ABOUT OUR WORK

 

Latin American Digital Initiatives (LADI) is a collaboration between LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections at The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas Libraries, and Latin American partner institutions to preserve and provide access to unique archival documentation from Latin America, with an emphasis on collections documenting human rights and underrepresented communities.

We are always happy to hear from you. Please email us if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions: lb-digital [at] utexas [dot] edu

 

POST-CUSTODIALISM

 

The collections in LADI have been digitized over the course of several years through post-custodial archival collaborations between LLILAS Benson and partner repositories in Latin America. Post-custodialism is a collaborative, non-extractive, mutualistic approach to providing access to archival collections within their original contexts of creation. Through these collaborations, LLILAS Benson aims to support the development of partners' archival capacity, particularly in the areas of digitization, preservation, arrangement, description, and access. The collections in LADI have been digitized and described by partner repository staff, who provide the rich contextual knowledge captured in each collection's descriptive metadata.

This work is guided by a commitment to nurturing reciprocal relationships between a network of local and international collaborators. We aim to build a horizontal community of post-custodial practice by connecting Latin American partners with one another while decentering our own role in the network.

 

THIS REPOSITORY

 

This repository is built using a technology stack comprised of Fedora 5, Islandora 8, and Drupal 8. An earlier version of the LADI repository, launched in 2014, was built using a Fedora 3, Islandora 7, and Drupal 7 technology stack.

This version of the repository was developed by the project team at LLILAS Benson and UT Libraries in 2018 and 2019, as part of the Andrew W. Mellon grant, "Cultivating a Latin American Post-Custodial Archival Praxis".

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

LADI is a collaboration between LLILAS Benson, The University of Texas Libraries, and each partner organization in Latin America. Development of the LADI repository was funded by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

LLILAS Benson project team:

  • Theresa Polk, Head of Digital Initiatives & Post-Custodial Archivist
  • Itza Carbajal, Latin American Metadata Librarian
  • David Bliss, Digital Processing Archivist
  • Alejandra Martinez, Graduate Research Assistant
  • Beth Peattie, Graduate Research Assistant

UT Libraries project team:

  • Minnie Rangel, Senior Software Developer/Analyst
  • Brandon Cornell, Software Developer/Analyst
  • Jade Diaz, Lead Agile Scrum Master
  • Brandon Stennett, Systems Administrator II

Translation:

  • Tereza Braga, Translator
  • Jennifer Isasi, CLIR Post-Doctoral Fellow for Data Curation
  • Joshua Ortiz Baco, Graduate Research Assistant
  • Albert Palacios, Digital Scholarship Coordinator
  • Edward Shore, CLIR Post-Doctoral Fellow for Data Curation