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 practice, standards, and infrastructure.
#critcat in October 2023 and November 2023:
- New call for papers: “Knowledge Organization and Nations,” a special issue of Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science (CJLIS)
- Newly available: the Saskatchewan Indigenous Subject Headings. The project was led by the Saskatchewan Multitype Library Board
- New news article: Public Library updates their systems replacing outdated terminology, describing work done with Indigenous subject headings by the Prince George Public Library in British Columbia
- New blog post: On Searching for the Unknown with Unspeakable Names: Searching PubMed for Disability Research by P.F. Anderson and LaTeesa James
- New blog post: Coffee & Conversation with Sandy Berman by Jaylene Telford & Amy Gabbert-Montag, both MLIS students at St. Kate’s.
- New webinar recording available: Inclusive Cataloging: Maintaining Your Momentum, presented by Violet Fox and hosted by RAILS (Reaching Across Illinois Library System)
- New webinar recording available: Subject Analysis: Centering Historical Lives in Contemporary Archives, presented by Dorothy Berry and hosted by the Center for Archival Futures
- New webinar recording available: Words Matter for the CSU: Inclusive Description Task Force (CSU Libraries Network) featuring California State University panelists Luiz Mendes, Allison Bailund, and Julie Moore
- New presentation recording available from ALA Annual: OCLC’s Transforming Metadata session, with two parts:
- Inkyung Choi presents “Modeling intercultural Warrant in Ontology Design,” examining how we can manage annotations within classification systems, like the Dewey Decimal System, in ways that mitigate harmful labels
- Heather Moulaison-Sandy presents “Challenges to Inclusive Catalog Use” work from the Inclusive Catalog Use Lab. Their work applies the concept of code-switching to the question of knowledge organization system use.
- New (to me) report: Elevating and Respecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and perspectives in UQ Special and Research Collections: Phase 1 Report by Caitlin Murphy, describing an audit of the University of Queensland’s descriptive practice. “The work of Phase 1 resulted in the identification of 75 additional special collections containing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander materials, the uncovering of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages in 41 records, and the overdue recognition of 47 Aboriginal informants to be acknowledged as contributors to their files.”
- New guidelines: Guidelines for First Nations Collection Description. Written by Tui Raven for the Australian library sector, the guidelines have been produced as a collaboration between five organizations: the Australian Library & Information Association (ALIA), National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA), the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) and CAVAL. View the introductory webinar and find the full text via Trove.
- Conference info: The 2023 Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) Annual Meeting featured some interesting cataloging conversations, including the following (keep an eye out for the recordings on YouTube, which should appear on the MELA website and the MELA YouTube channel):
- “Cultural Imperialism and Library of Congress Subject Headings on the Middle East” by Blair Kuntz
- “Access Points in the Library Catalog, a Key to Discovery: Eyes on NACO and SACO Programs” by Iman Dagher and Denise Soufi
- “Navigating Ethics and Repair in Manuscript Cataloging” by Cyrus F. Zarganj, Evyn Kropf, Jake Benson, and Aicha Azzaoui.
- New-to-me blog post: Social Equity in Library Spaces and Collections
The post describes the Choska Talfa Room, an Indigenous (Muscogee)-focused space in Bristow Public Library (Oklahoma), as an example of social equity in action. It also discusses the use of the Fus Fixico (“Angry Bird”) Classification System (FFCS), which uses elements from the Brian Deer Classification System, Dewey, and Graph Theory. - New blog post: Meet Daniel Dias, Princeton University Library’s spring 2023 PACSCL Intern, touching on subject headings relating to the queer community
- New-ish project: QUEERLIT Database, a project by the National Library for Gender Research at Gothenburg University Library and the National Library of Sweden. The project was originally based on translating Homosaurus and aims to develop a thesaurus for indexing LGBTQI literature that is mapped to the existing Swedish Subject Headings.
- New photos available: from the Unseen Labor exhibit and the Words Matter: the Inclusive Cataloging Movement Takes Flight at Fresno State University in California. The exhibits feature quotes from library workers describing why inclusive cataloging is important to them. Check out the 10-minute exhibit highlights video and upcoming events listed on the site.
General shoutout to the Advancing IDEAs: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility series of blog posts from OCLC Research team, which always highlights interesting things in the profession.
I’m doing a brief review of the new LCSH lists for headings that might be of interest to readers of Critcatenate. 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 2307 were approved in July 2023).
New LC headings of note on list 2307:
- Revised LCSH: from Afghanistan–Politics and government–2001- to Afghanistan–Politics and government–2001-2021
- New LCSH: Gender-nonconforming people in library science
- New LCSH: Inuttitut dialect
- Revised LCSH: from /Xam language to Kham language
- New LCSH: Muslim sexual minorities
- New LCSH: Transgender people in library science
New LC headings of note on list 2308:
Some pretty significant structural revisions to the Israel and Palestine headings; terrific work being done there!
- New LCSH: Israeli-Palestinian conflict–1993-
- New LCSH: Jews, Israeli
- New LCSH: Jews, Israeli–Relations with Palestinian Arabs
- Revised LCSH: from Keechi Indians to Keeche Indians
- New class numbers associated with LCSH Opioid abuse: instead of just a medicine-related class number, a new sociology class number has been added HV5822.O45
- New LCSH: Palestine question (1948-)
- New LCSH: Palestine question (To 1948)
- New LCSH: Palestinian Arabs–Relations with Jews, Israeli
- Revised LCSH: Zulu (African people): the 450 (use for) for Kafirs (African people) has been deleted
Also note work being done on special lists: list 2308a, which includes many revisions relating to the change from Gays to Gay people, and list 2310a, which makes significant revisions to LCSH relating to Ukraine and Crimea. Important to acknowledge the large amount of work required to make these long-overdue changes!
Upcoming:
- Monday Dec 4: Cool Things We Cataloged, sponsored by ALA’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS), with the following topics:
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- Fashion show invitations by Melissa Raymond
- Jackie Robinson comic books by Daniela Rovida
- Pennsylvania Dutch tin nursing can by Caitlin Lenox
- Reunionese Creole translation of Greek fables by Natalie Kazmin
- Star Trek-related fanzines by Indica Mattson, discussing using Homosaurus to address gaps in LCSH relating to sexuality and fan culture
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Please let me know if there’s anything else coming up!