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 March 2024:
- New call for volunteers: SAC Working Group on “Question” Subject Headings:
- ALA’s Subject Analysis Committee is forming a working group to explore alternatives for instances of Library of Congress Subject Headings containing the word “question.” LCSH containing the word “question” often refer to boundary disputes or nationalist political movements and objectives. Others refer to a (sometimes unspecified) other type of question. Some could be considered problematic, and most are likely vague and unclear to library users. Examples include: Armenian Question, Cuban question, Eastern question, Irish question, Macedonian question, Palestine question, Silver question, Ukrainian question. Are you interested in helping to explore the “question” question? Do you have experience in applying any of the subject headings or class numbers in question, or expertise in one or more of the subject areas affected? If so, please consider joining the working group—contact the co-chairs (Allison Bailund, San Diego State University, abailund@sdsu.edu and Tina Gross, University of Minnesota, aboutness@gmail.com) by April 19th. You do not need to be a cataloger, or a member of SAC or ALA.
- New call for proposals: the 2024 Metadata Justice in Oklahoma Libraries & Archives Symposium is a free, online event hosted by the University of Central Oklahoma. Proposals are accepted until May 1, with priority deadline April 15th. Proposal topics might include:
- Reparative description for archival materials
- Controlled vs. homegrown vocabularies – pros and cons, examples of projects, when and how to develop a local vocabulary
- Alternative vocabularies – for example, creative uses of the Homosaurus for materials representing the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
- Institutional challenges, lack of resources, solo work, etc. – challenges, how to work with what you have.
- Providing description for audiovisual, oral histories, and/or other non-traditional formats
- Staff training for inclusive metadata projects
- New call for advisory board members and focus group members: check out Raedial, an organization working on a database for appropriately describing children’s books featuring characters with diverse and intersectional experiences.
- New blog post: Dr. John Archer Library works to decolonize terms in library catalogue discussing work done by Saskatchewan Multitype Library Board to include Indigenous terminology and language in library catalogs
- New blog post: Updating the language we use to describe our collections by Emma Roache, describing work done by the National Library of New Zealand/Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa
- New post: CRKN Completes Phase II of the Indigenous Subject Headings Project, featuring work done by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network
- New article: Uncontrollable Vocabularies: Queer Theory, Sexual Identity, and the Catalog by Lynne Stahl, published in the Journal of Radical Librarianship
- New blog post: Description For All Virginians: Inclusive Description Efforts At The Library Of Virginia, providing examples of revisions done by the Inclusive Description Working Group at the Library of Virginia
- New article: Political Stances and Priorities in National Level General Classification Schemes by Yejun Wu, published in Knowledge Organization, featuring a comparison of the Chinese Library Classification, created by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the New Classification Scheme for Chinese Libraries, created by the Republic of China (ROC) [Taiwan]
- New post from Australian vendor SCIS [Schools Catalogue Information Service]: Fostering Respect in Australian Schools through SCIS Authority Files discussing their use of AustLang (an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language database) in their authority files
- New post: Alumni TIES Small Grant Recipients Empower Communities to Foster Meaningful Change, highlighting the grant-funded work done by Richard Sapon-White to create create subject heading authority records for Indigenous peoples of Oregon, as well as the workshop and manual on Creating Subject Headings for Indigenous Topics, co-created by Richard Sapon-White, Richard, Pamela Louderback, and Sara Levinson
- New recordings: all the sessions of ALA Core Interest Group Week are now available. Creative Ideas in Technical Services Interest Group included a presentation on “Homosaurus Usage in the OCLC Database: an Exploratory Analysis” by Paromita Biswas, Amanda Mack, and Erica Zhang
- New recording available: MELA 2023: Collaboration, Cataloging, and Acquisitions Challenges, from the Middle East Librarians Association conference. Presentations include:
- Access Points in the Library Catalog, a Key to Discovery: Eyes on NACO and SACO Programs / presented by Iman Dagher, University of California, Los Angeles, and Denise Soufi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- New reviews of the Unseen Labor exhibit at Fresno State Library:
- New guidelines: Ethical Cataloguing in UCD Digital Library, seven-page document created by University College Dublin metadata librarian Órna Roche, featuring sections on:
- sensitivity criteria
- language in descriptive records
- under-represented communities in descriptions
- language/imagery in the content
- controlled vocabularies
- guidelines for medical, disability, and related collections
Thanks to Carissa Chew of the Chew Inclusive Terminology Glossary for generous sharing of information!
Interesting discussion at MAC (the MARC Advisory Committee) in January, featuring a discussion paper (that is, an early, draft-ish proposal) to consider adding a new subfield i to the 245 field, which would “indicate the source of a transcribed title when that title contains harmful language and the title is from a source not readily apparent to general users.” So, for example, if there were offensive words in the transcribed title of a work, the subfield i could read “Title from item.” MAC had a whole lot of issues with this approach, and requested another discussion paper for their next meeting in June 2024; hopefully the Bibliographic Standards Committee of ALA’s Rare Book and Manuscripts Section can find ways to address those issues. Find the full discussion paper (2024-DP02) and recording (about an hour was spent on this topic).
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 2311 were approved in November 2023).
New LC headings of note on list 2311:
- New LCSH: Hispanic-serving institutions
- New LCSH: Internalized racism
- New LCSH: Librarians, Black
- New UFs added on existing LCSH: Race discrimination
- New LCSH: White American criminals
- New LCSH: White Americans
Also check out the LCSH additions and revisions on special list 2311a relating to Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and Neurodivergent people.
Upcoming:
- Friday April 5: 2024 New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) Spring Conference has a theme of “If It’s Broke, Let’s Fix It: Open Dialogue Between Problem and Opportunity.” Sessions include:
- your Critcatenate editor, Violet Fox, will be presenting on the Cataloging Lab in the keynote panel
- Alternative Cataloging: Moving Beyond Dewey by Caitlin Staples
- Amplifying Voices with Metadata: Lessons Learned While Working with a Digitized DEI Archival Collection by Lisa Longenecker
- Reimagining Access to Indigenous Resources: UConn Law Library’s Journey Toward Inclusivity by Susanna French
- Thursday April 18: Inclusive Cataloging webinar from Tim Keller at Oberlin College, hosted by OhioNet
- Thursday April 18: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Metadata, part of the Practical Approaches for Reparative Description workshop series hosted by DPLA [Digital Public Library of America]
- new course beginning April 21: Inclusive Description for Cultural Heritage Materials, presented by Treshani Perera and hosted by We Here
- Wednesday April 24: Cataloging Community Event for EMEA libraries, hosted by OCLC, featuring the talk Legacies of Catalogs and Cataloging Labor: past, present, future by James Baker, University of Southampton. [EMEA=Europe, the Middle East and Africa]
- Thursday April 25: Local Contexts: Tools for Supporting Indigenous Rights and Interests in Collections, part of the Practical Approaches for Reparative Description workshop series hosted by DPLA
- Friday May 10: Special Projects in Reparative and Inclusive Description, part of the Practical Approaches for Reparative Description workshop series hosted by DPLA
- Thursday June 13: 2024 Metadata Justice in Oklahoma Libraries & Archives Symposium, a free, online event hosted by the University of Central Oklahoma
Please let me know if there’s anything else coming up!