Assessment:Cultural Assessment

This group was formed in February 2016 to discuss ways by which we may assess our digital collections and their cultural impact.

Our defined purpose: Members of the DLF AIG for Cultural Assessment aim to first identify institutional data and practices that may be relevant to building a robust understanding of “cultural assessment.” Then, the group will investigate and attempt to surface underlying assumptions within our data and practices to help the community better understand the social structures that both influence our work and result from it. Ideally, the group will develop helpful and nuanced rubrics for institutional measurement and analysis of cultural biases and assumptions. The DLF AIG Cultural Assessment group intends to raise awareness of cultural bias and institutional “blind spots,” as well as recommend a set of data points, to create more inclusive cultures within DLF member organizations.

We will explore whether cultural biases/assumptions are embedded in:

>> librarians’ and archivists’ selections of what to digitize;

>> in the requests their patrons and communities make for content;

>> in choices about levels of digitization and preservation;

>> in metadata-creation/descriptive activities;

>> and in decisions about how/when/whether we publicize collections and make them discoverable.

>> Materials we have available in physical collections - special collections, institutional archives

All of these biases and assumptions have concrete impact on digital library collections and services.