Description

Table of Contents

Amplifying Access: Re-describing Legacy Audiovisual Materials at the Wilson Special Collections Library / Meredith Kite, Ann Wells.

presentation

This presentation explains the work involved in redescribing legacy MARC records that lacked data and used outdated & offensive terminology.

A DE&I Cataloging Audit of a Bibliography / Lisa McColl

ALA Core Cataloging & Classification Interest Group presentation, March 2023

presentation

In this cataloging audit, technical services staff used the course bibliography for “Diversity and Multicultural Perspective” at Lehigh University to check the quality of metadata for the bibliography titles in the catalog. Staff enhanced record metadata, adding summary notes and table of contents, and after consulting with the course professor, added underutilized subject headings to records.  Next steps identified were identifying additional catalog works on systemic racism in the education system of the United States, enhancing those MARC records, and checking usage statistics at the end of the semester.

Open

Description Specialists and Inclusive Description Work and/or Initiatives—An Exploratory Study / Treshani Perera

in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. Vol. 60, issue 5 (2022).

PAYWALL

article

This paper presents preliminary findings from an exploratory research study investigating the education, Library and Information Science (LIS) work experiences, and demographics of description specialists engaging in inclusive description work and/or initiatives. Survey results represent participants’ education background, LIS work experiences, motivations behind projects and initiatives, areas of work and types of project priorities, preferred outcomes, and challenges encountered while engaging in inclusive description work and/or initiatives. Findings also point to gaps in understanding related to cultural concepts. A participant-created definition for inclusive description is a successful outcome of the study.

Guidelines for Description of Slavery and Enslaved People / Duke University Rubenstein Library Technical Services

manual or guide

June 2023

These guidelines formalize Technical Services’ description policies for collections and items documenting slavery and enslaved people, presented within the context of four goals:

1. Identify and consistently describe manuscripts or archives that contain legal and transactional documents relating to slavery; or which reference or record the existence, activities, and relationships of individual enslaved and freed people.

2. Directly acknowledge when collection materials imply or record the existence and influence of slavery.

3. Make records of slavery easier to locate in our collections, for all types of researchers (including genealogists and descendants of enslaved people). 

4. Supplement documentation already elaborated in RLTS Guiding Principles of Description and How We Describe.

Repairing the Cataloging: Implementing DEI to Cataloging and Authority Work / Whitney Buccicone

in Technical Services Quarterly. Vol. 40, Issue 1 (Dec. 2022) 

paywall

article

Summary of a roundtable discussion on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) cataloging at the ALA Core Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group at the ALA 2022 Annual Conference on 26 June 2022. 

Words Matter: Supporting a Community Archive Through Inclusive Cataloging / Elyse Fox & Lynn Drennan

ALA Core Metadata Interest Group presentation, March 2023

presentation

The Southeast Asia Community Resource Center (SEACRC) Collection at Sacramento State was compiled over a 20-year period by the Southeast Asia Community Resource Center, in Rancho Cordova, California, as a project of the Refugee Educators’ Network. In 2021, a grant project was initiated to digitize over 200 artifacts from the collection – including artwork, handicrafts, toys and dolls, musical instruments, clothing, jewelry, and photographs – which document and bring to life the everyday experiences of recent Asian American immigrants to California.

This presentation shows how culturally aware and inclusive metadata practices were used to describe this collection, ensuring that descriptions demonstrated respect and care for the peoples and cultures represented. This included adhering to a multilingual approach to describing these digitized objects, creating descriptions and providing subject access in native and translated terms, and providing contextual information when necessary.