Featuring two new exhibits: Unseen Labor & Words Matter!

The Special Collections Research Center presents two exhibitions August 28, 2023 – May 17, 2024. Please drop in to visit us at our open house: September 1, 2023, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Unseen Labor: Social Justice in Cataloging

“Unseen Labor” is a traveling exhibition originally organized by Ann Kardos, University of Massachusetts Amherst. This is an exhibition of textile art pieces by catalogers who have stitched pieces about our work as catalogers and metadata specialists. We hope to pull back the curtain on some of our unseen labor with this exhibition. This exhibition is traveling from Massachusetts, Canada, Minnesota, California, Kentucky, Indiana and beyond! More information can be found in the exhibition catalog.

Words Matter! The Inclusive Cataloging Movement Takes Flight

This exhibition expands upon the Critical Cataloging movement and its significance for the Fresno State Library. In particular, highlighting injustices in the knowledge organizational systems of libraries and why we need inclusive cataloging practices to counter racism, antisemitism, and other limitations built into how we search and find information.

The displays of the exhibition include topics such as these:

  • Explain what the behind-the-scenes work of cataloging is  and why it matters
  • Explain critical cataloging which infuses DEIAJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Social Justice) into cataloging. This includes an infusion of quotes by an international group of catalogers who responded to the question, “What is critical cataloging, and why is it important to you?”
  • CSU ULMS (Unified Library Management System) Inclusive Description Task Force and the groundbreaking work they have done in making substantive changes to catalog records within the CSU
  • Dominant culture and its effect on the library and how we have collected and described resources
  • Examples of how we viewed certain resources through a critical cataloging lens
  • Nazis in the Stacks (the influence of one Library Director, Dr. Henry Madden, and his biases as a Nazi sympathizer on the library’s collections and how the collections were described .. and how we are augmenting the cataloging of those materials today)
  • Highlight examples of new additions to the Brengelman LGBTQ Collection, namely, books from Source LGBTQ+ Center (Visalia) and the Tiana Arruda Collection. We explain how we are providing better access to these LGBTQ+ collections via Homosaurus, an international, linked data vocabulary of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) terms

For more information, please contact Julie Moore, Special Collections Catalog Librarian, jumoore@csufresno.edu or anyone from the SCRC Team: 559.278.2595