*I did not address criteria #5 for SLO 2 because I did not complete a historical research artifact.

 

According to my understanding and application of SLO 2, a professional library and information science identity is formed in the processes of asserting professional ethics and engaging with history in order to enact future change. Ann Stoler describes colonial archives as “both transparencies on which power relations were inscribed and intricate technologies of rule in themselves” (Stoler, 2002, p. 87) while Jacques Derrida contends that “there is no political power without control of the archive” (Derrida, 1995, p. 4). As a Native Hawaiian, my community is often suspicious of archives and other similar institutions because they force colonized peoples to conform to incompatible pathways to power, which obstructs their access to that power and further subjugates them. However, archival records and the histories they represent are intrinsically linked to the collective identity of a nation and people. Ethics serve as protection for Indigenous and marginalized peoples against colonizing forces and powers while they rebuild relationships with and derive power from their ancestral materials. 

 

Focused on the concept of “decolonizing description,” my literature review “Archival Description: Weapon or Tool?” reviews several archival standards and codes of ethics, varying across time and concentration. It discusses the early codification of archival description in the 1980s and 1990s through the creation of manuals like the SAA’s Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts and Canada’s Rules for Archival Description. My artifact also frequently cites from Indigenous-centered standards and practices of ethics such as the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials (PNAAM) (the scope of which includes Native Hawaiians) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocols for libraries, archives and information services (ATSIPLAIS). I apply these two codes to my research because they help empower Indigenous communities and help build relationships between peoples and their materials. My artifact specifically explores the ethical question of “Can archival description be decolonized?” While it reviews several instances of archival institutions and projects promoting community collaboration and participation, the artifact also reviews literature that questions the overall effectiveness of such work in the context of decolonization. In the article “Decolonization in the Archives: At the Item Level,” Sam Frederick acknowledges the structural limits of traditional institutions and poses the question of “whether it is at all possible to decolonize the practices of a colonial construction” (Frederick, 2019, p. 20). This left me considering: Is there truth to Audre Lorde’s assertion that “[t]he master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never allow us to bring about genuine change” (Lorde, 1984, p. 2).

 

This ethical question, however, does not detract from how ethics have the capacity to empower the powerless as has been my own experience. For example, ethics have helped form my professional philosophy, which I began developing in my first semester. My initial philosophy addressed the question of “Who are you to be a librarian?” with “a bridge, a pathway to knowledge, a pathfinder.” I saw librarians as information professionals who work to connect patrons to information through a variety of resources. However, after deeper research, I realized that my keywords (like RUSA, approachability, visibility, reference interactions, and queries) related to the action of questioning. I entered this program to learn how to provide answers for my community but have found myself spending more time with questions than answers. In reference interviews, we ask more questions than the patrons. We deconstruct, rephrase, and seek the "truth" behind our questions. Standards like PNAAM and ATSIPLAIS act similarly in that they question intention, problematic practices, and other areas of potential harm. And it all adds to the concept of librarians as questioners, or more appropriately researchers. As my philosophy has grown with me throughout the program, this sentiment still holds true: I am a librarian because I am a researcher. 

 

While my original philosophy emphasized research and empowerment, it excluded two prominent aspects of librarianship, which became more apparent to me after developing the artifact. Across the extant literature, two main themes consistently arose: a centering of community and a need for change. The literature illustrated numerous examples of Indigenous peoples fighting to be seen and respected. Because I am Hawaiian, it deeply resonated with how I strive to center and empower my family and community in everything I do. That is my reasoning for this career path. I want my work to reflect my life—passionate and meaningful. I don’t know if Audre Lorde is correct in that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house or that they deny genuine change, but I will still demand for change when and where it is needed. As an information professional, I am a community-centered researcher in that I investigate how systems of information empower and/or harm communities, and I engage with my communities to enact collaborative change.

 

My most profound insights for this artifact relate to developing one’s expertise. Prior to any research, I outlined my literature review by considering the following questions: 1. What does it mean to be an expert in a field? 2. Can I embody that ideal? For one, an expert considers a wide range of perspectives and contexts. An expert is also grounded in the history, context, emergence, and influence of a given field. For this reason, I divided my artifact into three main sections: History, Context & Emergence, and Influence. I struggled with the question of “Can I embody that ideal?” As a Native Hawaiian woman, I know how it feels to have your thoughts, feelings, and needs overlooked and devalued. I know how it feels to be gaslit to the point where your gifts look like burdens and your reality feels like someone else’s. In developing the artifact, my greatest challenges were overcoming that inferiority complex and breaking away from historical and inherited narratives that aim to maintain my subjugation. While comparing myself to the marginalized communities across the literature, I realized that my feelings of inadequacy are not rooted in truth but in the desired result of a racist system that refuses to consider me whole. This artifact helped me realize that expertise—no matter the field—is more than just attainable for me. As a hard worker and born researcher, stepping into my power as an expert is my divine right. 

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References

 

Caswell, Michelle, & Pugh, Mary Jo. (2011). ʻThank You Very Much, Now Give Them Back:’ Cultural Property and the Fight over the Iraqi Baath Party Records. The American Archivist, 74(1), 239. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23079007.

 

Derrida, J. (1995). Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Diacritics, 25(2), 9-63. https://doi.org/10.2307/465144

 

Frederick, Sam. (2019). Decolonization in the Archives: At the Item Level. The iJournal, 4(2), 14-22. 

 

Lorde, Audre. (1984). The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (pp. 110-114). Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press.

 

Stoler, Ann Laura. (2002). Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance. Archival science, 2(1-2), 87-109.