OVERVIEW:
The ESS Forum in June 2021 on “Researching the Black European Experience” introduced the challenges of searching for information about Black Europeans in both European and North American contexts. Vast amounts of primary and secondary sources exist that are related to the Black European experience, but special skills and insight are needed to track them down. In addition to scholarly articles and monographs and materials in university collections, important research data await in government records, foundations, Black organizations, and a wide array of public and private archives throughout Europe.

One of the goals of ESS is to create and maintain research resources that are practical and useful, particularly in supporting research into European topics. In the two sessions of this hands-on workshop, ESS members/research librarians will work with scholars specializing in Black European research questions to create Black European Research Guides for the ESS website.

This workshop for librarians and information professionals will consist of two 2-hour sessions, with two weeks for each small group to work independently on research guides for their topic. Please indicate your topics of interest and the dates of your availability in the form below.

DETAILS:
At present, there are 14 ESS LibGuides on the ESS website (https://acrl.libguides.com/ess). For this first round of work, we propose organizing our activities into smaller specialized groups that reflect the current structure of the ESS LibGuides:
• British and UK Studies
• Irish Studies
• Dutch Studies
• French Studies
• German Studies
• Iberian Studies (Spain, Portugal and Andorra)
• Italian Studies
• Scandinavian Studies
• Russia and Eurasia (guide in progress)
• Eastern Europe (guide in progress)

Each topic will have a “team lead” or coordinator from ESS who will be assigned in advance of the workshop.

Session 1:
During the two hours of Session 1, our guest speakers will present briefly on their own work/regions of study and discuss how a section on “Black European Research Resources” could be created/structured. At the end of this workshop, there will be a short period for the “team lead” or coordinator for each region to form breakout rooms to discuss the work.

During the two-week period between Session 1 and Session 2, each small group of librarians and information professionals will put together a draft section on “Black European Research Resources.” The purpose is not to create an extensive and polished LibGuide in this time. Instead, the section will be considered a necessary first step in a longer process of review—however, the results will be immediately available on the ESS website.

Session 2:
In Session 2, each small group will have 8-10 minutes to present their work to the entire group, with opportunities for feedback and comments by our speakers, followed by a brief discussion of next steps.