September 7, 2021

Words Matter: Critical Cataloging and Archival Description at the University of Washington Libraries 

Authors: Conor M. Casey, Erin Grant, Keiko Hill, Kat Lewis, Crystal Rodgers 

In August of 2021, catalogers, metadata specialists, and archivists at the University of Washington Libraries published a statement on Critical Cataloging and Archival Description to the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism hub on the UW Libraries website. This statement is a road map to the actions UW metadata specialists are taking in support of the UW Libraries’ commitment to anti-racist work and in creating welcoming, informative, and transparent information describing library resources. The Critical Cataloging and Archival Description statement aligns with the values, ethics, and best practices of our profession.

What is Critical Librarianship?

In brief… Critical librarianship acknowledges that libraries and archives are impacted by society and culture. We strive to make our professional practice more transparent and accountable to change. We do this by: 

• Acknowledging that libraries and archives are not neutral
• Surfacing and interrogating the ways power, privilege, and oppression impact all dimensions of our work
• Understanding that no two librarians or library users have the same background or experience 
• Acknowledging the historic biases in privileging certain research and scholarship styles and questions over others  
• Believing that librarians and archivists have the power to effect social change

Librarians and archivists, in general, focus on collecting, ordering and classifying, describing, making accessible, and preserving materials for use. What critical librarianship adds is the understanding that libraries and archives are not neutral spaces and that we must consider this implication in the way we approach all aspects of our work.

Libraries, like other institutions, are produced in systems marked by racism, patriarchy, and other forms of cultural bias. Contemporary libraries are like all Enlightenment-era projects of dominant order and aim to collect, display, and assign a classification scheme to every piece of knowable information. Critical librarianship and archival practice seek to uncover to ourselves and the users of our collections how library structures codify cultural norms, and in doing so, have immense power in upholding or disrupting systems of oppression. Our catalog records, finding aids, and classification structures are themselves technologies of power by privileging certain ways of knowing over others. Our goal in implementing critical librarianship and archival practice is to be more transparent and accountable. It is a way for you to see past stickered spines; grey, acid-free boxes; and databases to the complex, imperfect humans who made these records. If we can see intention, process, and historical context, we can identify where to innovate and grow. We want your library and archives based research to be as replicable and observable as any other type of research.  

What is Critical Cataloging and Archival Description?

Cataloging and archival description involves the creation of metadata, data that describes library resources, by following local and professional standards to make these materials searchable and discoverable in library catalog records, archival finding aids, digital collections, and other descriptive resources. Metadata standards guide librarians and archivists in determining what kinds of information to include within these descriptive resources, how to format this information, and even specific data elements to use, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Unfortunately, these guidelines can be inflexible and exist within the context of structural inequities that can introduce conscious or unconscious bias. 

Critical cataloging and archival description is an essential subset of critical librarianship and archival practice. Taking a critical approach to these descriptive practices means questioning the status quo and seeking alternative controlled vocabularies and ways of organizing knowledge to be more inclusive and equitable. This also means being more transparent when we decide to retain outdated terminology within archival description or digital collections metadata to preserve the historical context necessary for fully understanding that resource.  

Publishing the Critical Cataloging and Archival Description statement and providing a mechanism for users to alert us to biased and/or harmful language in library descriptive resources is our first step in being transparent and accountable in how we describe our materials. We are actively looking to update, change, and implement critical analysis of the language and organizational systems we use when describing our library resources in catalog records, archival finding aids, and digital collections metadata going forward. Especially as this relates to or is created by marginalized communities, including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color); LGBTQIA+; women; and working-class communities. To demystify our metadata creation process, the statement explains cataloging practice and systems, Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), archival collection description, and what we are doing to remediate harmful language in these processes.

The way we talk about cultural phenomena changes constantly and we cannot escape the need to organize and describe library and archival material. However, we can analyze, discuss, and teach cataloging and classification as well as archival description critically. Our efforts will not be perfect, but we are committed to compassionately describing our resources, increasing access to information from and about marginalized communities, and getting our community members the information they need. 

How You Can Help

If you encounter language in UW Libraries catalog records, archival finding aids, or digital collections that you find outdated, offensive or harmful, or if you have questions about the statement or our work, we welcome your feedback via this form or uwlib-critcat@uw.edu. Your feedback will assist us in the process of tracking, reviewing, and updating our descriptive resources to be more accurate and inclusive. Keep in mind that this work takes time, and we may not be able to address every issue immediately. We are committed to updating descriptive language to the best of our ability and critically examining and improving our practices into the future. 

Resources 

Admin. “Core Values of Librarianship.” Advocacy, Legislation & Issues, American Library Association, 28 Sept. 2020, www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues. 

American University. “Antiracist Praxis: Critical Cataloging and Classification.” Subject Guides. 

Drabinski, Emily. “What Is Critical about Critical Librarianship?” CUNY Academic Works, Apr. 2019.

Ford, Anne. “Conscientious Cataloging.” American Libraries Magazine, 27 Aug. 2020.

Hines, Samantha Schmehl. “Critical Librarianship.” Google Books, Emerald Group Publishing, 17 Aug. 2020.

“SAA Core Values Statement and Code of Ethics.” SAA Core Values Statement and Code of Ethics | Society of American Archivists, Society of American Archivists, www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-core-values-statement-and-code-of-ethics.