On Adding Autistic People to HV

Disclosure: I’m neurotypical and allistic.

Several months ago, a resource came across my desk: “Safeguarding autistic girls” by Carly Jones. In determining its classification I landed where almost all books on autistic people have been classed: RC553.A88 this is a medical number, the full hierarchy being: Internal medicine—Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry—Psychiatry—Specific pathological states, A-Z—Autism. Asperger’s syndrome

The problem is that this isn’t a medical book including brain scans, and psychological tests, pathologies and treatment protocols, etc. — it’s a social sciences book discussing the unique challenges that autistic girls may face as they navigate society.

Doing further investigating of the RC553.A88 shelflist, I quickly found that many books classed there were non-medical, including:

• The Asperger love guide : ‡b a practical guide for adults with Asperger’s syndrome to seeking, establishing and maintaining successful relationships [2005928234]
• Something different about dad : ‡b how to live with your amazing Asperger parent [2016022425]
• The journal of best practices : ‡b a memoir of marriage, Asperger syndrome, and one man’s quest to be a better husband [2011013986]
• A field guide to earthlings : ‡b an autistic/asperger view of neurotypical behavior ; covers nuances of friendship, dating, small talk, interpersonal conflicts, image learning styles, social communication, common sense, white lies, and much more! [2010918011]
• The complete guide to becoming an autism friendly professional : ‡b working with individuals, groups, and organizations [2020055471]

I approached my liaison in the policy office to discuss the possibility of adding an entire range in H [the social sciences class] for works which discuss autism and autistic people from a social perspective: biographies, problems they face, working lives, relationship lives, social assistance, communities, etc. — akin to how you can find numbers in R [medicine] on blindness and deafness as medical conditions, but also in H for their social treatment.

My liaison was on board and worked with me to help construct the range, and where to place it: we settled on placing it within HV1570 whose hierarchy is: Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology—Protection, assistance and relief—Special classes—People with disabilities—Developmentally disabled

This is what I want to acknowledge. I know that placing all social-science work on autism and autistic people inherently under a category of “special classes of people who need protection, assistance, relief”, and furthermore calling all of them “developmentally disabled” isn’t the ideal solution, it may not even be a good solution! Unfortunately this is how works on disabled people from a social perspective are classed in LC classification — and the current medical literature describes autistic people as “developmentally disabled” which is what LC classification relies on when making decisions about hierarchies.

Much digital and physical ink has been spilled on LC classification’s biases. I haven’t done anything to correct that, but I certainly hope I haven’t made things worse. In my mind it’s better to develop a range for the non-medical treatment of autism and autistic people, even if its still a pathologizing area of the classification system. One day when the classification system can acknowledge classes of persons less pejoratively — It’ll be easier to move things if the range is already created and in use. This is my hope anyway!

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Sabaton (Musical group)

Earlier in this series: Iron Maiden (Musical group), Blind Guardian (Musical group)

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Sabaton is a Swedish power metal band — they’re into war. Like, really into war. I’m not sure where they got this war-lust from considering that Sweden stayed ‘neutral’ in World War 2. I toss it in quotes because they still sold thousands of tons of iron to the Nazis. Yes, I haven’t forgotten that Sweden. On the other hand they harbored nearly all of Denmark’s Jews. So it’s a mixed bag.

Sabaton are good, but if you aren’t into war [as I am not] their catalog can be a bit exhausting and demoralizing with its endless glorification. That being said, they have some fantastic tunes, and lead singer Joakim Brodén has two affectations that I find delightful.

The first is this Thor-style chest piece that he wears.

                                            

The second is that he rolls his Rs. I used to think it was an accent thing [though none of my other Swedish bands roll their Rs until I found this interview:

David: You have a rather special accent when you sing, with rolling r’s, how come?

Joakim: Well, I want the lyrics to be recognizable. It’s easier to catch the message if I use a distinct pronouncing. But also I want people to hear that we are not from an English speaking country. So that’s why the r’s come out kind of Scottish and I guess I sound German sometimes.

http://www.metalcovenant.com/pages/livereviews/sabaton_special_srf_2005.htm

Primo Victoria (2005)

Primo Victoria

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Campaigns $z France $z Normandy.

Reign of Terror

650 _ 0 Persian Gulf War, 1991.

Panzer Battalion

650 _ 0 Iraq War, 2003-2011.

Wolfpack

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Naval operations $x Submarine.

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Campaigns $z Atlantic Ocean.

Counterstrike

650 _ 0 Israel-Arab War, 1967.

Stalingrad

650 _ 0 Stalingrad, Battle of, Volgograd, Russia, 1942-1943.

Into the Fire

650 _ 0 Napalm.

650 _ 0 Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

Purple Heart

650 _ 0 Purple Heart.

Metal Machine

650 _ 0 Heavy metal (Music)

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Attero Dominatus (2006)

Attero Dominatus

650 _ 0 Berlin, Battle of, Berlin, Germany, 1945.

Nuclear Attack

651 _ 0 Hiroshima-shi (Japan) $x History $y Bombardment, 1945.
651 _ 0 Nagasaki-shi (Japan) $x History $y Bombardment, 1945.

Rise of Evil

651 _ 0 Germany $x Politics and government $y 1918-1933 .

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Causes.

In the Name of God

650 _ 0 Terrorism $x Religious aspects.

We Burn

600 1 0 Karadžić, Radovan V., 1945-

650 _ 0 Islamophobia $z Bosnia and Herzegovina $z Srebrenica.

650 _ 0 Genocide $z Bosnia and Herzegovina $z Srebrenica.

Angels Calling

650 _ 0 World War, 1914-1918.

Back in Control

650 _ 0 Falkland Islands War, 1982.

A Light in the Black

650 _ 0 Peacekeeping forces.

Metal Crüe

650 _ 0 Heavy metal (Music)

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Metalizer (2007)

[skipping this one as it’s a re-release of their demo and has no particularly interesting content to analyze]

 

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The Art of War (2008)

Sun Tzu Says

700 0 0 Sunzi, $d active 6th century B.C. $t Sunzi bing fa. $k Selections. $l English. $s Spoken word.

Ghost Division

610 1 0 Germany. $b Heer. $b Panzer-Division, 7.

The Art of War

700 0 0 Sunzi, $d active 6th century B.C. $t Sunzi bing fa. $k Selections. $l English. $s Spoken word.

40:1

650 _ 4 Wizna, Battle of, Wizna, Poland, 1939.

Unbreakable

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Underground movements.

The Nature of Warfare

700 0 0 Sunzi, $d active 6th century B.C. $t Sunzi bing fa. $k Selections. $l English. $s Spoken word.

Cliffs of Gallipoli

650 _ 0 World War, 1914-1918 $x Campaigns $z Turkey $z Gallipoli Peninsula.

Talvisota

650 _ 0 Russo-Finnish War, 1939-1940.

Panzerkampf

650 _ 0 Kursk, Battle of, Russia, 1943.

Union (Slopes of St. Benedict)

651 _ 0 Montecassino (Monastery) $x Siege, 1944.

The Price of a mile

650 _ 0 Ypres, 3rd Battle of, Ieper, Belgium, 1917.

Fire Storm

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Aerial operations.

A Secret

700 0 0 Sunzi, $d active 6th century B.C. $t Sunzi bing fa. $k Selections. $l English. $s Spoken word.

650 _ 0 Sound recordings $x Pirated editions.

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Coat of Arms (2010)

Coat of Arms

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Campaigns $z Greece.

Midway

650 _ 0 Midway, Battle of, 1942.

Uprising

651 _ 0 Warsaw (Poland) $x History $y Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943.

Screaming Eagles

610 1 0 United States. $b Army. $b Airborne Division, 101st.

650 _ 0 Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945.

The Final Solution

650 _ 0 Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)

Aces in Exile

610 _ 0 Great Britain. $b Royal Air Force. $x Foreign service.

610 _ 0 Great Britain. $b Royal Navy. $b Fleet Air Arm $x Foreign service.

650 _ 0 Britain, Battle of, Great Britain, 1940.

Saboteurs

650 _ 0 Operation Freshman, 1942.

Wehrmacht

610 1 0 Germany. $b Wehrmacht.

White Death

600 1 0 Häyhä, Simo.

Metal Ripper

650 _ 0 Heavy metal (Music)

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Carolus Rex (2012)

The Lion from the North

600 0 0 Gustav $b II Adolf, $c King of Sweden, $d 1594-1632.

Gott Mit Uns

650 _ 0 Breitenfeld, Battle of, Germany, 1631.

A Lifetime of War

650 _ 0 Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648.

1648

650 _ 0 Prague, Battle of, Prague, Czech Republic, 1648.

The Carolean’s Prayer

650 _ 0 Sweden $x History, Military $y 17th century.

Carolus Rex

600 0 0 Charles $b XII, $c King of Sweden, $d 1682-1718.

Killing Ground

650 _ 0 Fraustadt, Battle of, Wschowa, Poland, 1706.

Poltava

650 _ 0 Poltava, Battle of, Poltava, Ukraine, 1709.

Long Live the King

600 0 0 Charles $b XII, $c King of Sweden, $d 1682-1718 $x Death and burial.

Ruina Imperii

650 _ 0 Northern War, 1700-1721 $x Campaigns $z Norway $z Trøndelag.

650 _ 0 Sweden $x History $y Charles XII, 1697-1718.

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Heroes (2014)

Night Witches

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Participation, Female.
650 _ 0 Women air pilots $z Soviet Union.

No Bullets Fly

600 1 0 Brown, Charlie, 1912-2008.
600 1 0 Stigler, Franz, 1916-2008.

Smoking Snakes

610 1 0 Brazil. Exército. Força Expedicionária Brasileira, 1944-1945.

Inmate 4859

600 1 0 Pilecki, Witold, 1901-1948.

To Hell and Back

600 1 0 Murphy, Audie, 1924-1971.

650 _ 0 Post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Ballad of Bull

600 1 4 Allen, Bull, 1916-1982.

Resist and Bite

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Underground movements $z Belgium.

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Campaigns $z France $z Ardennes.

Soldier of 3 Armies

600 1 0 Törni, Lauri Allan, 1919-1965.

Far from the Fame

600 1 0 Janoušek, Karel, 1893?-1971.

Hearts of Iron

650 _ 0 Halbe, Battle of, Germany, 1945.

Man of War

610 2 0 Manowar (Musical group).

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The Last Stand (2016)

Sparta

650 _ 0 Thermopylae, Battle of, Greece, 480 B.C.

Last Dying Breath

600 1 4 Gavrilović, Dragutin.

Blood of Bannockburn

650 _ 0 Bannockburn, Battle of, Scotland, 1314.

Diary of an Unknown Soldier

650 _ 0 Argonne, Battle of the, France, 1918.

The Lost Battalion

610 1 0 United States. $b Army. $b Infantry, 308th.

Rorke’s Drift

650 _ 0 Rorke’s Drift, Battle of, South Africa, 1879.

651 _ 0 Rome (Italy) $x History $y Siege, 1527.

The Last Stand

610 1 0 Vatican City. $b Guardia svizzera pontificia–History.

Hill 3234

651 _ 0 Afghanistan $x History $y Soviet occupation, 1979-1989.

651 _ 0 Soviet Union. $b Sovetskai︠a︡ Armii︠a︡.

Shiroyama

650 _ 0 Satsuma Rebellion, 1877.

Winged Hussars

651 _ 0  Vienna (Austria) $x History $y Siege, 1683.

650 _ 0 Poland. $b Armia. $b Kawaleria.

The Last Battle

650 _ 0 World War, 1939-1945 $x Campaigns $z Austria $z Tyrol.

Finding Sex Work in LCSH

I read Beacher Wiggins’ response to Sanford Berman, [courtesy of Tina Gross, and I suggest you give it a read too!]. Now obviously the first thing I note is that he checks this very blog [thought not by name], but AFTER that fannish-squeeing, I absorb the rest.

There’s a tremendous in there to unpack, and I can’t do it all right now. One pull-out that I do want to highlight is the term ‘Sex workers’.

Wiggins:

Sex workers. This phrase was added as a “see” reference to the heading Prostitutes in 2008.

Berman:

I’m well aware that SEX WORKERS is presently a see-reference to PROSTITUTES. The trouble with that is that “sex workers” is a much broader term, encompassing not only prostitutes, but also exotic or pole dancers, stripteasers, phone sex operators, and erotic film actors, among others.

