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.
N.B.: Your faithful Critcatenate editor was laid off from her cataloging job in July and is now on the job market again. 😩 Send job offers & good vibes her way!
#critcat in July through September 2025:
- New scholarly article: Cataloging Ethics Definitions Revisited: Practitioner Perspectives Five Years Later by Karen Snow & Beth Shoemaker, published in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly
- New scholarly article: Typology of Creator Objections to Subject Cataloguing of Their Works by Julia Bullard, presented at North American Symposium on Knowledge Organization (NASKO)
- “Know the Difference”: A Comparison of Community-Led Erotic Knowledge Organization by Melissa Nelson and Bri Watson, presented at North American Symposium on Knowledge Organization (NASKO). Reviews of classification systems used on Archive of Our Own (AO3) and E-Hentai (EH)
- New scholarly article: Enhancing Inclusive Bibliographic Data: A Study of Disability Terminology in the Subject Headings of the National Library of Indonesia by Nadya Mentari, presented at IFLA WLIC 2025
- New scholarly article: Moving Threads: The Post-Custodial Archive Model Preserving Syrian Clothing Heritage by Monica Sklar, Katherine Hill McIntyre, and Isabella Tallman-Jones, published in The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion
- New scholarly article: The Manuscript Heritage of the Western Islamic World between Critical Textual Analysis and Codicological Study: A Dialogue of Arab and Foreign Cataloging Methodologies and Transformations in Literary Discourse by Housny Hamra and Hesna Hamra, published in Science, Education and Innovations in the Context of Modern Problems
- New article: Communication and the Impact that CJK Cataloging Projects have had on the Users’ Side by Sharon Domier, published in the Japanese journal Information Science and Technology. Describes work being done by SACO Funnels and reparative cataloging examples
- New article: Adopting Critical Cataloging Practices Post Diversity Audit: Connecting the Community to Your Collection by Jessica K. Anderson and Yan Quan Liu, published in Library Resources & Technical Services
- New master’s thesis: Cataloging Culture: Critical Approaches for Museum Collections by Holly Young, describing critical cataloging work done at the Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture at the University of Washington, Indiana University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (IUMAA), and Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
- New master’s thesis: Metadata as Resistance: A Case Study on Language, Power, and the Cataloging of Palestinian Cultural Heritage by Katherine Knox Beler and Malin Färdig, using LCSH as a case study reflecting “key structural limitations in representing Palestinian identity, displacement, and political struggle, revealing how cataloging systems often reflect institutional and geopolitical biases”
- New book chapter: Bias in the System: A Case for Catalogers’ Judgment by Annisija W. Hunter, published in the book Critical Race Theory in LIS: Challenging White Supremacy in Libraries. Describes cataloging work informed by critical race theory principles.
- New recognition: ‘Mrs. His Name’ project wins award for University Libraries, SCUA. From the University of Nevada, Reno: “Elspeth Olson has received one of two awarded honorable mention prizes from the Journal of Western Archives for the Best General Interest Article Award for the period 2020-2024″ for the article Mrs. His Name: Reparative Description as a Tool for Cultural Sensitivity and Discoverability
New LC headings of note on list 2502c:
- new LCSH: Cultural humility
- new LCSH: Neurodivergent college students
- new LCSH: Sexism in sports
New LC headings of note on list 2503c:
- cancelled LCSH: Cults–Africa, West; Cults–Argentina; etc.
- new LCSH: Detroit Riot, Detroit, Mich., 1967
- revised LCSH: from Earth People (Cult) to Earth People
- new LCSH: Seven Provinces Mutiny, 1833
- revised LCSH: from Snake cults (Holiness churches) to Snake-handling churches (Holiness)
- new LCSH: Trauma-informed pedagogy
- revised LCSH: from Vandists (Cult) to Vandism
- new LCSH: Women, Black, in mass media
LC shenanigans alert:
- Several proposals were marked “The proposal is withdrawn and retained” without further information on the Summary of Decisions for list 2502c. That’s… confusing? The summary of decisions is meant to explain why specific proposals were rejected, and that brief note certainly doesn’t explain what’s happening.
upcoming:
- Thursday October 9: Arrangement & Description for Future Communities webinar and live discussion, part of the DHPSNY Dialogues series from Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York
Please let me know if there’s anything else coming up or I’ve missed anything!