The Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection documents the stories of individuals who have developed and implemented alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. These projects describe how institutional descriptive practices facilitate some ways of knowing and not others and demonstrate that such practices can change. 

Ways of Knowing is funded in part by the Metropolitan New York Library Council Equity in Action grant project. 

Project Image Design Inaiah Lujan - TruLu Productions www.inaiahlujan.com

Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection

Sounding the Radical Catalog amplifies the oft-invisible work of catalogers and archivists, capturing the complexities of cataloging and sharing the voices of activist librarians, who through their practice challenge the narrow articulation of gender, sex, identity, class and the colonialist visions embedded in library classification schemes.

Sounding the Radical Catalog is part of Catalogers at Work, a research collaboration between Amanda Belantara and Emily Drabinski which seeks to amplify the invisible labor of knowledge workers.

https://catalogersatwork.wordpress.com/

Sounding the Catalog

Sounding the Radical Catalog

A cataloger at work, creating a record for a cassette tape from the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.

Originally produced as part of the Archives of Sound exhibit at the Library for the Performing Arts, New York Public Library

Cataloging

Richard Chabrán is the former coordinator of the Chicano Studies Library and cocreator of the Chicano Thesaurus. In this interview, he discusses the political context out of which the Chicano Thesaurus emerged, the relationship between descriptive language and collection development, information retrieval, and knowledge formation, and recounts the initial work involved in producing the Thesaurus and the Chicano Periodical Index. Chabrán also reflects on the role of the library in the broader Chicano movement.

This interview is part of the Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection. The Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection documents the stories of individuals who have developed and implemented alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. These projects describe how institutional descriptive practices facilitate some ways of knowing and not others and demonstrate that such practices can change. 

Richard Chabrán recorded by Sonia Chaidez

Ways of Knowing is funded in part by the METRO Equity in Action grant project.

Richard Chabrán | Cocreator, Chicano Thesaurus

Mary Ellen Capek is editor of the Women’s Thesaurus and coordinator of the Thesaurus Task Force. In this interview, she discusses the difficulty of conducting feminist research, the role of organizations and institutions in responding to that challenge, and the role of the Women’s Thesaurus in facilitating research on women. She also reflects on the intersection of gender, race, and class in the development of controlled vocabularies. 

This interview is part of the Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection. The Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection documents the stories of individuals who have developed and implemented alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. These projects describe how institutional descriptive practices facilitate some ways of knowing and not others and demonstrate that such practices can change.  

Mary Ellen recorded by Hana Crawford

Project funded in part by the METRO Equity in Action grant project.

Mary Ellen Capek, Editor, Women's Thesaurus

Lillian Castillo-Speed is Head Librarian of the Ethnic Studies Library at the University of California, Berkeley and steward of the Chicano Thesaurus. In this interview, she discusses her involvement in the Chicano Periodical Index and Chicano Thesaurus projects including her relationship with founder Richard Chábran, the transformative impact of technologies including CD-ROMs, networked computers, and relational databases, and the importance of representative subject description in libraries. Castillo-Speed also reflects on the relationship between Chicano political movements and the development and maintenance of the Thesaurus.

This interview is part of the Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection. The Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection documents the stories of individuals who have developed and implemented alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. These projects describe how institutional descriptive practices facilitate some ways of knowing and not others and demonstrate that such practices can change. 

Lillian Castillo-Speed recorded by Noor Al-Samarrai

Ways of Knowing is funded in part by the METRO Equity in Action grant project.

Lillian Castillo-Speed | Manager, Chicano Thesaurus and Database

K.J. Rawson is Associate Professor of English and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Northeastern University and chair of the Homosaurus editorial board. In this interview, he discusses this linked data vocabulary for describing LGBTQ+ materials. Rawson discusses the origins of the Homosaurus, its development since he joined the project in 2015, and future directions, including culturally specific versions and implementation in both MARC and online contexts. He also reflects on the role of language and representation in LGBTQ+ and queer communities.

This interview is part of the Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection. The Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection documents the stories of individuals who have developed and implemented alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. These projects describe how institutional descriptive practices facilitate some ways of knowing and not others and demonstrate that such practices can change. 

K.J. Rawson recorded by Kip Clark

Ways of Knowing is funded in part by the METRO Equity in Action grant project.

K.J. Rawson, Chair, Homosaurus Editorial Board

Adrian Williams is Cataloging and Metadata Librarian at the University of Kentucky and member of the Homosaurus editorial board. In this interview, they discuss their implementation of Homosaurus terms in online library catalogs, intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in the vocabulary, and the revision process at the board level. Williams also reflects on the experience of working with the Homosaurus in the wake of the movement for racial justice during the summer of 2020 and the importance of representing Black life in queer contexts.

This interview is part of the Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection. The Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection documents the stories of individuals who have developed and implemented alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. These projects describe how institutional descriptive practices facilitate some ways of knowing and not others and demonstrate that such practices can change. 

Ways of Knowing is funded in part by the METRO Equity in Action grant project.

Adrian Williams recorded by Justin Hicks

Adrian Williams | Editorial Board Member, Homosaurus

Sarah Pritchard is the former Dean of Libraries and Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian and Northwestern University and was a Principal Editorial Advisor of the Women’s Thesaurus project. In this interview, she discusses the difficulty of retrieving information about women in traditional library catalogs, the ways the Women’s Thesaurus expanded access to these materials, and the influence of feminist movements on bibliographic work. She also reflects on the role of technology in information description and retrieval.

The Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection documents the stories of individuals who have developed and implemented alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. These projects describe how institutional descriptive practices facilitate some ways of knowing and not others and demonstrate that such practices can change. 

Sarah Pritchard recorded by Stephen A. Poon

Ways of Knowing is funded in part by the METRO Equity in Action grant project.

Sarah Pritchard, Principal Editorial Advisor, Women's Thesaurus

Alissa Cherry discusses her career in librarianship and her previous and ongoing work with alternative classification systems including Brian Deer Classification as used at X̲wi7x̲wa Library at the University of British Columbia and at the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) Resource Centre, and a custom system used by the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. She contrasts these classification systems with the Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress Classification systems. Cherry describes her work with Brian Deer, Gene Joseph, Keshav Mukunda, Camille Callison, and other colleagues.

Alissa Cherry, Project Lead, UBCIC Revision of The Brian Deer Classification

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Catalogers at Work

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