Resources for Allies
A4BLiP encourages the white folks who are involved with our group, or anyone with privilege who is engaging in conversations about social justice, to first take the time to familiarize yourself with anti-oppressive terms, concepts, and norms. Here are some resources to help you get started:
- Society of American Archivists’ free, online course on Cultural Diversity Competency: https://www.pathlms.com/saa/courses/4839
- AORTA (Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance) resource list: http://aorta.coop/resources/
- Quaker resources list on addressing white privilege: https://www.pym.org/addressing-racism/resources/
- The A4BLiP Book Club is working through Layla F. Saad’s Me And White Supremacy workbook in January – March 2019. The free, online resource is available here: https://www.meandwhitesupremacybook.com/. If you’d like to join our book club, contact a4blip@gmail.com for meeting details.
Resources for Archivists
- Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia Anti-Racist Description Resources is now available on A4BLiP’s Github repository.
- Initial versions of the Resources, also now available on GitHub, include: Anti-Racist Description Resources (October 2019) and Anti-Racist Description Resources (September 2020), which includes a few updates and corrections to the 2019 publication.
- Preferred citation: Antracoli, Alexis A., Annalise Berdini, Kelly Bolding, Faith Charlton, Amanda Ferrara, Valencia Johnson, and Katy Rawdon. “Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia: Anti-Racist Description Resources.” October 2020. https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/ardr_202010.pdf
- Guidelines from Documenting the Now and their Twitter account
- Guidelines from Witness and their Twitter account
Presentations by A4BliP members
- “#ArchivesForBlackLives: Archivists Respond to Black Lives Matter,” Liberated Archives Forum, Society of American Archivists (SAA) Annual Meeting 2017
- Archives Month Philly Nerd Nite 2018
- “#Archives4BlackLives: Archivists Respond to Black Lives Matter,” Midwest Archives Conference (MAC) 2019
- “Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia’s Anti-Racist Description Resources,” Description Section Meeting. Society of American Archivists (SAA) Annual Meeting 2019
- Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia (A4BLiP) Anti-Racist Description Resources SAA 2020 Session: Implementing Inclusive (Re)Description at Predominantly White Institutions (S24)
- Archives In Context: Season 5, Episode 5: Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia’s Anti-Racist Description Working Group
A4BLiP Reading Group
Information about reading selections and reading group discussion dates will be sent through the listserv and twitter account.
Currently, the A4BLiP reading group is on hiatus pending a revamp. Please stay posted!
About the Reading Group
Based in the purpose of A4BLiP, the A4BLiP Reading Group (A4BLiP-RG)
A4BLiP-RG seeks to actively change perspectives and in addition, change within Archives professions through documented outcomes set by participants. A4BLiP-RG will provide sets of readings on specific issues, which participants will use to inform recommendations that they develop at the end of a set of readings. The intention is to create a space to hold white archives professionals, and the institutions they may represent, accountable for past and current racism and implicit biases, and to actively work on changing beliefs, policies, and procedures within these communities. The RG will be shaped by its participants, and suggestions by the A4BLiP community.
In pursuance of that purpose, the A4BLiP reading group has 3 stated goals:
- To critically engage with anti-racist readings and apply the texts in our lives and in our individual institutions as much as we’re able.
- To reaffirm A4BLiP’s commitment to build bridges between our cohort and extant racial justice advocacy groups
- To take outcomes of the group discourse to recommend and advocate for best practices in our field that help to secure and ensure racial justice and hold racist people, policies, and institutions accountable
Expectations of Conduct
The readings and group discussions are meant to critically examine societal issues and the impact in archival practice. In the interest of fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment, all activity by the reading discussion aims to foster an inclusive experience for everyone. With that, the reading group discussions will exhibit behavior that contributes to creating a positive and thoughtful environment that aligns with A4BLiP’s Statement of Principles and a list of meeting expectations:
- In a commitment to creating a safe space, conversations and viewpoints of colleagues will remain within confines the discussions;
- listening as much as you speak, and remembering that colleagues may have expertise and experiences you are unaware of;
- encouraging and yielding the floor to those whose viewpoints may be under-represented in a group and empower dialogue;
- using welcoming language, for instance by using an individual’s stated pronouns and favoring gender-neutral collective nouns;
- accepting critique graciously and offering it constructively;
- giving credit where it is due;
- seeking concrete ways to make physical and online spaces and resources more universally accessible;
- allow the reading group leader to guide and monitor time of the meetings;
- contribute to meeting goals; and
- misconduct will exclude you from future reading discussions.
Expectations pulled from DLF Code of Conduct: https://www.diglib.org/about/code-of-conduct/
Archives For Black Lives 