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 January and February 2023:
- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Cataloging and Technical Services all-day virtual conference was held February 8, hosted by Amigos Library Services. Sessions included:
- Re-Thinking Dewey: Re-assigning Dewey Decimal Categories for Greater Equity and Discoverability by Kirsten Brodbeck-Kenney
- GLAMS Community Activism in Technical Services by Michelle Cronquist, Margaret Breidenbaugh, Violet Fox, Maya Espersen, Adam Schiff & Adrian Williams
- Dropping the Other I-Word: Indigenous American Representation in a Network Library Catalog Through Local LCSH Replacements by Rebecca Saunders
- Inclusive Metadata Strategies at Max Chambers Library by Shay Beezley, Anona Earls & Kaitlyn Palone
- Reparative Reclassification: Small Steps for Positive Change by Lisa Thornton, Melissa Hofmann & Yuji Tosaka
- African American Superheroes & Asexual Comics: Inclusive Comics Cataloging Practices by Deborah Tomaras, Allison Bailund, Steven Holloway & Kayla Kuni
- Whose authority? Applying a DEI Lens to Traditional Descriptive Practice by Laura Daniels, Jackie Magagnosc & Liz Parker
- New feature available on OCLC’s WorldCat Discovery to locally re-map subject headings to hide sensitive language/create locally preferred subjects for display and search expansion.
- Launch of the Cultural Heritage Terminology Network, a UK-based “space for praxis-sharing and cross-institutional collaboration on inclusive description issues.” Includes a collated list of over 200 EDI resources for heritage professionals.
- New announcement: “Seed Funding Secured for NIKLA’s Respectful Terminologies Project,” announcing $383,000 being contributed for a Canadian “platform that enables a dynamic, multilingual set of terminologies applied to Indigenous Peoples, places, heritage, tradition, knowledge and cultures.”
- New announcement: “Developing a Spanish-language Homosaurus: Using Multi-language Linked Data to Enhance LGBTQ+ Resource Discoverability,” describing a proposal for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant which was recently awarded to develop a multi-language linked data platform and creating and implementing a Spanish-language version of the Homosaurus vocabulary.
- New article: “Critiquing the Machine: The Critical Cataloging Database” by B. M. Watson, published in TCB: Technical Services in Religion & Theology. The article describes the collection of 600 articles at CritCat.org and a breakdown of the main subdomains of critical cataloging literature:
- Racialized knowledge organization
- Indigenous knowledge organization
- Names, Sex & Gender
- Queer knowledge organization
- Disabled / Crip knowledge organization
- New article: “Handicapped has been cancelled: The terminology and logics of disability in cultural heritage institutions” by Brian M. Watson and Beck Schaefer, published in First Monday. The articles addresses the issues around the LCSH heading “Social disabilities,” articulating classification systems often erase disability and replace them with eugenic narratives about overcoming adversity or policing deviance.
- New blog post: “Backstage Looking Ahead… Newer and Stronger Services in 2023” discussing new options created by vendor Backstage for DEI-related authority service, including broader LGBTQ terminology and more accurate Indigenous Persons access points. While libraries have been already able to authorize pre-existing headings in the National Library of Spain’s authority file (EMBNE) and the Queens Library Spanish vocabulary for a few years, now Backstage will be starting a new process to convert LCSH into Spanish terms, including using those vocabs as well as San Francisco Public Library’s public subject file.
- New-ish blog post: “Writing and Implementing a Statement to Remediate Harmful Language in the Library Catalog,” published in Library Journal in December 2022. Cataloger Andrea Schuba describes the process of creating a Statement of Harmful Language in Catalog Records for the University of Maryland Libraries and provides tips, including explaining harmful content and providing a method for soliciting feedback.
- New blog post: “Riot or Massacre: How One Word Changes Perspective” by Serena McCracken from the Atlanta History Center, describing redescription efforts by Kenan Research Center staff & African American SACO Funnel members.
- New blog post: “FLASHback: Reimagining the Australian Extension to LCSH” by Alissa McCulloch, describing her efforts to bring back the long-dormant Australian-centric vocabulary used as an addition to using LCSH.
- New toolkit: “People-Centred Cataloguing” created by Kathleen Lawther, featuring suggestions and case studies for how museums might take a more people-centred approach to their collections documentation work.
- New tool: Wendy Isicson at UNC-Chapel Hill has developed a new macro to apply Homosaurus headings in Connexion.
