The Power to Name: Locating the Limits of Subject Representation in Libraries

269 Pages·2002·8.108 MB·English

by  Hope A. Olson (auth.)

The Power to Na rne
The Power to Name
Locating the Limits of
Subject Representation in Libraries
by
Hope A. Olson
School of Library and Information Studies,
University ofA lberta,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-6084-6 ISBN 978-94-017-3435-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-3435-6
Printed on acid-free paper
AU Rights Reserved
© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 2002
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording
or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception
of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered
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Contents
Preface ...................................................... ix
1 NAMING IS POWER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1
NAMING INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3
EVIDENCE OF BIAS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 7
OUR PROBLEMATIC LEGACY .......................... 9
Subject Access Through Searching ..................... 10
Subject Access through Browsing ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 11
CULTURAL VALUES AND LIBRARY PRACTICE ......... 12
Implications of the Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 14
2 ARMIES, RAILROADS AND PROCRUSTEAN BEDS .......... 16
MELVIL DEWEY AVOIDS CONFUZION ................. 17
Universality and Sameness as Desirable ................. 19
The Structure of DDC as a Universal Language ........... 21
The Canonicity of DDC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 26
Consistency in the Application of DDC as a Requirement
for Achieving Universality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 32
The Problem of Diversity as Represented by Viewpoint. . . .. 33
CUTTER'S RULES TO QUELL ANARCHY .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 38
Cutter and Universality: The Public. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 40
A Universal Language ............................... 47
A Hierarchical Structure ............................. 54
The Army of Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 61
3 THE ITERABILITY OF THE PUBLIC AND EFFICIENCY. . . . .. 63
ONE PUBLIC VOICE OF REASON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 65
The Public ........................................ 66
A Universal Language ............................... 79
A Hierarchical Structure ............................. 93
DEWEY'S PIGEONHOLES AND A BUSINESSMAN'S DESK 103
Universality and Sameness as Desirable ................ 104
v
VI Contents
The Structure of DDC as a Universal Language .......... 109
The Canonicity of DDC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 120
Consistency in the Application of DDC as a Requirement
for Achieving Universality ......................... " 126
The Problem of Diversity as Represented by Viewpoint . . .. 131
CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 140
4 THE AUTHORITY TO NAME ............................. 142
LCSH AND THE KNOWING SUBJECT .................. 143
LCSH Structure ................................... 145
"Man," "Human beings," et al. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 149
Unpaid Work ..................................... 163
Authority and Conformity ........................... 164
THE CONTEXT OF DDC ............................ " 167
Racial, Ethnic and National Groups .................... 168
Women and Other Others ............................ 172
Equality ...................................... 173
Difference .................................... 176
Abstractions and Universality;. Diversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 177
CONCLUSION ....................................... 181
5 ITEIARATING WOMEN ................................... 183
EARLY INTRODUCTION OF COMMON THEMES ........ 187
Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race, & Class ............... 187
COLLECTIONS WITH DIVERSE TOPICS ................ 193
Cherne Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua,
This Bridge Called My Back ......................... 193
Adrienne Rich, Blood, Bread, and Poetry ............... 196
Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop ................... 199
SPECIFIC CONCRETE TOPICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 202
Karen Anderson, Chain Her by One Foot ............... 202
Rosemary Pringle, Secretaries Talk .................... 206
Mary Romero, Maid in the U.S.A. ..................... 208
SPECIFIC THEORETICAL TOPICS ..................... 212
bell hooks, Talking Back ............................ 212
Trinh T. Minh-Ha, When the Moon Waxes Red:
Representation, Gender and Cultural Politics ............ 215
LESS OR MORE? .................................... 217
Tamsin Wilton, Immortal Invisible .................... 217
Diane Roberts, The Myth of Aunt Jemima ......... . . . . .. 220
CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 222
Contents vii
6 TOWARD ECCENTRIC TECHNIQUES ..................... 224
THEORY - PRINCIPLES - PRACTICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 226
Breaching The Limit ............................... 227
TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 228
Authority and Redemptive Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 231
Eccentric Classification ............................. 234
THE MARCH OF ORDER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 237
PROPOSING AN ECCENTRIC TECHNIQUE . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 238
