How do community-based and media-based narratives of disaster differ and how do these presentations affect communities and civic response? To answer this question, our project encourages and supports communities in sharing their collective memory. This is accomplished through creating a customizable traveling exhibit, providing the additional opportunity to build a larger narrative of experiences across the country.
This traveling exhibit focuses on disasters. Unfortunately, disasters happen everywhere. They deeply affect local communities and are often well-documented. Additionally, disasters are personal. Disasters can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.
The exhibit’s triptych of panels:
- Describe disasters and their impacts
- Explore the building of meaning around a disaster event
- Consider the varied impacts of disasters on communities
The exhibit’s customizable fourth panel is reserved for the host community to contribute its story. Images, quotes and other materials from the community will be incorporated into the host’s custom panel.
The audience will presented with questions, such as:
- Is there a difference between the community narrative and the external narrative?
- Is the narrative exploitive, supportive or both?
- Does the narrative minimize or exaggerate aspects of the disaster?
- What language is used to describe events?
- Are there consequences to disaster narratives?
- Does the use of disaster myths and language affect perceptions of the event?
Documenting disasters may influence change, emphasize varied narratives, demonstrate social inequities, and/or be part of a community’s resilient response. However, disasters should be told by those who were most affected. This exhibit explores historic collections with the aid of external consultants to identify relevant disaster events, promotes humanities content and analysis, and encourages our participating hosts to contribute to the evolving story.
Our team
Susanne Caro
Principal Investigator
Susanne Caro is the Government Information Librarian at the New Mexico State Library where she assists users in accessing government information. She is also coordinator of a shared regional Federal Depository Library Program repository for New Mexico, a program dedicated to providing free access to government information. She was the editor and an author of Government Information Essentials (ALA, 2018), and Digitizing your Collection (ALA, 2016).
Jen Kirk
Co-Principal Investigator
Jen Kirk is the Government Information Librarian at Utah State University Libraries (USU) where she coordinates the Government Information Program, part of Special Collections & Archives. She manages a collection of 1.4 million documents and works with fellow librarians, faculty, staff, and students to connect government documents to users across the disciplines. She is a co-recipient of the 2021 STS Oberly Award for Bibliography in the Agricultural or Natural Sciences, a publication award from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) for “An Inventory of Published Soil Surveys of the United States.” She received her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2010.
Ben Chiewphasa
Co-Principal Investigator
Ben Chiewphasa is the Social Sciences and Policy Librarian with Columbia University Libraries. He engages and collaborates with a diverse body of faculty and students through information literacy instruction, research support, and collection development across the School of International and Public Affairs and several social science departments. He publishes and presents on topics related to data literacy, government information dissemination and access, and diversity matters in academic libraries. He received his B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology and Geosciences from Denison University, M.A. in Anthropology (Cultural Heritage) from the University of Montana, and M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign.
