Innovative Approaches to Ethical Cataloging Practices
URI / Handle
Neither library records nor librarians are impartial. George Mason University Metadata Services is seeking ways to collaboratively engage in ethical and conscious cataloging and metadata practices with three local initiatives: 1) Reparative description: In collaboration with the Special Collections Research Center, we are creating workflows to evaluate and repair statements, titles, and subject headings in the catalog and finding aids that contain harmful terminology; 2) Local name authority record policy: Understanding creators are also our patrons, we created a local Name Authority Record Policy which recognizes our power and responsibility, and is mindful of privacy and safety, especially those of transgender authors and zine artists; 3) Task force for Ethical & Anti-oppressive Metadata (TEAM): Ethical metadata work requires cross-departmental collaboration and record maintenance in different bibliographic systems. To respond to these challenges, we are working in a flexible, collaborative framework by documenting and sharing local changes.
