Billey Just Because We Can Doesn't Mean We Should

Just because we can,
doesn’t mean we should
Amber Billey
Systems & Metadata Librarian
Bard College
April 11, 2018

Hi!
abilley@bard.edu
@justbilley

ALA Ethics
and
Neutrality
1. We provide the highest level of service to all library users
through appropriate and usefully organized resources;
equitable service policies; equitable access; and accurate,
unbiased, and courteous responses to all requests.
7. We distinguish between our personal convictions and
professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to
interfere with fair representation of the aims of our
institutions or the provision of access to their information
resources.
http://www.ala.org/tools/ethics

Neutrality is taught
“Information professional are expected to remain objective and impartial in all
their work related activities...(p.451)”
“...information professional are expected to remain neutral…(p.451)”
“Consequently, information professional often forego long philosophical debates
over the nature of reality, aboutness, and subject determination, and just do the
task--with an understanding that although cataloging is not a neutral act, we
should attempt to keep our biases in check as much as possible while
performing the process and remember that self-awareness is crucial (p. 452).
Joudrey, D. N. , Taylor, A. G., & Wisser, K. M. (2018). The organization of information.

The essence of our
work (as catalogers)

The Cutter Model
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112018620143?urlappend=%3Bseq=12

FRBR User Tasks
● to find entities that correspond to the user’s stated search criteria
○ (i.e., to locate either a single entity or a set of entities in a file or database as the result of a
search using an attribute or relationship of the entity);
● to identify an entity
○ (i.e., to confirm that the entity described corresponds to the entity sought, or to distinguish
between two or more entities with similar characteristics);
● to select an entity that is appropriate to the user’s needs
○ (i.e., to choose an entity that meets the user’s requirements with respect to content,
physical format, etc., or to reject an entity as being inappropriate to the user’s needs);
● to acquire or obtain access to the entity described
○ (i.e., to acquire an entity through purchase, loan, etc., or to access an entity electronically
through an online connection to a remote computer).
https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/cataloguing/frbr/frbr_2008.pdf

The FRBR
Entity
Relationship
Model

FRAD User Tasks
● Find
○ Find an entity or set of entities corresponding to a stated criteria… ; or to explore the universe
of bibliographic entities using those attributes and relationships.
● Identify
○ ...confirm that the entity represented corresponds to the entity sought, to distinguish between
two or more entities with similar characteristics… or to validate the form of name to be used
for a controlled access point.
● Contextualize
○ ...clarify the relationship between two or more persons, corporate bodies, works, etc.; or clarify
the relationship between a person corporate body, etc., and a name by which that person,
corporate body, etc. is known.
● Justify
○ Document the authority data creator’s reason for for choosing the name or form of name on
which a controlled access point is based.

FRBR
FRAD
FRSAD
FRBR
FRAD
FRSAD
FRBR
So many models.
So much redundancy.
Alignment was necessary.

IFLA-LRM User Tasks
● Find
○ To bring together information about one or more resources of interest by searching on any
relevant criteria
● Identify
○ To clearly understand the nature of the resources found and to distinguish between similar
resources
● Select
○ To determine the suitability of the resources found, and to be enabled to either accept or reject
specific resources
● Obtain
○ To access the content of the resource
● Explore
○ To discovery resources using the relationships between them and thus place the resources in
context
https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/cataloguing/frbr-lrm/ifla-lrm-august-2017_rev201712.pdf

IFLA-LRM Model of Relationships

Authority Work Before RDA
● Identification and disambiguation
● Constructing a unique “heading” or “authorized access point” for index and
display
● Traditional authority practice as documented in FRAD (2009)
○ Construct the Authorized Access Point
○ Record variant forms of name
○ Record the Authorized Access Point for related entities
○ Include information identifying the rules under which the controlled [authorized] access points
were established
○ [Include] sources consulted
○ [Include] the cataloging agency responsible for establishing the controlled [authorized] access
point, etc.

