Critcatenate: #critcat in March 2022

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on critcat efforts with a monthly roundup of news. Critcat is short for critical cataloging, focusing on the ethical implications of library metadata, cataloging, and classification standards, practice, and infrastructure.

#critcat in March 2022:

• New article: “Tribal Libraries in Michigan to Create New Classification System with Community Input” in Library Journal, describing a new IMLS-funded project being undertaken by the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Libraries to select/create an Indigenous-centered classification scheme. The “Decolonizing Libraries to Foster Community Well-Being” project will include information for other libraries looking to do similar work.
• Recorded presentation: “Challenges facing catalogers in describing and indexing Middle Eastern books and periodicals,” part of the Middle East Librarians Association’s Social Justice Series. Presentation by Fatme Charafeddine & Basma Chebani of the American University of Beirut Libraries, describing their use and local adaptation of LCSH and LC name authority records. Includes discussion on the paucity of Arabic and Islam headings in LCSH.
• New document: Hispanic/Latinx Inclusive Terminologies Projects Technical Report by Aidy Weeks and Katie Hoskins, describing the process of a controlled vocabulary review.
• Blog post: “Say My Name, Say My Name: Addressing Missing Name Information for Women in Yale Special Collections” by Alison Clemens, Jennifer Coggins, Michelle Peralta, and Jessica Tai, published by the Description Section of the Society of American Archivists.
• “CHM Local Headings – Indigenous Endonyms,” a new batch of local headings from the Chicago History Museum’s catalog highlighting Indigenous terminology in self-description of groups.
• New post “White privilege” on the Cataloging Lab, compiling professional discussion about the lack of this LCSH and sharing LC’s rationales for rejecting the proposals in 2011 and 2016.
• The presentation “Removing Bias and Barriers from Your Cataloging” by Meghan O’Keefe was held March 23 at the Public Library Association conference. The slides and handouts about the River Forest Public Library (Illinois) audit and reclassification project are available at the link.
• Twitter thread from Jennifer LaGarde describing how and why to review and revise subject headings for discoverability. Base on her presentation “Radical School Librarianship: Creating Discoverable Library Spaces for Your Most Vulnerable Readers” given at the North Carolina Technology In Education Society conference; presentation slides are also available.
• New “Harmful Language Statement” from Gustavus Adolphus College (Minnesota) on their efforts to correct injustice in the catalog. As always, find a compilation these statements here on the Cataloging Lab’s List of statements on bias in library and archives description.
• Two new documents available on the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) site: “Authority Control FAQs for Authors and Creators” and “Authority Control FAQs for Catalogers Contacting
  Creators/Contributors”. The document for authors/creators gives non-librarians information about why libraries collect their information and what is done with it; the document for catalogers creating name authority records stress that privacy concerns should be taken into account. (Editor’s note: I’m very proud to have helped create these important documents! The idea for them originated in the 2019 chapter I co-wrote with Tina Gross on “Authority Work as Outreach“.)
• Thanks to Maria Oldal for this addition to this month’s Critcatenate: two blog posts from the Morgan Library & Museum discussing the exclusion of women and other marginalized people from traditional cataloging: “A ‘Free Woman’ Lost and Found” written by Sandra Carpenter in March 2022, and “Not A Long Life, But A Happy One: Researching and Cataloging the Letters of Maria Tunno” written by Madeleine Barnes in November 2021.

Upcoming:

• Friday April 8th: “Problems in the Stacks: Queer theory, Pedophilia, & Library of Congress Call Numbers” by Meghan Bergin, lightning talk as part of the New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) 2022 Virtual Spring Conference. (Registration is $40 for non-members.)
• Friday April 29th: “Controlled vocabularies and you: a panel discussion on addressing and redressing terminologies through new and existing vocabularies” from the ACRL RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee, featuring speakers from the African American SACO Funnel, Lau Ā Lau Ka ʻIke project, RBMS Controlled Vocabularies Prejudicial Materials Working Group, and the Chicano Thesaurus at University of California, Berkeley. Free registration.
• Wednesday May 11th-Friday May 13th: 2022 OVGTSL conference held by the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians will feature several critcat-related sessions (virtual attendance registration $55):
  • “Next Steps in Decolonizing the Catalog: Application of Indigenous Subject Headings at the University of Dayton” presentation by Jill J. Crane & Grace Huffman on replacing “Indians of North America” & other LCSH.
  • “The Frontlog Quandary: A Case Study of DEI in the Cataloging Community” presentation by Jeremiah Kamtman discussing the impact of processing backlogs on providing access to music scores by composers of color.
  • “Resources for Understanding Metadata and Description of Library Collections: Professional Development Tools for Technical Services” presentation by Andrea Morrison & Janice Gustaferro describing resources available for revising problem subject headings and more.

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!