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Please read and sign this petition for OCLC to replace the "Illegal aliens" FAST heading change.org/p/oclc-researc… #librarylife
And let me help you understand why if you're still on the fence about it...
A friend and I were talking about the petition last week, and I said I wasn't planning on singing because the LoC had already settled this.
Needless to say, I needed to read the petition better. So I did. In essense: there is no reason OCLC can't take up the charge...
Of changing their own heading. FAST headings are important, valuable, and useful, and this process could help inform future LoC practice.
Also, there is a lot of talk on a library listserv about politics staying out of cataloging. This is ridiculous.
And this is also something I had trouble understanding at first--the concept of "no neutral libraries." I suspect many people do. Why?
Two words: library school. Which, for some reason, still insists on teaching this outdated concept.
Even as it has students write reports on Melvil Dewey. I know because I had to do that.
Please explain to me how cataloging should be neutral when I had to write a report on an anti-Semitic misogynist?
Cataloging is not neutral. It never has been, never will be, nor should it be.
It's disturbingly easy for many librarians to hide behind the "reasoning" that the LoC makes all these decisions. Let them do the work.
Except this work is done by US! Librarians submit changes for subject headings all the time! Committees do this work, too!
Even if you don't do either of these things you are still part of the library community/collective/hive mind, etc.
All this is to say that these decisions don't happen in a vacuum. Choosing to hide behind the LoC defense is a position, too. Not neutral!
Even if you don't sign the petition, please read it so you at least have a more informed understanding of the issue.
Don't just hide behind the defense of "didn't the LoC decide that already?" No. Inform yourself! Don't spread misinformation!
The petition explains the history of the process and is very eloquently written by @violetbfox.
Please read it, at the very least. I hope you'll consider signing it, too. change.org/p/oclc-researc…
One more point: please share & encourage non-librarians to sign the petition as well! This will go a long way toward effecting the change!
Encourage non-librarians to add a comment about why this change would be helpful & what it would mean to them as a user.
This helps to show the value of why librarians do this work and how these changes are necessary for the community at large.
