Happy pride! This month’s blog post explores an intersection of 2SLGBTQIA+ pride and the library. We will be looking at some of the ways that bibliographic naming conventions impact the queer community, why these names matter, and what librarians in the UBC community are doing to make naming conventions more equitable.
Names are important to the queer community. The terminology that describes experiences of sexual orientation, romantic orientation, and gender identity are community-made names that often hold lots of weight for the people who use them. Fundamentally, a name allows a person to tell someone else: “This is how I experience my humanity.” Labels such as nonbinary, asexual, trans masc, and panromantic allow people to communicate experiences for which they previously lacked language.
What do these names mean for libraries? When you are browsing the library for materials related to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, you will encounter descriptive labels attached to each item. These labels are called subject headings, and they are assigned to all materials by the Library of Congress.
Here are the current subject headings for the book We are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation by Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown, which is available at UBC Libraries
Library of Congress Subjects:Gay people–United States–History.
Gay people–United States–Pictorial works.
The Library of Congress subject headings tell browsers that this book is about gay people in the United States, that it covers the history of those gay people, and that the book is illustrated.
However, you may notice some differences between these subject headings and the examples of labels I provided above. Here, all 2SLGBTQ+ people are encompassed as “Gay people.” You won’t find any subject headings for panromantic people in the Library of Congress— that’s too specific and new of a term. The broadness that we see in subject headings represents one of the key critiques that many librarians have of the Library of Congress Classification System. It’s an old system, it updates infrequently, and it often does not use the most accurate or community-preferred terms to describe marginalized people.
In past decades, subject headings have presented even more problems for the queer community. Labels categorized queerness as a form of illness or deviance instead of the natural variations in human experience that they are. Many of these labels have now been revised; however, Library of Congress subject headings still leave a lot to be desired for 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
So, what’s being done about it? To learn more, I spoke with Bri Watson, an instructor and researcher at the UBC School of Information. Bri’s research brings a queer lens to cataloguing and classification of library and archival materials. They shared with me two new tools that queer librarians are developing to describe materials about 2SLGBTQIA+ people: The Homosaurus and the Queer Metadata Collective
The Homosaurus, a project launched in 2013 by Jack Van der Wel, is a linked data vocabulary that libraries and archives can use to describe 2SLGBTQIA+ materials. In other words, It provides vocabulary words that can be added to materials alongside the Library of Congress subject headings, allowing users to search for specific, contemporary terms.
Here are some examples of vocabulary terms in the Homosaurus:
- Afro-Canadian Asexual People
- Cottages (Gay Culture)
- Fathers of Lesbians
- Gay Mystery and Detective Fiction
- Gender Dysphoria in Youth
As you can see, these terms go a lot deeper than simply “Gay People.” The Homosaurus enables library users to search for very specific materials about select queer experiences. If it is of interest to any readers, the Homosaurus website provides a guide for implementing the Homosaurus at an information organization.
The second resource is the Queer Metadata Collective, an organization of cataloguers, librarians, archivists and scholars who are working to improve naming conventions for queer people. They state that their goal is to “develop a set of best practices for the description, cataloguing, and classification of queer information resources” (Queer Metadata Collective). These best practices will serve as clear standards that organizations can follow when classifying queer materials, leading to the use of more effective, respectful, and accurate terminology. The Collective is currently inviting participants to be part of one of their five working groups. If you identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ and have interest in cataloguing and classification work, consider reaching out through the Collective’s interest form on their website!
For further reading on this topic, I have compiled a number of resources. I especially recommend Bri’s own article, “There was sex but no sexuality*: Critical cataloging and the classification of asexuality in LCSH.”
There is so much to explore when it comes to the ethics of naming practices and queer identities. I hope you have enjoyed this dive into a portion of queer library work, and that this pride month finds you well.
Non-Scholarly Resources
https://homosaurus.org/ The Homosaurus
https://queermetadatacollective.org/ The Queer Metadata Collective
https://guides.library.ubc.ca/2SLGBTQIAplus-archives/finding-materials Guide to searching for 2SLGBTQIA+ materials at UBC libraries
Breidenbaugh, M. (2023, April 20). Queering the Library: Naming the Subject Is an Act of Power. Dialogues: Blog of the American Studies Journal. https://amsj.blog/2023/04/20/queering-the-library-naming-the-subject-is-an-act-of-power/
Wills, M. (2022, October 14). Out of the Card Catalog Closet. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/out-of-the-card-catalog-closet/
Scholarly Resources
Drabinski, E. (2013). Queering the catalog: Queer theory and the politics of correction. The Library Quarterly (Chicago), 83(2), 94-111. https://doi.org/10.1086/669547
Martin, J. M. (2021). Records, responsibility, and power: An overview of cataloging ethics. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 59(2–3), 281–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2020.1871458
McAuliffe, B. (2021). Queer identities, queer content and library classification: Is ‘queering the catalogue’ the answer? Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 70(2), 213–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2021.1915618
Watson, B. M. (2020). “There was sex but no sexuality*:” Critical cataloging and the classification of asexuality in LCSH. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 58(6), 547–565. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2020.1796876
UBC Researchers
- Bri Watson (School of Information)
- Dr. Julia Bullard (School of Information)
- Dr. Devon Grayson (School of Population and Public Health)
- Dr. Avery Everhart (Department of Geography)