This document outlines a presentation about the podcast "Catalogers at Work" and its goal of making the invisible labor of cataloging audible. It discusses how cataloging involves complex decision-making that reflects biases and shapes how knowledge is organized. The presentation highlights what was learned from the podcast, including how cataloging pushes back on constraints while navigating systems, and how this impacts perspectives on information literacy. It argues that knowledge organization teaches that authority is constructed and biases shape descriptions, and that this understanding can build capacity for change and promote epistemic justice. The presentation concludes by discussing ways to continue this work through advocacy, documentation, and oral histories.

1. SOUNDING
THE RADICAL CATALOG:
SHARING INFORMATION
LITERACY CONCEPTS
THROUGH SOUND
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AMANDA BELANTARA & EMILY DRABINSKI
catalogersatwork.wordpress.com

2. AGENDA
Catalogers at Work | brief project Introduction
Let's listen | Sounding the radical catalog
Knowledge organization as learning outcome
Let's Discuss
Sharing through sound in & outside of the library
classroom
What's next?

3. CATALOGERS AT WORK
Capture the complexities and decision making
processes of cataloging
Amplify the invisible labor of cataloging
Making the power of knowledge organization
audible
Understand how decisions are made as catalogers
attempt to organize the world's knowledge
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4. FINDINGS
Counternarratives and compromise
Pushing back and making time
Underrecognized labor
IMAGE: MARCIN WICHARY FROM SAN FRANCISCO, U.S.A., CC BY 2.0
<HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/2.0>, VIA
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

5. SOUNDING THE RADICAL
CATALOG
Audio only (about 8 minutes long)
Transcript available

6. WHAT DID WE LEARN?
What did you learn about how information is
organized in libraries?
How might this change your perspective of
information literacy in libraries?
What questions surfaced?
What do you think students would learn from
listening?
Reflect on Sounding the Radical Catalog:

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KNOWLEDGE
ORGANIZATION &
INFORMATION LITERACY
Information is organized and described by
people - Information creation as a process
People are biased and those biases shape
how materials are organized and described
The authority of knowledge workers is
constructed and contextual

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KNOWLEDGE
ORGANIZATION &
EPISTEMIC JUSTICE
Constraints in systems
Navigate the systems using multiple
vocabularies
Learn how to break them
Build student understanding
Build capacity to change the system

9. Institutional resources & support for alternative
metadata
ADVOCACY
Documenting the work behind the creation of new
library classification systems and vocabularies
ORAL HISTORIES
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PHOTO: HOWARD UNIVERSITY

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THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!
Contact:
edrabinski@gc.cuny.edu
amanda.belantara@nyu.edu
catalogersatwork.wordpress.com