The Library Quarterly· 2013Q2
Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and the Politics of Correction
- 218citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2013year
Short summary
Applying queer theory to library cataloging reveals that classification systems, despite attempts at correction, can never be fully neutralized due to their inherent ideological nature.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Queer theory questions the possibility of finally correcting ideological biases in library classification.
- Classification systems are inherently ideological, not objective or neutral.
- Responsibility shifts from catalogers offering functional solutions to public services librarians teaching critical engagement with the catalog.
- Patrons should be taught to dialogically engage with the catalog as a complex, biased text.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Critiques of hegemonic library classification structures and controlled vocabularies have a rich history in information studies. This project has pointed out the trouble with classification and cataloging decisions that are framed as objective and neutral but are always ideological and worked to correct bias in library structures. Viewing knowledge organization systems from a queer perspective, however, challenges the idea that classification and subject language can ever be finally corrected. Engaging queer theory and library classification and cataloging together requires new ways of thinking about how to be ethically and politically engaged on behalf of marginal knowledge formations and identities who quite reasonably expect to be able to locate themselves in the library. Queer theory invites a shift in responsibility from catalogers, positioned to offer functional solutions, to public services librarians, who can teach patrons to dialogically engage the catalog as a complex and biased text, just as critical catalogers do.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. The Library Quarterly, 2013 · DOI ↗
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Field: Library and Information Sciences
Library and Information SciencesSocial Sciences