Application of Library of Congress
Subject Headings (LCSH)
to metadata associated with items
in library stock
In September 2014 I was lucky enough to attend the CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group conference entitled: "Metadata: making an impact", at which Ruth Jenkins delivered a lightning talk "Improving subject-based metadata for LGBTQ related young adult books." At the time this was an interesting view on an area that, to my knowledge had received little previous discussion [do let me know if you know otherwise], and was perhaps suggesting that young adults might benefit from being more easily able to discover resources that might reflect their own life experiences.
In September 2017 the
ALCTS ran an eforum entitled: “Power that is moral: cataloguing and ethics”,
which was based on a session discussing cataloguing ethics at the ALA Annual
Conference in June 2017. The ALA Code of Ethics was created in 1994, and ALCTS
created a specific code for their members in the same year.
Up for discussion was
the widespread use of LCSH in cataloguing records, how these terms are based on a Western code of
ethics, and how appropriate, or otherwise, their usage is today, particularly in relation to
equality.
Following up on this
discussion I discovered an article about a small group of students in the US
who felt that the use of the LCSH “Illegal aliens” was inappropriate. They got
together with library and information professionals and were successful in
persuading Library of Congress to withdraw the use of the term.
So, this term is no
longer recognised in the up-to-date LC database, however, as with any changes
to cataloguing and classification standards, there remains the problem of
legacy records – records already in a system, which retain the use of
out-of-date practices. The dilemma for most under-resourced cataloguing
departments is, do we spend time amending our metadata retrospectively, and if
so, how much time can we afford to divert from the cataloguing and
classification of new stock. Certainly here at DMU, our previous approach has
been to accept that there will always be a quantity of metadata that is
outdated.
However, there are
times when evidence of past practices need to be eradicated: this is one of
those times.
With a view to improving
our cataloguing and classification practices to better reflect current thinking
and provide better access to our resources for our customers, a search was
performed on the library catalogue using the term “Illegal aliens”. This search
produced a disappointing 12 results, disappointing because the outcome was
greater than zero.
Delving slightly deeper into the catalogue
revealed that the term “Illegal aliens” was picked up by the search as it
appeared as an LCSH, and as a result of these search results, cataloguers
began to investigate and amend the use of this particular LCSH.
The consideration of
this particular LCSH is the start of a bigger project to look at the
application of subject headings more broadly, particularly in relation to
equality, whilst at the same time allowing for those involved in the academic
study of a discipline to still be able to identify relevant resources
easily.