Side note: that this isn’t the first time criticism has been made of this entry, Hope Olson, the latest and MUCH DESERVED! recipient of the Margaret Mann Citation, notes in her work: “Confirming this perspective, the general heading ‘Prostitutes is a narrower term under the heading ‘Women'” [The Power to Name: Representation in Library Catalogs. Hope A. Olson. Signs, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp 639-668. The University of Chicago Press]

I don’t know when this was changed — as it stands, Prostitutes is not an NT of Women but despite searching the PCC site, I couldn’t turn up the editorial meeting when this was changed. As I’ve lamented before, LCSH is frustratingly bad at version history.

But back to the business at hand.

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First, terminology: let’s go to the sources — this is to indicate the scope of the term ‘Sex worker’ covers a variety of services and to also demonstrate its preferred usage.

What is Sex Work?

Sex work is any type of labor where the explicit goal is to produce a sexual or erotic response in the client. Sex work includes prostitution, but it also includes a bunch of other things like erotic dancing, pro-dom/pro-sub work, webcam work, sensual massage, adult film, phone sex, being a sugar baby, etc.

http://www.new.swopusa.org/learn-about-sex-work/

International Union of Sex Workers

We’re a group of people who work in the sex industry and adult entertainment, together with allies who support our aims.

We believe that everyone in the industry, whether they are there through choice, circumstance or coercion, deserves the same human, civil and labour rights as other citizens.

We’re a grassroots organisation, founded by a migrant who worked in a range of jobs in the sex industry. The organisation brings together people from all sectors – people who sell sexual contact or BDSM services, people who work for or run agencies, websites or brothels, strippers, erotic dancers and glamour models, porn actors and film makers, phone sex workers and web cam models; men, women and transgender people; straight, gay and bisexual.

http://www.iusw.org/iusw-who-we-are/

Sex Workers’ Rights are Human Rights

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/08/sex-workers-rights-are-human-rights/

Sex workers were the first to use the terms sex work and sex worker. The terms have been adopted by numerous international health, labor and human rights organizations, including the United Nations and its affiliated agencies.

The term sex worker is neutral, descriptive and informative without being judgmental. It recognizes sex work as a reality, whatever the speaker’s opinion about the work itself. It does not distinguish by gender, race, ethnicity or creed. It allows the possibility of the worker’s dignity and ability to make decisions. Most of all, it affirms the humanity of the person.

http://sexworkersproject.org/media-toolkit/downloads/03-WhatsInAName.pdf

When discussing sex work using existing LCSH, there are a substantial number of terms collocated on the business side of things:

Sex-oriented businesses which has NTs of Adult movie theaters, Brothels, Gay Bathhouses, Massage parlors, Pornography, Prostitution, and Sex tourism.

Following the chain of NTs, we pick up additionally: All-male adult movie theaters, Internet pornography, Male prostitution, Pornographic films, and Telephone sex. [I’m picking only the ones that I think fall into the ‘business-ey’ side of things]

I pause to note that Escort services is an NT of Service industries and has no connection this hierarchy, despite being a pretty well-known euphemism for same.

But there is no overarching BT term for the providers of sexual services. I have identified the following terms which could be usefully placed as NTs.

Lap dancers, Prostitutes, Sex surrogates, Stripteasers

Some terms that we don’t have in LCSH but probably should, there’s plenty of literary warrant:

‘Dominatrices’

Interestingly, all the memoirs I found written by dominatrices [I have not determined if the plural ‘dominatrices’ is actually a better choice for the preferred term] used Sexual dominance and submission in some capacity rather than following the standard practice for biographies of:

600 [Person’s name]

650 [Class of person] — Biography

which I suppose would’ve necessitated proposing the term. Here’s some good literary warrant:

• Dominatrix : a memoir : the making of Mistress Chloe
• Spanking city hall : dominatrix to political activist
• Whip smart : a memoir 

‘Webcam models’

• Secrets of a webcam girl : a memoir
• Webcam girls

[note that many of these works are assigned the heading Computer sex which is also not in the hierarchy of Sex-oriented businesses perhaps because it is intended to cover freely exchanged cybersex?]

‘Telephone sex operators’

• Jolene, a fiery redhead who loves talking dirty : true life autobiography of a 1-2-1 chat girl
• Dirty talk : diary of a phone-sex “mistress”
• Sweet talkers

[As above, Telephone sex  is not in the hierarchy of Sex-oriented businesses]

This is not an exhaustive list, and many other terms as seen enumerated by the organizations are possible — but I think it’s very unlikely LCSH would ever authorize “Pornographic film actor” or anything like that because they don’t have any terms for other genres of actor.

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A note: there is a problem in creating an LCSH BT of ‘Sex worker’. And that’s what to do with the term Prostitute itself. In reading for this blog post, it seems that many sex workers would prefer that were the term to be used. But how then to differentiate the category from the specific?

Berman is correct in that we need a BT term ‘Sex workers’. Perhaps I’ll put together a proposal.

#LISMentalHealth2017

Previous iteration of this post

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CN for police, self-harm,  and involuntary commitment

 

It was recently my birthday (January 26) and it was a mixed day. I say that because while things are going fairly well in my personal life, the last vestiges of our democracy is crumbling — that tends to color every day a certain hue of resistant beige. It was not however, my worst birthday. That title belongs to January 26th, 2003, my 19th birthday. I want to acknowledge that it was the worst for reasons entirely personal and not at all to do with the state of the world in 2002 [which were certainly awful, but not on my mind at that time]

At that time, I was living at the Austen Riggs Center in western Mass on an indefinite absence from Wesleyan University. Austen Riggs is a voluntary-only open-door-kinda-treatment facility. That means that you are not allowed to be there if you need a locked-unit or are judged a risk to harm yourself or others. I’d been there since Oct. 31 of 2002.

You need to understand that although I was in a serious treatment program, my mind was always on getting back to school, back to my friends. I’d had to leave Wesleyan in September of my sophomore year and didn’t know when [if ever, and spoiler: never] I’d get to go back. In my mind, my friends were moving on, having new experiences, and forging on without me. I felt left-behind, forgotten, and losing touch with what I was working towards.

Let me pause to be perfectly clear that it was not healthy to hold “return to Wesleyan and be with all my friends and everything will be as though I’d never left” as my goal. It wasn’t realistic because it wasn’t possible. Not that I couldn’t have returned, but that anything would be the same even if I did go back. Time had passed and would continue to pass and rekindling that magical first year of college can’t be done.

January 25, 2003 — it was about to be my birthday and I was feeling particularly lonesome. I wanted to see my friends so I drove down to Wesleyan. It wasn’t enough, and it didn’t help. If anything it made my feelings worse. Seeing them in person was just further evidence to me that I’d missed some important window on those relationships — and that that window was ever widening.

I panicked. I broke down. I was hopeless.  I drove.

I drove all night. I stopped for gas and ate and I drove. I didn’t know where I wanted to go, I just knew that when I was driving with my music playing, I felt like I was in charge of my life, I was in control of my destination and my story and my future. I’d gotten on I-90 West and eventually saw a sign for Niagara Falls in the early hours of the morning. I’d never been there, and so I stopped. It was early and cold on January 26th and it was my birthday. I saw the Falls and sat for a while alone. Listening to the empty silence and smelling the cold.

I kept driving. Seeing signs for Ohio I thought maybe I’d see my friend at Oberlin whom I’d never visited. I called my parents first to explain what I’d been doing, they were worried. I was also worried. I called my friend and we got together at Oberlin. I spent the night there and had promised my parents I’d come back the next day. It was snowing harder by that point and I was not a good driver. I’m still not a good driver.

I spun off the road a little ways and my car got stuck. I couldn’t get it back onto the road. I started walking, hoping somebody would come along who could get me to a tow truck. A semi picked me up and offered to drive me to a gas station at the next off-ramp, he called a dispatch, got my car towed and had the tow guy meet me at the gas station. The tow guy drove me to an ATM so I could get cash to buy back my car. I got to a motel and slept, charging my phone and calling my parents again.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. I went home to Sharon and told my parents that I didn’t want to be at Austen Riggs anymore, they had me call the Centre to tell them that I was home safe. Then the police arrived, the Centre had called them to bring to a psych unit at a hospital.

I was scared. I was angry, and I was scared. But here I pause this mostly-flat telling to editorialize again. I survived this encounter in no small part due to being white and affluent. When I wouldn’t get on a gurney, when I resisted and struggled — no excessive force was used against me. No weapons were brought out to escalate the situation. This is not the the treatment people who don’t look like me, who don’t live in ‘good’ neighborhoods get. I was handcuffed to the gurney and restrained but I survived and wasn’t harmed.

If there’s any point or message to this besides “I’m sharing this story so that others in LIS will know that they are not alone with having scary or ‘dangerous’ histories and presents” — it is this: responding to the acutely symptomatic with law enforcement is a terrible societal idea. They are not equipped for those situations and the usual gamut of implicit and explicit biases has far too many times lead to their murdering those they are sent to help.

This did not happen to me, I was protected by my place in the social structure. It shouldn’t happen to anyone.

Follow up to Faceting Musing

This is a follow up post to my previous post on faceting class of people/ethnic groups in LCSH. If you haven’t read that one, go back and read it first!

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After I promoted that post a bit on twitter, I got into some lively discussion with MARCinaColdClimate and Ethan Fenichel on twitter. A piece of that discussion centered around our subject indexes, that is — if we were to create new headings based on atomic units of headings (i.e. “Catalogers”+ “Jews” becomes “Catalogers Jews”) someone searching in a subject index for ‘Jews’ wouldn’t find the term.

Two responses to that problem:

1. Our indexes are already out of whack because we are inconsistent in our ‘ordering’ of identity facets in LCSH already.

Gay Men, White will file in the ‘Gs’ but  ‘African American gay men’ will file in the ‘As’

1. A solution! During index generation, permute the 650s (i.e. 3 terms become 6 in the index)

While obviously I have no idea how your (or my!) ILS generates its index, I figured I’d at least give it a shot with some MARCXML/XSLT.

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I wanted to try two different examples, one in which the three terms are already in a single $a of a single 650 (as demonstrated in L 410 Section 2: Option 1.a) and one in which each term was in its own 650 as expected.

Given this input:

 

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<slim:collection xmlns:slim=“http://www.loc.gov/MARC21/slim&#8221;>
    <slim:record>
        <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
            <slim:subfield code=“a”>African Americans</slim:subfield>
            <slim:subfield code=“a”>Gays</slim:subfield>
            <slim:subfield code=“a”>Jews</slim:subfield>
        </slim:datafield>
    </slim:record>

    <slim:record>
        <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
            <slim:subfield code=“a”>Catalogers</slim:subfield>
        </slim:datafield>
        <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
            <slim:subfield code=“a”>Lesbians</slim:subfield>
        </slim:datafield>
        <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
            <slim:subfield code=“a”>Older people</slim:subfield>
        </slim:datafield>
    </slim:record>
</slim:collection>

This transformation:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl=“http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform&#8221;
    xmlns:xs=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema&#8221; xmlns:slim=“http://www.loc.gov/MARC21/slim&#8221;
    xmlns:ng=“http://example.com/ng&#8221; exclude-result-prefixes=“xs ng” version=“2.0”>

    <xsl:output indent=“yes”/>

    <xsl:function name=“ng:permute” as=“item()*”>
        <xsl:param name=“head” as=“item()*”/>
        <xsl:param name=“tail” as=“item()*”/>
        <xsl:choose>
            <xsl:when test=“count($tail) eq 1”>
                <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
                    <slim:subfield code=“a”>
                        <xsl:for-each
                            select=“
                                $head,
                                $tail”>

                            <xsl:value-of select=“concat(normalize-space(.),’ ‘)”/>

                        </xsl:for-each>
                    </slim:subfield>
                </slim:datafield>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:otherwise>
                <xsl:sequence
                    select=“
                        for $pos in (1 to count($tail))
                        return
                            ng:permute(($head,
                            $tail[$pos]), $tail[position() ne $pos])”
                />
            </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
    </xsl:function>

    <xsl:function name=“ng:permutations” as=“element()”>
        <xsl:param name=“input” as=“item()*”/>
        <slim:record>
            <xsl:sequence
                select=“
                    for $pos in (1 to count($input))
                    return
                        ng:permute($input[$pos], $input[position() ne $pos])”
            />
        </slim:record>
    </xsl:function>

