{"id":7592,"date":"2020-02-02T14:31:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T19:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/bitstreams\/?p=7592"},"modified":"2020-02-02T14:04:23","modified_gmt":"2020-02-02T19:04:23","slug":"managing-problematic-metadata-take-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/bitstreams\/2020\/02\/02\/managing-problematic-metadata-take-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing Problematic Metadata, Take Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in August I wrote a <\/span>Bitstreams post<\/span><\/a> about the various ways by which those of us who work with library metadata could attempt to tackle the issue of problematic descriptions and descriptive standards. One of the methods I mentioned was activism, and I highlighted the documentary <\/span>\u2018Change the Subject!\u2019<\/span><\/a>, which follows the story of students and librarians at Dartmouth University as they worked together to lobby the Library of Congress to stop using the term \u2018illegal aliens\u2019 to describe undocumented immigrants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, the Triangle Research Libraries\u2019 Network offered a screening of this documentary to its constituent libraries, who were treated to a special viewing (and free popcorn!) at Durham\u2019s iconic <\/span>Carolina Theater<\/span><\/a>. I attended this screening and participated in a panel discussion following the film.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image
By Warren LeMay – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=81937356<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found the documentary to be both encouraging and disheartening: encouraging, as the student activists\u2019 vision, fortitude, and perseverance is inspiring, but disheartening as ultimately, their campaign to have the term \u2018illegal aliens\u2019 removed from the Library of Congress Subject Headings failed, due to intervention from Congress.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the panel discussion following the screening restored some of my faith that we could still manage problematic metadata with the tools at our disposal. Some of the ideas that were mentioned included:<\/span><\/p>\n