Alan Danskin on Challenging legacies: cataloguing and metadata and the British Library Race Equality Action Plan

1. Challenging legacies:
cataloguing, metadata, and the British Library
Race Equality Action Plan
Alan Danskin
Collection Metadata Standards Manager
S&V Forum 29 April 2022
ARLIS: Cat & Class ethics series 13th May 2022

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Metadata
Structured data about data
Library catalogues are one kind of metadata
Metadata should enable access to our collections for research, inspiration and
enjoyment
Metadata should not be a barrier to access

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Overview
British Library Anti-Racism Project 2021
Race Equality Action Plan 2022-2025
Implementation planning and objectives
Benchmarking
Links
Questions

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Anti-Racism Project (ARP)
Designed as bottom-up, staff led,
project
Subgroups
• Audiences
• Behaviour values & Experiences
• Cataloguing & Metadata (CAM)
• Collections & Content
• Data Research and Insights
• People & HR Policy
• Leaders and Coordinators
In July 2020, following the brutal murder of
George Floyd and the global protests
against racism that resulted, the Anti-
Racism Project (ARP), a pan-Library
working group was set up.
“The Project “will make recommendations both in
terms of immediate actions and longer term
proposals that we will integrate into our strategy and
our culture, to make us a truly anti-racist
organisation, in a wide-ranging and sustainable
way.”
Liz Jolly, Chief Librarian

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Cataloguing & Metadata Subgroup: Purpose
• To understand and expose the extent and impact of discrimination
and bias in the Library's cataloguing practices and metadata.
• To facilitate the development and enhancement of descriptions,
interpretations and presentations of collection items
• To collaborate with colleagues involved in these areas of
the Library, and to learn from best practice beyond the Library, to
make recommendations to enhance the safety, inclusivity and
accessibility of the Library’s collections for all potential users.

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3 Broad objectives:
• Metadata
• Access & Discovery
• Policy & principles
10 Recommendations submitted to
ARP (September 2021)
Outcomes
Making the case for resources:
“Communicate the centrality of
cataloguing and metadata to the
production of knowledge and to the
presentation of cultural heritage for our
diverse communities “
“Provide greater resource to cataloguing
and metadata teams through the
creation of new projects and posts and
greater resource to Technology to
support our infrastructure.”

7. Race Equality Action Plan
REAP is a three year project
It will deliver institutional change across the Library
“We have listened to many voices that
were previously unheard, and have had
challenging conversations about the
experiences of staff and users that
highlight things that urgently need to
change.”
Roly Keating, Chief Executive of the
British Library

8. Outcomes from ARP Cataloguing & Metadata
subgroup
The recommendations of the CAM sub-group are incorporated in the
Race Equality Action Plan published in January 2022
“A fundamental requirement is that the
Library’s senior management and
structures take ownership of the
Subgroups’ recommendations and deliver
real change” - Phil Spence, Chief
Operating Officer

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Metadata
• We will establish a comprehensive glossary of inclusive terminology to support
a multifaceted collections audit.
• We will create a flexible approach for treating problematic terminology that
ensures descriptions are contextualised and accurate, and that ensures users
are able to experience the catalogue and website safely, warning them where
necessary of the potential for discriminatory and harmful content

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Access and Discovery
We will develop more flexible subject terminologies and discovery approaches
• to bypass outdated and inappropriate language;
• to surface under-described and undiscoverable collections;
• to respect access protocols of culturally sensitive heritage.
• We will improve discovery of marginalised experiences in the collection
through the creation of guides, finding aids, blogs, social media, as well as
increased, targeted, and fuller cataloguing.

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Policy & Principles
We will:
• establish ethical principles for cataloguing and metadata
• ensure that staff tasked to work on sensitive material receive adequate
knowledge, training, and emotional support.
• provide regular and mandatory training to all staff on best practice.

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Priorities

13. Pilot project
Collection Metadata in Collaboration with Collections and Curation
Proof of concept – end to end
• Sustainable workflows for equitable and inclusive collection description and
discovery
• Review language used in metadata and interpretation
• Expanded glossary of potentially offensive terms, contextual guidance, and
inclusive alternatives
• Methodology for auditing indigenous cultural heritage and culturally sensitive
material research provenance
• Develop and publish guidance for Library users and training for staff
• Co-collect with community groups
• Experiment with eternal advisors/board

14. Resourcing
New (fixed term) posts
• Metadata lead and Metadata coordinator roles
• Curatorial role
Support
• Collection Metadata Analyst
• Metadata Quality & Assurance team
• Curators

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CM1.1 Establish a comprehensive glossary of problematic and
inclusive terminology as a reference for the cataloguing of culturally
sensitive material
Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0
Carissa
Chew
–
Inclusive
terminology:
guide
&
glossary
for
the
cultural
heritage
sector.
May,
2021

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170 million items and counting…
Audit of the collection and metadata is a
huge undertaking
Cannot be completed within REAP
timeframe
Proof of Concept Pilot Project
• Select representative collections
• Apply appropriate methodologies
• Develop sustainable workflows
CM1.2 Establish a multifaceted approach to auditing the collections
for racist descriptions through resourced projects and business as
usual work in cataloguing & curation teams
Selection criteria
• Covers major cataloguing systems:
Aleph, IAMS, SAMI
• Includes different content and media
types
• Relates to communities in UK and
countries abroad
• Includes different languages/scripts
• Can build on existing glossary
• Complex provenance issues
• Large enough to be meaningful; small
enough to be achievable
Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0

