Decolonising Digital Childhoods: A pilot study towards enhanced participation and diversification in historical children's literature collections

去殖民化数字童年：一项旨在增强历史儿童文学收藏的参与度和多样化的试点研究

• 批准号: AH/T012994/1
• 负责人: Zoe Jaques
• 金额: $ 10.27万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT012994%2F1
• 关键词: Decolonising; Digital; Childhoods; pilot; study

This project will pilot techniques for diversifying digital access to and content within archives of childhood through five main strands of activity. Firstly, we will address the problem of the colonised archive - whereby out of the millions of items held by major collections, those that accord with the canonical or dominant powers in society are selected for digital exhibition - by seeking to decolonise the hidden materials buried in the stacks, boxes, and basements of one of the largest collections of children's literature in the US, the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature, and one of the largest in the UK, Homerton College, Cambridge. These collections are partially catalogued with incomplete MARC records that rely on decades-old hierarchies of 'significance'. Secondly, we will enhance metadata for these texts through direct research by the project team and also by asking users, including young adults, parents, teachers, and scholars, to supply anonymous commentary/reviews of children's books, so that more diverse perspectives can be accounted for. Thirdly, we will deploy full-text searches of identified trigger words that can be harmful to readers. Children's literature struggles with historical (and very often canonical) authors who have been offensive to historically enslaved, colonised, or denigrated people. The first item available in the Baldwin collection, "150 instructive stories", contains the word "negro" on page 101, for instance, calling the character "a simple and unlettered savage". It is a dereliction of our duty as gatekeepers to allow such casual racism to go unchecked. Similar problems are encountered continually with respect to the history of demeaning terms associated with disability and indigenous cultures, as well as the immigrants who have shaped modern America and Britain. Trigger warnings, with indications of harmful content for intersectional identities, will protect researchers, children, and general readers from offensiveness or hurt that can emerge in otherwise safe search queries or acts of browsing. Fourthly, we will curate a digital collection of 20 children's books designed explicitly to engage with decolonising historical children's literature. Some initial work towards such an edition has begun in the Baldwin Library's 2019 exhibition 'Racism, Representation, and Resistance in Children's Literature, 1800-2015'. We will build upon this exhibition to offer an expanded digital edition, jointly hosted by the Baldwin Library and Homerton College Library with materials from both collections, including scholarly introductions and video and textual commentary. Finally, we will through project training and wider activities encourage leadership and skills development towards diversifying digital archival practice.

该项目将通过五个主要活动领域，试行各种技术，使儿童档案的数字访问和内容多样化。首先，我们将解决殖民化档案的问题--从主要收藏的数百万件物品中，那些符合社会权威或主导力量的雅阁被选中进行数字展览--通过寻求去殖民化隐藏在美国最大的儿童文学收藏之一的书堆、盒子和地下室中的隐藏材料，鲍德温历史儿童文学图书馆，以及英国最大的图书馆之一，剑桥的霍默顿学院。这些收藏品部分是用不完整的MARC记录编目的，这些记录依赖于几十年前的“重要性”等级。其次，我们将通过项目团队的直接研究，并通过要求用户，包括年轻人，家长，教师和学者，提供匿名的儿童书籍评论/评论，以增强这些文本的元数据，以便可以考虑更多样化的观点。第三，我们将部署对可能对读者有害的已确定触发词的全文搜索。儿童文学与历史（通常是经典）作家的斗争，这些作家对历史上被奴役，殖民或诋毁的人有冒犯之意。鲍德温文集中的第一个条目，“150个启发性的故事”，在第101页包含了“黑人”一词，例如，称这个角色是“一个简单而不识字的野蛮人”。允许这种随意的种族主义不受约束是我们作为看门人的失职。在与残疾和土著文化有关的贬低性术语的历史方面，以及塑造现代美国和英国的移民方面，也不断遇到类似的问题。触发警告，指示交叉身份的有害内容，将保护研究人员，儿童和普通读者免受攻击或伤害，这些攻击或伤害可能出现在其他安全的搜索查询或浏览行为中。第四，我们将策划一个由20本儿童书籍组成的数字收藏，旨在明确参与非殖民化的历史儿童文学。鲍德温图书馆2019年的展览“1800 - 2015年儿童文学中的种族主义，代表性和抵抗”中开始了这一版本的初步工作。我们将在这个展览的基础上提供一个扩展的数字版，由鲍德温图书馆和霍默顿学院图书馆联合主办，其中包括两个馆藏的材料，包括学术介绍和视频和文字评论。最后，我们将通过项目培训和更广泛的活动，鼓励领导力和技能发展，以实现数字档案实践的多样化。