Thread by @yo_bj

I get that folks want MARC to die, & the process of getting a replacement is taking forever.

However, telling folks that worked w/MARC & other forms of cataloging standards that they have nothing valuable to contribute to the "metadata ecosystem" is a red button topic of mine.

Part of it comes from the unspoken pairing of metadata w/technology, and cataloging w/traditional librarianship, and how gender and power dynamics play in these pairings in our discussions around description and organizing info.

[Guess which one is "sexy" and the other "not"?]

[Tangent - I still encounter the use of the word "sexy" w/r/t tech and metadata work. The fact that people still view objects and ideas as sexually desirable tells you a lot about the values of the people assigning said desirability as well as the audience for said comment.]

You probably guessed that I have a chip on my shoulder. It's a very large one.

I did traditional cataloging.
I wrote code for cataloging in Technical Services.

And yet, wrong department, wrong work, wrong gender.

I did metadata work in digital repositories. I created and refined metadata crosswalks: DC, MARC, MODS, etc.

Heck, I tried to squeeze linked data from oral history transcripts using an API to process said transcripts.

All done by a traditional cataloger.

Yes, there are some cataloging folks who will not budge outside their space, but that's the case with

Every.
F'ing.
Part.
Of.
Librarianship.

To cut out a chunk of library workers because of unquestioned stereotypes and power dynamics of that part of the field is lazy at best.

When you say that cataloging no longer serves a role, you are:

- unaware that catalogers also create metadata, including porting MARC metadata into other formats
- doing a knee-jerk hate reaction to anything MARC-related
- reinforcing harmful class structures in librarianship

- perpetuating the myth of "technology as savior" without interrogating the problems technology bring into the organization of information sphere, as well as librarianship as a field.

Also. Librarianship is a woman-dominated profession, except for two places: administration and technology.

People tie metadata to tech. Women who try to do metadata work are ignored or passed over by others b/c the field believes that they are the wrong gender to do that work.

[And if you @ me with a "prove it!" you will be shown the digital door. I will not force my friends to relive their traumas for your entertainment.]

I remember the push to get everyone to code back in the 2010s. There was a concerted effort among cataloging workers to learn code. But because they were not given the resources by their managers and libraries to learn programming skills, most of this was done on their own time.

Administration saw cataloging staff as the wrong place to develop tech skills. Because why should a cataloger learn about coding? They don't work w/metadata.

Because the people working w/metadata are the technologists.

You can probably guess where the training resources went.

There are libraries who are not stuck in this false dichotomy of cataloging and systems.

#mashcat was another space where people fought this false dichotomy.

But the line of "MARC or traditional cataloging is WORTHLESS" is still overpowering the overall discussion.

And this is why I get angry at the MARC MUST DIE and CATALOGERS ARE WORTHLESS arguments.

They are simplistic arguments based on bad faith assumptions.

They erase decades' worth of invisible labor to keep libraries running.

They devalue the people who do this work.

But I don't want to end this thread on an angry note. I've had many angry threads in my feed this morning, and it's not good for leave in anger for various reasons.

Instead, I leave this thread with the acknowledgement that MARC was one hell of a technological feat.

Henriette Avram's Wikipedia page gives you some of the picture of what she was facing when creating MARC - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henriette…

That's what we're facing today, in a sense. It takes a hell of a lot of work to get something out there.

MARC still (mostly) works decades later.

From the article "MARC Her Words; an Interview with Henriette Avram" -

"We must not sit back and be satisfied though--there is much more to do."

MARC is not the final destination. Nor will the next standard.

The library is, and forever will be, a growing organism.

I can only hope to achieve a fraction of the impact that Avram had on the library profession.

And with that, back to your regularly scheduled program.

/me packs up soap box, heads back to work.