Critcatenate: #critcat in July 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 July 2022:

• New Google Arts & Culture story: Cataloging Indigenous-related Pamphlets at the Chicago History Museum: Putting the principles of critical librarianship into practice, providing a visually oriented, patron-friendly format for describing critical cataloging efforts at the Chicago History Museum.
• New blog post “Ongoing effort seeks to identify and correct harmful terms in PEM’s library catalog” by Kim Ross at the Peabody Essex Museum, about the work of remediating terminology relating to Indigenous peoples in the library catalog. Over 3,000 authority records have been created, and over 3,000 bibliographic records have been revised.
  • Related: the Peabody Essex Museum’s Indigenous Peoples Subject Headings project, consisting of a crosswalk between LCSH and the museum library’s preferred terminology, created by Kim Ross.
• Launch of the Queer Metadata Collective, “a group of cataloguers, librarians, archivists, scholars, museum and information professionals with a concerted interest in improving the description and classification of queer people in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Special Collections (GLAMS) and other information systems. The Collective’s primary goal is to develop a set of best practices for the description, cataloging, and classification of queer information resources in GLAMS.” QMC is looking for volunteers to get involved.
• New video: “Words That Hurt: A Documentary,” a free 11-minute video from Brooklyn Public Library about replacing the LCSH “Illegal Alien” from its catalog. “The film focuses on reactions and thoughts from residents in Bushwick, Flatbush and Sunset Park, Brooklyn about the project.”
• New resource: Internal Metadata Values statement from the Dickinson Research Center at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, providing a list of questions for the creation of metadata around the areas of research, empathy, challenging neutrality, and user-focus. Questions metadata creators can ask themselves include “Can I see information as reparative and not exploitative?”
• New blog post: “Words Matter: Reconciling museum metadata with Wikidata” by Sharon Mizota. Describes a taxonomy created by cultural heritage aggregator Curationist to describe museums collections, and discusses the capacity of Wikidata to provide greater specificity for cultural groups than LCSH allows.
• New issue of KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies, volume 6 number 3: Metadata as Knowledge, guest edited by Stacy Allison-Cassin and Dean Seeman. Includes multiple critcat-related articles, including:
  • “Trouble in Paradise: Expanding Applications of the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names® to Enhance Intellectual Discoverability of Circum-Caribbean Materials” by Alexandra Gooding
  • “Ethical Considerations of Including Personal Demographic Information in Open Knowledge Platforms” by Nerissa Lindsey, Greta Kuriger Suiter, Kurt Hanselman.
• New resource: Inclusive Terminology Glossary, guidance on discriminatory and harmful language for cultural heritage professionals. Created by Carissa Chew as part of an Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Internship at the National Library of Scotland.
• New blog post: “Outdated terms in the DDC: Aliens,” about revisions to terminology for noncitizens in the Dewey Decimal Classification.
• New issue of Cataloging & Classification Quarterly (volume 60, issue 5), featuring multiple critcat-related articles:
  • “Body-Oriented Cataloging as a Method of Inclusive Gender Representation” by Travis Wagner, reporting on findings from qualitative research studying the gendering practices of catalogers working with visual information
  • “Description Specialists and Inclusive Description Work and/or Initiatives—An Exploratory Study” by Treshani Perera. Results of a survey of 139 inclusive description workers’ experience and motivations. A participant-created definition for inclusive description was developed as part of this effort: “[T]he researcher has developed the following definition using keywords highlighted in participant responses: Inclusive description is resource description that elevates traditionally marginalized voices, removes or contextualizes language that is harmful or offensive, recognizes description as an iterative process, centers empathy, and encourages the use of language that is intentional, person-centered, non-neutral, mindful of diversity, and focus on the humanity of those described.”
  • “Can CONSER Lead the Way? Considering Ethical Implications for Corporate Bodies in Name Authority Records” by Paromita Biswas
  • “On Overlap and Otherness: A Comparison of Three Vocabularies’ Approaches to LGBTQ+ Identity” by Brian Dobreski, Karen Snow, & Heather Moulaison-Sandy, featuring a comparison of LGBTQIA+ vocabulary choices in LCSH, LCDGT, & Homosaurus
  • “Misrepresentation in the Surrogate: Author Critiques of ‘Indians of North America’ Subject Headings” by Julia Bullard, Brian Watson, & Caitlin Purdome, describing interviews of 38 authors/creators of Indigenous works critiquing the subject headings applied
  • “‘I Try… but Do I Succeed?’: Representing the Diversity of Australian Culture in the National Library of Australia’s Catalog” by Jodie Boyd, results of a survey of catalogers at the National Library of Australia on the conflict between cataloging structures and the purported cultural diversity values of the institution
  • “Controlled Vocabulary as Communication: The Process of Negotiating Meaning in an Indigenous Knowledge Organization System” by Margaret C. Joyce & Keahiahi S. Long, reflecting on the experiences of the authors as members of a team creating a Hawaiian knowledge organization system, Ka Wai Hāpai
  • “Advancing the Relationship between Critical Cataloging and Critical Race Theory” by Karen Snow & Anthony W. Dunbar, featuring a description of CRT and how it can frame issues within cataloging and classification standards and practice.

I’m doing a brief review of 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 2205 were approved in May 2022).

New LCSH of note on list 2205:

• revision of Brothers and sisters to Siblings
• new LCSH: Gender euphoria
• new LCSH: Girls, Black
• new LCSH: Indigenous Peoples’ Day 
• new LCSH: Misinformation
• revision of Negro Bill Canyon Wilderness (Utah) to Grandstaff Canyon Wilderness Study Area (Utah) 
• new LCSH: Police abolition movement 
• new LCSH: Slurs

Upcoming:

I couldn’t find anything that’s upcoming! Let me know what’s happening in August and beyond.

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