LGBTQ+

Table of Contents

Best Practices for Queer Metadata

June 2024

best practices

This document is the result of two years of work by a group of nearly one hundred knowledge organisers, cataloguers, librarians, archivists, scholars, and information professionals with a concerted interest in improving the metadata treatment of queer people, communities, and items in GLAMS (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Special Collections) and other informational institutions. Their work has been supported by over 800 peer reviewers; combined, these groups make up the Queer Metadata Collective (QMDC).

Body-Oriented Cataloging as a Method of Inclusive Gender Representation / Travis Wagner

in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. Vol. 60, issue 6-7 (2022)

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article

This paper reports on findings from qualitative research studying the gendering practices of catalogers working with visual information. Using the findings of this research, the paper argues that systemic cisnormativity directly impacts the way catalogers think about and imagine gender within their work. In response to the findings, the paper theorizes a new approach to cataloging gender referred to as body-oriented description. The paper concludes by offering suggestions on how to engage in body-oriented description and explores its impact on gender inclusive cataloging and inclusive information organization more broadly.

Connexion-Macro-Homosaurus / Wendy Isicson

manual or guide

Github documentation for a macro created for OCLC Connexion for adding MARC formatted 650 \7 Homosaurus terms to bibliographic records.  It also includes the option to add 655_7 Genre term formatting for literature terms.

Homosaurus: An International LGBTQ+ Linked Data Vocabulary

CONTROLLED VOCABULARY

This vocabulary is intended to function as a companion to broad subject term vocabularies, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions are encouraged to use the Homosaurus to support LGBTQ research by enhancing the discoverability of their LGBTQ resources.

Homosaurus Training Resources and FAQ / Orbis Cascade UMSILS and Cataloging Standing Group

Last modified February 1, 2024

TRAINING VIDEOS

“This resource list compiles videos with specific use case scenarios, practical training, and suggestions for the implementation of Homosaurus by a cataloger. This list and the video content will be helpful if you already have a background in cataloging, Alma/Primo, and controlled vocabularies.” – Introduction 

Improving Subject Description of an LGBTQ+ Collection / Joshua Hutchinson, Junjiro Nakatomi

in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. Vol. 61, Issue 3-4 (July 2023)

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ARTICLE

“This article summarizes the work done as part of a project to improve subject description of an LGBTQ + collection in the ONE Archives, part of the University of Southern California (USC) Libraries. The project involved adding local subject headings to augment existing Library of Congress Subject Headings. The article describes the steps that the project team took, along with the methods that were rejected. The paper discusses reasons why the team chose their course of action.” – Abstract

LGBTQ+ Identities, Language and the Library Catalog / Brian Dobreski, Heather Moulaison-Sandy, and Karen Snow.  

ALA Core Cataloging Norms Interest Group presentation, March 2023 

Recording & Slides

Records in the library catalog often contain terminology representing identities, especially those of authors, audiences, and subjects. Accurately and sensitively capturing the identities of individuals or groups of people using controlled vocabularies can be fraught with difficulty, however, leading catalogers to assign subject terminology that may be harmful, offensive, and/or incorrect. A recent study conducted by the presenters sought to further explore the pitfalls and potentials for controlled vocabularies in representing a diverse and often marginalized group of identities, those of LGBTQ+ individuals and groups. This study examined the coverage and overlap of LGBTQ+ identity terms in three controlled vocabularies: Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT), and Homosaurus, a new linked data vocabulary of LGBTQ + terminology designed to represent identities and concepts from the perspective of this community. This presentation will provide the results of that study, as well as preliminary data of a follow-up study that includes interview data with members of the LGBTQ+ community about the language they use to find LGBTQ+ resources in library catalogs.

Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources / The Trans Metadata Collective

June 2022

best practices

This document is the result of a year of work and collaboration by the Trans Metadata Collective, a group of dozens of cataloguers, librarians, archivists, scholars, and information professionals with a concerted interest in improving the description and classification of trans and gender diverse people in GLAMS (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Special Collections). The Collective’s primary goal was to develop a set of best practices for the description, cataloging, and classification of information resources as well as the creation of metadata about trans and gender diverse people, including authors and other creators.

Our Metadata, Ourselves: The Trans Metadata Collective / Bri Watson & Jackson Huang. Trans Metadata Collective

2023 NETSL Annual Spring Conference, April 2023

Recording & Slides

The Trans Metadata Collective is a group of dozens of cataloguers, librarians, archivists, scholars, and information professionals with a concerted interest in improving the description and classification of trans and gender diverse people, subjects, and resources in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Special Collections (GLAMS) and other information systems. The Collective’s primary goal was to develop a set of concrete, actionable best practices, which was collaboratively authored, reviewed, and released by a smaller subset of the collective as *Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources* 

Retroactive Addition of Homosaurus: An Evaluation

Presenters: Brinna Michael and Sofia Slutskaya

ala core login required

Webinar Recording & Slides

In recent years, libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions have begun work towards improving diverse subject access to their collections. To this end, the inclusion of the Homosaurus (Homosaurus Vocabulary Site ) vocabulary in the supported subject and genre sources for MARC records in OCLC has presented new opportunities for improving access and discovery to LGBTQ+ materials in particular.

Beginning in Fall 2021, Emory Libraries began collaboration with Backstage Library Works to test an automated process to make use of this change by converting Library of Congress Subject headings to Homosaurus terms. The project aimed to evaluate the results of the Backstage conversion process, to discuss how useful retroactive addition of Homosaurus terms will be for Emory users by enhancing the discoverability of LGBTQ resources, and to offer recommendations for a sustainable, ongoing process of adding Homosaurus terms to bibliographic records. Assessment of the conversion was conducted by a diverse team of volunteer librarians and PhD students whose experience contributed perspectives from technical services, user services, subject matter practitioners, and collection development.

This webinar will introduce details of the conversion evaluation process, describe the testing and assessment methods for the conversion results, and outline the proposed recommendations for the process implementation and other possible strategies of retroactive addition of Homosaurus terms to bibliographic records. Though this project is limited to Homosaurus, the same strategies could be applied to implementing other alternative subject vocabularies.

Presented on December 12, 2022

Sex Negativity & Anti-Queerness in Library of Congress Classification: History, Structure, & System / Rhonda Kauffman, Tiffany Henry, Anatasia Chu

NETSL 2023 Annual Spring Conference, April 2023

recording & slides

Drawing from a published article by the presenters (June 2022), this presentation digs into sex negativity and anti-queerness in Library of Congress Classification schedule HQ, “The Family. Marriage. Women.” It explores how the presenters identified these issues in the underlying structure of the schedule and its history, using some key illuminating examples.

“There was Sex but no Sexuality*:” Critical Cataloging and the Classification of Asexuality in LCSH / Brian M. Watson

in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. Vol. 58, issue 6 (2020)

article

This paper examines the addition of “asexuality” to the Library of Congress Subject Headings as a case study from which to examine the critical cataloging movement. Beginning with a review of some of the theoretical and practical issues around subject access for minoritized and marginalized sexualities, this paper then contextualizes, historicizes, and introduces the critical cataloging movement to the literature, situating it within a larger and longer history of radical cataloging. It will define critical cataloging as a social justice-oriented style of radical cataloging that places an emphasis on radical empathy, outreach work, and recognizes the importance of information maintenance and care. This paper introduces the concept of “catalogic warrant” to characterize the process of “reading” the catalog to examine the harm or benefit of terms on users and the wider library community.

Open access institutional repository version: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/25766

Using the Homosaurus in a Public Library Consortium: A Case Study / Rachel K. Fisher

in Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 67, no. 1 (January 2023)

article

This case study provides an overview of how Cooperative Computer Services (CCS), a public library consortium in Illinois, made the case to allow the Homosaurus in the CCS catalog, gained approval from the member libraries, and crafted a cataloging manual section. Other libraries can follow the recommendations in this article on how to properly make the case for the approval of a policy to allow an alternative controlled vocabulary in their catalog.