Rebecca Saunders

We're still looking for volunteers for a working group on local authorities to address the recent #LCSH changes to Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali. The working group aims to provide guidance on how libraries can either change their subject display or create local authorities #critcat

To this end, we are asking for volunteers to join the working group. Our goal is to craft a survey that would address the first three issues above and work toward creating resources that would address the needs identified.

The goals of this working group are to:
Promote awareness of these and possible future changes;
To collect information on the responses of libraries to such changes;
To assess what the needs are of libraries interested in making local changes, and;
To provide information consistent with these needs

Call for volunteers to ALA SAC Local Authorities Working Group! #critlib #critcat
In response to the recent LCSH changes to Gulf of Mexico and Denali, there is increased interest in promoting awareness and providing information on how to change display names and/or create local authority records.

Talked with @andersoncooper360.bsky.social about what is, and what IS NOT, DEI. And what Trump & his confederates are trying to accomplish with erasing the accomplishments of non-white people, women and LGBTQ people.

Henceforth referring to the Trump administration as The Failing Trump Administration (*trump voice) #suckstosuck

Disproportionately stoked for the S7 premiere of #TheLastDriveIn

Part 2 - Statements of Ethical Principles We will use these ethical statements, listed here in no particular order of importance, to guide and improve our cataloguing practice: 1. We catalogue resources in our collections with the end-user in mind to facilitate access and promote discovery. 2. We commit to describing resources without discrimination whilst respecting the privacy and preferences of their associated agents. 3. We acknowledge that we bring our biases to the workplace; therefore, we strive to overcome personal, institutional, and societal prejudices in our work. 4. We recognise that interoperability and consistent application of standards help our users find and access materials. However, all standards are biased; we will approach them critically and advocate to make cataloguing more inclusive. 5. We support efforts to make standards and tools financially, intellectually, and technologically accessible to all cataloguers, and developed with evidence-based research and stakeholder input. 6. We take responsibility for our cataloguing decisions and advocate for transparency in our institutional practices and policies. 7. We collaborate widely to support the creation, distribution, maintenance, and enrichment of metadata in various environments and jurisdictions. 8. We insist on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. We promote education, training, equitable pay, and a fair work environment for everyone who catalogues so that they can continue to support search and discovery. 9. We advocate for the value of cataloguing work within our organisations and with external partners. 10. We work with our user communities to understand their needs in order to provide relevant and timely services.

the ten principles of the ALA’s 2021 cataloging code of ethics. DEI is an ethical principle. If only people like me (white, able-bodied men) do this work, then biases in the formulation & application of our organizational schemes will go undetected and uncorrected, and users will be underserved. 📚

We're in a coup, which means we're in a nightmare, which means we're all ramped up, so let me offer you some deep time, perseverance, and beauty, before you and I go back to the work.

The answer was not the point. The answer was never the point. The process of searching is the process of learning.

The Indigenous People of North America have decided to go back to calling the Gulf of Mexico, “Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl”. It is what the Nahuatl People originally called it as it is the domain of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, who is assoc w/water bodies, including the Gulf of Mexico.

Has anyone else started a list of challenged terms and place name changes amid the flurry of dystopian executive orders? I hope my list won't grow but expect it will... #tcmmf

Front page of the nyt

In 2016 the NYT ran multiple front page stories page about the grave national security risk of Hillary Clinton's server.

Today's front page, and nary a mention of the successful "plutocratic coup" (said by a sitting House member) or "constitutional crisis (said by a sitting Senator) unfolding

The anger and rage that is being harnessed by the anti-DEI movement is anti-Blackness at its root. Just like “CRT” and “woke” and “BLM”

These folks are using these terms as a placeholder for what they really mean.

That’s why we must push back.

If you have students who are trans no you don’t. If you have students of color who may be affected by ICE no you don’t. If anyone asks you gender or racial the makeup of your class you don’t have to tell them.

Protect your class and protect your students by not complying in advance. They trust you.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler with bookmarks from City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC

My kink is buying books by BIPOC authors from my local bookstore, what's yours? 💙📚