Improving Subject Headings for Iowa Indigenous Peoples

• Published in: Library resources & technical services Vol. 66; no. 1; pp. 48 - 59
• Main Authors: Campbell, Heather M., Dieckman, Christopher S., Teal, Wesley, Wintermute, Harriet E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago American Library Association 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Archives & records; Community; Digital libraries; Indigenous peoples; Information professionals; Inuit; Librarians; Libraries; Library and information science; Library catalogs; Library of Congress Subject Headings; Library resources; Metadata; Names; Native North Americans; Political activity; Political aspects; Subject heading schemes; Terminology; University and college libraries; India; Oregon; Canada; Iowa; United States > US
• ISSN: 2159-9610; 0024-2527; 2159-9610
• DOI: 10.5860/lrts.66n1.48

By authorizing outdated terms for North American Indigenous peoples, the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) vocabulary deprioritizes or ignores the preferred names of the peoples being described. As a result, cataloging and metadata professionals constrained by LCSH often must apply names imposed during colonization. For example, in many library catalogs, works about people of the Meskwaki Nation in Iowa are labeled with “Fox Indians--Iowa” and “Sauk Indians--Iowa,” and Ioway peoples are described as “Iowa Indians.” As part of a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative at Iowa State University Library, a working group in the Metadata Services department undertook a project to build, publish, and use a controlled vocabulary of preferred terms for Indigenous communities with ties to land that is now part of the state of Iowa. This paper describes the working group’s research, outreach efforts, published vocabulary, and process for adding the preferred subject headings to library metadata.