    <xsl:template match=“/”>
        <slim:collection>
            <xsl:apply-templates select=“slim:collection/slim:record/slim:datafield[1]”/>
        </slim:collection>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match=“slim:datafield[count(slim:subfield) > 1]”>
        <xsl:variable name=“sorted-subfields” as=“element()*”>
            <xsl:perform-sort select=“slim:subfield[@code = ‘a’]”>
                <xsl:sort select=“.”/>
            </xsl:perform-sort>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:copy-of select=“ng:permutations($sorted-subfields)”/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match=“slim:datafield[count(slim:subfield) eq 1]”>
        <xsl:variable name=“sorted-subfields” as=“element()*”>
            <xsl:perform-sort select=“../slim:datafield”>
                <xsl:sort select=“slim:subfield”/>
            </xsl:perform-sort>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:copy-of select=“ng:permutations($sorted-subfields)”/>
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Produces this result:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<slim:collection xmlns:slim=“http://www.loc.gov/MARC21/slim&#8221;>
   <slim:record>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>African Americans Gays Jews </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>African Americans Jews Gays </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Gays African Americans Jews </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Gays Jews African Americans </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Jews African Americans Gays </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Jews Gays African Americans </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
   </slim:record>
   <slim:record>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Catalogers Lesbians Older people </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Catalogers Older people Lesbians </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Lesbians Catalogers Older people </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Lesbians Older people Catalogers </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Older people Catalogers Lesbians </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
      <slim:datafield tag=“650”>
         <slim:subfield code=“a”>Older people Lesbians Catalogers </slim:subfield>
      </slim:datafield>
   </slim:record>
</slim:collection>

---

The permutation functions can take any number of arguments (until memory runs out I guess…) and even sorts ’em alphabetically! Pretty neat, huh?

Of course looking at this…another problem jumped out at me:

Grammatical agreement!

Take the first example: when ‘Jews’ is the terminal word, it’s fine — but if it isn’t it really needs to be ‘Jewish’.

In the second example, I can’t really imagine ever having ‘Catalogers’ first as a term. It’d have to be something like “Cataloging Lesbian Older people’ — which sounds like a function not a description.

Simply permuting terms would not be enough, the system would have to be able to tweak them.

Who Tells Your Story – Part 1

 

How does a

650 _ 0 Illegitimate children.

650 _ 0 Orphans.

650 _ 0 Children of prostitutes.

650 _ 0 Scots $x Children. (1)

---

I love the Hamilton musical — and I love overly specific LCSH. Presented for your approval, the marriage of those two things. I’m only making footnotes for when I’m using a subdivision under an unauthorized topic or without some required accompanying topic, because I want you to know that I know. If I’m using a subdivision in a ‘joke’ way, that is, in a way that it doesn’t actually  mean what the subdivision is supposed to mean, I do not make a note. Assume that I know.

Alexander Hamilton

600 1 0 Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804 $x Family.

600 1 0 Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804 $x Travel $z New York (State) $z New York. (2)

Aaron Burr, Sir

600 1 0 Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804 $x Name.

650 _ 0 Bursars $x Violence against.

600 1 0 Burr, Aaron, 1756-1836 $x Political and social views.

600 1 0 Laurens, John, 1754-1782 $x Alcohol use.

600 1 0 Mulligan, Hercules, 1740-1825 $x Relations with Mothers.

600 1 0 Mulligan, Hercules, 1740-1825 $x Relations with Daughters.

600 1 0 Mulligan, Hercules, 1740-1825 $x Relations with Horses. (3)

My Shot

600 1 0 Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834 $x Clothing.

600 1 0 Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804 $x Oratory.

 

The Schuyler Sisters

600 1 0 Schuyler, Philip John, 1733-1804 $x Finance, Personal.

600 1 0 Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809. $t Common sense $x Criticism and interpretation.

600 1 0 Church, Angelica Schuyler, 1756-1815 $x Quotations.

600 1 0 Schuyler, Margarita, -1801 $x Harmony.

Farmer Refuted

600 1 0 Seabury, Samuel, 1729-1796. $t Free thoughts, on the proceedings of the Continental Congress, held at Philadelphia Sept. 5, 1774 $x Criticism, Textual.

You’ll Be Back

600 0 0 George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820 $x Divorce.

 

Right Hand Man

600 1 0 Washington, George, 1732-1799 $x Friends and associates.

600 1 0 Montgomery, Richard, 1738-1775 $x Death.

651 _ 0 Kips Bay (New York, N.Y.) $x Desertions. (4)

 

 

 

(1) –Children is only valid under wars, so don’t use it like this, if you wanted this term you’d have to establish “Children, Scots”

(2) Remember that in real life, you should add “Place — Description and travel.” when dividing “Travel” by a place.

(3) –Relations with [specific class of persons or ethnic group]  obviously does not allow ‘Horses’.

(4) –Desertion is not actually valid under locations, only under individual wars.

 

Just Who IS Ms. Marvel, Anyway?

Update 2016-05-29

What an unexpected update! The May PSD meeting inadvertently answered my question about how LC prefers to handle these specific situations.

Human Torch (Fictitious characters)

The Human Torch is a fictitious character that has various human identities over time. The Human Torch himself may have changed his looks over time, but it was still the same character. It is therefore not a group of fictitious characters according to LCSH, but a single one, which should be established in the name authority file as a pseudonym used by several persons. The proposal was not approved.

I can see situations where I think it’d be good to differentiate between identities. If you had a very large comic book collection in your library and a patron asked for the issues where Bucky was Captain America, having two name headings like “Captain America (Bucky Barnes)” and “Captain America (Steve Rogers)” would be useful. I can see how that could grow untenable though.

I guess I fundamentally disagree that the Human Torch has really been  the ‘same character’ through his various iterations. I mean the first iteration of the Torch was a freakin’ robot! That’s certainly a different character than Johnny Storm.

So though I don’t agree with them that every person that uses a name should be grouped under a single heading — that’s their answer.

Next step my dear catalogers — GO FORTH and add them 400s!

---

The other day I was cataloging some trade paper backs of Ms. Marvel comics, and was deciding whether or not to use a 600 for the character herself (subdivided by $v Comic books, strips, etc. of course).

