Engage, educate and empower!
Established in 2017 with the support of Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, ASU Library’s Community-Driven Archives Initiative seeks to:
- Build strong relationships with historically marginalized communities (Latinx, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, Indigenous, and LGBTQ).
- Work with Community Archivists to redefine the traditional definition and function of an archive.
- Center the lived experiences and knowledge of community members.
- Create intergenerational and intersectional safe spaces that reimagine archives and support lifelong learning.
- Acknowledge historical trauma and support healing projects led by the communities who are breaking cycles of erasure.
- Advocate for equal ownership of archives and shared stewardship responsibilities by providing free access to archival collections and library resources
Collections
In order to share untold stories and history, ASU Library seeks to digitize and make publicly accessible existing archival collections from the Chicano/a Research Collection and Greater Arizona Collection. The following collections have been made accessible on PRISM.
Bj Bud Memorial Archives
Largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) collection in Arizona
Graciela Gil Olivarez Photographs
Documents the life and work of Graciela, a Chicana community activist and organizer, between 1951 and 1982.
Rebecca Muñoz Gutierrez Photographs
Preserves the history of the Muñoz family and how they helped establish Los Conquistadores, the first Mexican American student organization at Arizona State University in 1937.
Teodoro Ocampo and Mariana Rodriguez Ocampo Family Photograph Collection
Documents the legacy of the Ocampo, Quesada, Ortega, and Valencia families between 1860 and 1980s in Arizona.
Valley Friends of the Farm Workers Photographs
Documents Arizona farm worker history and Cesar Chavez's "Fast of Love" in 1972.
News and blog
More news
Japanese American family’s history now part of ASU Library archives
A new archival collection donated by a Japanese American family is now part of the ASU Library. The Ohnick Family Papers document the lives and experiences of a Japanese American family living across the American West in the 19th and 20th centuries. Beginning in 1848, the collection includes corres...
Fighting the Silence: Understanding the Japanese-American Student Experience during World War II
Group of young Japanese-American ladies at Poston War Relocation Center, circa 1942. CP AWHC 126, Greater Arizona collection, ASU Library. I met Astha in the Fall semester of 2022 when she visited the Wurzburger Reading Room in t...
ASU Black Collections symposium reimagines, centers communities in archives
A new archival repository within Arizona State University's Community-Driven Archives (CDA) Initiative will host a two-day hybrid symposium on Thursday, April 20, at Hayden Library on the Tempe campus and Saturday, April 22, at Burton Barr Central Library in downtown Phoenix. The Black Memory and ...
ASU Library exhibit honors work of former ASU art professor
In September 2019, Shannon Walker got a phone call from two faculty members in the Arizona State University Art Building. They told Walker there were boxes collecting dust in a storage area, and asked if she wanted to come over and look at what was inside the boxes before they cleared the room out....