Transforming knowledge, transforming libraries research project dataset

In Spring 2017, the University of California Irvine (UCI) Libraries were awarded a 3-year Instituteof Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant in the community anchors category for “Transforming Knowledge/Transforming Libraries” (TKTL). Our research team (Audra EagleYun, Jimmy Zavala, Krystal Tribbett, and Thuy Vo Dang) sought to explore how libraries can fill the gap between calls to diversify the historical record and actually diversifying the profession through student-led action research. The project design for TKTL is rooted in the social justice imperatives and theoretical frameworks of community-based archives and ethnic studies, arguing that together these frameworks can transform the historical record and how we learn about our history. Working with people who identify with members of marginalized communities was central to our approach to the TKTL research project. The themes that emerged from our research provide key insights into the outcomes of student engagement with library, archives, and community building, as well as affective responses to the experience of students seeing (or not seeing) themselves in the archives. We discovered patterns and divergences in the personal, social, and cultural observations of community archives work by all involved in community-centered work. The data analysis, along with the novel approach of community-centered archives partnerships, articulates how participatory, student-centered approaches in building community-centered archives can transform engagement between ethnic studies, community-based archives, and libraries.