Project Description-

One of three components for my INFO-653: Knowledge Organization final, this was an individual paper that was assigned alongside a group presentation and group paper. This paper consists of research focusing on the coloniality of power in metadata standards, and the need for decolonization praxis within the catalog. 

Role-

While a part of a group project, this specific paper is a paper I authored and edited on my own as a part of my “Individual Paper” requirement for the INFO-653: Knowledge Organization final. 

Methods –

Conducting research for this paper was largely framed around the rubric for this assignment in conjunction with a comprehensive literature review regarding decolonization in the catalog. 

Upon gathering sources for the group project, there was an oversaturation of information. The assigned topic of “Indigenous Cataloging” was an immense undertaking. The themes within this topic that piqued my interest the most were what I used to contextualize the topic of my individual paper. I confronted and dissected the ideas of coloniality and indigeneity in cataloging and even then felt that this topic was encumbered with an amount of information that couldn’t be succinctly confined to a 4-5 paged paper. Eventually, the narrowing of my topic to structural bias allowed me to analyze the practice of metadata within this field and its implications in research, memory and culture. 

My research included classification schemes, MARC21 formatting, subject list headings and decolonial epistemology which can be understood through the concept of organization as well as the history of economic development of colonized nations and how this has impacted both knowledge organization and epistemic production and ratification.  

Learning Outcome and Rationale – 

Foundations of Library and Information Studies is the primary learning outcome I would associate with “Bibliographic Battlegrounds”. This project and correlating research allowed me to obtain fluency with common contentions and shortcomings at the intersection between knowledge organization and critical librarianship. I learned about bibliographic and library cataloging systems, the way racial biases manifest in the catalog and further extend the operation of oppression through a lack of consideration.