Author: Violet

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.

I skipped two months of reporting, so there’s a lot this time around—buckle up!

#critcat in September, October, and November 2022:

• Creation of the Gender and Sexuality SACO Funnel, which will focus on terminology relating to gender, sexuality, and queer topics in #LCSH and other LC vocabularies & categories in LC Classification.
• Call for volunteers for a new Comics and Fiction NACO/SACO Funnel, which will focus on improving LCSH, LCGFT, etc., for comics and fiction cataloging.
• A customization of Primo showing Braille and Large Print formats in the search result and facets, from Northwestern University.
• New blog post: Diversity in the Stacks: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Catalog Searching from Penn Libraries about the efforts of their DEI and Discovery Working Group
• New blog post: Cataloging Libraries—How Subject Headings are Updated to Reflect Humanity from Wesleyan University about the work of a group of librarians, collections managers, and archivists to revise terms used in catalog records.
• The 23rd edition of the Sears List of Subject Headings is now available, edited by me (Violet Fox). It’s a great option for smaller libraries, especially school & public libraries in the U.S. & Canada, who don’t need the complexity of LCSH. Libraries who use LCSH may also consider using Sears as additional/alternative headings. Find a full list of new and revised headings at the link; some examples of revisions made in the 23rd edition:
  • Female circumcision to Female genital mutilation
  • Hearing impaired to Hard of hearing
  • Japanese Americans— Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945 to Japanese Americans — Forced removal and incarceration
  • LGBT people to LGBTQ people
  • People with mental disabilities split into People with intellectual disabilities and People with developmental disabilities
  • People with social disabilities to Socially disadvantaged people
• New article: The Development and Future of the Cataloguing Code of Ethics by May Chan, Jane Daniels, Sarah Furger, Diane Rasmussen, Elizabeth Shoemaker, & Karen Snow in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly.
• New article: Ζητήματα ηθικής στην καταλογογράφηση, ευρετηρίαση και ταξινόμηση του 21ου αιώνα (article is in Greek, the English translation is “Ethical Issues in 21st Century Cataloguing, Indexing and Classification”) by Elizabeth Khantavaridou.
• New article: “I’m really happy when sometimes I end up on a shelf that seems sort of right”: Historians’ Reactions to the Cataloging and Classification of their Own Work by Brian M. Watson, Julia Bullard. Paper to “report and discuss findings from an analysis of 14 qualitative semi-structured interviews with historians and historical researchers on how cataloging systems commonly used in cultural heritage institutions such as libraries label and describe works dealing with the history of Indigenous Peoples of North America.”
• New blog post: Newly Released: Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources, about the report released by the Trans Metadata Collective in June.
• New blog post: Metadata to Enhance Diversity, Connection and Belonging by Catherine Barnes, discussing the “language students use in your catalogue records to help diverse student groups feel thoughtfully represented in your library.”
• New blog post: Mending a History of Harm: “The ReConnect/ReCollect project [at the University of Michigan] unlocks the untold stories of the Philippine Collection and returns them to the Filipino community”.
• New blog post: Meet Kate Mitchell, 2022 Summer Fellow for Firestone Library, mentioning a project with fellow intern Quin DeLaRosa to “create a user testing model for reparative description in Princeton’s finding aids”.
• New blog post: Equity Analysis: a Tool for Reparative Cataloguing by Australian librarian Nina Whittaker, outlining strategies for addressing inequity in cataloguing.
• New blog post: Out of the Card Catalog Closet, on the JSTOR Daily blog, discussing the historical treatment of homosexuality in library catalogs and efforts to change it in the 1970s
• New recording: Social Justice in Cataloging: A Roundtable Discussion presented by the Middle East Librarians Association in September. The four presenters were:
  • Amber Billey, Systems and Metadata Librarian at Bard College
  • Basma Chebani, Associate University Librarian for Cataloging and Metadata Services, American University of Beirut Libraries
  • Michelle Cronquist, Special Collections Cataloger at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Denise Soufi, Metadata Librarian for Middle Eastern Languages and Special Collections at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• New recording: Repair, Restore, Reimagine: Reparative Archival Description Forum, presented by the Yale Reparative Archival Description Working Group on November 9. Included panel talks with Jackson Huang (University of Michigan), Ricky Punzalan (University of Michigan School of Information), Margery N. Sly (Temple University), and lightning talks by Alison Clemens (Yale University), Eileen Dewitya (UNC Chapel Hill), and Emmanuelle Delmas-Glass (Yale Center for British Art).
• New article: Subject Headings for the Colombian Conflict: The Case of a Digital Collection within the Medellín Public Library System Catalog by Maria Camila Restrepo-Fernandez (Universidad de Antioquia), featuring a proposal for the construction of a controlled vocabulary for the theme of armed conflict in cooperation with victims of violence.
• New article: Evaluating Metadata Quality in LGBTQ+ Digital Community Archives by Alexandrea Kord (Emory Libraries), featuring metadata quality reviews of Transas City, The History Project, and ONEarchives.
• New blog post: Recording Gender: An Ethical Cataloging Conundrum by Amber Billey, featuring a history of the past decade of recording gender in name authority records.
• New statement: Statement on the Metadata Rights of Libraries by the International Coalition of Library Consortia.
• New templates: Content statement templates for harmful language and content in digital collections from Devon Murphy, Karina Sánchez, and Theresa Polk at the University of Texas at Austin Libraries.
• New PCC guidance: Guidelines for the Use of ISO 639-3 Language Codes in MARC Records, providing information about inputting ISO codes into MARC records, allowing for information for about nearly 8,000 languages to be recorded accurately.
• Call for presentation proposals: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Cataloging and Technical Services, online conference hosted by Amigos Library Services in February 2023.
• Call for volunteers: is anyone interested in starting a medical librarianship SACO funnel with me (covering LCSH and MeSH)? Get in touch if you’d like to chat about the possibilities.

More events from the recent past:

• Wednesday September 14: Reparative Description: A Workshop on the Conscious Editing of Archival Collections, presented by Stephanie M. Luke, hosted by the Society of Southwest Archivists.
• Tuesday September 27: ALA Authority Control Interest Group meeting featured presentations on:
  • the RVM (Répertoire de vedettes-matière de l’Université Laval) [Québécois] Thesaurus and its editorial process
  • the possibilities of RDA representative expression elements in authority records
  • locally created/edited authority records being used by Oregon libraries (see the OLA Critical Cataloging Repository for more info)
• Thursday September 29: Restoring Nez Perce Material Culture, online presentation by Trevor James Bond, hosted by Pacific Northwest Historians Guild.
• Tuesday October 11: OLAC Coffee Talk: Critical Cataloging discussion with Julie Moore about tackling cataloging challenges.
• Monday October 17: Lessons Learned from a Reparative Description Project at Colorado State University, presented by Nancy A. Henke during the MN+ Digital Collections Conference and the Minnesota Digital Library Annual Meeting.
• Wednesday October 26: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategies in Metadata and Cataloging: An Exploration of Strategies and Discussions webinar from Tomeka Jackson and Jessica L. Serrao at Clemson University.
• November 8: Jumpstart Inclusive Cataloging, a one-day online workshop from Library Journal/School Library Journal with five presentations:
  • The Past and Future of Inclusive Cataloging by Violet Fox
  • User-Centered Cataloging: How to Use Community Education and Input to Update Your Cataloging by Katie Retterath Martin
  • Critical Data: Make the Case for Change in Your Library by
    Rachel K. Fischer
  • Critical Cataloging and Community Input: Khmer Collection by Jennifer Songster and Amber Wu
  • Tools and Strategies for Auditing and Recataloging Nonfiction by Meghan O’Keefe.
• Wednesday November 9: Inclusive Description Practices for Religious Collections by Treshani Perera, hosted by ATLA (American Theological Library Association)

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 (so, for example, headings on list 2207 were approved in July 2022).

New LC headings of note on list 2207:

• New subject heading: Deradicalization
• New subject heading: Generational trauma
• New subject heading: Information overload
• New subject headings: Mass incarceration and Mass incarceration–United States
• New subject heading: Top surgery (Gender reassignment surgery)
• New genre heading: Queer films
• New genre heading: Queer poetry

New LC headings of note on list 2208:

• New subject heading: Historically Black colleges and universities (as a narrower term under African American universities and colleges)
• Revised subject heading: from Manic-depressive illness to Bipolar disorder
• New subject heading: Sex role and sports

Proposed LCSH of note:

There are lots of proposed changes in tentative list 2212 for ADHD (getting rid of the Attention-deficit disorder headings and more) and Giants (separating folklore/fictional Giants from Tall people or Gigantism; find the proposed headings on this Cataloging Lab page). An additional tentative list 2212 (part 2) relates to changes from Slaves to Enslaved persons. Note that headings on tentative lists have not been approved yet. The headings on list 2212 will be discussed Friday December 16th. If you’d like to comment on these proposals (pro or con), an email address is available at the top of the list. You can also attend the editorial meeting remotely (I’d encourage you to do so!); find information about attending LC’s editorial meetings at this pdf.

Upcoming:

• Thursday December 1: Virtual Metadata Working Session with SSDN (Sunshine State Digital Network): “a two-hour working session to help prepare your team for conscious and reparative description work.”
• Monday December 5, 12, 17: User-Centered Cataloging, a three-part webinar series hosted by Katie Retterath Martin of Raedial
• Monday December 12: Retroactive Addition of Homosaurus: An Evaluation webinar from ALA Core, presented by Brinna Michael and Sofia Slutskaya of Emory University.
• Wednesday December 14: Incorporating DEI Principles into Our Metadata webinar from ALA Core, presented by Allison McCormack, Nicole Lewis, Rachel Wittmann.
• Wednesday January 11: Cataloging for Accessibility, an ALA Core webinar presented by Teressa Keenan, Head of Bibliographic Research Services at Mansfield Library, University of Montana
• Thursday February 2, 2023: Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Network Conference 2022. “Organised by the SCURL [Scottish Confederation of University & Research Libraries] EDI Network and the CILIPS [Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland] Metadata and Discovery Group Scotland to discuss EDI policies and practices in libraries.” Sessions include:
  • Exploring the ethics of cataloguing with Diane M. Rasmussen Pennington, Senior Lecturer in Information Science, Strathclyde iSchool, University of Strathclyde
  • Inclusive description of moving image at the National Library of Scotland by Ann Cameron, Moving Image Curator at National Library of Scotland
  • A discussion panel on the politics of metadata chaired by Joseph Marshall, Chair of the SCURL Collections and Metadata Group and Associate Director of Collections Management, National Library of Scotland.
• Wednesday February 8, 2023: “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Cataloging and Technical Services” hosted by Amigos Library Services.

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on critcat efforts with a monthly 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 August 2022:

• • New survey on libraries’ local changes to “Illegal immigration” & related subject headings. Please complete the survey whether you’ve made local changes or not!
  • New series of video recordings now available: from the ARLIS (Art Libraries Society) Cataloguing and Classification Committee’s ethics series, recorded in May-June 2022:
    • Cataloguing Code of Ethics 2021: Conception, Community, and Continuation with Jane Daniels and Diane Rasmussen Pennington
    • Decolonization, Distance and Ethics: Cataloging & Classification of North American Indigenous Knowledge in UK Libraries with Nicole Brandon
    • British Library’s Race Equality Action Plan with Alan Danskin
    • Cataloging North American Indigenous Languages at the British Library with Rebecca Slatcher
    • Inclusive Terminology for the Heritage Sector with Carissa Chew
    • Towards Conscientious Bilingual Description on the British Library Qatar Foundation Partnership with Curstaidh Reid & David Woodbridge
    • Provisional Semantics, Projects and Positionality: Findings from the TaNC Provisional Semantics Project with Ananda Rutherford
    • The History and Challenges of Cataloguing Ethiopian Manuscripts with Eyob Derillo.
  • New report: Best Practices for Cataloging Comics and Graphic Novels Using RDA and MARC21 from the Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table (GNCRT) Metadata and Cataloging Committee.
  • Find tweets from the August 17th #ChatOpenS Twitter chat on the Open Rules for Cataloging Project.
  • New recording available: Cataloging Middle Eastern Video Recordings Using RDA and MARC21 with Cyrus F. Zargan, hosted by the Middle East Librarians Association’s Committee on Cataloging.
  • New recording available: National Library of Medicine Office Hour: Listening Session on the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), with a feisty discussion about the 2022 addition of “Blacks” and additional terms for ethnic groups, and an attempt to address concerns of librarians requesting more transparency in the creation & maintenance of MeSH. Highly recommended watching for critcat folks, even if you’re not a medical librarian.
  • New (preprint) article: “Temporal Concept Drift and Alignment: An Empirical Approach to Comparing Knowledge Organization Systems Over Time” by Sam Grabus, Peter Melville Logan, Jane Greenberg. Interesting!
  • Sign up for the email list to get updates from the Queer Metadata Collective.
  • New to me: A Guide to Conscious Editing at Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, an 168-page document published in June featuring thoughtful short articles on archival description and cataloging, including content warnings, providing context, bias in LCSH, and more.
  • New to me: On Critical Cataloging: Q&A with Treshani Perera, published in June in Library Journal. (A great read about how to get involved with these efforts!).

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 (so, for example, headings on list 2206 were approved in June 2022).

New LCSH of note on list 2206:

• new heading: Climate justice
• new heading: March Massacre, Azerbaijan, 1918
• revised heading: from Primitive societies to Prehistoric peoples [and multiple related changes; shoutout to Jamie Carlstone at Northwestern for making these happen!]
• new heading: Primitive man stereotype
• revised heading: from Primitive societies in literature to Primitive man stereotype in literature
• new heading: White privilege (Social structure) [Shoutout to Israel Yáñez for making this happen! Find more info about the history of this heading.]

Upcoming:

• Wednesday September 21: “Social Justice in Cataloging: A Roundtable Discussion,” hosted by the Middle East Librarians Association’s Committee on Cataloging, featuring Amber Billey, Basma Chebani, Michelle Cronquist, and Denise Soufi. Free registration.
• Tuesday September 27: an untitled webinar hosted by ALA’s Authority Control Interest Group, featuring a presentation on local authority records to address DEI issues & an introduction to the RVM thesaurus from Québec. Free registration.
• February 22-24, 2023:  Terms of Art: Design, Description, and Discovery in Cataloging, a virtual symposium on ethical description & vocabulary in GLAM institutions, hosted by the Hood Museum of Art and Dartmouth Research Computing

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on critcat efforts with a monthly 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 July 2022:

• New Google Arts & Culture story: Cataloging Indigenous-related Pamphlets at the Chicago History Museum: Putting the principles of critical librarianship into practice, providing a visually oriented, patron-friendly format for describing critical cataloging efforts at the Chicago History Museum.
• New blog post “Ongoing effort seeks to identify and correct harmful terms in PEM’s library catalog” by Kim Ross at the Peabody Essex Museum, about the work of remediating terminology relating to Indigenous peoples in the library catalog. Over 3,000 authority records have been created, and over 3,000 bibliographic records have been revised.
  • Related: the Peabody Essex Museum’s Indigenous Peoples Subject Headings project, consisting of a crosswalk between LCSH and the museum library’s preferred terminology, created by Kim Ross.
• Launch of the Queer Metadata Collective, “a group of cataloguers, librarians, archivists, scholars, museum and information professionals with a concerted interest in improving the description and classification of queer people in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Special Collections (GLAMS) and other information systems. The Collective’s primary goal is to develop a set of best practices for the description, cataloging, and classification of queer information resources in GLAMS.” QMC is looking for volunteers to get involved.
• New video: “Words That Hurt: A Documentary,” a free 11-minute video from Brooklyn Public Library about replacing the LCSH “Illegal Alien” from its catalog. “The film focuses on reactions and thoughts from residents in Bushwick, Flatbush and Sunset Park, Brooklyn about the project.”
• New resource: Internal Metadata Values statement from the Dickinson Research Center at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, providing a list of questions for the creation of metadata around the areas of research, empathy, challenging neutrality, and user-focus. Questions metadata creators can ask themselves include “Can I see information as reparative and not exploitative?”
• New blog post: “Words Matter: Reconciling museum metadata with Wikidata” by Sharon Mizota. Describes a taxonomy created by cultural heritage aggregator Curationist to describe museums collections, and discusses the capacity of Wikidata to provide greater specificity for cultural groups than LCSH allows.
• New issue of KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies, volume 6 number 3: Metadata as Knowledge, guest edited by Stacy Allison-Cassin and Dean Seeman. Includes multiple critcat-related articles, including:
  • “Trouble in Paradise: Expanding Applications of the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names® to Enhance Intellectual Discoverability of Circum-Caribbean Materials” by Alexandra Gooding
  • “Ethical Considerations of Including Personal Demographic Information in Open Knowledge Platforms” by Nerissa Lindsey, Greta Kuriger Suiter, Kurt Hanselman.
• New resource: Inclusive Terminology Glossary, guidance on discriminatory and harmful language for cultural heritage professionals. Created by Carissa Chew as part of an Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Internship at the National Library of Scotland.
• New blog post: “Outdated terms in the DDC: Aliens,” about revisions to terminology for noncitizens in the Dewey Decimal Classification.
• New issue of Cataloging & Classification Quarterly (volume 60, issue 5), featuring multiple critcat-related articles:
  • “Body-Oriented Cataloging as a Method of Inclusive Gender Representation” by Travis Wagner, reporting on findings from qualitative research studying the gendering practices of catalogers working with visual information
  • “Description Specialists and Inclusive Description Work and/or Initiatives—An Exploratory Study” by Treshani Perera. Results of a survey of 139 inclusive description workers’ experience and motivations. A participant-created definition for inclusive description was developed as part of this effort: “[T]he researcher has developed the following definition using keywords highlighted in participant responses: Inclusive description is resource description that elevates traditionally marginalized voices, removes or contextualizes language that is harmful or offensive, recognizes description as an iterative process, centers empathy, and encourages the use of language that is intentional, person-centered, non-neutral, mindful of diversity, and focus on the humanity of those described.”
  • “Can CONSER Lead the Way? Considering Ethical Implications for Corporate Bodies in Name Authority Records” by Paromita Biswas
  • “On Overlap and Otherness: A Comparison of Three Vocabularies’ Approaches to LGBTQ+ Identity” by Brian Dobreski, Karen Snow, & Heather Moulaison-Sandy, featuring a comparison of LGBTQIA+ vocabulary choices in LCSH, LCDGT, & Homosaurus
  • “Misrepresentation in the Surrogate: Author Critiques of ‘Indians of North America’ Subject Headings” by Julia Bullard, Brian Watson, & Caitlin Purdome, describing interviews of 38 authors/creators of Indigenous works critiquing the subject headings applied
  • “‘I Try… but Do I Succeed?’: Representing the Diversity of Australian Culture in the National Library of Australia’s Catalog” by Jodie Boyd, results of a survey of catalogers at the National Library of Australia on the conflict between cataloging structures and the purported cultural diversity values of the institution
  • “Controlled Vocabulary as Communication: The Process of Negotiating Meaning in an Indigenous Knowledge Organization System” by Margaret C. Joyce & Keahiahi S. Long, reflecting on the experiences of the authors as members of a team creating a Hawaiian knowledge organization system, Ka Wai Hāpai
  • “Advancing the Relationship between Critical Cataloging and Critical Race Theory” by Karen Snow & Anthony W. Dunbar, featuring a description of CRT and how it can frame issues within cataloging and classification standards and practice.

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 (so, for example, headings on list 2205 were approved in May 2022).

New LCSH of note on list 2205:

• revision of Brothers and sisters to Siblings
• new LCSH: Gender euphoria
• new LCSH: Girls, Black
• new LCSH: Indigenous Peoples’ Day 
• new LCSH: Misinformation
• revision of Negro Bill Canyon Wilderness (Utah) to Grandstaff Canyon Wilderness Study Area (Utah) 
• new LCSH: Police abolition movement 
• new LCSH: Slurs

Upcoming:

I couldn’t find anything that’s upcoming! Let me know what’s happening in August and beyond.

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on critcat efforts with a monthly 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 June 2022:

• New report: Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources by the he Trans Metadata Collective, Jasmine Burns, Michelle Cronquist, Jackson Huang, Devon Murphy, K.J. Rawson, Beck Schaefer, Jaime Simons, B. M. Watson, and Adrian Williams. 34 pages covering best practices for using LCSH, LCSH to avoid, list of trans-related LCSH, cataloging with other vocabularies, recording (or not recording) gender and name changes in name authority records, and bibliography.
• New recording available: Cataloging with the Homosaurus: Who, What, When, Why, & How presentation by Jay Colbert (presentation slides available on GitHub).  One-hour video about applying Homosaurus terms. “In particular, this workshop will focus on terms relating to sexual orientation, romantic orientation, and gender identity, as well as slang words with other common meanings. Jay will also touch on outdated or offensive terms and when to apply them.”
• New version of Homosaurus released (version 3.2) featuring more than 250 new terms and around 175 updates or redirects.
• New article: “Advancing the Relationship between Critical Cataloging and Critical Race Theory” by Karen Snow and Anthony W. Dunbar, discussing how CRT can provide valuable evidence for critical cataloging efforts to make cataloging more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
• New article: “Controlled Vocabulary as Communication: The Process of Negotiating Meaning in an Indigenous Knowledge Organization System” by Margaret C. Joyce & Keahiahi S. Long, discussing the process of creating a Hawaiian knowledge organzation system, Ka Wai Hāpai.
• New article: “On Overlap and Otherness: A Comparison of Three Vocabularies’ Approaches to LGBTQ+ Identity” by Brian Dobreski, Karen Snow, & Heather Moulaison-Sandy, providing a systematic analysis of LGBTQ+ representation in the Homosaurus, LCSH, and Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT).
• New article: “Body-Oriented Cataloging as a Method of Inclusive Gender Representation” by Travis Wagner, discussing suggestions on how to engage in body-oriented description how it can positively impact gender inclusive cataloging.
• New article: “‘I Try… but Do I Succeed?”’ Representing the Diversity of Australian Culture in the National Library of Australia’s Catalog” by Jodie Boyd, providing results of a survey of Australian catalogers on how cataloging standards and structures are in conflict with efforts to reflect cultural diversity in Australia.
• New blog post: “DEI in Libraries and Archives: Lessons Learned from a Reparative Description Project” by MLIS student Nancy Henke on her work reviewing potentially offensive language on descriptions for digitized objects at Colorado State University. Nancy Henke also created a LibGuide on Resources for Reparative Archival Description as part of her work.
• New internship available: Paid Reparative and Inclusive Description (RID) Survey Scholar Intern is a part-time short-term position at the University of San Francisco for graduate students with interests in social justice, anti-racism work, critical diversity studies, cataloging, indexing & taxonomies, history, or librarianship. Remote work possible; applications due July 4.
• New recording available: “IGBIS Webinar: Cataloguing ethics and inclusivity with Dr Deborah Lee” hosted by the Interest Group for Bibliographic Standards of the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA).
• Published in April 2022 but new to me blog post: “What’s in a Name?: Metadata, Digital Ethics, and the Making of a British Trans Archive” by Adrian Kane-Galbraith.
• New news article: “By improving catalogues and collections, U of T librarians aim to be respectful of Indigenous voices” featuring a story on the University of Toronto Libraries.
• News from the June 2022 meeting of SAC (ALA’s Subject Analysis Committee):
  • LC is creating a comprehensive project plan to address LCSH relating to Indigenous peoples, with work to start in fall 2022. Revisions will be made to “Indians of North America,” “Eskimos,” etc. LC will be also be revising the LCSH “Slaves” to “Enslaved Persons.” LC is now adding history information to LCSH, LCGFT, etc. authority records so it’s easier to see what changed when. Find more info at SAC 2022 Annual Meeting LC Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division Report.
  • SAC Working Group on External Review of LC Vocabularies (chaired by me [Violet Fox] and Jamie Carlstone) will be working on a report which will suggest potential avenues for non-LC groups to be involved in reviewing LCSH and other LC controlled vocabularies. Find more information about that group’s background and work at the SAC 2022 Annual Meeting report of the SAC Working Group on External Review of LC Vocabularies.
• New recording available: “Approaches to Reparative Metadata Projects” featured speakers from Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, University of South Florida, University of Central Florida, Florida International University, & Florida State University, including topics such as addressing colonialism in 19th century newspapers, digital collections description cleanup projects, enhancing juvenile biography subject headings, developing a local thesaurus, & computational queries of potentially offensive descriptions to be addressed. Find the slides about the projects at Approaches to Reparative Metadata Projects slides.
• New vendor news: “Announcing improved subject headings relating to Indigenous cultures” about a project undertaken by NoveList to change more than 2,300 subject headings relating to Indigenous peoples and cultures of the Americas.
• In case you missed this article from May, it’s a good one: “The Old and the Prudish: An Examination of Sex, Sexuality, and Queerness in Library of Congress Classification” by Tiffany Henry, Rhonda Kauffman and Anastasia Chiu.
• The new SACO LGBTQIA+ Funnel has met once and welcomes volunteers who want to improve LGBTQIA+ related subject headings. If you’re interested in being a part of this work, check out this page with information about SACO funnels and contact Margaret Breidenbaugh. No cataloging expertise required, just interest and a few available hours per month.

Upcoming:

• Monday July 11: Linking Ethics & Data: The Creation and Use of the Ethics In Linked Data Checklist presentation by Bri Watson, Alexandra Provo, Allison Bailund,  and Erin Canning at the 2022 LD4 Conference on Linked Data
• Thursday July 14: Metadata Justice in Oklahoma Libraries & Archives Symposium presented by the University of Central Oklahoma Chambers Library. Keynote by me! (Violet Fox), and sessions including:
  • “Started From the Middle, Now We’re Here: Making a Game Plan for Metadata Justice at the Dickinson Research Center” by Kera Newby, Lulu Zilinskas, & Samantha Schafer
  • “The Ethics of Creating Linked Open Data for Oklahoma Native Artists” by Megan Macken, Oklahoma State University
  • “Reparative Description in Local Genre Headings” by Devin McGhee, Metropolitan Library System
  • “Finding the Right Words” presentation on crafting an inclusive metadata statement by Shay Beezley & Kaitlyn Palone, University of Central Oklahoma
  • “DARE to Say NO” presentation on changing cutter numbers by Anona Earls, University of Central Oklahoma & JJ Compton, Oklahoma Christian University

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on critcat efforts with a monthly 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 May 2022:

• Comic published in The Boston Globe: “Everything’s Racist Comic: Dewey Decimal System” by artist Joel Christian Gill.
• New article: “The Old and the Prudish: An Examination of Sex, Sexuality, and Queerness in Library of Congress Classification” by Tiffany Henry, Rhonda Kauffman and Anastasia Chiu.
• Video available from May Minitex webinar: “Move Over Melvil: Towards More Inclusive and Accessible Library Collections,” including presentations on ditching Dewey for genrefication, as well as creating name authority headings for Indigenous content creators. I highly recommend listening to the presentation from Hennepin County librarians Kate Clayborne & Rebecca Wolf, who got grant funding to pay Indigenous authors for interviews to create NACO records together, collaborating on the name authority process (that presentation starts at 21:30).
• Video available from April webinar: “Controlled vocabularies and you: a panel discussion on addressing terminologies” from ACRL RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee, featuring speakers from the African American SACO Funnel, Lau Ā Lau Ka ʻIke project, RBMS Controlled Vocabularies Prejudicial Materials Working Group, and the Chicano Thesaurus at University of California, Berkeley. This session was also live tweeted by Gina Murrell.
• Slides available from the “Incorporating Inclusivity in Our Catalog” presentation by Nicole Lewis & Rachel Wittmann at the Utah Library Association conference in May. This session was also live tweeted by Anna Neatrour.
• Recordings available for purchase from the ELUNA 2022 Annual Meeting (ELUNA = international user community for Ex Libris customers in the Americas). “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Update” from Allen Jones & Judith Fraenkel; session description: “The DEI in Search Advisory group has worked with a term suppression tool that allows libraries to suppress problematic or potentially offensive language if they choose to use it. Development of that feature will continue to include methods for providing context around words/phrases within display results rather than suppressing subject terms altogether. We will focus the presentation on what we learned from the community around plans and challenges of managing local metadata and the new work that has emerged as a result of that survey.”
• Open letter to the National Library of Medicine’s MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) Committee from a group of medical library workers, requesting changes to MeSH terms relating to marginalized groups as well as more transparency and collaboration in their decision-making process. Sign on to the open letter through June 3 at the link provided . Find more info about the work put into revising MeSH by BIPOC library workers on this twitter thread by Aidy Weeks.
• New article: “Mediating Queer and Trans Pasts: The Homosaurus as Queer Information Activism” by Marika Cifor & K.J. Rawson
• New statement regarding the replacement of “Illegal aliens” in LCSH from the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, encouraging its member institutions to explore avenues for reducing reliance on a single controlled vocabulary controlled by LC. This statement was accompanied by a statement from PCC to LC, expressing concern about the replacement terms chosen and requesting explanation about why those terms were chosen (as opposed to the terms LC originally chose in 2016).

New this month: I’ll start reviewing 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 (so, for example, headings on list 2203 were approved in March 2022).

• New LCSH of note on list 2203:
  • revision of Art, Primitive to Art or Art, Prehistoric
  • revision of Architecture, Primitive to Architecture or Architecture, Prehistoric
  • revision of Sculpture, Primitive to Sculpture or Sculpture, Prehistoric [and so on. More revision proposals for anthropology-related “primitive” terms will be on list 2206]
  • revision of Alien property to Foreign property
  • revision of Indians–Urban residence to Urban Indians
  • new LCSH: Afropessimism (Philosophy)
  • new LCSH: Boys love (Gay erotica)
  • new LCSH: Ecocide
  • new LCSH: Sex workers in mass media
  • new LCGFT: Asexual comics
  • new LCGFT: Transgender poetry
• New LCSH of note on list 2204:
  • revision of Problem youth to At-risk youth
  • new LCSH: Anti-lynching movements
  • new LCSH: Sexual minorities in popular culture
  • new LCSH: Dyslexia-friendly books
  • new LCSH: Non-standard employment with scope note “Here are entered general works on forms of employment that lack job stability, entitlement to fringe benefits, etc. Works on specific forms of employment are entered under the specific term, e.g., Flexible work arrangements, Gig economy.”
  • new LCGFT: Underground periodicals

Upcoming:

• Friday-Saturday June 3-4: California Library Association 2022 conference includes two critcat-related sessions: “Critical Cataloging: Rethinking Cataloging Practices for a Better Tomorrow” presentation by Julie Renee Moore and Israel Yáñez, and a lightning talk about ONE Archives, “Collaboratively Working to Improve Subject Description of an LGBTQ+ Collection” by Joshua Hutchinson & Junjiro Nakatomi.
• Monday June 6: “Approaches to Reparative Metadata Projects” from the Sunshine State Digital Network. A 90-minute panel presentation and discussion related to reparative and inclusive metadata projects, including a project from the museum of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Free registration.
• Wednesday June 8: “Reparative Description” webinar from the Society of American Archivists, providing “practical guidelines, examples, resources, and best practices for making your collection descriptions more accurate, representative, and respectful of the people they represent and serve” ($49).
• Friday June 10: “Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion in Library Collections and Catalogs” will be the theme for the 2022 Joint Spring Meeting of Nebraska Library Association’s College & University Section and Technical Services Roundtable.  The program includes the keynote speech “Improving Subject Headings for Iowa Indigenous People” by Harriet Wintermute, Heather Campbell, Christopher Dieckman, Wesley Teal of Iowa State University. Free registration; must register by June 3.
• Saturday-Monday June 25-27: ALA Annual will include several critcat-related sessions, including:
  • “Classification and Justice: Unfinished Work in Resource Description” with panelists Emily Drabinski and Staci Ross.
  • “The Best Solution for the Time: Ethics and Options when Including Gender Information in Open Knowledge Platforms” by Nerissa Lindsey, Greta Suiter, and Kurt Hanselman.
  • “Repairing the Catalog: Implementing DEI to Cataloging and Authority Work” discussion facilitated by Whitney Buccicone, during the Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group Meeting.
  • “Pathways to Change: Proposing and Approving Revisions to Library of Congress Authority Files” presentation on proposing LGDGT & LCSH by Adam Schiff and Judith Cannan.

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on critcat efforts with a monthly 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 April 2022:

• New report from the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC): “Revised Report on Recording Gender in Personal Name Authority Records,” recommending that name authority records created by PCC libraries should *not* record gender though a MARC code, and that gender codes in the Name Authority File be deleted system-wide. A really radical choice, thrilled to see it!
• New article: “Ethical and Anti-Oppressive Metadata: A Collaboration Between Catalogers and Archivists at George Mason University Libraries” by Liz Beckman, Lynn Eaton, Yoko Ferguson, David Heilbrun, Rachel Lavender, Tricia Mackenzie, and Dorothee Schubel, discussing a finding aid audit, an ethical name authority policy, & changing Cutter numbers.
• New article: “Towards More Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Representation in Metadata and Digitization: A Case Study” by Stephanie M. Luke, Sara Pezzoni,  & Whitney Russell. “The metadata subgroup focused on improving metadata throughout our digital collections and library catalog. Our goals for this subgroup included: identifying problematic terminology with our digital collections and library catalog, flagging collections that may need closer review, creating standards and best practices for metadata creation by student employees and staff, implementing a statement for harmful language, reviewing materials for sensitive content, and evaluating how items in the Digital Gallery can be linked through tags.”
• News article: “Library of Congress changes reference to 1919 Arkansas racial violence to ‘Elaine Massacre” in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, about the September 2021 LCSH revision from “Elaine Race Riot, Elaine, Ark., 1919” to “Elaine Massacre, Elaine, Ark., 1919.” [Many other “race riot” headings exist in LCSH, including “Houston Race Riot, Houston, Tex., 1917”; “Detroit Race Riot, Detroit, Mich., 1943”; and “Memphis Race Riot, Memphis, Tenn., 1866.”
• New 41-page report from OCLC: “Reimagine Descriptive Workflows: A Community Informed Agenda for Reparative and Inclusive Descriptive Practice” by Rachel L. Frick and Merrilee Proffitt.
• Blog post about the new OCLC report from David Ferriero, head of the U.S. National Archives: “Learning and Growing with the Library and Archival Community.”
• California State University Libraries implemented their approach to LCSH Noncitizens/Illegal immigration in April, choosing to change Noncitizens → Undocumented immigrants and Illegal immigration → Immigration. They’ve provided information about their Alma normalization rules for other libraries to use.
• Presentation at Concordia University Library Research Forum 2022:
  “Truth Talking in The Library: A Thematic Investigation of Statements on Bias in Libraries and Archives” by Jordan Pedersen, Cora Coady, and Tina Liu at the University of Toronto, reviewing the statements on bias by libraries compiled here. Here’s a short twitter thread recapping the presentation, looks like it was awesome.
• Presentation at COSUGI 2022: “LOC Subject Headings and Diversifying a Collection” from the University of Dallas.
• An older project that was discussed at LILAC 2022: the “Catalogers at Work” project aims to “capture the complexities and decision making processes of cataloguing; amplify the invisible labour of cataloguing; make the power of knowledge organisation audible & understand how decisions are made as cataloguers attempt to organise the world’s knowledge.” Amanda Belantara and Emily Drabinski created an eight-minute recording, Sounding the Radical Catalog (transcript), which shares “the voices of activist librarians, who through their practice challenge the narrow articulation of gender, sex, identity, class and the colonialist visions embedded in library classification schemes.”

Upcoming:

• The Cataloguing and Classification Committee of ARLIS (art librarians organization in the U.K.) has a six-session “ARLIS Cat & Class ethics series,” which are all free, online.  All will be recorded & available at the ARLIS UK & Ireland YouTube channel.
  • Friday April 29: Cataloguing Code of Ethics 2021
  • Friday May 6: Decolonization, Distance and Ethics
  • Friday May 13: British Library Race Equality Action Plan
  • Friday May 20: North American Indigenous languages
  • Friday May 27: Inclusive Terminology Glossary
  • Tuesday May 31: British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership
• Wednesday May 11: free webinar from Minitex: “Move Over Melvil: Towards More Inclusive and Accessible Library Collections,” including presentations on ditching Dewey for genrefication, as well as creating name authority headings for Indigenous content creators.
• Wednesday May 11-Friday May 13: 2022 OVGTSL conference held by the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians will feature several critcat-related sessions (virtual attendance registration $55):
  • “Next Steps in Decolonizing the Catalog: Application of Indigenous Subject Headings at the University of Dayton” presentation by Jill J. Crane & Grace Huffman on replacing “Indians of North America” & other LCSH.
  • “The Frontlog Quandary: A Case Study of DEI in the Cataloging Community” presentation by Jeremiah Kamtman discussing the impact of processing backlogs on providing access to music scores by composers of color.
  • “Resources for Understanding Metadata and Description of Library Collections: Professional Development Tools for Technical Services” presentation by Andrea Morrison & Janice Gustaferro describing resources available for revising problem subject headings and more.
• Wednesday June 8: “Reparative Description” webinar from the Society of American Archivists, providing “practical guidelines, examples, resources, and best practices for making your collection descriptions more accurate, representative, and respectful of the people they represent and serve” ($49).
• Friday June 10: “Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion in Library Collections and Catalogs” will be the theme for the 2022 Joint Spring Meeting of Nebraska Library Association’s College & University Section and Technical Services Roundtable.  Registration info to be announced (this meeting has been free in past years).

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on critcat efforts with a monthly 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 March 2022:

• New article: “Tribal Libraries in Michigan to Create New Classification System with Community Input” in Library Journal, describing a new IMLS-funded project being undertaken by the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Libraries to select/create an Indigenous-centered classification scheme. The “Decolonizing Libraries to Foster Community Well-Being” project will include information for other libraries looking to do similar work.
• Recorded presentation: “Challenges facing catalogers in describing and indexing Middle Eastern books and periodicals,” part of the Middle East Librarians Association’s Social Justice Series. Presentation by Fatme Charafeddine & Basma Chebani of the American University of Beirut Libraries, describing their use and local adaptation of LCSH and LC name authority records. Includes discussion on the paucity of Arabic and Islam headings in LCSH.
• New document: Hispanic/Latinx Inclusive Terminologies Projects Technical Report by Aidy Weeks and Katie Hoskins, describing the process of a controlled vocabulary review.
• Blog post: “Say My Name, Say My Name: Addressing Missing Name Information for Women in Yale Special Collections” by Alison Clemens, Jennifer Coggins, Michelle Peralta, and Jessica Tai, published by the Description Section of the Society of American Archivists.
• “CHM Local Headings – Indigenous Endonyms,” a new batch of local headings from the Chicago History Museum’s catalog highlighting Indigenous terminology in self-description of groups.
• New post “White privilege” on the Cataloging Lab, compiling professional discussion about the lack of this LCSH and sharing LC’s rationales for rejecting the proposals in 2011 and 2016.
• The presentation “Removing Bias and Barriers from Your Cataloging” by Meghan O’Keefe was held March 23 at the Public Library Association conference. The slides and handouts about the River Forest Public Library (Illinois) audit and reclassification project are available at the link.
• Twitter thread from Jennifer LaGarde describing how and why to review and revise subject headings for discoverability. Base on her presentation “Radical School Librarianship: Creating Discoverable Library Spaces for Your Most Vulnerable Readers” given at the North Carolina Technology In Education Society conference; presentation slides are also available.
• New “Harmful Language Statement” from Gustavus Adolphus College (Minnesota) on their efforts to correct injustice in the catalog. As always, find a compilation these statements here on the Cataloging Lab’s List of statements on bias in library and archives description.
• Two new documents available on the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) site: “Authority Control FAQs for Authors and Creators” and “Authority Control FAQs for Catalogers Contacting
  Creators/Contributors”. The document for authors/creators gives non-librarians information about why libraries collect their information and what is done with it; the document for catalogers creating name authority records stress that privacy concerns should be taken into account. (Editor’s note: I’m very proud to have helped create these important documents! The idea for them originated in the 2019 chapter I co-wrote with Tina Gross on “Authority Work as Outreach“.)
• Thanks to Maria Oldal for this addition to this month’s Critcatenate: two blog posts from the Morgan Library & Museum discussing the exclusion of women and other marginalized people from traditional cataloging: “A ‘Free Woman’ Lost and Found” written by Sandra Carpenter in March 2022, and “Not A Long Life, But A Happy One: Researching and Cataloging the Letters of Maria Tunno” written by Madeleine Barnes in November 2021.

