The HBCU (Historically Black College and University) Digital Library Trust initiative is digitizing and expanding access to African American history collections located at HBCU libraries and archives around the country.
The project, a collaboration between the HBCU Library Alliance, a consortium of HBCU libraries; Harvard Library; and the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library (AUC Woodruff Library), was announced in March 2023 and will take place over four years, with $6 million in funding provided by the Presidential Initiative on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery.
In 2022, then Harvard President Larry Bacow released the “Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery,” which revealed the university’s history of enslaved individuals on campus, funding from donors engaged in the slave trade, and leadership that obstructed racial equality.
Several recommendations on how the institution could take responsibility for its past and pursue meaningful repair inspired the HBCU Digital Library Trust, says Andrea Jackson Gavin, director of the trust and former director of engagement and scholarship at the AUC Woodruff Library.
This work is especially important with the increase of imminent threats to the preservation of African American history, including legislation to ban books, reduce educational funding, and dismantle teaching, Jackson Gavin says.
“This project seeks to support all HBCUs, including those in states where Black history education is at risk,” she says. “We believe that the American historical narrative is incomplete without the inclusion of many of the people who have made this country what it is today.”
The trust is also essential because HBCUs are historically operating with fewer resources. For example, HBCUs receive 178 times less funding than Ivy League institutions and around two-thirds of what foundations gave to “similarly situated institutions,” according to the 2023 study “Philanthropy and HBCUs: Foundation Funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.”
“A major component of this initiative is providing comprehensive digitization services for HBCUs that may not currently have the equipment or staffing to do so at their home institutions,” says Jackson Gavin. “The [AUC Woodruff] Library has served as the host and platform administrator for the HBCU Library Alliance digital collection since its inception. With capable staff, they will serve as a hub where HBCUs can send physical materials for digitization.”
“Having the ability to access manuscripts, photographs, memorabilia, and audio and video recordings documenting the history of Black people in America and the diaspora will lead current students, forthcoming generations, and all types of researchers to develop new scholarship on those who have — too often.— been underdocumented and underrepresented in the historical record.”
Andrea Jackson Gavin
The project will allow the digital collection platform to include all HBCUs. Additionally, while it holds historical materials specifically documenting the founding and earliest years of these schools, Jackson Gavin anticipates offerings on subjects like civil rights, student activism, women’s rights, and community and global engagement to grow over the next several years.
HBCU libraries are also encouraged to expand special collections at their schools that may have garnered strong interest but have not traditionally been as easily accessible to the public, such as records about prominent alumni, administrators and faculty, the arts and culture, and activism, says Jackson Gavin.
online display. (Photo courtesy of the Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library)
Recently, over 100 HBCU library administrators and staff from more than 50 institutions attended the HBCU Digital Library Trust Copyright First Responders Cohort I, a virtual program developed to refresh skills and build a community of experts on copyright for libraries and archives. In the future, the project will include undergraduate and graduate student internships.
This and other professional development opportunities aim to advance a network of professionals devoted to the preservation and accessibility of HBCU resources.
“For many students of color, the awareness that their ancestors’ history and culture is being preserved is important for self-empowerment,” Jackson Gavin says. “Having the ability to access manuscripts, photographs, memorabilia, and audio and video recordings documenting the history of Black people in America and the diaspora will lead current students, forthcoming generations, and all types of researchers to develop new scholarship on those who have — too often — been underdocumented and underrepresented in the historical record.” ●
>> Visit the HBCU Library Alliance library: hbcudigitallibrary.auctr.edu.
