Hope A. Olson

Standardization, objectivity, and user focus: A meta-analysis of subject access critiques

ABSTRACT Critiques of subject access standards in LIS literature have addressed biases of gender, sexuality, race, age, ability, ethnicity, language and religion as limits to the representation of diversity and to effective library service for diverse populations. The current study identifies and analyzes this literature as a basis for ameliorating systemic bias and to gather the existing literature for wider accessibility. The study analyzes five quantitative variables: standards discussed, categories of problems, marginalized groups and topics discussed, date, and basis of conclusions (research or experience). Textual analysis reveals that basic tenets of subject access-user-focused cataloguing, objectivity, and standardization-are problematized in the literature and may be the best starting point for future research. In practice, librarians can work to counteract systemic problems in the careful and equitable application of standards and their adaptation to local contexts.

Difference, culture and change : The untapped potential of LCSH

SUMMARY The Library of Congress Subject Headings have traditionally attempted to reflect reality neutrally. The result is bias in representing cultural margins. While neutrality is one of the ethical stances espoused by librarianship, another is universal and equitable access to information for the betterment of humanity. This paper views LCSH as a potential tool for cultural change using Homi Bhabhas postcolonial concept of a Third Space as a model. LCSH functions as a Third Space where the meanings of documents are constructed and enunciated for library users. Therefore, it is in LCSH that there is potential for instigating change.

Adapting dominant classifications to particular contexts

SUMMARY This paper addresses the process of adapting to a particular culture or context a classification that has grown out of western culture to become a global standard. The authors use a project that adapts DDC for use in a feminist/womens issues context to demonstrate an approach that works. The project is particularly useful as an interdisciplinary example. Discussion consists of four parts: (1) definition of the problem indicating the need for adaptation and efforts to date; (2) description of the methodology developed for creating an expansion; (3) description of the interface developed for actually doing the work, with its potential for a distributed group to work on it together (could even be internationally distributed); and (4) generalization of how the methodology could be used for particular contexts by country, ethnicity, perspective or other defining factors.

Syntagmatic relationships and indexing consistency on a larger scale

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to examine interindexer consistency on a larger scale than other studies have done to determine if group consensus is reached by larger numbers of indexers and what, if any, relationships emerge between assigned terms.Design/methodology/approach – In total, 64 MLIS students were recruited to assign up to five terms to a document. The authors applied basic data modeling and the exploratory statistical techniques of multi‐dimensional scaling (MDS) and hierarchical cluster analysis to determine whether relationships exist in indexing consistency and the coocurrence of assigned terms.Findings – Consistency in the assignment of indexing terms to a document follows an inverse shape, although it is not strictly power law‐based unlike many other social phenomena. The exploratory techniques revealed that groups of terms clustered together. The resulting term cooccurrence relationships were largely syntagmatic.Research limitations/implications – The results are based on the ...

The feminist and the emperor's new clothes : Feminist deconstruction as a critical methodology for library and information studies

Deconstruction is a poststructural methodology useful for questioning underlying assumptions. A feminist approach adds to deconstruction an active, applied element appropriate to a female-intensive profession. This article draws on feminist deconstructive theory and its application in other professions to develop an approach suitable for research in library and information studies (LIS). It explains and provides an example of feminist deconstruction as a methodology. The example addresses an assumption of information storage and retrieval: the necessity of imposing a universal language on information for effective retrieval. A feminist deconstruction reveals that the boundary between uniformity and diversity of language is artificial or constructed and that any such boundary is exclusionary. The article concludes with other suggested applications of feminist deconstruction in LIS.

