In a virtual session, Margarita Vargas-Betancourt (Latin American and Caribbean Special Collections Librarian at University of Florida) discussed the importance of increasing bilingual access to Latin American collections found in online exhibits and digital repositories.
Resources
Challenges and Successes of Bilingual Metadata: Online Exhibits at LACC
Margarita Vargas-Betancourt shows us that decolonizing digital collections requires specialized labor. She analyzes three case studies from the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida to illustrate how faculty and staff are implementing bilingual metadata to improve access to Spanish-speaking audiences.
Case Study 1: Florida and Puerto Rico Newspaper Project
Metadata language should match the original source to make content more accessible. FPRNP has worked to include Spanish language assays with collections.
Case Study 2: The Cuban American Dream
During the development of this exhibit, a Spanish authority file was used to organize bibliographic information of Latin American content to ensure access for Spanish-speaking viewers.
