Cataloging Ethics - a set of principles and values that provide an intentional decision-making framework for those who work in cataloging or metadata positions.
Critical Cataloging – a focus on understanding and changing how knowledge organizations codify systems of oppression.
#critcat - short for critical cataloging, an effort focusing on discussing the ethical implications of library metadata, cataloging, and classification standards, practice, and infrastructure.
Cataloging Ethics Steering Committee website - A group of librarians from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom charged by ALA in 2016 to create a cataloging code of ethics
Critcatenate blog – a monthly roundup of articles, webinars, and news about critical cataloging. Began February 2021.
The Cataloging Lab – a site for suggesting additions and changes to the Library of Congress Subject Headings vocabulary. Also houses the Critcatenate blog and useful lists of resources.
Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia’s Anti-Racist Description Working Group, “Archives for Black Lives Matter in Philadelphia Anti-Racist Description Resources” (September 2020)
Burns, J., et. al., “Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources” (2022)
Descriptive Notes (blog)
Tai, J. “Cultural Humility as a Framework for Anti-Oppressive Archival Description” Radical Empathy in Archival Practice3(2) (2021).
Melissa Adler, Cruising the library: Perversities in the Organization of Knowledge (2017)
Geoffrey Bowker, Sorting things out Classification and its Consequences (1999)
E. Drabinksi, “Queering the catalog: Queer theory and the politics of correction” Library Quarterly 83(2) (2013):94-111.
V. Fox & G. Neidhardt, Ethical Cataloging Workshop.
Paula Jeannet, “The ethics of describing images: representing racial identities in photographic collections” Catalogue & Index 202 (March 2021):30-43
Jane Sandberg, editor, Ethical Questions in Name Authority Control (2018)
Gina Schlesselman-Tarango, editor, Topographies of whiteness: Mapping whiteness in library and information science (2017)
In 2016, the Subject Analysis Committee of the American Library Association proposed a replacement for the Library of Congress subject heading "Illegal aliens." Much debate continued until November 2021 when the Library of Congress finally replaced that term. This example illustrates many of the issues involved in changing library descriptive practices.
Change the Subject documentary – The full documentary is freely available on YouTube.
“Controversies in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): the Case of Illegal Aliens” Librarianship Studies and Information Technology (April 13, 2020) – may be viewed as a YouTube presentation or read as text.
Report of the SAC Working Group on Alternatives to LCSH “Illegal aliens” (June 2020)
Library of Congress Policy & Standards Division, Summary of Decisions from November 15, 2021 - "the subject heading Aliens was changed to Noncitizens, and the heading Illegal aliens was split into: Illegal immigration and Noncitizens."