The Bias Awareness and Responsibility Committee is tasked with considering issues of implicit and explicit bias within the knowledge systems that manage our heritage collections data, its exposure to users in multiple channels, including via the new cross-collection discovery platform (LUX), and with developing a series of recommendations for addressing these concerns. The group will promote and engender a sustainable environment in which conversations, research and consensus on these issues can take place. The committee will provide a venue for open communication and shared understanding across units about common concerns, and a platform for engagement with other stakeholders in the CHIT (Cultural Heritage Information Technology) pillar. This phase of work will conclude by the end of FY23 (July 2023).
The work is divided into two areas of responsibility:
Collaboration:
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The committee will provide a forum for discussion of bias-related issues reported to and brought by the units, through LUX or any other feedback channel, how those issues can be addressed, how the resolution can be implemented in our systems of record, and transparently communicated as to the process.
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Provide support to the units during the development of their plans for ongoing metadata improvement.
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Work with ongoing DEIA-B committees within the Collections & Scholarly Communications division to ensure sustained awareness of the issues, training and support for dealing with them, and integration with university wide efforts.
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Work with the University Provenance Committee regarding recommendations around the transparency of provenance and acquisition information.
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Work with other CHIT committees, including the Metadata group on schema and harmonization issues, the User Interface group on appropriate representation of them in digital environments, and the LUX Steering group (CCD) to provide requirements and review of processes and progress.
Operations:
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Engage with metadata-related issues in both the units’ systems of record and the LUX reconciliation and enrichment pipeline to ensure the metadata and descriptions are respectful and humble whenever possible.
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Provide replacement vocabulary terms, harmonized across units, to be used when existing ones are harmful or culturally insensitive.
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Develop recommendations for improvements related to respectful and inclusive user experience, including feedback and presentation of information.
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Other operational tasks necessary to remediate harmful data in a timely manner.