Subject Analysis, Classification, and Librarianship in Times of Social/Political Tension

1
Metadata Creation, Cataloging, and Technical
Services in Times of Crisis

• What will you do?
• Inquiry, not answers regarding how the social and
  political climate mightor might notoccupy
  libraries
• attention and practices

Samantha Hale SLIS 731 Fall 2011
2
The Idea

• Catalogers, Metadata Specialists, Technical
  Services librarians are as involved in the
  community in times of crises as librarians and
  information specialists in the more public
  spheres of librarianship (reference, for example)
• Regardless of type of library (public, academic,
  research, special/topical, etc)

3
A Disclaimer

• My Goals
• Not to push any political, social, or moral
  agenda. Its up to us to make up our own minds,
  and to be free to do so.
• Not to tell anyone what to believe/think/do
• Lets talk I do wish to open up a discussion, so
  that we can start thinking about what is
  important to us in attempts to be prepared for
  what manifests during our time serving as
  librarians/information specialists
• Reveal and explore metadata creation/management
  challenges, as well as librarianship as a whole,
  in times of social and political tension

4
Questions

• What makes a library a library?
• How long does it take for the issues that happen
  outside the library walls to come to the library?
  
• What are our duties as catalogers/metadata
  professionals in times of political and social
  tension?
• Who decides?
• How are those decisions made?
• Do those working for vendors/databases or in
  libraries catalog every single event that occurs
  in society?
• Is that possible?
• What does it really mean if records arent
  created for events?
• Cause-and-Effect?
• What can keeping records of social/political
  movements do? (short and long-term)

5
Hypothetical no longer The issue comes to light
in our time

• Significant current event
• The Occupy Movement and Protests
• More than about distribution of wealth, amount of
  power/control in banks, student loans, etc
• Librarianship, information ethics involved
• The Peoples Library

6
The Peoples Library

• A Brief Background/Overview
• An initiative that has sprung from the Occupy
  Wall Street Movement (the protests in New York,
  New York)
• Located in Northeast corner of Liberty Park
• Free-access library to all
• Collection A variety of documents in a variety
  of media that people have gathered, donated
  during the Occupy movement thus far
• Has a catalog, powered by LibraryThing

7
The Peoples Library

• Background Information, Continued
• Does have a lending policyvery open
• Available to anyone
• Allows users to check out and even keep books
• Request If user keeps it, please mark it off
  inventory list to prevent confusion
• Accepts trades
• No sales

8
The Peoples Library A Real Library?

• Policies
• Written
• Published
• Kept as record
• Scholars and Professionals of librarianship and
  technical serves support the necessity of policy
  records
• Introduction to Technical Services (2008)
  Records of policy decisions ensures continuity
  during change, assists during uncertainty,
  focuses on mission of library (Evans, Inter,
  Weihs, p. 452). Refers specifically to cataloging
  practices, but applies to library policy records
  overall.
• A Common Find in Libraries
• http//library.sc.edu/policies_reproduction.html
• Our own Special Collections at Thomas Cooper
  publishes its policies regarding reproduction of
  and access to materials
• The Peoples Library Policy
• Not formal
• Not polished
• Not scholarly
• Fulfills a basic library necessity
• Engages in what scholars and professionals such
  as Evans, Inter, and Weihs insist is solid
  library practice

9
The Peoples Library A Real Library?

• Cataloging
• Does organize information
• Some basic elements of a catalogbasic metadata
  (titles, authors, etc)
• We do have a way to access some information about
  who is currently taking on the role of
  cataloger, (Click here) however
• No strong evidence supporting experience,
  knowledge, authority to catalog
• No definitive cataloging policy (How are people
  making decisions? What guidelines are they
  following?)
• Speaking of policies
• Donations Libraries often have written protocol
  for acceptance and treatment of donationsto
  verify how to handle them and where they came
  from. Can this library do that? Does it matter?

10
What Makes a Library a Library? Lets Discuss

• Given these brief observations, is The Peoples
  Library of the Occupy movement a library?
• Thoughts? Add here and/or contribute to my thread
  on the Discussion Board.

