Dear Leslie:
Congratulations! You have fallen down the rabbit's hole into the Wonderland
of cataloging 21st (and 20th) century materials using the 19th century
systems that we have available! When I was the solo librarian (and
cataloger and book buyer, etc.) at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los
Angeles I pretty much gave up trying to make sense of it all and began to
think of the classification number simply as an "address" that could have
almost as easily been an accession number. Then I focused really hard on
making my subject headings (and cross references) as inclusive as possible
and would always urge newcomers to the library to spend more time searching
the catalog than searching the shelves. Of course everyone likes to browse
(even scholars) and it can be helpful, even serendipitous, but in order to
actually find everything you are looking for in a library you have to master
the catalog whether it be the electronic or the card variety. This means
making note, as you search the catalog, of all the possible class nos. as
well as all the possible subject headings (and keywords) that may be
relevant to your search and continuing to search and search again until you
have located all the possible permutations of a particular subject. And
know that there may be idiosyncrasies in every catalog (and I don't just
mean differences in the OPAC software--though that can be a factor also!).
Even under the most ideal circumstances (staff that are adequate in number,
knowledge, and caring), it is almost impossible to rid a catalog completely
of errors and historical anomalies.
As far as Native American art is concerned--especially CONTEMPORARY Native
American art--don't get me started! LC does use N6538.A4 for a lot of
contemporary Native American exhibition catalogs. But mostly all the
"Indian" titles go into the E78-98 range. Why? For the same reason that
most Native American art (including contemporary art) is usually found at
the city "natural history" museum instead of the city art museum. And then
that precedence (both in museums and in library cataloging) is used to
justify a continuation of the policy ad infinitum.
If you have the time, this can be the beginning of a fascinating (and
revolting) journey on which you will encounter every shade of racism and
stereotyping--and ignorance. Unfortunately--or fortunately--most librarians
don't have the time to even explore this rabbit hole's labyrinths, let alone
"fix" them. But we can, from time to time, express our frustration and
confusion, as you have so clearly. At least you have noticed the problem
and can begin to do some "damage control" in terms of assisting your
students and other catalog users in negotiating our Anglo American catalogs
from a non-Western perspective.
Good luck!
Joan M. Benedetti
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leslie Andersen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 2:26 PM
Subject: [ARLIS-L] Native American art?
Hi - As a rather new *art* librarian (not new to librarianship but new
to collection development in art) I am puzzled as to why books on Native
American art and artists are classed in E 98 instead of the N's. I
notice that no other ethnicities (such as Asian-American art,
African-American art, etc.) are classed there. Can anyone shed some
light on this for me? I'm concerned that my students are never going to
find biographical information on Native-Americans there. Thanks very much -
Leslie
--
¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤
Leslie Andersen
Arts Librarian
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90840-1901
562-985-5529 (voice)
562-985-1703 (FAX)
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__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
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