Upcoming:

• Friday April 8th: “Problems in the Stacks: Queer theory, Pedophilia, & Library of Congress Call Numbers” by Meghan Bergin, lightning talk as part of the New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) 2022 Virtual Spring Conference. (Registration is $40 for non-members.)
• Friday April 29th: “Controlled vocabularies and you: a panel discussion on addressing and redressing terminologies through new and existing vocabularies” from the ACRL RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee, featuring speakers from the African American SACO Funnel, Lau Ā Lau Ka ʻIke project, RBMS Controlled Vocabularies Prejudicial Materials Working Group, and the Chicano Thesaurus at University of California, Berkeley. Free registration.
• Wednesday May 11th-Friday May 13th: 2022 OVGTSL conference held by the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians will feature several critcat-related sessions (virtual attendance registration $55):
  • “Next Steps in Decolonizing the Catalog: Application of Indigenous Subject Headings at the University of Dayton” presentation by Jill J. Crane & Grace Huffman on replacing “Indians of North America” & other LCSH.
  • “The Frontlog Quandary: A Case Study of DEI in the Cataloging Community” presentation by Jeremiah Kamtman discussing the impact of processing backlogs on providing access to music scores by composers of color.
  • “Resources for Understanding Metadata and Description of Library Collections: Professional Development Tools for Technical Services” presentation by Andrea Morrison & Janice Gustaferro describing resources available for revising problem subject headings and more.

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on #critcat efforts with a monthly 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 February 2022:

• Really terrific new article from Tina Gross “Search Terms Up For Debate: The Politics and Purpose of Library Subject Headings“, written for the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History magazine. A great resource for non-librarians or non-catalogers about recently contested headings and what’s at stake in critcat discussions.
• New survey on cataloging and accessibility, from David Philip Norris at St. Catherine University. “The aim is to gain a better picture of how libraries and catalogers are aware of and making use of accessibility metadata in their cataloging, as well as the types of accessible materials in their collections.”
• Panel titled “Critical Cataloging Conversations in Teaching, Research, and Practice” at the Visual Resources Association (VRA) conference included four presentations. Find a pdf of abstracts of this panel. The panel will be repeated at the VRA annual meeting in Baltimore on Tuesday, March 29.
  • “Describing Art on the Street: The Graffiti Art Community Voice” by Ann M. Graf
  • “Queer Work | Queer Archives” by Jennifer Sichel and Miriam Kienle
  • “Pattern and Representation: Critical Cataloging for a New Perspective on Campus History” by Megan E Macken and Louise E. Siddons
  • “Adapting to non-Western information workflows and protocols with Critical, Relational Metadata” by Devon Murphy
• New recording available: “Body-Oriented Cataloging and the Future of Gender in Archives” presented by Travis L. Wagner, as part of the CAFe Speaker Series from the University of Maryland’s iSchool. Travis talked with catalogers about how they would describe historical footage of a gender nonconforming activity in a library catalog and uses their answers to reflect on positionality & cataloger’s judgment. Well worth your time!
• New recording available of the OCLC Cataloging Community Meeting on Jan 28, including:
  • “Using the Homosaurus controlled vocabulary in both OCLC Connexion and in the local catalog” by Adrian Williams
  • “DEI in public library consortia: Trusting, collaborating, and thriving” by Misty Alvaro
  • “OCLC metadata DEI” by Cynthia M. Whitacre
• Valuable twitter thread from Tracy Shields on MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) change from “Oceanic Ancestry Group” to “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander”.
• From museum land, the UK’s Collections Trust is looking for feedback on a new draft of a document draft scope and policy questions titled “Rethinking cataloguing.”
• New article on LitHub: “We Need to Radically Rethink the Library of Congress Classification” by Claire Woodcock. [I don’t think the author is a cataloger?]
• Reminder about the ARLIS/NA (North American art librarians) Cataloging Advisory Committee’s new form to propose changes to problematic/offensive art subject headings: “CAC Launches Form to Propose Changes to Problematic Art Subject Headings“. [Note that that post provides a link to see what’s been submitted already and leave notes. If you have non-art related subject headings you’d like to note as “problematic,” the Cataloging Lab has a place to submit & review a crowdsourced list of problem subject headings.]

Upcoming:

• Monday March 21 / Tuesday March 22: “Critical Conversations – The death of cooperative cataloguing as we know it” presentation with Melissa Parent and Ebe Kartus. [Note that this is in Australia (& just after daylight savings ends in the U.S.) so careful when converting time zone, U.S. friends.]

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on #critcat efforts with a monthly 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 December 2021 and January 2022:

