Rachel Deblinger
Director, Modern Endangered Archives Program
University of California, Los Angeles
Todd Grappone
Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Information Technology
University of California, Los Angeles
Sharon Farb
Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and International Collaborations
University of California, Los Angeles
Gloria Chacon
Associate Professor of Literature
University of California, San Diego
The Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP) team from the University of California, Los Angeles Library gave an update at CNI in Fall 2020 about the strategies developed to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and support grantees around the world. In the subsequent year and a half, MEAP work has confronted geo-political concerns beyond the pandemic, from the fall of Kabul in Afghanistan to the military coup in Myanmar. The MEAP team will offer an update about what has been learned over these unpredictable two years and how its policy of empathy has allowed it to meet individual safety concerns while also adapting quickly to the urgent need of preserving cultural heritage in a period of political volatility and violence. Speakers will connect the work of MEAP with the broader issues facing digital libraries and cultural heritage preservation work around the world, recognizing how geo-politics informs metadata creation and limits open access by establishing (and shifting) communal understanding of privacy, ownership, and copyright. The session will also address how MEAP supports the digitization of archival materials in Central and South America, raise questions about gaps in MEAP’s work, and point to the questions surfaced but not yet addressed through MEAP’s granting priorities.