Transgender Subject Access: History and Current Practice

Abstract

This article evaluates representation of transgender people and experiences in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). It compares LCSH treatment of transgender topics to that of controlled vocabularies developed to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) collections, as well as their treatment by scholarly LGBT encyclopedias. The appraisal of these knowledge domains demonstrates the continued relevance of subject descriptors as a mode of knowledge production both for information professionals and for those we serve. It also suggests strategies available to librarians to render transgender people more visible and accessible in library catalogs, including incorporating new technologies as well as modifying established cataloging instruments.The "hidden histories" ascribed to transgender people take on an added significance in library and information science, where the origins of current professional standards and practices are customarily veiled to information seekers and often obscure to professionals as well. This article evaluates representation of transgender people and experiences in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). It compares LCSH treatment of transgender topics to that of controlled vocabularies developed to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) collections, as well as their treatment by scholarly LGBT encyclopedias. Through these alternative sources, I attempt to show the evolution of "transgender" and an array of related concepts over time-an evolution necessarily masked by LCSH. The appraisal of these knowledge

The Antinomies of Academic Freedom

“…By only conceiving of academic freedom in individualist terms, the violence done by librarianships' (immaterial) classification systems, organizational practices, etc., can only be seen as offensive rather than violent. For example, in academic librarianship, we can see this in the (supremely rational) construction of taxonomical hierarchies, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings and LC classification system, which exclude, misidentify, and oppress trans people (Johnson 2010;Roberto 2011;Billey, Drabinski, Roberto 2014). The centrality of such rigid structures of organization and division to scientific truth in liberal thought is directly challenged by Indigenous, feminist, postmodern or Marxist views of social construction, historical change, and relationality.…”

Sexual Boundaries and Subcultural Discipline

“…With particular proliferation in the last decade, library and information scholarship, too, critiques the effects of institutionally sanctioned and authoritative gender and sexual subject categories, including Sanford Berman (1981 and, Ellen Greenblatt (1990 and, Hope Olson (1998Olson ( , 2001Olson ( , 2002Olson ( , and 2007, Grant Campbell (2001 and2004), Andrew Lau (2008), Ben Christiansen (2008 and, Patrick Keilty (2009), J. K. Rawson (2009), Matt Johnson (2010), Melissa Adler (2009, and 2013, and Analisa Ornelas (2011), to name only a few. Most of these scholars have forcefully shown the way the Library of Congress Subject Headings or the Dewey Decimal Classification System do not reflect the nomenclatures accustomed to gender and sexual non-conforming people.…”

The Case of LLACE: Challenges, Triumphs, and Lessons of a Community Archives

“…40 One of the best known is a thesaurus created by Dee Michel. 41 Another issue raised in the literature concerns physical access to collections in community archives. While archives traditionally have closed stacks, some community archives do not.…”