- A cynical Twitter thread about the varying terms used to describe our work, including radical cataloging, critical cataloging, inclusive description, reparative description, ethical metadata, conscious editing, metadata justice, and so on, ad nauseum.
- Here’s a ChatGPT (artificial intelligence)-written blurb about “strategies for decolonizing archival metadata and introducing reparative description.”
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 2211 were approved in November 2022).
New LC headings of note on list 2211:
- revised subject headings: from Albinos and albinism to Albinism, Albinism in animals, and People with albinism.
- new subject heading: Gender-based violence
- new subject heading: Right to bodily autonomy
- new subject heading: Sexual minority children
- new subject heading: Solastalgia
- revised subject heading: from Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge (Mo.) to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge (Mo.)
Upcoming:
- Tuesday March 7: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Authority Control Interest Group meeting will include the sesssion “Authority Control and the Occult: Ethical Expectations for the NACO Contributor,” presented by Guy Frost.
- Tuesday March 7: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Cataloging and Classification Research Interest Group sessions will include multiple presentations about DEI in classification, including:
- “Classification from the margins: three alternative classification systems, 1930-1975,” presented by Sasha Frizzell.
- “A DE&I Cataloging Audit of a Bibliography,” presented by Lisa McColl.
- “Critical Cataloging and Critical Race Theory: Implications for Cataloging Practice,” presented by Karen Snow and Anthony Dunbar.
- Thursday March 9: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Metadata Interest Group is hosting a session with two presentations on inclusive metadata.
- “Public-Facing Statements on Harmful Language in Library and Archival Description: Recommendations for Implementation” presentation by Katie Dunn & Samantha Garlock at University of Wisconsin Madison Libraries.
- “Words Matter: Supporting a Community Archive Through Inclusive Cataloging” presentation by Elyse Fox, Lynn Drennan, and Pachia Vang, discussing work done to respectfully describe the Southeast Asia Community Resource Center (SEACRC) Collection at Sacramento State Library.
- Thursday March 9: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Role of the Professional Librarian in Technical Services Interest Group is hosting a session including “That’s the IDEAA* in Technical Services Roles *(Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racism, Accessibility),” presented by Natalie Lopez at Crafton Hills College.
- Thursday March 9: First meeting of the new Medical Subject Funnel, co-chaired by Violet Fox and Kelleen Maluski. All levels of knowledge/background are welcome.
- Friday March 10: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Catalog Management Interest Group session will include “A survey of description: exploring subject access for diverse communities using Python and R,” presented by Brian Clark and Catherine Smith at the University of Alabama Libraries.
- Friday March 10: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Cataloging Norms Interest Group meeting will include two presentations:
- “LGBTQ+ Identities, Language, and the Library Catalog,” presented by Karen Snow, Brian Dobreski, and Heather Moulaison-Sandy.
- “Culturally-Rich Name Authority Records in RDA for Puerto Rican Artists,” presented by Dinah M. Wilson Fraites.
- Monday March 13: Reparative Description in Action Workshop, facilitated by Stephen R. Curley (Digital Archives at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition) and Jennifer Garcon (Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia).
- Friday March 24: But how do we use it? Ethical cataloguing in practice, hosted by Metadata and Discovery Group in Scotland, featuring Diane Rasmussen Pennington discussing the Cataloguing Code of Ethics.
- Thursday March 30: equinoxEDU Spotlight on Accessibility in Open Source Projects providing information about accessibility considerations for library software, presented by Stephanie Leary.
- Friday April 14: NETSL 2023 Annual Conference: Passion into Action: Your Initiative in Technical Services, sponsored by NETSL, the New England Technical Services Librarians. Sessions include:
- “Our Metadata, Ourselves: The Trans Metadata Collective,” presented by Jackson Huang and Bri Watson
- “Implementing Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) in the Catalog: A Case of Library Connection (LCI) Libraries,” presented by Judy Njoroge
- “Sex Negativity & Anti-Queerness in Library of Congress Classification: History, Structure, & Systems,” presented by Rhonda Kauffman, Tiffany Henry, Anastasia Chiu
- “Whose authority? Applying a DEI lens to traditional descriptive practice,” presented by Laura Daniels, Jackie Magagnosc, Liz Parker
- “Did Libraries ‘Change the Subject’? What Happened, What Didn’t, & What’s Ahead,” presented by Jill Baron, Violet Fox, Tina Gross
Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!