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Developed from Carissa Chew’s work at
National library of Scotland
Supplemented by work carried out within
the British Library
Enriched by pilot project
Machine actionability
Requirements for vocabulary
management
CM1.3 Establish a flexible schema for treating problematic
terminology that considers terms in context, while not inhibiting the
accurate identification of items
Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0
slave(s) - enslaved persons

18. CM 4.0 Implement guidance by which users are made aware of
terms or images in the Library’s [content or metadata ] that may
cause offence or distress
True echoes project
Content Guidance Steering Group
is looking at the principles and
strategy underpinning content
guidance.
CAM proposed 3 levels
• General + context
• Collection level
• Item level
Warnings, Advice, or Guidelines?
Redactions? Revisions?
Warning: descriptions in the British Library’s
catalogues reproduce original terms found in
historical publications and archival documents,
including some terms which are now considered
discriminatory, harmful, or offensive.
See our Statement on Language in British Library
Catalogues.
Illustrative text proposed by CAM

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Subject indexing is expensive
Shared vocabularies distribute
costs
But one size does not fit all
Pace of change
New Technology
CM5.0 Develop more flexible subject approaches
Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0
• Alternative vocabularies
• Supplement
• Replace

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CM8.0 Establish ethical principles for cataloguing and metadata from
which to update and maintain policies and procedures
Embedding ethical metadata
principles and practice
Standards development
Choice of standards and vocabularies
Choice of suppliers
Scoping of projects
Collection Description
Subject Analysis
CAM task group reviewed guidance
from professional bodies
IFLA, ICA, CILIP, MA
Cataloguing Ethics Steering
Committee
Provisional mapping to BL values
Turning principles into actions and
behaviours
Practical examples of good practice

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CM3.1 Create a more accessible
and transparent feedback
process to encourage users to
report harmful material
3.2 Develop processes to enable
continuous collaboration with
stakeholder communities, while
respecting our partners’ time and
labour.
Engaging with our audiences
Signposting
Single gateway
The pilot project will include
engagement with stakeholders
Build on existing relationships and
create new ones.
It is the Library’s responsibility to
serve all its audiences

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6.0 Develop the means to search
the collections by language,
especially lesser known
languages and to search in
original script
7.0 Work with indigenous
communities and experts to
establish appropriate access and
description protocols for material
of relevance to indigenous
cultural heritage
Engaging with our audiences
Build on success of Languid project
Supersede or supplement
transliteration with original script
True Echoes is an exemplar
CARE Principles for indigenous data
governance
Guidance

23. Reimagine Descriptive
Workflows: A Community-
Informed Agenda for
Reparative and Inclusive
Descriptive Practice (oclc.org)
“The goal is to break down current
systems and to rebuild our
workflows and our profession in a
way that minimizes harm and also
honors and includes.”
“It is…constructed to instruct and chart
a path toward reparative and inclusive
description. “
“Nobody should be
compelled to use a slur to
search a catalogue.”

24. OCLC Framework of guidance
Organizational shifts: Changes at the institutional and organizational level in
terms of restructuring priorities, budgets, and staffing that require investment
from leadership.
Operational workflows: Changes needed in day-to-day practice. These
changes require support from institutional policy, priorities, and funding.
Organizational leadership needs to support mid-level managers and
practitioners in implementation.
Professional and personal development: Investment in education and mind-
shift. This work is for everyone in the organization, regardless of role, and must
be ongoing.

25. Organizational Shifts Operational workflows Professional and personal
development
Budgets, priorities, staffing Changes day to day practice Investment in education and “mind-
shift” for everyone.
CM2.0, CM9.0 CM1-CM10, CC1, CC2.3.3 CM1.4, CM8.0, CM10
Acknowledge to amend Prioritize a human centred approach create systems of support
CM1.1-1.3, CM 4, CM5.0.
CM6.0, CC2.1.2; CC2.3.6
CC2.4.3
CM1.4, CM6.0, CC2.1.2, CC2.1.4 CM1.4
Commit to the long game Support new values Organizational, professional, and
personal accountability
CM6.0, CM8.0 CM8.0; BL Values; REAP
Slow down to move it forward
CM1.4
Promote respectful, reciprocal, community co-
design
CM3.1, CM 3.2, CM4.0, CM7.0, CC2.1.4
hold generous spaces

26. Concluding remarks
The purpose of our catalogue is to make public collections more
accessible to those who want to use them for research, inspiration, or
enjoyment
We are in the early stages of a programme with the object of removing
barriers to access
This presentation only addressed cataloguing, metadata and collections
• Work on the other aspects is proceeding in parallel with the cataloguing
and metadata work described here.

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Links
Enacting change – rolling out our Race Equality Action Plan - Living Knowledge
blog
https://blogs.bl.uk/living-knowledge/2022/01/enacting-change-rolling-out-our-race-equality-action-plan.html
Inclusive Terminology Guide Glossary - Carissa Chew - NLS - 1.0.pdf - Google
Drive
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C3fjqUi0nmAjhghzAO2FXxUbdbqX0fJo/view
Reimagine Descriptive Workflows: A Community-Informed Agenda for Reparative
and Inclusive Descriptive Practice (oclc.org)
https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/2022/oclcresearch-reimagine-descriptive-workflows-
a4.pdf

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Links
Languid Project
Victoria Morris (2020) Automated Language Identification of Bibliographic
Resources, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 58:1, 1-27, DOI:
10.1080/01639374.2019.1700201
https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2019.1700201 (CCQ)
Article | Automated Language Identification of Bibliographic Resources | ID:
6c99ffcb-0003-477d-8a58-64cf8c45ecf5 | Hyku (British Library Research
Repository)
GIDA CARE Principles of Indigenous Data Governance — Global Indigenous
Data Alliance (gida-global.org)