Leach Power Corruption and Lies: Bias and Neutrality in Metadata Creation
2 likes2,246 views
The document discusses the complexities of bias and neutrality in metadata creation, emphasizing that true neutrality in cataloging is unattainable. It highlights the influence of social structures and the demographics of metadata creators on controlled vocabulary, which can reinforce specific worldviews. The author calls for a more critically conscious approach to cataloging, urging practitioners to examine the terms used and their implications in a broader sociopolitical context.
Leach Power Corruption and Lies: Bias and Neutrality in Metadata Creation
- 1. POWER, CORRUPTION,& LIES: BIAS & NEUTRALITY IN METADATA CREATION Erin Leach Special Collections Cataloging Librarian University of Georgia Libraries
- 2. My heroes, mentors, & influences Maria Accardi, Jacob Berg, Amber Billey, Max Bowman, Hannah Buckland, Anastasia Chiu, J.L. Colbert, Anna Creech, Emily Drabinski, Fobazi Ettarh, Ethan Fenichel, Rachel Fleming, Angela Galvan, Netanel Ganin, Christina Harlow, April Hathcock, Derrick Jefferson, Donna Lanclos, Shana McDanold, Michelle Millet, Hope A. Olson, K.R. Roberto, K.G. Schneider, Jessica Schomberg, Maura Smale, Madison Sullivan, Donna Witek, Becky Yoose …and many others!
- 3. Can there be neutrality in cataloging? Short answer: No Long answer: It’s complicated
- 5. CriticalDiscourse Analysis ”CDA’s locus of critique is the nexus of language/discourse/speech and social structure. It is in uncovering ways in which social structure impinges on discourse patterns, relations, and models (in the form of power relations, ideological effects, and so forth), and in treating these relations as problematic, that researchers in CDA situate the critical dimensions of their work” Blommaert, J. and Bulcaen, C. “Critical Discourse Analysis”
- 6. Context of situation: the social context of a text (Michael Halliday) ■ The field of discourse ■ The tenor of discourse ■ The mode of discourse
- 7. FIELD OF DISCOURSE What is the text about?
- 8. Controlled vocabularies & thesauri ■ Controlled vocabulary: Standardized list of terms used to organize knowledge ■ Thesaurus: A type of controlled vocabulary where terms have relationships to each other – Hierarchical relationships – Associations – Equivalencies
- 9. TENOR OF DISCOURSE Who are the participants?
- 10. Keepers of controlled vocabulary ■ Institutions serve as caretakers of controlled vocabulary ■ Member community contributors are trained & contributions are vetted by the caretaker institutions ■ Not every term contributed by a member of the community is added to the thesaurus
- 11. Metadata creators as consumers of controlled vocabulary ■ Demographics matter – In 2009/2010, 88% of credentialed librarians were white (per ALA’s Diversity Counts initiative) ■ Institutional priorities & limitations create challenges for metadata creators ■ Cataloger’s judgement + lived experience = Cataloger’s bias
- 12. MODE OF DISCOURSE What is the language being asked to do?
- 13. Controlled vocabulary: Good news for people who love bad news ■ Controlled vocabulary helps to organize & arrange knowledge so that it can later be retrieved ■ Good news: Controlled vocabulary promotes consistency ■ Bad news: Controlled vocabulary reifies a particular worldview
- 14. FINAL THOUGHTS
- 15. What can we do to become more critically conscious catalogers? ■ Identify the institutions that create & maintain the thesauri we use most often & the systems and structures they work to uphold ■ Examine controlled vocabulary with an eye toward who is called out & who is erased ■ Consider our positionality
- 16. “Those steeped in and rewarded by dominant ways of seeing the world don’t have to know how intensely political the ostensibly neutral position is. If the white supremacists booking your meeting space are not after you, you don’t have to know how dangerous they are. Books about reparative therapy for gay people can be simply another point of view if yours is not the body and mind those authors seek to destroy. To imagine that neutrality could be something we could choose is an intensely privileged position, one that I have to imagine my way into as I listen to the arguments of those absolutists whose worlds are rarely contested.” -Emily Drabinski, from the ALA President’s Program at ALA Midwinter 2018