The Abril Lamarque Collection documents the life and career of Cuban-born cartoonist, designer, illustrator, graphic artist, caricaturist, and art director Abril Lamarque (1904-1999) through printed materials, scrapbooks, writings, and original artwork. Digitized material available includes photographs from the collection. 

Preparing archival material to include online requires a more thorough look into the collection because each item needs metadata to enhance discovery and use. While processing the Lamarque collection’s photographs certain out-of-date terms came to light during the transcription of titles and captions that were present on physical materials or on descriptions provided by the creator. This critical eye afforded the opportunity to apply concepts from the FIU Libraries conscious metadata initiative on which the Special Collection Department has been participating and allowed us to address some of the issues that came up, such as: 

• Let others know that we are aware there is harmful language in our collections.
• Let others know that the views within the harmful material do not reflect the views of the FIU Libraries.
• Communicate the reasons why the harmful language exists.
• Distinguish between historical content and FIU staff created descriptions.
• Work towards creating respectful and inclusive description.

We were able to implement two statements. The first, a note on the Abril Lamarque Collection finding aid and in the online collection that reads, “Please note: Transcriptions of handwritten notes on photographs in the collection and their English translations have been provided for context. This text may reflect biases and prejudices or terms that are outdated, offensive or insensitive.”
 
The second, a “Feedback Welcome” section on our Special Collections and University Archives informational webpages which states, “FIU Special Collections welcomes your feedback on the description of its archival collections. Staff are currently implementing practices to address offensive or harmful language that may reflect biases and prejudices or terms that are outdated, offensive or insensitive. In addition, we encourage users to provide feedback to help us tackle this issue. Please email us, spcoll@fiu.edu to report errors or omissions or if you encounter harmful or offensive language. “ 
 
We welcome feedback on our conscious metadata work and invite comments and questions at spcoll@fiu.edu. For more information on conscious metadata initiatives at FIU Libraries please contact Kelley Rowan to be added to the list-serv.

Upcoming Events & Workshops

Exhibitions

Library Publications

Tom Moore's review of Czech compositions for cello and contrabass from the 1970s by Kalabis, Řezáč and Hlobil (available for listening at Spotify) has been published in the new music monthly Sul Ponticello (Madrid).

An interview with composer Edson Zampronha (professor at the University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain) by Tom Moore (Sound & Image) has just been published in Castilian at the new music monthly Sul Ponticello (Madrid).