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 April 2024:
- New reviews of and insights into the Unseen Labor exhibit at Fresno State Library:
- Unseen Labor, An International Library Community-Organizing Embroidery Project and Exhibit About Metadata, Our Stories and Our Service review by Kristin Baer, published in the ARLIS/NA Library Exhibitions Review
- A Cataloger’s Work Behind the Scenes: Reflecting on the “Words Matter” Exhibition at Fresno State Library review by Yasmin Rodriguez, published in the ARLIS/NA Library Exhibitions Review
- Illuminating Cataloging Through Exhibitions, Education, and Outreach Efforts by Julie Renee Moore, published in the Society of California Archivists spring 2024 newsletter
- Words Matter! Bringing Cataloging from Behind-the-Scenes to Center Stage by Julie Renee Moore, published in Technicalities
- New recording: Getting Started with Gender Inclusive Cataloging, presented by K.R. Roberto, hosted by LibraryLink NJ (slides)
- New blog post: Change the Subject: Making the Library Catalog More Inclusive by Tara Kunesh at Emory University Library; including a link to a list of 200+ potential subject heading changes they are considering
- New blog post: Piloting Reparative Description and Metadata in SNAC via the Indigenous Description Group, published on the Society of American Archivists Description Section blog, discussing the work of the Indigenous Description Group in the past year
- New blog post: A New Face for an Old Library Catalog: JHU Libraries’ “Statement Regarding Harmful Content” written by Martha S. Jones at Johns Hopkins University
- New post: Project to address harmful language relating to Indigenous peoples receives prestigious Mellon Award , sharing information about the $1.8 million grant for the Respectful Terminologies Platform Project (RTPP) co-created by Stacy Allison-Cassin and Camille Callison with the National Indigenous Knowledge and Language Alliance (NIKLA), in collaboration and with the support of the University of the Fraser Valley.
- New report: Inclusive Description Recommendations of the Cooperative Metadata Team published by the University of South Carolina Libraries Cooperative Metadata Team
- New webpage: Metadata-Focused DEIA Training. hosted by the Cataloging and Metadata Committee of the Music Library Association
- New column: lcsh-es.org (LC Subject Headings in Spanish = Encabezamientos de materia LC en español) by Tamara Fultz, providing information about the background and status of the LCSH in Spanish database
- New update: RBMS Controlled Vocabularies Editorial Group announced an update to the RBMS Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging (RBMS CVRMC) and RBMS Relationship Designators. All terms and their scope notes are searchable on id.loc.gov.
- New article: Another Look at a Knowledge Organization Pioneer: Traces of Racism in Paul Otlet’s Writings by Fidelia Ibekwe, published in Knowledge Organization
- New-ish article: Revealing the Archive, Reckoning with the Past: Inclusive Approaches to Institutional History by Melanie Maksin and Debra J. Bucher at Vassar College, published in Reference Services Review
- New webinar recording: Alternative Vocabularies: What To Do When LCSH Isn’t Enough, presented by Sasha Frizzell, hosted by the South Central Regional Library Council. Focuses on Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms, Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus, Rare Books and Manuscripts Controlled Vocabulary, and Homosaurus.
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 2312 were approved in December 2023).
New LC headings of note on list 2312:
- New LCSH: Africanfuturism
- New LCSH: Black towns
- New LCSH: Jews, Azerbaijani
- New LCSH: Journalism, Fascist
- New LCSH: Man-man relationships
- New LCSH: Palestinian Arab students
- New LCSH: Press, Fascist
- New LCSH: Street style
- New LCSH: Streetwear
- New LCSH: Woman-woman relationships
Upcoming:
- Thursday May 2: That’s a Wrap!, a webinar reviewing the two critical cataloging exhibitions in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at the Fresno State Library during the 2023-2024 school year (“Words Matter!” The Inclusive Cataloging Movement Takes Flight and “Unseen Labor: a Traveling Embroidery Exhibition Expressing Their Work Through Fiber Arts”)
- Thursday May 2–Friday May 3: PCC Operations Committee Meeting, featuring updates about recent SACO (Subject Authority Cooperative) projects, the Indigenous Peoples Headings Project, and a presentation titled “Embracing Authenticity: Non-Latin Script Input in BIBFRAME and FOLIO”
- Tuesday May 7: Best of Core Forum: White Supremacy in the Stacks, presented by Preston Salisbury. “This session examines how Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal Classifications handle books on topics relevant to White Supremacy and how this perpetuates the idea of a color-blind or color-neutral society.”
- Friday May 10: Special Projects in Reparative and Inclusive Description, part of the Practical Approaches for Reparative Description workshop series hosted by DPLA
- Monday June 3–Friday June 7: NASIG 2024 Conference in Spokane, Washington, will have multiple critcat-related presentations, including:
- “This Work is Urgent, This Work will Take Time”: Integrating EDI-A into Resource Description Workflows presented by Jennifer Browning
- You Want Me to Catalog What? Practical Strategies for Cataloging Insensitive/Offensive Material presented by Mandy Hurt
- LCSH and other LC vocabularies, a workshop on proposing LCSH revisions/additions presented by Melanie Polutta. Very nice to see LC taking this role!
- 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!