Empowering our users, educating ourselves: Getting started with critical cataloging [slides]

Slides from a presentation given October 20, 2021 for the North Carolina Library Association Biennial Conference, SEE the Future (Support. Educate. Empower.), online. Library cataloging has traditionally been directed by standards and structures that have not necessarily reflected--or even included--perspectives from or respectful descriptors for many marginalized individuals and groups. How can library cataloging and metadata personnel educate themselves on ways to address these inequities, while also helping to empower users to see--and find--accurate representations of themselves, their communities, and their areas of research in library collections? Ongoing events and conversations at the national and international levels, in the library profession at large, and within the UNC Greensboro University Libraries have led members of the Technical Services department at UNCG to look for ways to start to address and answer these questions in their own work. This presentation will offer an introduction to the origins of critical cataloging, discuss its relationship to critical librarianship, and demonstrate its relevance to libraries and library workers in and beyond metadata and cataloging fields. Presenters will offer perspectives as learners in this area--not experts--and will discuss the ongoing conversations around critical cataloging in their department and the process and progress associated with the new and developing explorations of critical cataloging practice in their institution. The session will offer resources and potential starting points to help empower attendees to think critically about their own metadata and cataloging work, as well as guidance about incorporating critical cataloging practices and concepts into the workplace

Critical cataloging: What? Why? How? [slides]

Slides from a presentation given March 17, 2022 for the Southeast Collaborative Online Conference. Critical cataloging practices can help library personnel address inequities in bibliographic description while helping library users to identify accurate representation in library collections. This session will help attendees think critically about their own metadata work, and offer resources and guidance for incorporating critical cataloging practices and concepts into the workplace

Practice Made (More) Perfect

Educating the next generation of librarians requires a combined effort involving practicing librarians, library educators and the programs that they represent, and the profession represented through its many allied organizations. This chapter will examine the practicum program at the library and information science (LIS) program of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). First accredited by the American Library Association in 1982, the program focuses primarily on libraries, archives, and similar information organizations as the place where people and information connect through services provided by professional librarians. About one-third of the students specialize in service to higher education institutions at the community college, four-year liberal arts, and university levels. The program recently instituted a requirement for studentsto complete hours in a workplace setting as part of a capstone course, but this chapter is based on reports from students who completed a 120-hour practicum elective (also sometimes called an internship, field experience, or other names, depending on the institution).1 Through the use of a survey and gathered testimonials, the students reported on their experiences with learning while doing in the field

Getting started with critical cataloging [slides]

Slides from a presentation given February 10, 2022 for the Amigos Library Services Changing Standards, Local Choices: Navigating the Current Cataloging Landscape conference, online. Library cataloging has traditionally been directed by standards and structures that have not necessarily reflected - or even included - perspectives from or respectful descriptors for many marginalized individuals and groups. Critical cataloging practices offer metadata and cataloging personnel ways to address some of these inequities as well as a way to provide more accurate and respectful descriptions in bibliographic data and catalog search systems. This presentation will offer an introduction to critical cataloging and demonstrate its relevance to and potential impact on library personnel and users in contexts including name authority files, classification, subject headings, alternative vocabularies, and other aspects of resource description. Presenters will offer perspectives as learners, not experts, in this area. They will discuss their institution's exploration of critical cataloging in ongoing conversations, development of local workflows, and projects, including updating Cutter numbers and the reparative cataloging of a digital collection of public domain sheet music. The discussion of local critical cataloging projects will also address the challenges associated with taking on new initiatives during an increasingly demanding time of limited resources. This session will offer resources and potential starting points for attendees to think critically about their own metadata and cataloging work. It will also offer guidance about incorporating critical cataloging practices and concepts into the workplace

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies