When archives in the U.S. collect materials written in multiple languages of origin, particularly collections with an international scope, how can we describe the materials so that they can be discovered by speakers of non-English languages? The panelists explore the need and desire for multilingual finding aids by discussing the challenges of projects that express archival descriptions in multiple languages using EAD, as well as the impact that such projects have on curators, donors, and researchers. Each institution participating will have a dual discussion, with a curator describing how the projects have influenced outreach, reference, and collecting and an archivist discussing the technical process of describing materials in multiple languages and alphabets.
Nemmers: Implementing Multilingual Access to Archival and Digital Resources Vargas-Betancourt: Creating Multilingual Finding Aids: Cuban Collections at the University of Florida