Notes ..................................................... 241
Index ..................................................... 253
Preface
In this preface I will include explanations of three factors: the
intended audience of this book, the structure of the book, and the
acknowledgement of many who contributed to its fruition.
The Power to Name is intended for two audiences: those interested
in knowledge organization and those interested in theoretical study of
representation. These two groups come from the perspective of the
structure and principles of organization and from the perspective of
understanding the cultural ramifications of naming. The first may be those
who develop subject representation schemes for a wide range of purposes
and those who apply those schemes. They may be librarians, information
scientists, web developers or knowledge managers. The second group are
likely to be feminist, poststructural and postcolonial theorists who explore
the construction of meaning. It is my hope that both of these audiences
will find the case of subject representation in library catalogues
illuminating in a much wider sense. I have tried to include a modicum of
explanation for each audience while avoiding over-explanation for either.
This approach will require some patience and some close reading from
each?
The intellectual structure of the book is introduced in the first
chapter. However, in a book on organization of knowledge and
information it is important to also explain its internal syndetic structure.
I have used some somewhat unconventional approaches. The book
contains a fair number of 'manual hyperlinks' - references to earlier
discussions of a topic in the form of "see also page ... " referrals. These
links are specific. The index is not only a guide to the occurrence of topics
in the text, it is also a general tool for readers to use in creating their own
interpretations. In the manner of North American Aboriginal storytellers,
I have presented aspects of this story, but I have not completed it. I have
left loose ends of the story for listeners to work out for themselves in their
IX
x Preface
own way. I have not taken the whole story exclusively to my own voice.
As a tool for interpretation, the index may link technical cataloguers'
terms with definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary with
representation in subject headings. In this way it is the raw data for further
critical analysis. Finally, there are some inclusions, especially quotations
from the texts being analyzed in the book, that are there because they have
potential links, but which I do not directly discuss. I hope that readers will
find the book a text with which they can interact in interesting and,
possibly, insightful ways.
Finally, I come to the inscription of the many who fostered this
book. The Power to Name is, as such things always are, a product of its
contexts. One of my contexts is the study of knowledge organization in the
field of library and information studies. I have been fortunate in my
teachers, mentors and colleagues, beginning long ago at the University of
Toronto with Margaret Cockshutt and Nancy Williamson, continuing at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Ed Cortez, Jim Krikelas,
Wayne Wiegand, Dianne McAfee Hopkins and Debra Johnson, and
prospering in the International Society for Knowledge Organization
through interaction with many colleagues, especially Clare Beghtol.
Another of my contexts is feminist theory where Elaine Marks, Winnie
Tomm and Dallas Cullen have guided and encouraged my thinking. My
colleagues in the School of Library and Information Studies at the
University of Alberta have been unstinting in their support and insights,
particularly Sheila Bertram who inspired me to scholarly work in the first
place. Two students have made contributions well beyond their
responsibilities as graduate assistants. Rose SchIegl worked on the initial
stages and Shona R. Dippie on the final stages. Each spent many hours at
the computer and following up on details and tactfully offered suggestions
and observations that contribute to the content as well as the form. Thanks
are also due to the Faculty of Education Support for the Advancement of
Scholarship grant, which funded the inception of this project. In the end
I, of course, thank my family. I thank them for their support and for their
tolerance and for their unwaning confidence in me. In particular I thank
my husband Gust and my son Matt for their many contributions from note
taking to cooking to editing to keyboarding to stimulating conversations.
March 2002 - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Chapter 1
Naming Is Power
Women ...
Condition in Middle Ages of,
Habits in the Fiji Islands of,
Worshipped as goddesses by,
Weaker in moral sense than,
Idealism of,
Greater conscientiousness of,
South Sea Islanders, age ofp uberty among,
Attractiveness of,
Offered as sacrifice to,
Small size of brain of,
So read the notes taken by Virginia Woolf as she consulted the
catalogue of the British Museum library in search of information about women
and poverty.! Not surprisingly, she left that great repository of wisdom empty
handed.
In 1972, over forty years later, Marielena Fina consulted the catalogue
as Woolf had earlier in the century. This time the catalogue was in the Boston
area rather than London. Fina found "a card with the heading LmRARIES AND
THE SOCIALLY HANDICAPPED (having been changed from LmRARY
SERVICE TO THE CULTURALLY HANDICAPPED) to cover the topic of
access to information by a Latina( 0) in 1972."2
1