Ten Principles for Inclusive Description
by Carissa Chew, 2022
In terms of practical actions, it can be incredibly useful to outline your institution’s key goals when it comes to descriptive practice. Having a published set of principles is an important way to communicate your institution’s intentions to users, and it is essential that an institution is held accountable when it does not meet these aims. Policy is nothing more than lip-service if institutions do not commit time, money, and resources to achieving their principles.
Inclusive description work is often misunderstood as a form of “censorship” or as a concerted effort to rewrite history. The following ten principles root inclusive description work in the context of the heritage sector’s broader aims to accurately curate the historical record and promote the ethical use of collections:
1. Acquisition or providing access to an item does not imply endorsement of any statements or opinions contained therein.
2. It is the duty of cultural heritage institutions to accurately maintain the historical record. It is not appropriate for cultural heritage professionals to alter or censor the original historical record, including language contained within collections, published titles, and official names.
3. Cultural heritage institutions have a responsibility to meet modern descriptive standards and describe and interpret materials in a manner that is accurate, respectful, and responsive to the communities who create, use, and are represented in their collections. When appropriate, this will involve the remunerated involvement of the communities in question.
4. It is the duty of cultural heritage institutions to improve the quality of educational information for the purpose of enhancing and maintaining the authenticity, integrity, and reliability of records and resources and to promote the ethical use of the information contained within their collections and resources.
5. Where the original language in collections is harmful or discriminatory, cultural heritage institutions should strive to provide additional historical context and appropriate advisory content.
6. Description and interpretation should be harnessed as a tool to improve the discoverability of resources relating to underrepresented communities.
7. Descriptive and interpretive practice should reflect professional values and ethics and contribute to a culture of accountability, trust, and transparency.
8. Cultural heritage institutions have a responsibility to support their staff with the task of inclusive description work. This includes emotional support as well as professional development and training to ensure staff are equipped to complete inclusive descriptive work judiciously and thoughtfully.
9. Cultural heritage institutions should share their expertise and use their voices to reform national and international frameworks of agreed standards and vocabularies.
10. Descriptive and interpretive standards will need to continue to be updated to reflect changes in knowledge, practice, and values in the future.