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In addition to the pronoun issue above, Joey Soloway changed their name in the summer of 2020, necessitating changes to the finding aid. The archivist changed the existing biographical description and scope notes to reflect the name change. However, folders are listed with original titles in the finding aid. Joey had a long career under their former name, and much of the collection (including the folder titles) include Joey’s former name. The archivist felt she could not change all existences of the former name in the finding aid, and wrote a note to that extent in the scope note:
“After Joey Soloway's name change in June 2020, finding aid description and series titles were updated. Many original folder titles contain the name Jill; these were kept as originally written.” Also, as part of this process, the archivist offered to Joey Soloway that she would facilitate the change of Joey's name in the Library of Congress Name Authority file.
She The archivist sent the new description to Joey Soloway for their approval, and they signed off on it. It’s possible that Schlesinger archivists and Joey Soloway may decide to revisit this decision in the future.
EXAMPLE 2: Jennifer Finney Boylan
In the Jennifer Finney Boylan papers, the description in the biographical note and the scope and content note uses Boylan’s pronoun, “she.” However, within the collection there are folder entries, specifically for photographs of Boylan before she transitioned from male to female, which uses her former name. While Boylan reviewed the finding aid prior to its publication, it may be beneficial for the archivist to specifically point out to the creator about these particular decisions in advance to determine whether related to naming to further ensure that this was the correct decision.
Issue E. When to describe
There are situations where a collection doesn’t contain directly related content about the creator’s sexual or gender identity but the individual does identify under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. Is identity description warranted in biography or in LCSH?
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- Be cognizant of dated terminology. Unless the term is part of an organizational name or preferred by the creator, try to avoid terminology that is no longer widely accepted. For example, in general, treat the term “homosexual” as an antiquated term and avoid its usage unless the creator prefers it.
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The Manuscripts Department can determine will be documenting how and where to incorporate this type of description and to help develop language and can standardize a workflow and develop best practices for creating or updating finding aid description. The Manuscripts Department can also explore and document the best descriptive options for those creators who do not have a clearly stated identity and are no longer living but whose life story can be seen as part of LGBTQ+ visibility. Soloway finding aid, for example, was done ad-hoc and in only one case is there a time-articulated description of a change.
- Be cognizant of using the correct pronouns.
- Be cognizant of using the correct pronouns.
Apply the pronouns that are used by the creator -- , if clearly known. Possible examples include She, He, Ze, Hir, they, etc. If pronoun use changes or has changed over time, address that in the narrative.
If the creator uses more than one pronoun or it is unclear what pronoun they identify with consider avoiding the use of a specific pronoun in description in order to prevent preferencing one identity over another. If you do decide to use a pronoun, provide a note in the finding aid describing the creator’s identity and why we made certain pronoun choices. When possible, input by the creator will guide this decision.
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- Understand limitations of controlled vocabulary and go beyond it if necessary:
Explore other controlled vocabularies that are more rooted in the community. For example, Homosaurus is now widely used in the library and archives field. You can go beyond Library of Congress Subject Headings keeping in mind that other vocabularies, even those based in the LGBTQ+ communities (e.g. like Homosaurus) may still be insufficient.Homosaurus is now cleared for use in Alma. Familiarize yourself with its terms. [include link here, and also correct marc subfield letter for thesaurus]
Resources:
[GLBT Controlled Vocabularies and Classification Schemes: https://www.ala.org/rt/rrt/popularresources/vocab ]
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