Recording dates in association with gender is not ideal because gender identity is not a linear process, and it's certainly not a binary process which this method reinforces.
Look at Chaz Bono's authority record. We really don't know when exactly he decided that he was male, but we guess "2008?" -- but even that narrative in insulting. Many trans* individuals struggle their entire life with gender, and here we are simply assigning a date of when they decided to be "out" on their authority record. This raises another issue about trans* individuals who don't want to be out about their transition, and here we are recording it in their authority file.
I'll go back to the original argument that recording gender reinforces regressive ideas of binary gender identities that are tied to culture, time, and context. Recording dates associated with gender treats this lifelong complicated process is as simple as someone changing their name when they get married. And it's not that simple.
We need to think carefully and critically about how and why we record gender in authority files. I don't understand why we are recording gender for fictitious and mythical identities. I can see the research potential. I understand it's necessary and useful to distinguish names in certain situations (Chinese language names are a great example of this). But we're being asked as catalogers to use our judgement and guess something that is complicated and deeply personal for a some people.
Best,
Amber
Amber Billey Cataloging/Metadata Librarian Bailey/Howe Library University of Vermont 802-656-8568 [log in to unmask]On 6/8/2015 12:27 PM, Benjamin A Abrahamse wrote:
My question is: given that MARC field 375 supports date ranges ($s start period, $t end period) why do we need to record "transgender" (as a noun or an adjective) at all? If we record the dates an individual identified themselves as one gender, and the dates they identified themselves differently, why is that not perfectly sufficient?
(Though quite honestly I'm not sure why we feel the need to record any gender information to begin with.)
--Ben
Benjamin Abrahamse
Cataloging Coordinator
Acquisitions and Discovery Enhancement
MIT Libraries
From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bellinger, Christina
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2015 11:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Inevitable Caitlyn Jenner NAR question
Chris Bourg, the new director of the MIT libraries spoke at the annual Boston Library Consortium meeting about “de-centering” the white, male bias in library collections. Having access to gender and race information in authority records could be useful if one is trying to locate works by under-represented populations.
Christina
Christina Bellinger
Metadata/Cataloging Librarian
University of New Hampshire Library
18 Library Way
Durham, NH 03824
603 862-0073
From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Colby
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2015 2:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Inevitable Caitlyn Jenner NAR question
While several have expressed that recording gender in an authority record may not be a good idea, we also need to be aware that there are researchers who are very interested in knowing the gender of the creator of works. In the past few years I have been cataloging hundreds of scores, donated by a faculty member who specifically collected these works because they were composed by female songwriters.
In our bibliographic records, there is no good way to identify creators by gender. I have been diligently adding the 675 field to authority records to enable this kind of searching in the anticipated linked data library world. I utilize several reference works in this endeavor that are specifically concerned with women composers, songwriters, and musicians.
Perhaps the desires of these researchers might be something to keep in mind.
Regards,
Michael Colby
Principal Cataloger
University of California, Davis
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