YES. The Peoples Library is a Library No. The Peoples Library is not a library Im not sure/There isnt one answer

11
What does this have to do with Subject Analysis,
Classification, and Cataloging?

• Lessons from my internship at the South Carolina
  State Library
• Librarians work together to archive, digitize,
  and make available documents that they deem
  important
• This involves processes from selection to
  metadata creation to publication
• Scan documents
• Make more easily accessible born-digital
  documents
• Assign subject headings and keywords
• Write abstracts
• What does this mean?
• Libraries and librarians are in a position in
  which they (collaboratively and according to
  polices that they create) choose that about which
  people need to know.
• The world of librarianship is changingevolving,
  but librarians still work together to decide what
  to share with the community

12
Subject Analysis, Classification, Keywords,
Abstracting

• How do you think the social and political climate
  affects these processes?
• Experiences, reactions on Blackboard

13
Examples
Academic Search Premier records for Occupy
movements
14
Examples, Continued
Academic Search Premier record for Occupy
movement Scope note
15
Examples
Gales General OneFile database/index has a
subject heading for Occupy Wall Street
16
Examples
Who decided to sort this subject? How did
he/she/they decide to sort it? What does this
tell us about the role of subject
analysis/organization/classification in social
issues and vice-versa?
17
A Summary of Preliminary Explorations

• USC Databases/Indexes
• Some have established terms for the Occupy
  movementothers have not
• Resources that have established terms
• EBSCOHOSTs Academic Search Premier
• Gales General OneFile
• Resources that have not established terms
• ProQuests Library and Information Science
  Abstracts
• H.W. Wilsons Library and Information Science
  Full Text
• EBSCOHOSTs Library, Information Science
  Technology Abstracts
• ProQuests Dissertations and Theses

18
Preliminary Reflections

• What does it tell us if a database/index does not
  have metadata and subject headings related to the
  Occupy movement?
• The Occupy movement is still very new
• The decision could be vendor-oriented, but not
  certain
• Metadata creation/organization an ongoing,
  high-volume tasknot all libraries and librarians
  have the time and support to create records
  immediately, nor do all vendors
• Possibility for any political bias?
• My assertion Human beingscomplicated, incapable
  of completely blocking out all bias and
  inclination
• Librarians have a responsibility to try, but that
  does not mean that bias doesnt ever occur in
  libraries
• Conclusion Possible, but an extremely risky
  accusation to make without extensive, solid
  evidence

19
Where do We Go from Here? One Individuals
Ongoing Journey

• English Professor at The University of Pittsburgh
• Volunteering at The Peoples Library
• Talks about what happened after a conflict with
  local law enforcement, and after some books were
  discarded
• Five minutes after it started, the raid was over
  and the Peoples Librarys collection was once
  again sitting in a pile of garbage. Yet just as
  the trash bins were being carted off, a man
  stepped out of the crowd with a book in his hand
  to donate to us Joan Didions Slouching Towards
  Bethlehem. We joyously accepted and cataloged it,
  placing it on display under a new sign for the
  library that we made right then on a blank sheet
  of paper (Scott, W., The Peoples Library of
  Occupy Wall Street Lives On, 2011).
• Click here for the full story.

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Response

• Cataloging immediately can help keep records in
  times of upheaval and uncertainty.
• Does not guarantee accurate, appropriate
  cataloging Can individuals assign subjects,
  classification in this environment?
• Is this a quick fix for later cataloging?
• What about issues of expertise?
• Brings to attention larger ideas
• Social cataloging (tagging, etc.)
• Social media
• The situations are very different, but, in a way,
  ask the same questions

21
Perspective from the Experts

• Metadata and Internet (Social) Tagging
• Christine DeZelar-Tiedman
• Archives and Special Collections Catalog
  Librarian, University of Minnesota Libraries
• Study published in Library Resources and
  Technical Services, 2011
• Goal User tags Useful for accessing individual
  works?
• Study Comparing different types of
  tagsmatches, subject headings, etc., with
  terms that thesauri and controlled vocabulary
  used. Also investigated LibraryThing
• Findings/Conclusions
• Can enrich and expand access and subject
  headings for well-known items, but not as helpful
  for more obscure items
• Suited for smaller, more public collections. If a
  larger research or academic library wants to
  implement social tagging, stick to small
  collections. DeZelar-Tiedman suggests popular
  reading as a successful candidate for this
  practice.

22
Perspective from the Experts

• Hey, Sam! Some of the resources were talking
  about here arent very scholarly! What are you
  doing including newspaper articles (i.e. articles
  from The Nation) in this discussion?
• Libraries Keeping record of news and public
  opinion
• Social Networks
• Kay Cahill, Online Information and News Division
  of the Vancouver Public Library
• Wrote about and published results, reflections of
  ongoing study regarding the use of social media
  in libraries at Vancouver Public Library in
  Program Electronic Library and Information
  Systems, 2011
• Findings/Conclusions
• Incorporating/using social media in the public
  library can achieve great benefits, to the user
  and library alikepromoting new, dynamic ways to
  reach out to and serve users resources they want,
  value, and can access easily. However, its
  important to stay current on the upcoming social
  media trends, to ensure that libraries are
  serving users in the ways users want to be
  served.

23
More thoughts about Social Networks and Social
Interactions in General in Relation to
Librarianship/Metadata

• Memes!!!!
• An ongoing trend, often a joke/one-liner,
  offering commentary on an event, celebrity,
  issue, shared human experience, etc.
• Often takes the form of a comic-strip or
  captioned picture, but there are other formats.
• Wildly popular with many library patrons
  (particularly youth and young adults, but the
  audience is not limited to this age group).
• An interesting and powerful commentary on public
  opinion
• Most Importantly Can reveal issues and build
  interest in big matters. I found out about The
  Peoples Library first here. A website some of
  you may recognize as knowyourmeme.coma database
  of internet memes and some of the major trends.
  
• This kind of social networking is not
  particularly scholarly, sometimes not even
  appropriate (in terms of content being suitable
  for professional audiences or even children), but
  it can generate interest and ask questions about
  what is going on in the communitysomething
  libraries and librarians tend to practice in
  order to serve users.

24
Where do We Go from Here? Why Bring up Occupy
Wall Street and The Peoples Library

• The Occupy movements, particularly its product
  The Peoples Library have already captured
  attention
• Now those movements and issues are starting to
  manifest in the practice of librarianship
  overall, and in concepts of subject analysis,
  classification, and cataloging
• Big, dramatic events and issues, but speaks to a
  very commonly-discussed, sometimes controversial,
  yet essential question Social taggingis it
  acceptable? Does it work?
• Subject analysis/Classification/Cataloging/Metadat
  a organizationWho should be allowed to do it?
• Social networks? Do they have any place in the
  library? How will they affect how we organize,
  classify, and disseminate information now and in
  the future?
• How does information get recorded and cataloged
  in times of crisis?

25
Conclusion

• More questions than answers
• Together, peers, librarians-to-be, current
  librarians, professionals, scholars perhaps we
  can investigate and develop answers
• Future Inquiry
• The decision-making process that goes into
  subject heading creation/organization for
  significant social/political events
• The time frame for creating new subject headings
  based on current events
• Vendors and metadata specialists roles in
  cataloging collective memory
• Social tagging and social media the questions
  continue

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Thank You!
Now go forth and READ ALL THE THINGS!!!
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References

• Brosh, A. (2010, June 17). This is why Ill never
  be an adult. Retrieved from http//hyperboleandaha
  lf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-a
  dult.html
• Cahill, K (2011). Going social at Vancouver
  Public Library What the virtual branch did next.
  Program Electronic Library and Information
  Systems, 45(3) 259-278. doi 10.1108/0033033111115
  1584.
• DeZelar-Tiedman, C (2011). Exploring
  user-contributed metadata's potential to enhance
  access to literary Works Social tagging in
  academic library catalogs. Library Resources and
  Technical Services, 53(4), 221-233. Retrieved
  from http//vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/jumpstart.jh
  tml?recid0bc05f7a67b1790ef2dd763d541a65641bf9887d
  bc728e3df027be1f077aa70f628ef59c0a61a24bfmtPDeZe
  lar-Tiedman, C. Exploring User-Contributed
  Metadata's Potential to Enhance Access to
  Literary Works Social Tagging in Academic
  Library Catalogs. Library Resources Technical
  Services v. 53 no. 4 (October 2011) p. 221-33.
• Know Your Meme. (2011, Nov. 20). Occupy Wall
  Street. Retrieved from http//knowyourmeme.com/mem
  es/events/occupy-wall-streetfn75
• LibraryThing. (2011). Occupy Wall Street library.
  Retrieved from http//www.librarything.com/catalog
  .php?viewOWSLibraryshelflist
• Occupy Wall Street. The peoples library (2011).
  Retrieved from http//peopleslibrary.wordpress.com
  /
• Rage Comics. (2011). Rage builderRage comics.
  Retrieved from http//ragecomics.memebase.com/rage
  -builder/
• Scott, W. (2011, Nov. 22). The Peoples Library
  of Occupy Wall Street lives on. The Nation, 2011.
  Retrieved from http//www.thenation.com/article/16
  4766/peoples-library-occupy-wall-street-lives
• University of South Carolina. (2010, February 2).
  University of South Carolina special collections
  libraries general policies for provision of
  images and permissions for image-use. Retrieved
  from http//library.sc.edu/policies_reproduction.h
  tml