GARR
IFLA’s Guidelines for Authority Records and References (2001)
Contains 7 Areas for Authority Records
● Authorised heading area
● Information note area
● See reference tracing area
● See also reference tracing area
● Cataloguer’s note area
● Source area
● International Standard Authority Data Number area
○ (An initiative that was abandoned after the a 2008 report by Tillett and Patton that
recommended to focus on ISNI and VIAF instead)

FRAD (2009)
Outlined Attributes of Persons
● Dates Associated with the person
● Title of person
● Gender
● Place of birth
● Place of death
● Country
● Affiliation
● Address
● Language of person
● Field of activity
● Profession/occupation
● Biography/history
● Other information associated with the
person
Related entities to Persons
● Name (appellation)
● Identifier (assigned)

FRAD codified in RDA
Chapter 9: Identifying Persons
● Name of Person
● Date Associated with Person*
● Title of Person*
● Fuller Form of Name
● Other Designation Associated with
Person*
● Gender*
● Place of Birth*
● Place of Death*
● Country Associated with Person*
● Place of Residence*
● Address of Person*
● Affiliation*
● Language of Person*
● Field of Activity of Person*
● Profession or Occupation*
● Biographic Information *
● Identifier of Person
● Constructing the Authorized Access Point
*Element found in FRAD

Authority Work After RDA
● Aspiring to achieve FRAD User Tasks
○ Find, Identify, Contextualize, Justify
● We can create very useful author profiles, but we potentially generate a lot of
redundant information
● We record facts, but we also can make (catalogers’) judgements

What harm could RDA
Authority work cause?

Bias. Misinformation. Missing information.
Several elements ask us to record a term that could record bias, incorrect, or
curated information. NACO (Name Authority COoperative of the Program for
Cooperative Cataloging) best practice requires us to use a term approved
controlled vocabularies.
● Gender
● Affiliation
● Field of Activity
● Profession or Occupation

Publishing personal information
Potentially violating privacy, publishing sensitive data, putting their personal
information at risk, and possibly putting someone in danger.
● Gender
● Place of Birth
● Country
● Place of Residence
● Affiliation
● Address

Maybe it’s time we
question our own
authority.

ACRL Framework for
Information Literacy
for Higher Education
Authority is
Constructed and
Contextual
● Information resources reflect their creators’
expertise and credibility, and are evaluated
based on the information need and the
context in which the information will be used.
● Authority is constructed in that various
communities may recognize different types
of authority.

Do the new RDA elements help LRM
User Tasks?

Let’s review and reflect
● Find
○ To bring together information about one or more resources of interest by searching on any
relevant criteria
● Identify
○ To clearly understand the nature of the resources found and to distinguish between similar
resources
● Select
○ To determine the suitability of the resources found, and to be enabled to either accept or reject
specific resources
● Obtain
○ To access the content of the resource
● Explore
○ To discovery resources using the relationships between them and thus place the resources in
context

KISS our
authority work
Keep It Simple Smartstuff
● The truly neutral act would be just
record the name, the associated
Work and utilize URIs
● PCC ISNI Umbrella Membership
Pilot
● NACO Lite
○ PCC Task Group on Identity
Management in NACO
● IFLA LRM and 3R opportunity?

Keeping it simple for shareability
● National Strategy for Sharable Local Name Authorities National Forum : White
Paper -- Quality recommendation for data creators
○ Provide rich enough description metadata for disambiguation purposes now and, if possible, a
little more for future disambiguation.
○ Provide as much non-sensitive data as possible…
○ Provide unique and persistent local identifiers
○ Reuse existing authority data...include external identifies
○ Do not make redundant data available
○ Include relevant external identifiers as links (e.g. ORCID, MusicBrainz, Wikidata, VIAF, IMDb),
when known
○ Capture disambiguating data in fields/elements that are machine-actionable; use controlled
vocabularies consistently
○ Adhere to documented data models and application profiles
○ Maintain provenance of the data, including source and revision history
○ ….

Describe People as They Describe Themselves
● Record information about people as they describe themselves using
easily/readily available public sources of information
● Only record what is necessary for disambiguation (not necessarily
uniqueness)
● Take into account the following considerations:
○ “Is there potential for this information to harm the [person] through outing or violating the right
to privacy?
○ Is there an indication that the [person] consents to having this information shared publicly?
○ Will including this information help a library user in the search process?”
Thompson. “More Than a Name: A Content Analysis of Name Authority Records for Authors Who Self-Identify as Trans,”
Library Resources & Technical Services 60, no. 3 (July 2016), p. 152.

We cannot fix what is
always in flux.

“I live on Earth at present.
And I don’t know what I am.
I know that I am not a category.
I am not a thing--a noun.
I seem to be a verb,
An evolutionary process--
An integral function of the universe.”
Fuller, R. Buckminster., Agel, Jerome., & Fiore, Quentin.
(2015). I Seem to Be a Verb. Gingko Pr Inc.

Billey Just Because We Can Doesn't Mean We Should

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