Hopping to the name authority file, I found Marvel, Ms. but noted that while “Danvers, Carol” is listed as a 400, “Khan, Kamala” is not.

I wasn’t sure if this identity  (in the Library of Congress I mean, not for Marvel Comics Group and their attendant industries) was intended to represent all people ever known as “Marvel, Ms.” — a sort of collective pseudonym — and therefore usable to represent Khan’s incarnation of the character.

Having posed the question on twitter (and a big thanks to SofiaDistracted and Jessica for engaging with me on this, I checked a bunch of other NARs for comic characters whose names have been adopted by multiple people. Here are some findings:

• Batgirl (Fictitious character)
  • People who’ve assumed that mantle/name:
    • Betty Kane (“Bat-Girl”)
    • Barbara Gordon
    • Helena Bertinelli
    • Cassandra Cain
    • Stephanie Brown
  • 0 400s in the NAR
• Nightwing (Fictitious character)
  • People who’ve assumed that mantle/name
    • Dick Grayson
    • Tim Drake
    • Damian Wayne
  • 0 400s in the NAR
• Robin, the Boy Wonder (Fictitious character)
  • People who’ve assumed that mantle/name
    • Dick Grayson
    • Jason Todd
    • Tim Drake
    • Stephanie Brown
    • Damian Wayne
  • 3 400s in the NAR
    • Grayson, Dick (Fictitious character)
    • Grayson, Richard John (Fictitious character)
    • Robin (Fictitious character from Kane)
• Captain Marvel (Fictitious character : Marvel Comics Group)
  • People who’ve assumed that mantle/name
    • Mar-Vell
    • Monica Rambeau
    • Genis-Vell
    • Phyla-Vell
    • Khn’nr
    • Noh-Varr
    • Carol Danvers
  • 8 400s in the NAR
    • Mar-Vell (Fictitious character)
    • Rambeau, Monica (Fictitious character)
    • Genis-Veil (Fictitious character)
    • Phyla-Vell (Fictitious character)
    • Khn’nr (Fictitious character)
    • Noh-Varr (Fictitious character)
    • Danvers, Carol (Fictitious character)
    • Marvel, Captain (Fictitious character : Marvel Comics Group)

So from these 4 examples…either the catalogers making the NAR didn’t care to add ANY alter-egos (poor Batgirl and Nightwing!), or they added one for the predominant identity only, or ALL the identities! So I can’t really conclude anything. Maybe I need a larger sample, help me, more knowledgable comics people:

What other names that have been held by multiple people? (for the record, as of ‘print’ time, The Flash, Green Lantern, Venom, Ant-Man, Spider-Woman — all of whom I know off the top of my head have had different people under a single identity — are not in the NAF)

I’m not suggesting that the NAF should differentiate between every person who grabs a name and a cape for twenty minutes. But at the very least, adding in the 400s will allow people who are searching for some of those names to find the character.

To muddy the waters a bit, I did come across the FAQ on pseudonyms from NACO — while this is obviously intended to apply to creators/contributors of works, and not really to subjects, rules A1.4-A1.6 could perhaps be interpreted to apply to this situation.

Whew. I’d love to hear any thoughts anybody has on this!

Failed Experiment

Take it from Jake the Dog.

So I recently came into my old comic book collection, i.e. my parents asked me take the comics languishing in the basement back to apartment.

Being who I am, I of course decided to try to catalog them! Again, being who I am…I thought I’d try something kind of ridiculous — and it didn’t really work.

I thought I’d try out Bibframe. Without the editor. In XML. Myself.

Why? It’s not even done yet! There aren’t even really expressions yet! What the heck is an instance?

Fine. You’re right. I shouldn’t’ve. I’ve just been looking for a project, they always say, y’know, ‘they’ that if you want to “learn to code” you should have a project.

So the project is: Catalog and display (on the internet) my comic book collection.

I didn’t want to use MARCXML because frankly, MARC is the past, blah blah blah, future of linked data blah blah blah. So I bit off more than I could chew by attempting Bibframe. I’m going to back up a couple steps.

Not wanting to re-invent the wheel though, I looked for existing metadata standards. Here’s two that I’m interested in:

• http://dcl.slis.indiana.edu/cbml/
• http://acbf.wikia.com/wiki/Advanced_Comic_Book_Format_Wiki

The former, Comic Book Markup Language is pretty cool, and definitely worth a read-through if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s essentially a TEI (text encoding initiative) extension. It adds some comic-book specific elements and attributes to the TEI set to better describe the medium. It’s also REALLY granular. Way more granular than what I’m looking for! The implication of its use is that you want panel-by-panel description, whereas I’m more interested in a broader bibliographic description. It’s still something I’ll be checking out though, maybe at a future date. It would definitely be fun to encode some classic like, Spider-Man #50 in CBML.

The latter is a lot less involved and more what I’m looking for, so I think I’ll be giving it a try. Will report back!

---

 

For those interested in the bonkers mess I made: here’s a fun excerpt…

Note that I was just working on a single comic, Batman 236, as my test case. I will note that this is valid RDF, so that’s nice.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <rdf:RDF xmlns:bf="http://bibframe.org/vocab/"
   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
   <bf:Work rdf:about="Work1">
     <bf:authorizedAccessPoint>Batman (Comic strip)</bf:authorizedAccessPoint>
     <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n86129114.html"/>
     <bf:formDesignation rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026562"/>
     <bf:workTitle>Batman</bf:workTitle>
     <bf:originDate>1939</bf:originDate>
     <bf:creator>
       <bf:person>
         <bf:authorizedAccessPoint>Kane, Bob</bf:authorizedAccessPoint>
         <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n89105909.html"/>
         <bf:label>Bob Kane</bf:label>
         <bf:relator>
           <bf:relatorRole>
             <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://www.rdaregistry.info/Elements/w/#P10061"/>
             <bf:label>Author</bf:label>
           </bf:relatorRole>
         </bf:relator>
       </bf:person>
     </bf:creator>
     <bf:originPlace>
       <bf:place>
         <bf:authorizedAccessPoint>New York (N.Y.)</bf:authorizedAccessPoint>
         <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79007751.html"/>
         <bf:label>New York City</bf:label>
       </bf:place>
     </bf:originPlace>
     <bf:language rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/languages/eng"/>
     <bf:hasPart rdf:resource="Instance1"/>
   </bf:Work>
 
