Suggestion for a new way to use Projects to record changes in Geography to include more cultures and voices

[ewommack]

This comes from the Diversity and Inclusion Committees meeting on the 21st of November 2023. Can we use Projects in Arctos to do two things:

1. Provide access to information on the selection for geographic place name changes -> recordings, writings, audio -> from the cultures and societies that have provided assistance in the renaming process.
2. Track which objects in Arctos collections are using the new place names, but allowing collections to use the projects in Data Loans.

This idea was inspired from an example presented by @AJLinn of the Artwork Renaming Project at he Winnipeg Gallery. In the renaming project, they not only provide the new names and titles provided for pieces of art, but allow for multiple types of information to represent and show and record the decision process of the Indigenous elders who assisted in the project. This allows the focus on the name changes to come from their voice, and allows for more documentation besides for published journal or book chapters to provide source material.

The committee discussed several ideas of how Arctos might do something similar, focusing on one of our shared data sources - localities and https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12000.

A proposed first draft of a plan created by the committee is as follows to start the process:

• Attach media from USGS on their decisions process for the new names of the places to the project.
• Let’s connect collections and objects to the project to! Could show how the new place names are being used and providing better representation across collections in Arctos.
• Do a test of 1 - 10 new locality place names:
• Dusty create a list of the collections and objects that were affected by each place name change.
• Each collection creates a data loan with the objects and tie it to the project.
• Then the project will show each place name change and how many collections and objects were updated.