Julianne Beall The Ethics of Information Organization May 22, 2009

1. MARC 21 Bibliographic Format Field 083, Racially Mixed People, and DDC Table 5 Ethnic and National Groups Julianne Beall The Ethics of Information Organization May 22, 2009

2. Outline • The Challenge of the Self-identity Principle • Table 5 in the Context of DDC as a Whole • MARC 21 Bibliographic Format Field 083 • Mapping Subject Headings to Table 5 Notation • DeweyBrowser beta v2.0, Tag Clouds, Table 5 • Conclusion: Part (i) Terminology and Part (ii) Retrieval

3. Maria P. P. Root’s “A Bill of Rights for Racially Mixed People” • “I have the right • to identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify • to identify myself differently than how my parents identify me • to identify myself differently in different situations” • “I have the right • to create a vocabulary to communicate about being multiracial • to change my identity over my lifetime—and more than once”

4. Jonathan Furner: The Challenge of the Self-identity Principle (1) • Designers of library catalogs and classification schemes have a responsibility to ensure: • (i) terminology used to represent racially mixed people reflects the terminology used by racially mixed searchers to identify themselves • (ii) works about racially mixed people can be retrieved in any of four ways that they may identify themselves

5. Jonathan Furner: The Challenge of the Self-identity Principle (2) • Racially mixed people may identify themselves: • 1. with racially mixed people generally; • 2. with racially mixed people particularly; • 3. with several racial populations equally; or • 4. with one racial population separately.

6. Table 5 Notation in the Context of DDC as a Whole • Appears at the end of a standard Dewey number, or embedded in the middle • May be omitted if the number is long • Various rules may prevent Table 5 notation from being added, e.g., requirement that the topic approximate the whole • Can never be added for literary works by individual authors

7. Quicksand by Nella Larsen (1) • LCSH in WorldCat: • Harlem (New York, N.Y.) — Fiction • African American women — Fiction • Racially mixed people — Fiction • Danish American women — Fiction • Copenhagen (Denmark) — Fiction • Young women — Fiction

8. Quicksand by Nella Larsen (2) • 813.52 American fiction in English, 1900-1945 • 81 American literature in English • 3 Fiction (from Table 3A) • 52 1900–1945 (from literary period table under 810.1–818)

9. MARC 21 Bibliographic Format Field 083 • Provision for assignment of access numbers (additional DDC numbers, notation from Tables 1–6, internal table notation) in bibliographic records • 083 - Additional Dewey Decimal Classification Number (R) • Added in Update No. 9 (October 2008) • OCLC expects to implement in WorldCat in August 2009

10. Quicksand by Nella Larsen (3) • 082 00 $a 813/.52 $2 22 • 083 0# $z 5 $a 05 $2 22 • 083 0# $z 5 $a 3981073 $2 22 • 083 0# $z 5 $a 96073 $2 22 • 083 0# $z 5 $a 059607303981073 $2 22

11. Quicksand by Nella Larsen (4) • 083 0# $z 5 $a 05 $2 22 • 05 Persons of mixed ancestry with ethnic origins from more than one continent (from Table 5)

12. Quicksand by Nella Larsen (5) • 083 0# $z 5 $a 3981073 $2 22 • 3981073 Danish Americans (built Table 5 notation) • 3981 Danes (from Table 5) • 0 Facet indicator as instructed at start of Table 5 • 73 United States (from Table 2)

13. Quicksand by Nella Larsen (6) • 083 0# $z 5 $a 96073 $2 22 • 96073 African Americans (United States Blacks) (from Table 5)

14. Quicksand by Nella Larsen (7) • 083 0# $z 5 $a 059607303981073 $2 22 • 059607303981073 African-American-Danish- Americans (built Table 5 notation) • 05 Persons of mixed ancestry with ethnic origins from more than one continent (from Table 5) • 96073 African Americans (United States Blacks) (from Table 5)

15. Quicksand by Nella Larsen (8) • 083 0# $z 5 $a 059607303981073 $2 22 • 0 Facet indicator as instructed at 05 in Table 5 • 3981 Danes (from Table 5) • 0 Facet indicator as instructed at start of Table 5 • 73 United States (from Table 2)

16. Mapping Subject Headings to Table 5 Notation • Mapping as basis for adding Table 5 notation in 083 fields of bibliographic records • Example: 951 Chinese (from Table 5) • 083 0# $z 5 $a 951 $2 22 • Most of the ca. 1000 LCSH headings with the word “Chinese” do not focus on Chinese people

17. LCSH that Might Be Mapped to Table 5 Notation 951 Chinese • African Americans — Relations with Chinese • Authors, Chinese • Chinese • Chinese diaspora • Chinese diaspora in literature • Chinese in literature • Chinese students • National characteristics, Chinese

18. DeweyBrowser beta v2.0 and Table 5 • The DDC summaries are presented in a tag cloud (without notation) in DeweyBrowser beta v2.0, available at http://deweybrowser.oclc.org/ddcbrowser2/ • Table 5 topics might be presented in an alternative tag cloud of terms

20. Table 5 Topics and Tag Clouds • Some broad Table 5 topics would be useful in a tag cloud, e.g., North American native peoples • Others would be skipped, e.g., Other Indo-European peoples • Narrower topics could be promoted to the opening tag cloud in place of the skipped topics, e.g., Irish • Captions could be modified, e.g., Racially mixed people for Table 5 notation 05

24. Conclusion: Part (i) of the Challenge: Terminology • Present multiple names for the same Table 5 topic in a tag cloud? No! • Then we cannot allow each searcher to search on that individual’s preferred term • Maybe some day a searcher will be able to personalize the names of the tags in a tag cloud

25. Conclusion: Part (ii) of the Challenge: Retrieval • Creative use of Table 5 notation in the MARC Bibliographic format 083 field can improve retrieval • Searchers who identify (1) “with racially mixed people generally” and (4) “with one racial population separately” will fare best • Searchers who identify (3) “with several racial populations equally” will probably be willing to do successive searches • Searchers who identify (2) “with racially mixed people particularly” will need to use Boolean searches