This paper originated from a collaborative effort between an academic and archivist and a cataloger to address the issues around the LCSH heading “Social disabilities.” In it, we examine various ...aspects and consequences resulting from the ways that galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and special collections (GLAMS) organize knowledge about disability and disabled users. We do this primarily through the lens of documentary analysis of cataloging and classification systems as this process, elsewhere called “the power to name” (Olson, 2002), as it is the basis for the operation of GLAMS. First, we will provide an outline and contextual information about the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the largest and most influential subject heading vocabulary system in the world. Next, we will examine the discourse around disability in library and information science via the results of a literature review. Next, we will examine the history, transformations, use, and meaning behind the LCSH heading “Social disabilities,” as an example of breakdown in terminology. Finally, and unique to the literature, we will propose an alternative hierarchy of terms for the Persons hierarchy in LCSH and discuss other methods that catalogers may use for organizing holdings about disability.
A healthy democracy requires trust that people can be impartial in important truth-seeking institutions including journalism, justice, and science. Recently some U.S. elites have adopted alarmingly ...extreme rhetoric against truth-seekers, denouncing mainstream journalism as fake news, criminal investigations as partisan witch-hunts, climate science as a hoax, and career civil servants as a deep state conspiracy. In response, some news organizations have taken the unusual step of publishing op/eds defending these institutions. Two experiments tested effects of such op/eds. In study 1, participants spent twelve days using a purpose-built news portal containing real, timely news with random assignment to the availability of real, timely op/eds defending impartiality of truth-seekers. These op/eds increased trust in truth-seeking institutions and increased the belief that people can serve as impartial professionals. Study 2 replicated this with a laboratory experiment assigning video op/ed exposure instead of text op/ed availability while adding several outcomes.
This paper examines the addition of "asexuality" to the Library of Congress Subject Headings as a case study from which to examine the critical cataloging movement. Beginning with a review of some of ...the theoretical and practical issues around subject access for minoritized and marginalized sexualities, this paper then contextualizes, historicizes, and introduces the critical cataloging movement to the literature, situating it within a larger and longer history of radical cataloging. It will define critical cataloging as a social justice-oriented style of radical cataloging that places an emphasis on radical empathy, outreach work, and recognizes the importance of information maintenance and care. This paper introduces the concept of "catalogic warrant" to characterize the process of "reading" the catalog to examine the harm or benefit of terms on users and the wider library community.
We present the results of an investigation into the biographies, letters, and archives of approximately 50 well-known figures in Western intellectual and artistic history in the post-Enlightenment ...era. In this article, in the interest of space, we have limited our remarks to the biographies and partners of Virginia Woolf, Frida Kahlo, Max Weber, Edna St. Vincent Millay, William Moulton Marston, Erwin Schrodinger, and Victor Hugo. While some of these non-monogamous relationships are well known, some of the evidence of their existence has been ignored, misrecognized, or intentionally obscured. The results of this survey demonstrate that contemporary patterns of non-monogamies are deeply rooted in historical precedence. Our hope is that by outlining some of the themes in our historical findings we can help modern researchers better interpret their own quantitative and qualitative research. Additionally, we look particularly closely at relationships between metamours. A great deal of previous psychological and sexological research has focused on competitive behavior in sex and relationships, particularly competition between rivals. However, relatively little attention has been given to collaborative (or symbiotic) behavior. Our research has located a wealth of examples of metamours supporting one another in material, social, and psychological ways throughout their lives. Furthermore, we suggest that while our existing societal and social-scientific norms primarily focus on competitive sexual behaviors, much can be learnt from historically documented practices of consensual non-monogamy. These practices—however flawed—point to potentially emancipatory ways of living, loving and building relationships, families, and communities—as some contemporary research has demonstrated. Moreover, a future world might benefit from a turn to far more collaborative relationships—and such behavior is well within the realm of possibility.
Abstract
What happens when news aggregators tailor their newsfeeds to include partisan news aimed at users with a known party preference? Relying on a custom-made news portal featuring real, timely ...articles, this study examines the influence of partisan news sources on participant headline exposure, clicks on news stories to read, and perceptions about the portal’s ability to reliably and comprehensively provide the most important news of the day. Over a period of 12 days, participants preferring either the Republican or Democratic party were randomly assigned to newsfeeds containing increased dosages of real news articles from sources supportive of the participant’s preferred party. Results demonstrate that partisan personalization can benefit a news aggregator by increasing usage and perceptions of its quality, while potentially harming society by decreasing attention to high-quality mainstream sources.
The increasing sophistication and prevalence of digital archives, alongside "archival turns" in a number of different disciplines, has meant increasing engagement with archives (digital and ...otherwise) in a variety of new ways. Most notably, this has meant significant interest in the archival field by digital humanists. However, archivists have been far less engaged in the other direction.1 The latest book in the University of Minnesota Press's Debates in the Digital Humanities series, Bodies of Information: Intersectional Feminism and Digital Humanities, is a superb example of the former. The editors are Dr. Elizabeth M. Losh, associate professor of English and American studies at the College of William and Mary, whose work focuses on rhetoric, feminism, digital humanities, and electronic literature; and Dr. Jacqueline Wernimont, Distinguished Chair of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement at Dartmouth College Library and associate professor of women's, gender, and sexuality studies, who previously published on histories of media and technology and how they intersect and interact with archives and historiography.
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