Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on critcat efforts with a monthly-ish 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 December 2022:
- Call for chapter proposals: Inclusive Cataloging: Philosophical Questions and Case Studies in Reparative Cataloging, providing “philosophical and practical considerations for inclusive/reparative cataloging projects.” Proposals due February 8th for the book to be published by ALA Editions and edited by Amber Billey, Elizabeth Nelson, and Rebecca Uhl.
- New updates to the National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for 2023 were released, including several revised and new headings relating to population groups, such as revising Blacks to Black people. Many of these changes were spurred by the June 2022 Open Letter to NLM Regarding MeSH Term Changes. Several webinars will provide more information about those changes, and a special listening session about current and future changes to MeSH is scheduled for January 18.
- Great Twitter thread (part 1, part 2) from Tracy Shields about the new changes to MeSH.
- New issue: the Winter 2022 issue of the Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship has multiple critcat relevant articles, especially Toward Ethical and Inclusive Descriptive Practices by Shira Peltzman and Kelly Besser.
- The Queer Metadata Collective is looking for descriptive / catalog policies relating to marginalized communities, individuals, & their works from libraries, archives, and museums. Send relevant policies to Bri Watson (brimwats at mail.ubc.ca).
New/revised headings of note:
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 (for example, headings on list 2209 were approved in September 2022).
New LC headings of note on list 2209:
- new subject heading: Gender-nonconforming youth–Medical care
- new subject heading: Graphic medicine (Comic books)
- new subject heading and new genre/form term: Manga
- multiple headings changed to remove the term “eskimos,” such as the revision from Inuvialuit Eskimos to Inuvialuit
- multiple headings also changed from “elderly” to “older people,” such as the revision from Abused elderly to Abused older people
New LC headings of note on list 2210:
- new subject heading: Baltimore Riots, Baltimore, Md., 1812
- new subject heading: Cultural translation
- new subject heading: Female monsters
- new genre/form term: Large print books
- new subject heading: Monstrosity
- new genre/form term: Queer fiction
- new subject heading: Religion–Origin
- revised subject heading: from Sex-oriented businesses to Sex industry
- new subject heading: Sex work
- new subject heading: Sexual minorities, Arab
- new subject heading: Sexual minorities, Black
- new subject heading: Trans-exclusionary radical feminism
- multiple headings were also changed relating to the federal action to remove “squaw” from place names, such as revision from Squaw Creek (Gallatin County, Mont.) to Storm Castle Creek (Mont.)
Upcoming:
- Wednesday January 11: Cataloging for Accessibility, an ALA Core webinar presented by Teressa Keenan, Head of Bibliographic Research Services at Mansfield Library, University of Montana.
- Friday January 13: User-Centered Cataloging Workshop by Raedial
- Wednesday January 18: NLM Office Hours Special Listening Session: MeSH will provide opportunity for for more feedback about the National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings.
- January 25: Digitization, Digital Cataloging, and the Minority Communities of the Middle East, a virtual lecture by Josh Mugler of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, hosted by the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) as part of their Social Justice Lecture Series 2022-2023 season.
- Thursday February 2: Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Network Conference 2022. “Organised by the SCURL [Scottish Confederation of University & Research Libraries] EDI Network and the CILIPS [Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland] Metadata and Discovery Group Scotland to discuss EDI policies and practices in libraries.” Sessions include:
- Exploring the ethics of cataloguing with Diane M. Rasmussen Pennington, Senior Lecturer in Information Science, Strathclyde iSchool, University of Strathclyde
- Inclusive description of moving image at the National Library of Scotland by Ann Cameron, Moving Image Curator at National Library of Scotland
- A discussion panel on the politics of metadata chaired by Joseph Marshall, Chair of the SCURL Collections and Metadata Group and Associate Director of Collections Management, National Library of Scotland.
- Wednesday February 8: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Cataloging and Technical Services hosted by Amigos Library Services.
Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!