Codes, costs, and critiques : The organization of information in library quarterly, 1931-2004

This article reports the results of a quantitative and thematic content analysis of the organization of information literature in the Library Quarterly (LQ) between its inception in 1931 and 2004. The majority of articles in this category were published in the first half of LQ’s run. Prominent themes have included cataloging codes and the influence of authors such as Julia Pettee, Andrew Osborn, and Seymour Lubetzky; costs and other practicalities; technology, information science, and Cranfield; subject access, including subject headings, thesauri, and classification schemes; and historical, international, and research perspectives. Future volumes of LQ can fruitfully build on these themes to address contemporary issues in the organization of information such as the future of catalog code development of “RDA: Resource Description and Access” to replace AACR2 and the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR); concerns in digital library development, including metadata; and other innovative matters.

The Use of BISAC in Libraries as New Cases of Reader-Interest Classifications

In the recent years, several libraries in the United States have been experimenting with Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC), the classification system of the book industry, as an alternative to the Dewey Decimal Classification. Although rarely discussed, these cases of implementation of BISAC arguably resemble other past cases of replacement of traditional classifications that received the name of reader-interest classifications. In this article, a comparison of the BISAC cases to the previous cases of reader-interest classifications is taken in order to determine if the current application of BISAC to libraries is susceptible to the same problems, dangers, and ends as occurred in the past.

Online Cataloging Education at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee School of Information Studies was an early adopter of teaching Masters of Library Science courses online, including cataloging courses. In this article we discuss features of our curriculum, including translating visual presentations for teaching cataloging in a physical classroom into the virtual environment; incorporating cultural diversity by consciously selecting a wider range of topics in cataloging examples for online classes for online students who are from all over the United States and sometimes the world; the curatorial trichotomy of resource description, cataloging, and collection management; and continuing education for working professionals.

Introduction to the Special Issue on the Ethics of Information Organization

The articles in this issue of Cataloging & Classification Quarterly are a selection from those originally presented at the first Ethics of Information Organization conference held May 22–23, 2009 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was sponsored by the Information Organization Research Group and the Center for Information Policy Research, both of the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, as well as Milwaukee Public Libraries and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries. Information organization (IO), like other major functions of the information professions, faces many ethical challenges. In the IO literature, ethical concerns have been raised with regard to, for example, the role of national and international IO standards; bias in subject standards and their application; the deprofessionalization, education, and responsibilities of IO professionals; the power of institutions and corporations in IO; and the effects of globalization. These issues, and others like them, have serious implications for quality and equity in information access and were addressed at the conference. One recurring theme was the balance between standardized records that can be readily shared and therefore provide access quickly and economically and the focus on users that calls for customization for cultures, groups, or even individuals as opposed to a one-size-fits-all product. Another theme was the need for research to be produced and applied. For example, whether or not our evolving standards have any basis in user studies or any other form of research was a question raised more than once. Relations between librarians and vendors and how they affect users emerged as a major ethical concern whether talking about integrated library system vendors or OCLC or others. The human–computer interface was recognized at the conference as an important factor in the ethical relationship between IO professionals and users as it shapes the surrogates and the queries designed to link the two. These themes and others made the conference a rich experience. The articles in this issue are a good sample of the range of topics covered as well as being an excellent sample of the scholarship that presented itself at the conference. David Bade in “Ethos, Logos, Pathos or Sender, Message, Receiver?: A Problematological Rhetoric for Information Technologies” offers a rhetorical approach to information production and use, in particular

Indexing It All: The [Subject] in the Age of Documentation, Information, and Data. Ronald E. Day. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014. 184 pp.

In his preface to Indexing It All, Ronald Day writes that he intends this book to show “the historical continuity of documentary techniques and technologies, . . .” (p. x). He characterizes critical works such as this book in stirring terms as “an attempt to bear witness to some event and to intervene in such. . . . Bear witness to the reality, violence, stories, and told and untold truths of events and to our own self-positioning and agency. . . .” (p. x) He goes on to focus on documentary systems and the “modern documentary tradition” and declares that “[t]hinking through this tradition as a defining concept of being, knowledge, and governance in our modern age is what this book attempts to do.” (p. xi) The stated purpose of the book is then threefold: