Implementing the Bentley's Guiding Principles
Introduction
This section describes how Bentley Historical Library staff engage in conscientious description (i.e., reparative description) work. Please note that these lists are not exhaustive. Processors should periodically review this page—as well as the resources throughout this section—to stay up to date about the conscientious description practices of both the field and the Bentley Historical Library.
General Approaches
Drawing from resources such as the publicly accessible Anti-Racist Description Resources, Bentley processors will:
Prioritize language that individuals and communities use to describe themselves. As an example, the name of Chinese activist Chen Ziming should be spelled in both English and Chinese in a finding aid.
Employ language that emphasizes respect, care, and the humanity of individuals represented in the material.
"Avoid [using] the passive voice when describing oppressive relationships."
Avoid celebratory language that elevates the roles of some and undermines or silences the accomplishments and contributions of others.
Provide context by being clear about citing, referencing, or using a description that is drawn from the materials.
Include a person's race or ethnicity in the archival description when it is known, but avoiding projecting or making assumptions about that person's racial or ethnic identities, gender, sexuality, ability or disability, age, economic conditions, and citizenship or immigration status (to name a few).
Use statements such as “may include” or “appears to be” when describing unidentified individuals or groups of people.
Capitalize the words of Black, Indigenous, Asian, or other ethnic or national identities, as recommended by the Chicago Manual of Style. To avoid associations with white supremacist groups and literature, processors do not capitalize the word “white” when describing white communities or individuals (unless it is part of a formal organizational name or title).
Preserve legacy versions of finding aids.
Draw upon community-accepted resources to create more empathetic and effective description.
For specific examples of how processors have been tracking—and remediating—problematic language, consult this ArchivesSpace Terminology Issues Google Sheet (internal link).
Remediating Harmful Language Workflow
If language from finding aids is removed because it was considered harmful, the processor should ensure that this change is documented by:
Recording it in the ArchivesSpace Terminology Issues Google Sheet (internal link).
Adding a revision statement to the resource record that concisely explains the change, using the guidelines for revision statements present on the Archival Description page of this site.
Saving a copy of the original finding aid to the appropriate Google Drive folder (internal link).