Hornbake Unboxed: Unlocking Perspectives

hornbakelibrary

Nov 6

When someone asks you what your greatest strengths or attributes are, what are some of your go-to answers? It is perfectly acceptable to use positive traits like dedicated and organized, or passionate and cooperative. But what if you were to say something like mindful, considerate, or empathetic? These are increasingly important traits that would-be friends, employers and other acquaintances value in others.

Empathy is the ability to recognize and understand others' perspectives and emotions. It is a trait that you can build upon by applying mindfulness and understanding to your research. In turn, understanding our own capacity for empathy and ethics will make us better researchers! When engaging with history, it is important to remember that we are interacting with items created by and for other people. By better understanding others' perspectives, we can better understand their behaviors, which might ultimately allow us to have a more sophisticated and sensitive understanding of an historical moment.

It is important for researchers to pay attention to archival absences and silences. Implicit and explicit biases, racism and other prejudices have meant that over time, certain types of primary sources were deemed more or less valuable and worthy of collection. You may need to develop a series of questions that go beyond the basics of "who, what, when, where, why and how" to consider the perspectives of those not adequately represented in the archives.

How were the items collected?

Were they given willingly?

How would the people depicted in the record feel about you looking at it now?

Luckily, many archivists have begun to question collection methods for us and can learn more about empathy and ethics in the archives in the video below:

Scotty Beland is a student in the Masters of Library and Information Sciences program and Student Assistant with the Instruction and Outreach team at UMD.