Building Representative Community Archives: Inclusive Strategies in Practice

Abstract

In 2017, the Watzek Library Special Collections began the work of building relationships with the Vietnamese community in Portland, Oregon to address a historical gap in the records housed in their collections. Renowned for its extensive collection of books related to the Lewis and Clark expedition, it became apparent to the Special Collections team that the collection did not fully represent Portland’s history or diverse population (39). Thus began a nearly decade-long project led by Hannah Leah Crummé, the current Head of Watzek Library Special Collections, alongside Dr E.J. Carter, Zoë Maughan, and Vân Truong, to document the experiences of Vietnamese immigrants and refugees whose presence in Oregon has been steadily growing since the 1970s (40).