Have you already stumbled over the controversially discussed category “Indian” in the library catalogue in direct proximity to the keyword “anti-colonialism”? Have you ever wondered about the compilation of books on the subject “women and family”?
These examples show that libraries − contrary to a widespread perception − are by no means neutral places where knowledge is “only” collected and made accessible. For daily library work such as acquisition, classification, and presentation of media is characterized by valuation, selection, and standardization. These practices can thus be understood as epistemic, i.e., knowledge- and cognition-related processes. They always carry the danger of exclusion and discrimination of elements that do not conform to the applied normative schemes and can thus stand in the way of a diversity-oriented knowledge organization.
To make normalization and diversity processes in libraries more visible, our digital Scholar’s Lab aims to connect case studies from libraries with approaches critical to normalization such as queer theory and deconstructivist, intersectional as well as postcolonial theories.
We are looking for scholars (at all career stages) from the humanities and social sciences as well as for librarians who are interested in collaboratively carrying out an interdisciplinary case study based on an example from the library world, and in jointly writing a short article on their findings.
If you would like to participate or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. To do so, you can either fill out the contact form below or contact us via email:
The digital Scholar’s Lab will take place virtually from May to June 2022. In addition to a kick-off meeting and a case studies discussion, optional digital networking sessions will be offered.
During the kick-off meeting the examples will be presented, and the participants will get together in interdisciplinary teams of scholars and librarians. In an analysis phase (3 weeks) the teams are invited to critically discuss and contextualize their chosen example. The presentation of these case studies will then be followed by a four-week writing phase to produce short articles for publication in an open access journal.
We have collected 28 examples from the library world – here is some preview. The examples have been presented at the kick-off meeting. Please note that the description and the presentation of the examples is in German. Contributions to the discussion and the publication can be in German or English.
Kurzbeschreibung: Diskriminierende Kategorien in Klassifikationsschemata am Beispiel der BK. Hier werden z.B. „Schriftstellerin“ und „weibliches Schreiben“ unter dem Lemma „Besondere Literaturkategorien“ (BK 17.87) subsumiert, einer Art Kuriositätenkabinett, das auch „Mundartliteratur“, „Erotische Literatur“ sowie „Arbeiterliteratur“ und „Migrantenliteratur“ umfasst. Gender Studies werden bei der Soziologie unter dem Lemma “Geschlechter und ihr Verhalten” aufgeführt, das 71.32 “Mann” und 71.33 “Frau” enthält. Unter 71.25 “Sexualität” wird auch “Sexueller Missbrauch” aufgeführt, “Prostitution” läuft dagegen unter 71.67 “Sexualität als soziales Problem”. Im Bereich Ethnologie/Volkskunde werden unter 73.44 “Sexualität, Geschlecht” die “Ethnologie der Frau; Matriarchatstheorie; Patriarchatstheorie” subsumiert. “Sexuelle Orientierung” dagegen ist unter 77.85 “Sexualpsychologie” zu finden. Damit bietet die BK keine Möglichkeit, moderne Geschlechterforschung adäquat sachzuerschließen und ist diskriminierend gegenüber Frauen sowie nicht-binären Personen.
Fragen/Handlungsbedarfe: Wie soll mit solchen Klassifikationsschemata gearbeitet werden? Korrekturen? (Problem der langen Abstimmungswege); Explizites Benennen/Thematisieren der Probleme auch gegenüber Nutzenden? Gänzlicher Verzicht? – wenn ja, welche Alternativen?
Kategorien: Gender, sexuelle Orientierung; Inhaltserschließung
You are welcome to suggest an example from your own experience as a librarian or library user, in which (problematic) normative processes are displayed and/or diversity aspects play a keyrole. Based on the collected examples, we will compile a dataset for the digital Scholar’s Lab.
These examples can stem from all areas related to the organisation of a library, e.g.: collection development (selection of content, acquisition profiles), knowledge organisation and indexing (classification indices, authority control, exhibition in the reading room), content presentation (websites, virtual exhibitions, digitisation), historical collections (presentation, mediation, contextualization, provenance research), library services and usability (target group-specific events, spatial and digital accessibility). Case studies can be related to one or more diversity aspects (including race, class, economic precarity, gender, sexual orientation, disability/ableism, age).
If you would like to contribute an example, please feel free to contact us. To do so, you can either fill out the contact form below or contact us via email: lab@sbb.spk-berlin.de
The results of the digital Scholar’s Lab will be made accessible as short research articles in the Open Access journal 027.7 Zeitschrift für Bibliothekskultur. In addition, the event aims at bringing together library staff and academic partners to promote discussions on standardization and diversity aspects, and to initiate changes in library practices by developing best practice-examples for library staff.
The presentation of the examples will be in German. Contributions to the publication can be submitted in German or English.
Contact
If you have any questions about the Digital Scholar’s Lab, please contact us via email: lab@sbb.spk-berlin.de
This project is a cooperation between Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin
