Online Webinar

Ethical Cataloging: The "Do No Harm" Philosophy of Cataloging
Presenter: Robin Fay
Thursday, September 16, 2021
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST

In this session, we'll talk about the evolving view of cataloging and metadata work. Can we truly be "neutral" in cataloging and metadata work as so many of us have been taught? We'll unpack neutrality for cataloging digital resources, examine our foundational principles of neutrality in subject analysis, and then dive into some of the sticky issues related to names and subject terms, using examples from real life. We'll also explore how other communities of practices (Wikidata, dbPedia) handle names and how we are making changes for the future - how libraries are addressing outdated terms, how we can include information in our records to reflect accessible content, and how linked data can free us from worrying about updating data, allowing us to be more flexible in our practices. Audience: Technical services staff, systems staff, catalogers, or anyone interested in names/identities, controlled vocabularies/subject headings, ethics, history of cataloging/metadata foundations, and/or linked data

Presenter:  Robin Fay

Robin Fay is an Instructor and Metadata Librarian who has worked with academic, public, community college libraries and multistate consortias on cataloging and metadata project for Orbis Cascade Alliance, the Digital Public Library of America, the Library of Congress, the University System of Georgia, and SkillsCommon. Her interests are in immersive technologies and the intersection of machine learning, data, and us! She is a frequent guest on WREK's Library Radio Show, Lost in the Stacks discussing metadata and semantic web topics. Her book Semantic Web Technologies and Social Searching for Librarians was published in 2012.