In Our Own Words.

"In Our Own Words" is a community-centered digital archive dedicated to preserving and amplifying the lived experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) librarians and library workers. Through first-person video testimony, the project creates space for reflection, memory, and self-representation within a profession that has historically framed itself as neutral. Each narrative contributes to a growing archive that centers voice, embodiment, and professional identity as legitimate archival records. 

The community identified in this project is BIPOC professionals within librarianship. While libraries function as public institutions, the histories of those who sustain them—particularly librarians of color—are often underrepresented in formal archives. The purpose of this project is to document these stories through community-driven archival praxis, affirming that lived experience is intellectual labor, and that storytelling is both documentation and resistance. By preserving testimony outside institutional filters, In Our Own Words contributes to a more relational, participatory understanding of professional memory.