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Emma Booth (she/her)

@emmabooth.bsky.social

990 followers 670 following 810 posts

Manchester Metadata Maven UK Librarian & Open Access supporter. Discovery drives the Collection; Metadata drives Discovery; #MetadataMatters https://linktr.ee/emmabooth https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 29d

📢 @cilipmdg.bsky.social Practical Cataloguing Webinar Series starts Wed 24th Sept! 🐈📚📖

#Webinars will showcase #library #metadata experts & practitioners discussing & exploring everyday #cataloguing challenges to support development of your metadata skills.

www.cilip.org.uk/events/Event...

Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

And a reminder that @cilipmdg.bsky.social are engaging with the UK cataloguing & metadata community about subject headings via a WorldCafe event on 26th November: www.cilip.org.uk/events/Event...

Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

In the Q&A section of the webinar, we are addressing Subject Headings, LCSH in particular, and the impact that the terminology and language used in these headings can have on diverse audiences. Always worth mentioning the 'Change the Subject' documentary www.library.dartmouth.edu/digital/digi...

www.library.dartmouth.edu

Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

Special Collections curators and Cultural Institutions are often leading the way in engaging with EDI as regards their collections, both in terms of the content that is included and the content that has historically been omitted or is missing.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

In order to create an inclusive spaces for diverse audiences to engage with collections, libraries need to be aware of and address that they are making available potentially harmful content.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

UK academic libraries have a responsibility to acknowledge the colonial legacy of their collections, & that historic collection-building has been informed by the biases of time period.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

Add now there's the challenge of AI-generated metadata entering the ecosystem as content providers and aggregators use Generative AI to produce content descriptions and apply subject headings and keywords.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

There is the added challenge of metadata derived from or directly delivered to libraries from external sources, whether this is from content providers, central indexes, or external bibliographic agencies. The volume of this metadata is immense; we cannot have eyes on every record!

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

Legacy metadata posits a real challenge in this context - large research-intensive libraries with centuries of collection-building have a lot of data in different states, standards, schemas and formats. Much of the metadata requires remediation, but many libraries lack the resourcing to do this.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

In many cases, the items or collections brought to the group have not had a content warning applied to them directly; instead the subject terms and other descriptive metadata has been updated or enriched in order to provide greater context for users encountering these items.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

Various case studies have been brought to the group for discussion, including digital collections created by the Library via digitisation projects. It was important to consider potential harms of sharing harmful images as open digital collections that are readily discoverable online.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

The group considered best practices for the application of Content Advice Notes or Warnings at collection or item level across physical, electronic and digital collections. The later included images in Manchester Digital Collections and Manchester Digital Exhibitions.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

The library's metadata team is also committed to inclusive cataloguing principles, including changing subject headings and adopting more inclusive terminology wherever possible and practical. This covers a huge variety of content across numerous platforms.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

...it also acknowledges its duty of care towards library-users in contextualising potentially harmful language and content, in line with the CILIP Ethical Framework www.cilip.org.uk/page/ethics and the Cataloguing Code of Ethics sites.google.com/view/catalog...

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

It also provides a form for contacting the library about potentially harmful content - this is not a complaints reporting mechanism. The library maintains its role in supporting the University's commitment to providing access to a broad range of material, however...

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

This is not about censorship or discouraging people from engaging with library collections, it simply seeks to provide important contextual information about potentially harmful language, terminology, images or other content that they may encounter, and why that content is part of the library

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

The group developed a series of webpages that launched in March 2025 to provide library-users with information about how the library manages and presents its collections, acknowledging and raising awareness regarding the context of library collections and collection-building.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

@kats23.bsky.social from Uni of Manchester Library now speaks to the work of a cross-library group have begun to engage with Reimagining Descriptive Workflows, addressing biased and outdated terminology and subject headings whilst ensuring academic and intellectual freedom.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

The group hopes to get approval for funding to increase capacity to work on this area of professional practice and will be developing their next forward plan shortly.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 19h

Group has met twice so far & is already seeing positive outcomes regarding breaking down silos & sharing practice across Library teams. - This is not a task & finish group; there is no end goal where the work of inclusive metadata will be done as there's always more to learn.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 20h

Focus of the group was to develop a strategy for adopting inclusive metadata over the long term (due to capacity issues). The group meets quarterly to discuss various topics such as Data Protection, Subject Headings, Discoverability tagging, & a possible internship, with annual update to Leadership.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 20h

A business case was drafted and proposed to the Library Leadership team in Feb 2025 to set up an Inclusive Metadata working group to "identify prioritise and plan resolution for issues and ensure a consistent approach bringing in and sharing best practice"

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 20h

Metadata team scoped "who's doing what" already with an inclusive collections focus to record local practice examples.
Metadata team also connected with @oclc.org regarding the "Reimagine Descriptive Workflows" group and outputs of the RLP project, seeking to set up a new UK & Ireland group.

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 20h

This was an ambitious goal - it included all metadata across all repositories, and a target date of April 2025!

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 20h

@masudk.com as Head Librarian was fundamental in shifting the focus of the Uni of Leeds Library's vision towards inclusion via a new Library Vision: "Knowledge for all" spotlight.leeds.ac.uk/libraries-vi...
New forward plan included "devise a plan to ensure language across all metadata is inclusive"

Knowledge for all: Leeds University Libraries Vision for 2030

University of Leeds Libraries are one of the major academic research libraries of the UK, with globally significant collections and a strong service ethos. Knowledge for all consists of four strategic...

spotlight.leeds.ac.uk

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Emma Booth (she/her) @emmabooth.bsky.social · 20h

Starting with @ellycope.bsky.social and Ceilan Hunter Green at University of Leeds Library, which has 5 library sites, nearly 3 million physical items and extensive digital and online holdings.
Post-2020 landscape of Black Lives Matter introduced a different perspective on EDI work in Uni libraries

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