Information Digitization in the Humanities: The Cultural Assessment Interest Group Hannah Scates Kettler Digital Humanities Research & Instruction Librarian, University of Iowa

What is the Cultural Assessment Group DLF Assessment Interest Group subgroup Est. 2016 Participants from Libraries and Museums Goals ::  build an understanding of 'cultural assessment' for digital collections.  raise awareness of cultural bias and institutional “blind spots” https://wiki.diglib.org/Assessment:Cultural_Assessment

Perspective Representation from entire process of digital collection creation Hannah => End user Developer Researcher Public / Non-specialist Example Project: Migration Is Beautiful

Postcards Correspondence Type (AAT)  Postcards Correspondence  Digital Collection  Mujeres Latinas Digital Collection Adella Martinez correspondence, 1943  Topical Subject (LCSH)   Mexican Americans   Chronological Subject   1940-1950 1980-1990

Need for cultural assessment Acknowledging a problem Ex: Doctor Riddle Application to Digital Collections and Usability For whom are we collecting / building digital collections? The doctor riddle – A father and son have a car accident and are both badly hurt. They are both taken to separate hospitals. When the boy is taken in for an operation, the surgeon (doctors) says "I cannot do the surgery because this is my son". How is this possible?   result is based on assumptions about male dominance in medical professions.Usually favors a more dominate or privileged assumption/position/viewpoint. How many people think of minority group when invoking this scenario? https://wiki.diglib.org/Assessment:Cultural_Assessment

Initial Findings Findings: "Cultural Assessment" is overwhelming Librarians do not have all the expertise Some projects have begun to address gaps in digital collections Solutions: Break it down into manageable foci Ask collogues in other areas Specifically  Australia: http://mukurtu.org/ Canada: Social Inclusion Audit http://www.siatoolkit.com EU: Balanced Value Impact Model (PDF online - Google it) https://wiki.diglib.org/Assessment:Cultural_Assessment

Where we are now Acknowledged the problem Outlined areas of potential bias Environmental Scan of Library evaluation Creating a FAQ / Rubric https://wiki.diglib.org/Assessment:Cultural_Assessment

Future Aims / Work Transitioning to focus on metrics Publishing Bibliography and FAQ Building metric as tool Encouraging diverse involvement https://wiki.diglib.org/Assessment:Cultural_Assessment

Recent Statement "The University of Iowa Libraries' strategic plan places a high priority on efforts to abolish intolerance and cultural invisibility by promoting understanding and inclusion through our work." (Nov. 2016)

Contact https://wiki.diglib.org/Assessment:Cultural_Assessment hannah-s-kettler@uiowa.edu @hskettler (Twitter) https://wiki.diglib.org/Assessment:Cultural_Assessment