an expert skill-set? What can this process entail? Please suggest any resources and approaches. 

Several organisations run workshops and these are advertised on relevant Jiscmail sites e.g. https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=lis-decolonise and https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra (and others for other groups e.g. museums). We have also found information sessions for sharing across the department incredibly informative to help understand what support people need. Carissa Chew’s site is also the number one resource for support for cataloguing/ terminology etc. 

6. Please add any other thoughts or advice you may have for those who want to develop their skills and knowledge in collection-based decolonisation. 

Regarding cataloguing/ content warnings etc. –  set your systems up so any text can be easily changed/ removed from online catalogues. Talk to a wide range of people. Also try not to focus on the subjects but on what you need to do to make those collections more accessible. Think about whether modernising terms is acceptable or actually misleading. Seek expert advice when suitable.