   <bf:Work rdf:about="Work2">
     <bf:formDesignation rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026562"/>
     <bf:workTitle>Wail of the ghost bride</bf:workTitle>
     <bf:originDate>1971</bf:originDate>
     <bf:originPlace>
       <bf:place>
         <bf:authorizedAccessPoint>New York (N.Y.)</bf:authorizedAccessPoint>
         <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79007751.html"/>
         <bf:label>New York City</bf:label>
       </bf:place>
     </bf:originPlace>
     <bf:creator>
       <bf:person>
         <bf:authorizedAccessPoint>Robbins, Frank</bf:authorizedAccessPoint>
         <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr2007008097.html"/>
         <bf:label>Frank Robbins</bf:label>
         <bf:relator>
           <bf:relatorRole>
             <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://www.rdaregistry.info/Elements/w/#P10061"/>
             <bf:label>Author</bf:label>
           </bf:relatorRole>
         </bf:relator>
       </bf:person>
     </bf:creator>
     <bf:language rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/languages/eng"/>
     <bf:hasInstance rdf:resource="Instance1"/>
   </bf:Work>
 
   <bf:Work rdf:about="Work3">
     <bf:formDesignation rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026562"/>
     <bf:workTitle>While the city sleeps</bf:workTitle>
     <bf:originDate>1945</bf:originDate>
     <bf:originPlace>
       <bf:place>
         <bf:authorizedAccessPoint>New York (N.Y.)</bf:authorizedAccessPoint>
         <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79007751.html"/>
         <bf:label>New York City</bf:label>
       </bf:place>
     </bf:originPlace>
     <bf:creator>
       <bf:person>
         <bf:authorizedAccessPoint>Finger, Bill, 1914-1974</bf:authorizedAccessPoint>
         <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n00042098.html"/>
         <bf:label>Bill Finger</bf:label>
         <bf:relator>
           <bf:relatorRole>
             <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://www.rdaregistry.info/Elements/w/#P10061"/>
             <bf:label>Author</bf:label>
           </bf:relatorRole>
         </bf:relator>
       </bf:person>
     </bf:creator>
     <bf:language rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/languages/eng"/>
     <bf:hasInstance rdf:resource="Instance1"/>
   </bf:Work>
   
   <bf:Work rdf:about="Work4">
     <bf:formDesignation rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026562"/>
     <bf:workTitle>Rain of fire</bf:workTitle>
     <bf:originDate>1971</bf:originDate>
     <bf:originPlace>
       <bf:place>
         <bf:authorizedAccessPoint>New York (N.Y.)</bf:authorizedAccessPoint>
         <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79007751.html"/>
         <bf:label>New York City</bf:label>
       </bf:place>
     </bf:originPlace>
     <bf:creator>
       <bf:Person>
         <bf:authorizedAccessPoint>Friedrich, Mike</bf:authorizedAccessPoint>
         <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n93070044.html"/>
         <bf:label>Mike Friedrich</bf:label>
         <bf:relator>
           <bf:relatorRole>
             <bf:hasAuthority rdf:resource="http://www.rdaregistry.info/Elements/w/#P10061"/>
             <bf:label>Author</bf:label>
           </bf:relatorRole>
         </bf:relator>
       </bf:Person>
     </bf:creator>
     <bf:language rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/languages/eng"/>
     <bf:hasInstance rdf:resource="Instance1"/>
   </bf:Work>
   
   <bf:Instance rdf:about="Instance1">
     <bf:instanceTitle rdf:resource="Title1"/>
     <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://bibframe.org/vocab/Monograph"/>
     <bf:formDesignation rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026562"/>
     <bf:publication>
       <bf:Provider>
         <bf:providerName>
           <bf:Organization>
             <bf:label>National Periodical Publications Inc.</bf:label>
           </bf:Organization>
         </bf:providerName>
         <bf:providerPlace>
           <bf:Place>
             <bf:label>Sparta, Ill.</bf:label>
           </bf:Place>
         </bf:providerPlace>
         <bf:copyrightDate>1971</bf:copyrightDate>
       </bf:Provider>
     </bf:publication>
     <bf:language rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/languages/eng"/>
     <bf:stockNumber>
       <bf:Identifier>
         <bf:identifierScheme rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/identifiers/stockNumber"/>
         <bf:identifierValue>30430</bf:identifierValue>        
       </bf:Identifier>
     </bf:stockNumber>
     <bf:modeOfIssuance>single unit</bf:modeOfIssuance>
     <bf:extent>48 pages</bf:extent>
     <bf:illustrationNote>chiefly color illustrations</bf:illustrationNote>
     <bf:contentsNote>Wail of the ghost bride -- Rain of fire -- When the city sleeps</bf:contentsNote>
     <bf:instanceOf rdf:resource="Work2"/>
     <bf:instanceOf rdf:resource="Work3"/>
     <bf:instanceOf rdf:resource="Work4"/>
     <bf:isPartOf rdf:resource="Work1"/>
     <bf:relatedInstance rdf:resource="Instance2"/>
   </bf:Instance>
   
   <bf:Instance rdf:about="Instance2">
     <bf:instanceOf rdf:resource="Work3"/>
     <bf:instanceTitle rdf:resource="title2"/>
     <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://bibframe.org/vocab/Monograph"/>
     <bf:formDesignation rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026562"/>
   </bf:Instance>
     
   <bf:Title rdf:about="Title1">
     <bf:label>Batman no. 236</bf:label>
     <bf:titleValue>Batman</bf:titleValue>
     <bf:partNumber>236</bf:partNumber>
   </bf:Title>
   
   <bf:Title rdf:about="Title2">
     <bf:label>Batman no. 30</bf:label>
     <bf:titleValue>Batman</bf:titleValue>
     <bf:partNumber>30</bf:partNumber>
   </bf:Title>
 
 </rdf:RDF>
 

 

 

Strap on Your Chinderwear, We’re Off to the Memory Bank

First off, there is no cataloging here — so if you’re only reading my blog for Library/Cataloging things, sorry! It’s my blog, sometimes I will blog about things that interest me.

---

I love MST3K.

I was first introduced to the show by my mother who had VHS tapes given to her by her colleague at work. From the first, I enjoyed it — the adorable robots, the movies themselves, the barrage of riffs. But as I grew older, and as the show became more “mine”, it meant more to me than simply 90 minutes of laughter.

