PDA Event: Reviving the Hennepin County Authority File

Sanford Berman and his colleagues at Hennepin County Library (HCL) created a unique subject authority file for the HCL collection (1973 to 1999) and demonstrated that a catalog is far more than a list of holdings or a list of terms. David Lesniaski will give a short overview of the process used to recreate this catalog, but will focus on examples demonstrating the utility of a catalog that links subject headings to each other and to relevant bibliographic records in a coherent and user-friendly manner. He argues that a catalog, at its best, shows relationships between terms and leads users from what they know to an expanded conceptual map of vocabulary, concepts, and bibliographic items relevant to their inquiry. The HCL catalog and subject authority file can still serve as a model for subject authority practice today, because of the sustained intellectual effort of Sanford and his colleagues over several decades. A catalog of alternative terms that show conceptual relationships could be more useful to practicing catalogers than the plethora of vocabulary lists currently circulating.

This event is part of the Engaging with Critical Cataloging Past and Present webinar series which introduces Library of Congress Subject Headings from the perspective of catalogers engaged in subject authority work. Learn about some of the key historical figures and projects in Minnesota radical cataloging. Hear from contemporary catalogers inspired by this radical history to continue working towards critical, equitable, and respectful cataloging standards. 

Presenter:

David Lesniaski is now Associate Professor Emeritus, having recently retired from 20 years of teaching in the St. Kate’s MLIS program. Prior to that he was on the faculty of St. Olaf College, serving in several roles from music cataloger to co-college librarian, and, prior to that, was a cataloger at the University of Minnesota, cataloging Polish and Ukrainian materials for the Immigration History Research Center. He was awarded a Fulbright to serve as a consultant for the creation of a graduate-level music library in Athens, Greece. He has a doctorate in music composition and theory from the University of Arizona, and continues to compose and perform.

Register to attend this session or register to attend all sessions of interest in this webinar series.

Sponsored by Minitex