As early career, cis white female librarians, situated in the Midwest, the editors recognize that both their professional identities and their institutional history reflect privilege and the status quo in their profession. It is this context that led them to question how they could center diverse narratives in their own collection and provided the inspiration for this volume. The editors hope to generate an influx of ideas from a diverse audience, and in turn, hope that readers will benefit from these new perspectives. Ultimately, the goal of this volume is to identify strategies to center diversity, equity, and inclusion in archival daily practices, in full knowledge that this historically has not been a priority at many predominantly white institutions. The editors of this volume have presented upon how they have incorporated diversity, equity, and inclusion into their daily workflows and practices. They have also facilitated discussions regarding this topic and in doing so, have noticed a continued desire for discourse and case studies.
Kim Hoffman is the Digital Curation and Preservation Librarian at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY. In this role, she is responsible for developing and implementing practices to support the long-term preservation and authenticity of the library's digital collections. Previously, she served as the Preservation Librarian at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she was a past co-chair of the Libraries’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She received her MS in Library and Information Science and her MA in Museum Studies from Syracuse University, where she also earned a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Cultural Heritage Preservation. Her research interests include centering diversity, equity, and inclusion in library preservation work. She holds volunteer positions in the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and the Society of American Archivists (SAA), where she is the current chair of the Preservation Section.
Rachel Makarowski is the Special Collections Librarian at Miami University. In her position, she is responsible for many of the functions for special collections, including instruction, outreach, reference, cataloging, curation, and collection management. She graduated from Indiana University Bloomington with an MLS, specializing in Rare Book and Manuscript Librarianship, and worked in numerous positions at the Lilly Library. She previously worked at the Rare Book School during her time as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. Her research interests focus on teaching with primary sources, including the intersection of primary source instruction with other responsibilities in special collections. She has actively volunteered in a number of professional organizations, including the Rare Book and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL), Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Unconference Planning Group, and Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO).