Radical Cataloging: Using alternative subject headings locally to promote inclusiveness and diversity
October 16, 2018 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm MDT
Catalogers Sol López and Laura Wright from CU Boulder Libraries will discuss the implementation of the Non-Library of Congress Subject Heading “undocumented immigrants” (and six variants) to over 5,000 bibliographic records in their online catalog. This project is one of the libraries’ efforts to promote diversity and inclusion through description of the libraries’ collections.
Join us to learn more about the project and to discuss the implications or impacts of this and other types of radical cataloging.
Quotes from the session:
“After all, what’s the use of being technically proficient if we don’t serve our real users’ basic needs? Those needs include feeling safe and being included in the intellectual discourse of their education.”
“How we describe materials impacts how and whether our users can find and use them.”
Resources:
- Session Slides (PDF)
- Chat Transcripts
- Annual 2016 – Report from the SAC Working Group on the LCSH “Illegal aliens” https://alair.ala.org/handle/11213/9261
- CU pledges to continue admitting students ‘without regard to their immigration status. (2017). http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_31272056/university-colorado-daca-students
- Lember, H., Lipkin, S., & Lee, R. J. (2013). Radical Cataloging: From words to action. Urban Library Journal, 19 (1). Retrieved from https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ulj/vol19/iss1/7
- Library of Congress Drops Illegal Alien Subject Heading, Provokes Backlash Legislation, Lisa Peet, http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2016/06/legislation/library-of-congress-drops-illegal-alien-subject-heading-provokes-backlash-legislation/#_
- Race Forward, The Center for Racial Justice Innovation https://www.raceforward.org
- Report from the ALA/ALCTS/Subject Analysis Committee Working Group on the LCSH for “illegal aliens”(Must be logged into ALA Connect) – https://alair.ala.org/handle/11213/9261
Facilitators: Sol María López and Laura Wright
Sol María López is the Media Cataloging Coordinator at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries. She is from the border city of El Paso, Texas, a Spanish native speaker, and first generation college graduate. She moved to Colorado from Texas in 2016. Sol received her MLIS from the University of North Texas in 2010. She has been a cataloger since 2011, working mainly with serial publications and non-book materials in academic libraries. Sol enjoys exploring the best of the Denver metro area with her family during her free time.
Laura Wright is the Serials and e-Resources Cataloging Manager at the University of Colorado Boulder. In the past she has also worked extensively with maps and government documents. She holds an MFA in Writing & Poetics and is working toward an MLIS at the University of Washington (online). When she’s not cataloging or reading for school she is spending time with her three dogs or on her bicycle.