See I was a bit of a nerd growing up, a little isolated, a little weird, and a little shy. But when I put on MST3K, from the moment I first heard “In the not too distant future…” and that grey-purple spaghetti ball filled the screen, I was with friends. Because that’s how it felt — like I was watching a movie with my friends. I know, big insight, right?

The shadowrama made them immediate, made them feel more present. I learned to look not just for jokes, but for Tom turning his head or leaning over to quip something directly to Mike. Those weird moments when Crow would turn his head just so and suddenly the nestor-cube effect would kick in and I’d think he was facing me. When Joel would stand up and actually point at the screen, it was so much more than bad-movie-fun-making, they were here in my living room!

Their use of callbacks (and the occasional call-forward, see: Gerry and Sylvia) increased the intimacy by rewarding consistent-watching and close attention. I should mention here that I didn’t participate in any fandom, as that’s never been my jam. I didn’t prefer Mike to Joel, Trace to Bill, or Pearl to Dr. Forrester (though TV’s Frank is obviously the best). While I read mst3kinfo.com often, I never posted. I would share a short or two with a friend, but rarely a full movie. I found that in small doses many people could enjoy it, but that it could grow long and tiresome in bulk. It remained a solitary passion for me in my life, but shared with the friends in the show itself.

That’s fine. This isn’t some post about like, my superior MST3K fanboy skills or anything — fuck that. I love the show, and I’m musing on why, but I would never say that if someone didn’t like it, they just “didn’t get it”. I 100% know and believe that people can “get the show” and not be into it.

Here’s the rub for me. Here’s what made it so special.

People often say “they watch bad movies and make fun of them!” And sure, they do that. But they could’ve just done that, and that’d be a show. Bad movie plays, they crack wise — everyone laughs. But that wasn’t the show, for me. Obviously I love the movies, and their jokes over the movies — i’m not saying that doesn’t matter, but if it was JUST that, I probably wouldn’t have found the connection that I did.

They were characters! They had little skits! There were robots for no reason. Again, the show could’ve been “Joel Hodgson, Kevin Murphy, and Trace Beaulieu goof on films” — there’s no reason to have robots, and the Satellite of Love, and the Mads, and Deep 13, and the invention exchange, and movie sign, and Gypsy, and Cambot, and Tom singing songs, and putting letters up on stillstore. All of that was the show to me. It was making fake radio shows with my sister, it was shooting silly movies with a friend in his basement, it was skits I’d write in my bedroom, and it was all with my robot pals. It was terrifyingly low- budget and it was wonderful. The care they put into the non-movie parts of the show, translated directly into the movie parts: made with love.

Like a Christopher Guest film, they mocked with love. These are cheesy movies we’d be watching anyway, just enjoying them more — together. And when it got a little mean, it was less funny. When I rewatch, and I still do — I cringe at the occasional joke at the expense of femininity, or “Brain-Guy could you be any more gay” and the many fat jokes. “Mitchell” is not one i put on often… But it usually wasn’t mean, they cared about the movies and it showed.

So I guess that’s it? I explained and mused and rambled enough for one night. I love this show, and I’m supporting it getting a few more episodes over here on kickstarter — even though I know it won’t be the same. Riff Trax/Cinematic Titanic aren’t the same, but hey — nothing ever is.

Aw heck, you know I can’t resist: here’s a little cataloging for y’all

630 0 0 Mystery science theater 3000

650 _ 0 B films $v Humor

655 _ 7 Puppet films. $2 lcgft

Antisemitism in the Library of Congress Classification scheme

I’m not talking about antisemitism in the Library of Congress Classification scheme. No — i’m talking about the placement of antisemitism within LCC.

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As I’ve said before — Jews and Israelis are not the same thing.

Question: Why do you keep harping on this Netanel, we have to put everything somewhere!

Answer: Easy — I’m Jewish, I’m Israeli, I’m a cataloger, and it matters. It matters because the equation of these two distinct identities in the national (and international) sphere has incredibly potent and serious ramifications for war, peace, land, and money. Codifying this false equivalence into the LCC scheme, while not as widely used as DDC, then spreads the idea into every library in the world that uses LCC. I’m not trying to be overdramatic (though perhaps I am) — but the way we define our bibliographical (and non biblio) resources, what we collocate, tells our users (and reaffirms to ourselves) the way we think the world “is” and perhaps the way it “ought to be”.

So I harp.

Alright, so let’s talk about antisemitism in LCC. I’ve lived in the United States for nearly my entire life, and the US has a rich history of antisemitism, so let’s see where we’ll find those resources.

E184.3-E184.37  is the range for United States—Elements in the population—Jews

Putting aside the “Elements in the population aspect”, that’s a pretty reasonable place to look for anything that might have to do with the experiences, conditions, accomplishments and treatment of Jews in the United States. Indeed, you’ll find subdivisions broken down by period and then a section of Special topics, A-Z which includes:

E184.36.A-Z                          Special topics, A-Z
E184.36.A34                         African American-Jewish relations
                                              Antisemitism see DS146.U6
E184.36.E25                         Economic conditions

(emphasis mine)

oh ho!

What’s this now? We’ve been redirected to our old friend DS101-151 where we find:

History of Asia—Israel (Palestine). The Jews—Special topics—Jewish diaspora—Antisemitism—By region or country, A-Z

DS146.A-Z             By region or country, A-Z
                                             e.g.
DS146.A67                         Arab countries
DS146.E85                         Europe. Europe, Western
DS146.E8515                     Europe, Central
DS146.E852                       Europe, Eastern
DS146.U6                           United States

That’s right, all antisemitism is collocated under Israel (Palestine). The Jews rather than being placed with the country in which the antisemitism is happening, despite the fact that it’s subdivided by country!

LCC has enough of an understanding that the experiences of Jews can differ widely from country to country that each country has a cutter given to them in the “Elements in the population” section. [Edit — this is incorrect please see this post for more] The United States, LC’s fav country, even provides numerous sub-topics of Jewish lives. So if you want to discuss antisemitism in that country, why are we being sent to the DSs if not for the idea that there is a Jewish whole (which is equivalent to the State of Israel) under which all topics can be indexed.