Recently the National Library of New Zealand published a post on the challenges of describing their unpublished collections to make them more respectful of the communities they serve. The post highlights the work of the He Kupu Pāmamae, He Kupu Ora project group to develop a formal approach to addressing the use of harmful and outdated language in their descriptions for unpublished materials
1. Towards a more diverse and inclusive description of collections
Outdated and offensive language haunt archival and library catalogs, potentially causing harm to those searching for and accessing the material these institutions hold. In other cases, there are silences — people can’t find material because the search terms they employ have not been used by the Library in the item’s descriptive record.
Libraries and archives are part of the wider political and social context. New Zealand is a colonized country and this has affected our governance, history and social relationships. Librarians and archivists bring their own perspectives and experiences to their work. Issues can come from language used by library staff when describing collections of communities that those staff may not have knowledge of or connection to. Issues may also come from personal or institutional bias. This can lead to language appearing in catalogues that is inaccurate or has the potential to harm.
Reference: American boxer Willie Vaughn. Evening Post (Newspaper. 1865-2002): Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1959/1422-F. Alexander Turnbull Library.
The obvious reason for changing offensive and outdated language is so that people can explore and access collections without being harmed in the process. Reparative description will also empower people and communities to feel included and safe when using the collections.
We want to describe collections in ways that are accurate, avoid harm, make the catalogues more user-friendly, and foster relationships with our users.
Reference: Two unidentified local women displaying a tīvaevae in front of trees, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Whites Aviation Ltd: Photographs. Ref: WA-04357-F. Alexander Turnbull Library.]
Read Emma Roache’s Updating the language we use to describe our collections blogpost to know more about this interesting and necessary process at the Alexander Turnbull Library.
2. Describing LGBTQ+ collections
Last year, in 2023, the Alexander Turnbull Library already decided to start using Homosaurus — a set of peer-reviewed terms to describe their unpublished collections in inclusive, contemporary language that reflects the diversity of LGTBQ+ communities.
The library and archival community use standardised language for subject headings, genres, and other areas of our descriptive records. These are also known as thesauri or controlled vocabulary and they are an important part of the metadata that make up an item’s descriptive record.
In the Western world, thesauri were largely developed in the early twentieth century when it was common practice to use language we now consider harmful or outdated. The thesauri can be slow to adapt to the changing social use of language. The Library realized that their finding aid contained racist, transphobic and homophobic terms, in some cases because of using the outdated language in standardized thesauri.
To get around some of the issues of using an outdated thesauri to describe a marginalized community, they opted for the use of community-led thesauri – Homosaurus. This is an approved word list, developed by and specific to the LGBTQ+ community. It is designed to complement use of broader subject lists like Library of Congress Subject headings.
Their approach is to continue to use LCSH terms if they are still in social use and not offensive. In some cases they will swap out LCSH terms for more accurate Homosaurus terms. The main principle is to use the term the person or community uses for themselves. For example, the word transsexual was extensively used by people to self-identify in the 20th century and still today. In some cases they will retain it on records for accuracy. They may also add the Homosaurus term Transgender to those records, so researchers and communities today can find them using more contemporary words.
Transparency is important. The outdated or offensive terms are still kept in record but, in some cases, they may be removed from public view and recorded in a hidden field. The social use of this language tells its own story of marginalisation and stigma. So staff will note on the record that a change has been made, when and why. With help from staff, interested researchers will still be able to find these terms and see how language about identity has changed over time. This is a valuable story to preserve.
The library is not a neutral place and, as they say: “There is power in naming and classifying things. It is a way to control the world around us. Words can exclude people and create stigma. »
Read the post : What’s in a word — describing LGBTQ+ collections https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/whats-in-a-word-describing-lgbtq-collections?
3. Aspects of Takatāpui LGBTI Rainbow life in Aotearoa New Zealand
All this was applied to ephemera collected at various Rainbow community events from the 1980s onwards donated in 2023 by Gareth Watkins. The different types of ephemera collected included brochures, comics, event programmes and fliers, invitations, newspaper clippings, posters, periodicals, stamps, postcards, tickets, and zines.
And also to PrideNZ, a website established by Gareth Watkins in 2009 to “document, publish and archive aspects of Takatāpui LGBTI Rainbow life in Aotearoa New Zealand”. It currently holds over 900 audio recordings of interviews and local events and in 2022 Gareth began donating these recordings to the Library for preservation in the National Digital Heritage Archive.
One record in Tiaki is the equivalent of one PrideNZ webpage, and each record includes the PrideNZ URL to direct researchers back to the source material, as it was intended to be viewed. Series and sub-series records were also created to replicate the hierarchy within the PrideNZ webpage.
See Emma Ravenhall’s highlights of 2023 on the library blog for more information.
4. Interested in using Homosaurus ?
As they said (and with their approbation) :
« If you are with a library or archive and are interested in using Homosaurus, you may want to see how and why other agencies are using it. This can help you assess the fit for your collections and communities.
Rachel Fisher, a librarian at a public library consortium in Illinois, has written up their rationale and experience of using Homosaurus. Some libraries have made announcements about how and why they are using Homosaurus, such as Princeton University Library and Emory University Libraries. And there are also research articles that explore more fully why Homosaurus is a useful tool to represent marginalised communities.
Homosaurus Board member Jay L. Colbert in his presentation “Cataloging with the Homosaurus: Who, What, When, Why, & How”, talks through how to apply Homosaurus subject headings to library materials. You can join the Homosaurus Google Group listserve HomoITCommunity where practitioners can share insights and ask questions. You can also get in touch directly with the Homosaurus team via their contact page.
We recommend the guidance from the Trans Metadata Collective, which looks at how to work with the limitations of LCSH. And look out for — or get involved with — work from the Queer Metadata Collective. »
IFLA LGBTQ Users 