Pathways to Cataloging Indigenous Knowledge

“When an Elder dies, a library burns down”- African proverbIndigenous knowledge organization is a relatively new concept in our post-colonial age, having only been around since the

late 20th century

Indigenous cataloging began due to a lack of accurate representation of indigenous people worldwide. Library of Congress Subject Headings and the Dewey Decimal System represent a very hegemonic, patriarchal world view that is deeply ingrained in the world of information science.

Australian Efforts

• Collaboration with indigenous groups is essential to the new system of organization

• ATSILIRN Protocols: Description & Classification

• AIATSIS Universal Thesauri

• Australian & Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA)

• Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways (TKRP)

Native American Efforts

Kathleen Arthur,Maeve Countey, &Jeff HarrisonLIS 653-01Professor PattuelliSpring 2014

• Brian Deer Classification• Movement toward creating

local customized thesauri• Professional Ethics - no

easy answers; communication with groups is key to finding the middle path

• Technology may help• Presents oral knowledge in

medium younger generation familiar with, views as “just as good”

• Technology allows recordings of oral histories, stories, performances, photos to be presented with printed sources (providing context)

Basics

Linked Open Data for library usersLinked Open

Data

Carlos AcevedoMichael BenowitzLauren Restivo

ReferencesBerners-Lee, T. (2006). Linked Data - Design Issues. Retrieved from http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html ; W3C (2014). RDF 1.1 Primer. Retrieved from http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/NOTE-rdf11-primer-20140225/;

Tim Berners-Lee’s Four Principles:• Use Uniform Resource Identifiers

(URIs) to identify things• Use HTTP URIs (web addresses) to

make them findable• Provide useful information on

these pages, including the standards used

• Provide further URI links(Berners-Lee, 2006)

Resource Description Framework (RDF) & the RDF TripleRDF is a recommendation published by the W3C as a “framework for expressing information about

resources,” (W3C, 2014) utilizing the RDF triple to do so. This takes the form of: Subject Predicate Object

This model describes the subject through relationships to certain descriptors, and allows for these relationships to be intelligible to computers. These relationships can then be “linked” to allow for networks

of information to be created across the internet.

Source: W3C RDF Primer 1.1: http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/NOTE-rdf11-primer-20140225/

Core Concepts & TermsSPARQL: SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language. Allows users to access and manipulate data

in RDF formatsRDF Namespaces: Terms used in the predicate of a triple to define a relationship. Generally drawn from

one of hundreds of value vocabularies. Always appears as a URI.RDF Syntax: The method of encoding RDF data for access. Several standardized syntaxes have been

adopted, most notably RDF/XML, Turtle, JSON & N-Triples

Legal Interoperability of Bibliographic Data

Put bibliographic data on the web with an open license

Make available as structured data

Use non-proprietary formats

Use URIs to identify your data

Link your data with other data to build relationships

DATA COMMODITYOpen Licenses

Open Data Commons

•Open Data Commons Attribution License•Open Data Commons Open Database License •Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License

Creative Commons

•Six varying levels of attribution licenses•Creative Commons Universal Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

• Linked open data finds its roots in the Semantic Web, which integrates common formats with standard language, allowing a user to move through an infinite set of databases connected by their relatedness to one another.

• Current linked open data models include the Library of Congress BIBFRAME (represented by the map to the left) and DBpedia (represented by the entry on the right).

• One of the biggest technical challenges facing linked open data initiatives is migrating bibliographic data from MARC 21 records into linked data models.

• Libraries, archives, and museums can support linked open data by:• building vocabularies and ontologies that focus on structural metadata, • making collections available digitally through the use of Semantic Web technologies,• and by advocating for public support and funding of increased access to information.

Indigenous Cataloging & Classification

First Nations - Elizabeth McDonald

Brian Deer Classification System: expresses important relationships between tribal groups and concepts by location

First Nations Name Authority List: identifies groups by the names they have given themselves

Canadian Subject Headings: kept “Indians of North America” in favor of revising headings for specific peoples

Native Americans – Michelle Magnotta

American Indian Library Association (AILA): spreads information about Native American culture, language, values and information needs in the library community.

