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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.

#critcat in April 2023:

• Request for your participation! Please share, in 50 words or less, why critical cataloging is important to you! Julie Renee Moore is putting together an art exhibit all about reparative description/radical cataloging/inclusive metadata/ethical description and inviting you to be a part of it. Details at: https://cataloginglab.org/quotes
• New blog post: Museum Makers: People Centred Cataloguing by the Powell-Cotton Museum in the UK, describing their reparative description project and “how rethinking cataloguing can lead to a more inclusive approach by sharing, collaborating, and enhancing collections information based on user needs”
• The recently announced grant for the Spanish language translation of Homosaurus catches the eye of Fox News: Hola, Homosaurus: Biden Admin Shells Out Six Figures To Translate Gay Dictionary Into Spanish (news article) and Biden Admin Awards 350,000 of Your Tax Dollars to Create a Spanish Language Version of ‘Homosaurus’ (3-minute video segment presented just a few days before Tucker Carlson was kicked off Fox News)(Editor’s note: sorry about putting his face here!!)
• Another new grant: NEH awards Hula Preservation Society $300K for oral history project news article by Cassie Ordonio, describing a new National Endowment for the Humanities grant to the Kāneʻohe Hula Preservation Society for funding the Hoʻolālā Ulu, Growing Indigenous Hawaiian Knowledge Access project. “The initiative aims to create an Indigenous-centered controlled vocabulary for the nonprofit’s oral history library. The project would also produce guidelines for developing subject headings and preferred terms.”
• New blog post: Q&A: Developing a new Spanish-language controlled vocabulary of LGBTQIA+ terms by Lauren Kirschman, an interview with Homosaurus editorial board member Marika Cifor
• New blog post: Problematic Metadata: Origins and Solutions by Jamie Carlstone, sharing work done at Northwestern University Libraries
• New blog post: The Power of Words to Increase Equity and Access: The Ingalls Library DEI Initiatives by Chloe Misorski, describing changes of language describing Asian, Indigenous, Latine, and undocumented people at the Cleveland Museum of Art
• New blog post: Queering the Library: Naming the Subject Is an Act of Power by Margaret Breidenbaugh at the American Studies Journal blog, discussing critical cataloging past and present and highlighting the formation and work of the Gender and Sexuality SACO Funnel
• New article: Decolonizing the Authority File: Creating Contexualized Access to the University of Calgary’s Indigenous Authors Collection by Susan Dahl and Kaia MacLeod, in the International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion.
• New article: The Cataloguing Code of Ethics 2021: conception, community and continuation by Jane Daniels and Diane Rasmussen Pennington, in Art Libraries Journal.
• New article: Describing Special Collections: Two Projects to Modernize the RBMS Controlled Vocabularies by Brenna Bychowski, Ryan Hildebrand, Sarah Hoover, and Lauren Reno, in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. Includes information about a project to expand terminology for prejudicial materials in rare materials.
• New project: Project to review the names of indigenous groups, describing efforts to review and revise Indigenous group names in HAPI (Hispanic American Periodicals Index), which provides article indexing for scholarly journals published around the world on Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinx communities in the United States.
• New special issue available:  Art Libraries Journal Volume 48, Special Issue 2 is focused on Cataloguing Ethics. Articles are based on some of talks from the ARLIS UK & Ireland Cataloguing and Classification Committee’s Ethics video series:
  • Viewpoint: Ethical cataloguing in action
  • The Cataloguing Code of Ethics 2021: conception, community and continuation by Jane Daniels, Diane Rasmussen Pennington
  • Challenging legacies at the British Library by Alan Danskin
  • Indigenous languages in the British Library catalogue: a critique of ‘Indians of North America—Languages’ by Rebecca Slatcher
  • Teaching cataloguing ethics: an exploration of an ethics-infused knowledge organization curriculum by Deborah Lee
• New presentation recordings available:  NETSL 2023 Annual Conference: Passion into Action: Your Initiative in Technical Services, sponsored by the New England Technical Services Librarians, was held in April 2023, and recordings are now available on YouTube. Sessions include:
  • Our Metadata, Ourselves: The Trans Metadata Collective presented by Jackson Huang and Bri Watson
  • Implementing Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) in the Catalog: A Case of Library Connection (LCI) Libraries, presented by Judy Njoroge
  • Sex Negativity & Anti-Queerness in Library of Congress Classification: History, Structure, & Systems presented by Rhonda Kauffman, Tiffany Henry, Anastasia Chiu
  • “Whose Authority? Applying a DEI Lens to Traditional Descriptive Practice,” presented by Laura Daniels, Jackie Magagnosc, Liz Parker
  • Did Libraries ‘Change the Subject’? What Happened, What Didn’t, & What’s Ahead presented by Jill Baron, Violet Fox, Tina Gross
• New article: Library of Congress Subject Headings: A Post-Coordinated Future by Nancy Cooey and Amy Phillips in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, discussing how complex precoordinated headings hinder linked data & DEI efforts.
• New blog post: Indigenous science book display in UM Libraries, describing an exhibit put together by University of Manitoba Library workers Shirley Delorme Russell and Justin Fuhr.  The post describes the difficulties in finding appropriate resources through the library’s catalog.

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 (for example, headings on list 2301 were approved in January 2023).

New LC headings of note on list 2301:

• New LCSH: Capitol Hill Organized Protest, Seattle, Wash., 2020
• New LCSH: Chatbots
• New LCSH: Post COVID-19 condition (Disease) [with a Use For for Long COVID (Disease)]

New LC headings of note on expedited list 2302:

• Lots of headings have now been given the macron over Māori (for example, Architecture, Maori is now Architecture, Māori)

Of note in LC decisions: LC received multiple proposals to add new subject headings and class numbers for specific Indigenous groups, but those proposals were rejected because no evidence of consultation with members of those groups was shown. See LC’s Summary of Decisions 2302.

Upcoming:

• Wednesday May 10: Public Forum for RBMS CVRMC Prejudicial Works Terminology, hosted by the Prejudicial Materials Working Group of RBMS’s Controlled Vocabularies Editorial Group, focusing on the 50 proposed genre/form headings to be used for indexing works that are prejudicial in nature or related to systems of oppression.
• Tuesday May 16-Friday May 19: Medical Library Association/Special Libraries Association joint conference. The full schedule isn’t available yet, but please attended these two critcat-related sessions:
  • “Collaborative Approaches to Improving MeSH,” lightning talk by Violet Fox and Kelleen Maluski
  • “Subjected: Investigating the Impact of MeSH Terms on Underrepresented Groups,” group presentation
• Wednesday May 17-Friday May 19: Critical Pedagogy Symposium online event. Critcat-related sessions include:
  • Is Metadata Also Ignorance? Agnotology, Race, and Description by Jose Guerrero
• Wednesday May 24-Thursday May 25: Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference, an online conference organized by librarians in the UK. Critcat-related sessions include:
  • “Using the Homosaurus in a public library consortium: a case study” presented by Rachel Fischer
  • “At the intersection: IFLA LRM, Queer Theory, and Marxism for conceptualising gender variance in the bibliographic universe” presented by Kris Massengale
  • “Collaborative cataloguing ethics: a code for all seasons” presented by Jane Daniels, Karen Snow, Beth Shoemaker, Diane Pennington, May Chan & Sarah Furger
• Thursday July 20: 2023 Metadata Justice in Oklahoma Libraries & Archives Symposium, an online all-day event. The keynote speaker will be Suzette Chang of nonprofit organization Thick Descriptions

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-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.

#critcat in March 2023:

• Request for feedback: The Queer Metadata Collective is looking for feedback from catalogers, archivists, and other metadata workers on questions or dilemmas they have encountered while describing individuals, communities, and/or items. See twitter thread for more details and email brimwats@mail.ubc.ca with your input.
• Request for feedback: the draft version of Best Practices in Authority Work Relating to Indigenous Groups in the U.S. is now open for comment. The document will be published in May by the Latin American and Indigenous Peoples of the Americas SACO Funnel. Feedback in the document is welcome.
• New blog post: Queer Cataloguing in UK Museums by Arran Rees, discussing survey results and the idea of queering cataloging
• New issue of Library Resources & Technical Services, featuring articles:
  • Using the Homosaurus in a Public Library Consortium: A Case Study by Rachel K. Fischer
  • Documenting Classification Systems: A Case Study and Considerations by Christopher Straughn
  • Community Forward: Developing an Open and Free Cataloging Standard for Rare Materials by kalan Knudson Davis, Jessica Grzegorski, Elizabeth Hobart, A. Tims
• New article in Journal of the Early Republic: Indigenous, Native American, or American Indian? The Limitations of Broad Terms by Brooke Bauer and Elizabeth Ellis. Open access for a limited time.
• New recordings available as part of the Ways of Knowing Oral History project, funded in part by the Metropolitan New York Library Council’s 2022 Equity In Action Grant, featuring interviews with metadata creators Sarah Pritchard, Mary Ellen Capek, Richard Chabrán,  Lillian Castillo-Speed, Adrian Williams, and K.J. Rawson
• New report: The Report of the SAC Working Group on External Review of LC Vocabularies provides ideas for improving the editorial process for LC vocabularies such as LCSH, including creating an external review board and enabling more efficient methods for submitting proposals
• New blog post: A Conversation with Bri Watson on the University of British Columbia iSchool blog, about Bri’s work as iSchool EDI Scholar-in-Residence 2022/2023 and in the Trans Metadata Collective and the Queer Metadata Collective
• New blog post: “On the other hand… ” by Kathryn Becker on the Dewey Blog about the capitalization of “Black” and “white” in WebDewey.
• New page: DEI Initiative Support from vendor Backstage Library Works gives an overview of their process for replacing problematic terms, including a list of FAQs about “Managing Terms In Your Authority Catalog”
• New journal article: Archives of Revolution by Emma Hart, Sean Quimby, and Karin Wulf, urging critical thought about how revolutions are archived, including reparative description efforts.  Published in Age of Revolutions, an open-access journal.
• Presentation: “The Power to Change Sears is in Your Hands” (video, text and slides) by Violet Fox, hosted by the Interest Group for Bibliographic Standards as part of the Library and Information Association of South Africa’s South African Library Week 2023, discussing recent changes within the Sears List of Subject Headings
• Webinar at Virginia’s Academic Library Consortium Anti-Racism Webinar Series focusing on Metadata & Cataloging, featuring speakers Jeremy Bartczak, Whitney Buccicone, David Heilbrun, and Merrilee Proffitt

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 (for example, headings on list 2212 were approved in December 2022).

New LC headings of note on list 2212:

• Multiple changes to subject headings relating to Giants, Gigantism, Acromegaly, and Tall people. See the Cataloging Lab entry on Giants for more information.
• Multiple changes to subject headings relating to Alcoholism, Controlled drinking, Drinking of alcoholic beverages, Intoxication, and Temperance
• New subject heading: White supremacy (Social structure) 

Don’t miss the additional list 2212a, which continues the updating of LCSH relating to slavery and updates to “Enslaved persons.”

Upcoming:

• Wednesday April 5: Inclusive metadata: Steps to address diversity, equity and inclusion in your DAM, webinar presented by Sharon Mizota
• Friday April 14:  NETSL 2023 Annual Conference: Passion into Action: Your Initiative in Technical Services, sponsored by NETSL, the New England Technical Services Librarians. Sessions include:
  • “Our Metadata, Ourselves: The Trans Metadata Collective,” presented by Jackson Huang and Bri Watson
  • “Implementing Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) in the Catalog: A Case of Library Connection (LCI) Libraries,” presented by Judy Njoroge
  • “Sex Negativity & Anti-Queerness in Library of Congress Classification: History, Structure, & Systems,” presented by Rhonda Kauffman, Tiffany Henry, Anastasia Chiu
  • “Whose Authority? Applying a DEI Lens to Traditional Descriptive Practice,” presented by Laura Daniels, Jackie Magagnosc, Liz Parker
  • “Did Libraries ‘Change the Subject’? What Happened, What Didn’t, & What’s Ahead,” presented by Jill Baron, Violet Fox, Tina Gross
• Wednesday April 19: Jumpstart Inclusive Cataloging, full-day webinar presented by Library Journal as a followup to their November 8th webinar of the same name.  Sessions include:
  • “The Past and Future of Inclusive Cataloging,” presented by Jennifer Baxmeyer
  • “Critical Data: Make the Case for Change in Your Library,” presented by Rachel K. Fischer
  • “Cataloging with Homosaurus: Advocating for LGBTQIA+ Resources and Discoverability,” presented by Jay L. Colbert
  • “Indigenous Cataloging: Centering First Nations Cultures, Communities, Collections,” presented by Colette Poitras and Stacy Allison-Cassin
  • “Critical Cataloging and Community Input: Khmer Collections,” presented by Amber Wu and Christine Hertzel
  • “Integrating Inclusive Cataloging with Your Vendors,” presented by
    Brinna Michael and Sofia Slutskaya
  • “Tools and Strategies for Auditing and Recataloging Nonfiction,” presented by Meghan O’Keefe

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-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.

#critcat in January and February 2023:

• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Cataloging and Technical Services all-day virtual conference was held February 8, hosted by Amigos Library Services. Sessions included:
  • Re-Thinking Dewey: Re-assigning Dewey Decimal Categories for Greater Equity and Discoverability by Kirsten Brodbeck-Kenney
  • GLAMS Community Activism in Technical Services by Michelle Cronquist, Margaret Breidenbaugh, Violet Fox, Maya Espersen, Adam Schiff & Adrian Williams
  • Dropping the Other I-Word: Indigenous American Representation in a Network Library Catalog Through Local LCSH Replacements by Rebecca Saunders
  • Inclusive Metadata Strategies at Max Chambers Library by Shay Beezley, Anona Earls & Kaitlyn Palone
  • Reparative Reclassification: Small Steps for Positive Change by Lisa Thornton, Melissa Hofmann & Yuji Tosaka
  • African American Superheroes & Asexual Comics: Inclusive Comics Cataloging Practices by Deborah Tomaras, Allison Bailund, Steven Holloway & Kayla Kuni
  • Whose authority? Applying a DEI Lens to Traditional Descriptive Practice by Laura Daniels, Jackie Magagnosc & Liz Parker
• New feature available on OCLC’s WorldCat Discovery to locally re-map subject headings to hide sensitive language/create locally preferred subjects for display and search expansion.
• Launch of the Cultural Heritage Terminology Network, a UK-based “space for praxis-sharing and cross-institutional collaboration on inclusive description issues.” Includes a collated list of over 200 EDI resources for heritage professionals.
• New announcement: “Seed Funding Secured for NIKLA’s Respectful Terminologies Project,” announcing $383,000 being contributed for a Canadian “platform that enables a dynamic, multilingual set of terminologies applied to Indigenous Peoples, places, heritage, tradition, knowledge and cultures.”
• New announcement: “Developing a Spanish-language Homosaurus: Using Multi-language Linked Data to Enhance LGBTQ+ Resource Discoverability,” describing a proposal for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant which was recently awarded to develop a multi-language linked data platform and creating and implementing a Spanish-language version of the Homosaurus vocabulary.
• New article: “Critiquing the Machine: The Critical Cataloging Database” by B. M. Watson, published in TCB: Technical Services in Religion & Theology. The article describes the collection of 600 articles at CritCat.org and a breakdown of the main subdomains of critical cataloging literature:
  • Racialized knowledge organization
  • Indigenous knowledge organization
  • Names, Sex & Gender
  • Queer knowledge organization
  • Disabled / Crip knowledge organization
• New article: “Handicapped has been cancelled: The terminology and logics of disability in cultural heritage institutions” by Brian M. Watson and Beck Schaefer, published in First Monday. The articles addresses the issues around the LCSH heading “Social disabilities,” articulating classification systems often erase disability and replace them with eugenic narratives about overcoming adversity or policing deviance.
• New blog post: “Backstage Looking Ahead… Newer and Stronger Services in 2023” discussing new options created by vendor Backstage for DEI-related authority service,  including broader LGBTQ terminology and more accurate Indigenous Persons access points. While libraries have been already able to authorize pre-existing headings in the National Library of Spain’s authority file (EMBNE) and the Queens Library Spanish vocabulary for a few years, now Backstage will be starting a new process to convert LCSH into Spanish terms, including using those vocabs as well as San Francisco Public Library’s public subject file.
• New-ish blog post: “Writing and Implementing a Statement to Remediate Harmful Language in the Library Catalog,” published in Library Journal in December 2022. Cataloger Andrea Schuba describes the process of creating a Statement of Harmful Language in Catalog Records for the University of Maryland Libraries and provides tips, including explaining harmful content and providing a method for soliciting feedback.
• New blog post: “Riot or Massacre: How One Word Changes Perspective” by Serena McCracken from the Atlanta History Center, describing redescription efforts by Kenan Research Center staff & African American SACO Funnel members.
• New blog post: “FLASHback: Reimagining the Australian Extension to LCSH” by Alissa McCulloch, describing her efforts to bring back the long-dormant Australian-centric vocabulary used as an addition to using LCSH.
• New toolkit: “People-Centred Cataloguing” created by Kathleen Lawther, featuring suggestions and case studies for how museums might take a more people-centred approach to their collections documentation work.
• New tool: Wendy Isicson at UNC-Chapel Hill has developed a new macro to apply Homosaurus headings in Connexion.  
• A cynical Twitter thread about the varying terms used to describe our work, including radical cataloging, critical cataloging, inclusive description, reparative description, ethical metadata, conscious editing, metadata justice, and so on, ad nauseum.
• Here’s a ChatGPT (artificial intelligence)-written blurb about “strategies for decolonizing archival metadata and introducing reparative description.”

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 (for example, headings on list 2211 were approved in November 2022).

New LC headings of note on list 2211:

• revised subject headings: from Albinos and albinism to Albinism, Albinism in animals, and People with albinism.
• new subject heading: Gender-based violence
• new subject heading: Right to bodily autonomy
• new subject heading: Sexual minority children
• new subject heading: Solastalgia
• revised subject heading: from Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge (Mo.) to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge (Mo.) 

Upcoming:

• Tuesday March 7: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Authority Control Interest Group meeting will include the sesssion “Authority Control and the Occult: Ethical Expectations for the NACO Contributor,” presented by Guy Frost.
• Tuesday March 7: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Cataloging and Classification Research Interest Group sessions will include multiple presentations about DEI in classification, including:
  • “Classification from the margins: three alternative classification systems, 1930-1975,” presented by Sasha Frizzell.
  • “A DE&I Cataloging Audit of a Bibliography,” presented by Lisa McColl.
  • “Critical Cataloging and Critical Race Theory: Implications for Cataloging Practice,” presented by Karen Snow and Anthony Dunbar.
• Thursday March 9: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Metadata Interest Group is hosting a session with two presentations on inclusive metadata.
  • “Public-Facing Statements on Harmful Language in Library and Archival Description: Recommendations for Implementation” presentation by Katie Dunn & Samantha Garlock at University of Wisconsin Madison Libraries.
  • “Words Matter: Supporting a Community Archive Through Inclusive Cataloging” presentation by Elyse Fox, Lynn Drennan, and Pachia Vang, discussing work done to respectfully describe the Southeast Asia Community Resource Center (SEACRC) Collection at Sacramento State Library.
• Thursday March 9: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Role of the Professional Librarian in Technical Services Interest Group is hosting a session including “That’s the IDEAA* in Technical Services Roles *(Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racism, Accessibility),” presented by Natalie Lopez at Crafton Hills College.
• Thursday March 9: First meeting of the new Medical Subject Funnel, co-chaired by Violet Fox and Kelleen Maluski. All levels of knowledge/background are welcome.
• Friday March 10: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Catalog Management Interest Group session will include “A survey of description: exploring subject access for diverse communities using Python and R,” presented by Brian Clark and Catherine Smith at the University of Alabama Libraries.
• Friday March 10: As part of the ALA Core Interest Group Week, the Core Cataloging Norms Interest Group meeting will include two presentations:
  • “LGBTQ+ Identities, Language, and the Library Catalog,” presented by Karen Snow, Brian Dobreski, and Heather Moulaison-Sandy.
  • “Culturally-Rich Name Authority Records in RDA for Puerto Rican Artists,” presented by Dinah M. Wilson Fraites.
• Monday March 13: Reparative Description in Action Workshop, facilitated by Stephen R. Curley (Digital Archives at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition) and Jennifer Garcon (Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia).
• Friday March 24: But how do we use it? Ethical cataloguing in practice, hosted by Metadata and Discovery Group in Scotland, featuring Diane Rasmussen Pennington discussing the Cataloguing Code of Ethics.
• Thursday March 30: equinoxEDU Spotlight on Accessibility in Open Source Projects providing information about accessibility considerations for library software, presented by Stephanie Leary.
• Friday April 14:  NETSL 2023 Annual Conference: Passion into Action: Your Initiative in Technical Services, sponsored by NETSL, the New England Technical Services Librarians. Sessions include:
  • “Our Metadata, Ourselves: The Trans Metadata Collective,” presented by Jackson Huang and Bri Watson
  • “Implementing Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) in the Catalog: A Case of Library Connection (LCI) Libraries,” presented by Judy Njoroge
  • “Sex Negativity & Anti-Queerness in Library of Congress Classification: History, Structure, & Systems,” presented by Rhonda Kauffman, Tiffany Henry, Anastasia Chiu
  • “Whose authority? Applying a DEI lens to traditional descriptive practice,” presented by Laura Daniels, Jackie Magagnosc, Liz Parker
  • “Did Libraries ‘Change the Subject’? What Happened, What Didn’t, & What’s Ahead,” presented by Jill Baron, Violet Fox, Tina Gross

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-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.

#critcat in December 2022:

• Call for chapter proposals: Inclusive Cataloging: Philosophical Questions and Case Studies in Reparative Cataloging, providing “philosophical and practical considerations for inclusive/reparative cataloging projects.” Proposals due February 8th for the book to be published by ALA Editions and edited by Amber Billey, Elizabeth Nelson, and Rebecca Uhl.
• New updates to the National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for 2023 were released, including several revised and new headings relating to population groups, such as revising Blacks to Black people. Many of these changes were spurred by the June 2022 Open Letter to NLM Regarding MeSH Term Changes. Several webinars will provide more information about those changes, and a special listening session about current and future changes to MeSH is scheduled for January 18.
• Great Twitter thread (part 1, part 2) from Tracy Shields about the new changes to MeSH.
• New issue: the Winter 2022 issue of the Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship has multiple critcat relevant articles, especially Toward Ethical and Inclusive Descriptive Practices by Shira Peltzman and Kelly Besser.
• The Queer Metadata Collective is looking for descriptive / catalog policies relating to marginalized communities, individuals, & their works from libraries, archives, and museums. Send relevant policies to Bri Watson (brimwats at mail.ubc.ca).

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 (for example, headings on list 2209 were approved in September 2022).

New LC headings of note on list 2209:

• new subject heading: Gender-nonconforming youth–Medical care
• new subject heading: Graphic medicine (Comic books)
• new subject heading and new genre/form term: Manga
• multiple headings changed to remove the term “eskimos,” such as the revision from Inuvialuit Eskimos to Inuvialuit
• multiple headings also changed from “elderly” to “older people,” such as the revision from Abused elderly to Abused older people

New LC headings of note on list 2210:

• new subject heading: Baltimore Riots, Baltimore, Md., 1812
• new subject heading: Cultural translation
• new subject heading: Female monsters
• new genre/form term: Large print books 
• new subject heading: Monstrosity 
• new genre/form term: Queer fiction  
• new subject heading: Religion–Origin
• revised subject heading: from Sex-oriented businesses to Sex industry 
• new subject heading: Sex work
• new subject heading: Sexual minorities, Arab 
• new subject heading: Sexual minorities, Black
• new subject heading: Trans-exclusionary radical feminism
• multiple headings were also changed relating to the federal action to remove “squaw” from place names, such as revision from Squaw Creek (Gallatin County, Mont.) to Storm Castle Creek (Mont.)

Upcoming:

• 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.
• Friday January 13: User-Centered Cataloging Workshop by Raedial
• Wednesday January 18: NLM Office Hours Special Listening Session: MeSH will provide opportunity for for more feedback about the National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings.
• January 25: Digitization, Digital Cataloging, and the Minority Communities of the Middle East, a virtual lecture by Josh Mugler of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, hosted by the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) as part of their Social Justice Lecture Series 2022-2023 season.
• Thursday February 2: 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: 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-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!