• “Decolonizing Canadiana Metadata: An Overdue Step in Removing Harmful Subject Headings” from the Canadian Research Knowledge Network. Information about replacing the LCSH “Indians of North America” with “Indigenous peoples” and replacing other “Indians” terminology. Includes a spreadsheet with a list of replacements.
• The ARLIS/NA Cataloging Advisory Committee has launched a form to propose changes to problematic/offensive art subject headings.
• “ARLIS/NA Statement on Removal of Library of Congress – Illegal Aliens – Subject Headings” expressing disappointment about LC’s change to “Illegal immigration” & lack of transparency/rationale behind their choice.
• New post: “Still Changing the Subject: Examining Library of Congress Subject Headings and Considering Options for Change” by Steph Roach at the Council of Chief Librarians California Community Colleges website. I especially appreciate the excellent list of actions on this post.
• Short twitter thread from Alissa McCulloch: “One day we will cease attempting to ‘reduce bias’ in our catalogues, and start to ‘add values’ and ‘strengthen ethics’ and ‘redistribute power’ instead.“
• Also from Alissa McCulloch: a new blog post: “Beyond ‘Ditch Dewey’ in the academic library,” on the complexity of de-Deweying the library and the need for culturally sensitive metadata.
• New blog post on the ARLIS/NA blog: “Critically Cataloging Black Arts Movement Material” by Nic Caldwell, including info about crediting (and creating authority records for) Black artists who haven’t been included in traditionally cataloged records.
• Short article: “Critical Librarianship in a Global Context” by Emily Drabinski in the Philippine Journal of Librarianship and Information Studies. Includes discussion of the D schedule in LCC as evidence of U.S. imperialism.
• New LCSH was added in December for “Palestinian Nakba, 1947-1948” which had been rejected in 2017. Other new headings of interest: “Feminism and racism,” “White feminism,” “Vaccine mandates,” and “Greenwashing.”
• New recording available: “Tackling Racism and Bias in the Library Catalog” from the Public Library Association, with staff from Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library, and BookOps discussing the replacements for the “Illegal aliens” headings. You may need a (free) ALA Connect login to access this content.
• New recording available: “Cataloging & Calcification: Issues & Suggestions in Applying LC Standards to Indigenous Materials” from Allison Mills (Ililiw/Cree), discussing marginalization in LCC, using alternate vocabularies, & exploring alternate classifications. Part of the session Land Acknowledgement & Beyond: Special Collections and Indigenous Communities from PACSCL (The Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries).
• New special journal issue available: Queering Information: LGBTQ+ Memory, Interpretation, Dissemination, volume 5 number 4 of The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion.  “Diversity Monitoring in the Library: Categorisation Practices and the Exclusion of LGBTQ Library Users” by Kevin Guyan may be of particular interest.
• The catalog records & subject authorities created by Sanford Berman and colleagues at Hennepin County Library are now accessible through an online system, thanks to David Lesniaski. The KOHA installation contains the bibliographic and subject authority files of the Hennepin County Library catalog from late 2001-early 2002. The main page contains a link to a document explaining various ways to search the metadata. (Hat tip to Tina Gross!)
  .

Upcoming:

• Wednesday February 2: “Body-Oriented Cataloging and the Future of Gender in Archives” talk by Travis Wagner, sponsored by the Center of Archival Futures.
• Tuesday March 8: “Skill-Sharing Conversation: Addressing Bias in the Library Catalog” from LibraryLinkNJ with Charles Dolan and Eileen M. Palmer.

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!

Also: I don’t get paid for this work, so if this roundup is useful to you, please drop me a line to say thanks and/or give me a job!

Critcatenate is an effort to keep folks up to date on #critcat efforts with a monthly 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 November 2021:

• New article “Collecting for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Best Practices for Virginia Libraries” by Nan Carmack for the journal of the Virginia Library Association. Advises keywords/local subject headings be added to LCSH for discovery, training and self-awareness for catalogers and vendors.
• New article “Just like Museums, Libraries Aren’t Neutral” by Fuchsia Hart, based on a viral tweet thread. Focuses on the LCC classification of people in Afghanistan,  the history in Palestine being treated from an Israeli perspective, as well as denoting time periods in the Middle East according to dynastic periods.
• Webinar “ELUNA learns – DEI Initiatives” included sessions on using local Alma name & subject authorities for Indigenous peoples of North America, the LCSH change to “Tulsa Race Massacre” through the SACO process, & survey results from 130 libraries on how to address derogatory language in subject headings. Half-day event held December 1st, but the recording is available for a year for those who register ($25).
• Short Twitter thread by Tracy Shields on recent changes to MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), efforts to address bias, and the need for more work on this topic.
• News article “Outdated terms referencing Indigenous peoples are being removed from SD 60’s library catalogue” reporting on a school district in British Columbia replacing #LCSH “Indians of North America” with “Indigenous peoples” and replacing Anglicized names of Indigenous groups with their preferred terminology.
• The Trans Metadata Collective‘s Name Authorities Working Group is looking to evaluate existing institutional guidelines for trans/gender diverse subjects, authorities, etc. If your institution has guidelines, send them to Bri Watson.
• A call from E. Johnson-DeBaufre to add the subject heading “Eugenics” to the bib record for the journal “Mankind Quarterly.”
• ALA Core Board of Directors has endorsed the Cataloguing Code of Ethics, which is now available in the ALA repository.
• Blog post from October “On Outdated and Harmful Language in Library of Congress Subject Headings” by Columbia Libraries archivist Celeste Brewer. A good summary of why we use #LCSH and what needs to happen for alternatives to replace/ supplement terminology (“alternatives require widespread adoption and investment to succeed”).
• Presentation “Changing the Narrative” given by members of the Medical Libraries Association Hispanic/Latinx Inclusive Terminologies Project at the REFORMA National Conference, talking about their efforts to create inclusive Hispanic/Latinx terminologies in MeSH. Find more information at the project page: https://osf.io/9mgwq/.
• OCLC webinar “Reimagining Descriptive Workflows: An Anti-Racist Approach” by Merrilee Proffitt, hosted by CILIP.  “Participants will learn about work that has been done at OCLC and elsewhere to understand the impact of harmful descriptive practices and will hear about outcomes from a June 2021 workshop. Attendees will be invited to reflect on how they can participate in changing power structures that will result in more just descriptions.” Free recording available.
• The big LCSH news is about the revision of “Illegal aliens” to be replaced by the headings “Illegal immigration” and “Noncitizens.” Opinions vary about this outcome, but many are unhappy with the replacement terms, despite this very sunny press release from ALA about the revision: “ALA Welcomes Removal of Offensive ‘Illegal aliens’ Subject Headings,” calling it a reflection of social justice values. Here’s one of the news articles about U.S. senators pushing back on the change: “Sen. Ted Cruz goes after Library of Congress for dropping term ‘illegal alien’“. See this Book Riot article, “Library of Congress Subject Heading Change Doesn’t Address the Real Issue” by Kelly Jensen, and my Twitter thread, for more thoughts. The co-director of the Change the Subject documentary, Jill Baron, is hosting listening sessions this month to talk to library workers about how they feel about the revision.
• A proposal was made to change the LCSH “Slaves” to “Enslaved persons,” which was “retained” until March 2022 “due to concerns that terminology used in society in general may not have changed sufficiently.”

Upcoming:

• Friday December 10: “Cataloguing and classification ethics: an ARLIS online talk” by Deborah Lee, sponsored by the ARLIS (Art Libraries Society) Cataloguing and Classification Committee, discussing the problematic design of cat and class systems, practitioner ethics, and the wider context including barriers/issues/tensions in making changes to our systems/practices.
• Thursday December 16: “Tackling Racism and Bias in the Library Catalog,” sponsored by the Public Library Association. Featuring Paloma Celis Carbajal, Melissa Gasparotto, Amy Mikel, & Steven Pisani of New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library.

Please get in touch if I’ve missed anything relevant, I’d be happy to add it to next month’s report!