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 May 2022:
- Comic published in The Boston Globe: “Everything’s Racist Comic: Dewey Decimal System” by artist Joel Christian Gill.
- New article: “The Old and the Prudish: An Examination of Sex, Sexuality, and Queerness in Library of Congress Classification” by Tiffany Henry, Rhonda Kauffman and Anastasia Chiu.
- Video available from May Minitex webinar: “Move Over Melvil: Towards More Inclusive and Accessible Library Collections,” including presentations on ditching Dewey for genrefication, as well as creating name authority headings for Indigenous content creators. I highly recommend listening to the presentation from Hennepin County librarians Kate Clayborne & Rebecca Wolf, who got grant funding to pay Indigenous authors for interviews to create NACO records together, collaborating on the name authority process (that presentation starts at 21:30).
- Video available from April webinar: “Controlled vocabularies and you: a panel discussion on addressing terminologies” from 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. This session was also live tweeted by Gina Murrell.
- Slides available from the “Incorporating Inclusivity in Our Catalog” presentation by Nicole Lewis & Rachel Wittmann at the Utah Library Association conference in May. This session was also live tweeted by Anna Neatrour.
- Recordings available for purchase from the ELUNA 2022 Annual Meeting (ELUNA = international user community for Ex Libris customers in the Americas). “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Update” from Allen Jones & Judith Fraenkel; session description: “The DEI in Search Advisory group has worked with a term suppression tool that allows libraries to suppress problematic or potentially offensive language if they choose to use it. Development of that feature will continue to include methods for providing context around words/phrases within display results rather than suppressing subject terms altogether. We will focus the presentation on what we learned from the community around plans and challenges of managing local metadata and the new work that has emerged as a result of that survey.”
- Open letter to the National Library of Medicine’s MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) Committee from a group of medical library workers, requesting changes to MeSH terms relating to marginalized groups as well as more transparency and collaboration in their decision-making process. Sign on to the open letter through June 3 at the link provided . Find more info about the work put into revising MeSH by BIPOC library workers on this twitter thread by Aidy Weeks.
- New article: “Mediating Queer and Trans Pasts: The Homosaurus as Queer Information Activism” by Marika Cifor & K.J. Rawson
- New statement regarding the replacement of “Illegal aliens” in LCSH from the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, encouraging its member institutions to explore avenues for reducing reliance on a single controlled vocabulary controlled by LC. This statement was accompanied by a statement from PCC to LC, expressing concern about the replacement terms chosen and requesting explanation about why those terms were chosen (as opposed to the terms LC originally chose in 2016).
New this month: I’ll start reviewing the new LCSH lists for headings that might be of interest to readers of Critcatenate. FYI, LCSH list numbers consist of a two-digit number for the year and a two-digit number for the month the headings were approved (so, for example, headings on list 2203 were approved in March 2022).
- New LCSH of note on list 2203:
- revision of Art, Primitive to Art or Art, Prehistoric
- revision of Architecture, Primitive to Architecture or Architecture, Prehistoric
- revision of Sculpture, Primitive to Sculpture or Sculpture, Prehistoric [and so on. More revision proposals for anthropology-related “primitive” terms will be on list 2206]
- revision of Alien property to Foreign property
- revision of Indians–Urban residence to Urban Indians
- new LCSH: Afropessimism (Philosophy)
- new LCSH: Boys love (Gay erotica)
- new LCSH: Ecocide
- new LCSH: Sex workers in mass media
- new LCGFT: Asexual comics
- new LCGFT: Transgender poetry
- New LCSH of note on list 2204:
- revision of Problem youth to At-risk youth
- new LCSH: Anti-lynching movements
- new LCSH: Sexual minorities in popular culture
- new LCSH: Dyslexia-friendly books
- new LCSH: Non-standard employment with scope note “Here are entered general works on forms of employment that lack job stability, entitlement to fringe benefits, etc. Works on specific forms of employment are entered under the specific term, e.g., Flexible work arrangements, Gig economy.”
- new LCGFT: Underground periodicals
Upcoming:
- Friday-Saturday June 3-4: California Library Association 2022 conference includes two critcat-related sessions: “Critical Cataloging: Rethinking Cataloging Practices for a Better Tomorrow” presentation by Julie Renee Moore and Israel Yáñez, and a lightning talk about ONE Archives, “Collaboratively Working to Improve Subject Description of an LGBTQ+ Collection” by Joshua Hutchinson & Junjiro Nakatomi.
- Monday June 6: “Approaches to Reparative Metadata Projects” from the Sunshine State Digital Network. A 90-minute panel presentation and discussion related to reparative and inclusive metadata projects, including a project from the museum of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Free registration.
- Wednesday June 8: “Reparative Description” webinar from the Society of American Archivists, providing “practical guidelines, examples, resources, and best practices for making your collection descriptions more accurate, representative, and respectful of the people they represent and serve” ($49).
- Friday June 10: “Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion in Library Collections and Catalogs” will be the theme for the 2022 Joint Spring Meeting of Nebraska Library Association’s College & University Section and Technical Services Roundtable. The program includes the keynote speech “Improving Subject Headings for Iowa Indigenous People” by Harriet Wintermute, Heather Campbell, Christopher Dieckman, Wesley Teal of Iowa State University. Free registration; must register by June 3.
- Saturday-Monday June 25-27: ALA Annual will include several critcat-related sessions, including:
- “Classification and Justice: Unfinished Work in Resource Description” with panelists Emily Drabinski and Staci Ross.
- “The Best Solution for the Time: Ethics and Options when Including Gender Information in Open Knowledge Platforms” by Nerissa Lindsey, Greta Suiter, and Kurt Hanselman.
- “Repairing the Catalog: Implementing DEI to Cataloging and Authority Work” discussion facilitated by Whitney Buccicone, during the Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group Meeting.
- “Pathways to Change: Proposing and Approving Revisions to Library of Congress Authority Files” presentation on proposing LGDGT & LCSH by Adam Schiff and Judith Cannan.
Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!