The Museum System (TMS): collection management program used in museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Protocols: outline different opportunities for organizations to cooperate with Native communities.

Maori - Kerri Rose

Maori Subject Headings: developed to help Maori library user by creating a system that is relevant to the Maori worldview and intended to work within the framework of the current Western classification schemes.

Challenges:1)Marginalization of indigenous peoples2)Difference in worldview - linguistic/cultural barriers3)Separation of materials from their creators4)The myth of universality

Considerations:1)Don’t Assume 2)Incorporate indigenous perspective and involve

indigenous individuals3)Original System vs. Adaptation of Existing System 4)Indigenous People are Not Static

LIS 653-02 Spring 2014 Dr. C. Pattuelli Pratt Institute

Non-Western CatalogingCorina Bardoff, Phillip Cunningham, Lillian Lai

In 1917, more than 70% of Russia’s population between age nine and 49 was illiterate. There was little formal training for librarians, and there were no common bibliographic standards.

Soviet Classification Tables 1933 & 1946

Spring 2014: LIS 653-02

Cataloging Non-Western ItemsWhen a catalogers encounters items in a non-western language, what do? Stick with that you know – fluency or familiarity with the language of the item being cataloged is best practice.

Copy Cataloging from Arabic to English.

Connexion & Disconnection

Through OCLC’s Connexion, a cataloger will have assistance with various non-western scripts and languages. The most common one would encounter are already included.

Worldcat FirstSearch can search for the same item whether it is input as non-Latin script or its romanized equivalent. Records can be created in original script and found using Latin script because the fields are paired under the same tag number.

Transliteration tools within Connexion can automatically transliterate romanized Arabic into Arabic script, or romanized Farsi (Parsi) into Arabic script for the Persian language.

OCLC offers a free tutorial on non-Latin script cataloging within Connexion (~25 minutes).

Regular purges rid catalogs of cards for the “harmful” and “obsolete” works that might “mislead” readers.

Catalogs were reduced in size by half.

Libraries maintained separate “official catalogs” for librarians and authorized researchers only.

The Bolsheviks promised vast changes to the Russian public including 100% literacy and universal education. The Bolsheviks saw libraries as the most efficient means to bring books to the masses; books would inject the masses with the political consciousness necessary to build the Communist world they wanted.

Universal Decimal Classification was seen as the best, but it was also criticized as a “bourgeois, capitalist system filled with the biases and ideas of Western imperialist society.”

Soviet Classification & Cataloging

Decimal Classification in the USSR

Massam Ne Davat’ – Not For the Masses

“Experience has taught Soviet librarians to abstain from any initiative” (Baumanis and Rogers, 1958)

China has undergone periods of suppression of intellectual thinking and book burning for unification. Two notable eras was the Qin Dynasty and the Cultural Revolution. The reconstructions eras after the two periods made great efforts in repairing books and their cataloging systems.

China began to reform their library catalogs by studying international cataloging standards. A few to name were Descriptive Cataloging Rules for Western Language Materials (aligned with AACR2), CNMARC, and USMARC.

China began to adopt foreign library systems for their collections, which left Chinese libraries still divided. In 1998, CALIS (China Academic Library and Information System) was formed to cater to the academic library community. CALIS connected libraries together by sharing databases and academic papers with each other to become more efficient (Zhu, 2003, p.400).

In Han Dynasty, the emperor ordered Liu Xiang and later on, his son, Liu Xin, to repair and organize the damaged books. They created a bibliography, Qi Lue, to organize the final selection of 13,000 volumes. Qi Lue served as the foundation for the future of Chinese classification systems. Qi Lue’s six sections evolved into four divisions, which then became the Si Ku Classification.

Reconstructing China’s Libraries

After Qin Dynasty

After the Cultural Revolution