How to Describe a Massacre? A Collaborative Metadata Justice Project

Hoffner et al.: How to Describe a Massacre?

Peer Reviewed

How to Describe a Massacre? A Collaborative Metadata Justice Project

Bailey Hoffner ([email protected]) Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, Oklahoma State University Eugene Albin ([email protected]) Independent Scholar Jennifer Watson ([email protected]) Head of Storage and Delivery, University of Oklahoma Jay Shorten ([email protected]) Monographs & Electronic Resources Cataloger, University of Oklahoma Jacqueline Slater Reese ([email protected]) Librarian, University of Oklahoma—Norman Campus Todd Fuller ([email protected]) Curator, Western History Collections and Affiliate Faculty Member, University of Oklahoma Karie Antell ([email protected]) Head of Library Instruction & Liaison Services, University of Oklahoma

Abstract

Throughout the summer of 2020 and into the following fall, a cross-unit working group at the University of Oklahoma Libraries (OU Libraries) collaborated to compile and submit a proposal to change the Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) Tulsa Race Riot, Tulsa, Okla., 1921 to Tulsa Race Massacre, Tulsa, Okla., 1921. The working group members situated this project in the context of the metadata justice movement, which seeks to correct problematic descriptions. They also see this proposal as part of the broader work undertaken over many decades by Tulsa activists and community leaders. This successful proposal required working group members to work across library departments; learn about a broad range of library processes, including the complicated process of submitting an LCSH change proposal within the Subject Authority Cooperative Program; and conduct significant research into the Tulsa Race Massacre and the language currently used to refer to it in varied settings. This ad hoc working group also led to the formation of a “learning and working” group at OU Libraries devoted to analyzing local descriptive practices and other LCSH terms to correct problematic descriptions and create new and accurate descriptions, as well as learning about issues related to metadata justice and critical cataloging.