free resources about bias and metadata*
If you have resources to share, please let me know!
Critical Cataloging & Description
- Access Policies for Native American Archival Materials – Case Studies, Society of American Archivists
- Addressing Bias in Your Catalog, Violet Fox, Tammy Moorse, and Tiffany Wilson, PLA 2020 presentation (source: Treshani Perera)
- Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia Anti-Racist Description Resources
- Authority Work as Outreach, Tina Gross and Violet B. Fox, Ethical Questions in Name Authority Control, ed. Jane Sandberg, 335-348. Sacramento: Library Juice Press, 2019. (source: Treshani Perera)
- Brian Deer Classification System, “a library classification system used to organize materials in libraries with specialized Indigenous collections” (source: Treshani Perera)
- CaMMS Forum at ALA Annual 2017: Power That Is Moral: Creating a Cataloging Code of Ethics, Billie Cotterman, ALCTS News, August 19, 2017 (source: Treshani Perera)
- CaMMS Forum at ALA Midwinter 2018: Cooperatively Conscientious Cataloging, Carol Robenstine Miller, ALCTS News, May 14, 2018 (source: Treshani Perera)
- Catalogers’ Judgments: Ethical Cataloging and Artists From Underrepresented Groups, Andrea Puccio, Allison Colborne, Meredith Hale, Treshani Perera, Kelly Swickard, and Luiza Wainer, 2019 ARLIS Conference session (source: Treshani Perera)
- Cataloging, Gender, and RDA Rule 9.7, Amber Billey and Emily Drabinski, Webinar, Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (source: Treshani Perera)
- Cataloging Lab , “a place for catalogers and anyone who cares about library metadata to experiment with creating better controlled vocabularies” (source: Treshani Perera)
- Change the Subject (2019), “documentary film about a group of Dartmouth students who challenged anti-immigrant language in the Library of Congress subject headings” (source: Treshani Perera)
- A Code of Ethics for Catalogers, Cataloging Ethics Steering Committee (source: Treshani Perera)
- Cooper Hewitt Guidelines for Image Description, guidelines for creating accessible alt text, descriptions, and captions
- Creating metadata for equity, diversity, and inclusion, Karen Smith-Yoshimura, Hanging Together, OCLC
- Critical Cataloging and Classification by Symphony Bruce, American University
- Critical Cataloging: Revealing and Dismantling Hegemonic Systems by Traci Mark, Metro
- critlib . “a movement of library workers dedicated to bringing social justice principles into our work in libraries.”
- Cultural Humility as a Framework for Anti-Oppressive Archival Description, Jessica Tai, Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, Vol. 3 (2020) (source: Treshani Perera)
- The Ethics of Language in Cataloging , Chicago History Museum
- Guidelines for Accessible Archives for People with Disabilities, Society of American Archivists
- Guidelines for First Nations collection description, Tui Raven, National and State Libraries Australasia, 2023
- Guidelines for Inclusive and Conscientious Description , Harvard Center for the History of Medicine
- Introduction to Conscious Editing Series, Dorothy Berry, Kelly Bolding, Laura Hart, Meghan Rinn, Holly Smith, Itza A. Carbajal, Betts Coup, Jessica Tai, Sunshine State Digital Network (source: Treshani Perera)
- Protocols for Native American Archival Materials, Northern Arizona University
- Radical Cataloging: Using alternative subject headings locally to promote inclusiveness and diversity, Sol María López and Laura Wright, Colorado State Library webinar (source: Treshani Perera)
- Redescribing Japanese American Collections at UCLA, Courtney Dean, Descriptive Notes, Newsletter of the SAA Description Section, Summer 2019
- Report of the SAC Working Group on Alternatives to LCSH “Illegal aliens,” American Library Association (source: Treshani Perera)
- Retelling as Resistance: Towards the Implementation of Community-Centered Frameworks in the Redescription of Photographic Archives Documenting Marginalized Communities, Jessica Tai, Views, Newsletter of the SAA Visual Materials Section, Spring/Summer 2018
- Toward Culturally Competent Archival (Re)Description of Marginalized Histories, Slides from a panel presentation at 2018 SAA Annual Conference, Dorothy Berry, Kelly Bolding, Annie Tang, Rachel E. Winston
- Visual Resources Association Equity Action Committee: Community Hour – Critical Cataloging (source: Treshani Perera)
Reparative Vocabularies & Language
- Chicano Thesaurus, Ethnic Studies Library, UC Berkeley (Word doc)
- Conscious Style Guide
- Curationist Taxonomy Guidelines, Sharon Mizota, guidelines for using Wikidata as a controlled vocabulary on Curationist.org
- Terminology, Densho, resource on terminology for the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans
- DEI principles for custom taxonomies, Sharon Mizota, Journal of Digital Media Management, Henry Stewart Publications, Vol. 12, 2023-24
- DPLA’s Statement on Potentially Harmful Content, Digital Public Library of America
- Disability Language Style Guide, National Center on Disability and Journalism
- Gender, Sex, and Sexual Orientation (GSS0), Clair A. Kronk (also available on GitHub)
- Homosaurus , an international LGBTQ linked data vocabulary
- Inclusive Language in Technology, Barathy Rangarajan, Academy Software Foundation
- indigemoji, “Australia’s first set of Indigenous emojis made on Arrernte land in Mparntwe/Alice Springs.”
- Indigenous Peoples terminology guidelines for usage, Indigenous Corporate Training, Inc.
- Media Reference Guide, GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)
- Minding and Mending the Gaps: A Case Study in Linked Open Data, Karen Li-Lun Hwang, The Design for Diversity Learning Toolkit, Northeastern University Library
- Mitigating Bias Through Controlled Vocabularies , Juliet Hardesty, 2020 DLF Forum (recorded presentation)
- Atria: Women’s Thesaurus – Institute on Gender Equality and Women’s History
- British Columbia First Nations Subject Headings, XWI7XWA Library, First Nations House of Learning, University of British Columbia
- Controlled Vocabularies (CV) Decision Tree (Google Doc), Samvera
- Glossary of Disability Terms, North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities
- Names
- Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names, Patrick McKenzie, Kalzumeus. The many ways in which systems aren’t designed to accommodate many of our names (source: Laura O’Hara)
- Personal names around the world , Richard Ishida, W3C. Factors to consider when entering/organizing names from various traditions (source: Laura O’Hara)
- The Power of Words, Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), “educational campaign to understand language euphemisms used to describe the Japanese American World War II experience and the preferred terminology that more accurately describes the dire realities of the experience”
- Traditional Knowledge Labels , Local Contexts, “The TK Labels support the inclusion of local protocols for access and use to cultural heritage that is digitally circulating outside community contexts.”
- Why “Special Needs” is Not Helpful, Rebecca Cokley, Medium, concise article on how to describe disabled people with lots of reference links
Community Archives and Projects
- archive/counterarchive, Canadian initiative “dedicated to activating and remediating audiovisual archives created by Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Métis, Inuit), the Black community and People of Colour, women, LGBT2Q+ and immigrant communities”
- Digital Transgender Archive, “Trans History, Linked”
- Sixty Inches from Center, “a collective of writers, editors, artists, curators, and archive lovers who publish writings and produce collaborative projects about artists, archival practice, and culture in the occupied lands known as Chicago and the Midwest.”
- South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), “documenting, preserving, and sharing stories of South Asian Americans”
Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums)
- Curationist: Designing a Metadata Standard and Taxonomy for an Open Cultural Ecosystem , Sharon Mizota, 2020 DLF Forum (recorded presentation)
- Women Writers in Review – integrating special collections into Wikidata , Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, Northeastern University (recorded 2020 LD4 conference presentation)
Anti-colonial Thinking
- Abigail Echo-Hawk on the art and science of ‘decolonizing data’, Manola Secaira, Crosscut
- Decolonization is not a metaphor, Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society
- The Roots — and Replacement — of Colonization : includes an insightful diagram of the relationships between colonization, supremacism, and capitalism
Data Collection and Analysis
- Algorithmic Justice League, working towards equitable and accountable AI
- Coyote, open-source, cloud-hosted toolkit to manage workflow around visual description (alt text) for accessibility
- Million Dollar Hoods, “We map and document the fiscal and human costs of mass incarceration in Los Angeles.”
- Racial Data Lab : a project of Boston University Center for Antiracist Research
- Taking AIM: Integrating Organization Development into the Creation of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Audit, Kawanna Bright and Nikhat J. Ghouse
*I have not personally reviewed all of these resources; some of them have been recommended by other professionals.