Conference Papers and Presentations

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/586

Conference papers and presentations given by librarians and staff of IUB Libraries.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 92

Proactive calendaring, weekly planning, and the practice of slow librarianship
(Great Lakes Science Boot Camp, 2026-07-08) Atwood, Thea
Libraries, librarians, and library staff are consistently underfunded – we lament open positions that cannot be filled and needs that cannot be met. This often leads to overwork for current staff – taking on more work to try and meet those needs. But to whose benefit, and to what end? One characteristic of working in academia is that there is always more to do – another project to start, another email to answer, or another idea to pursue. Compounded with the pressures of tenure, promotion, or ideals of perfectionism, librarianship can feel overwhelming. In this environment, we must remember that our own mental health and well-being are paramount – research consistently indicates that rest promotes creativity and improves productivity. Thus there can be a tension between our ability to divorce ourselves from our work, the pressure to meet the needs of academia or promotion and tenure, and our ability to rest – or even ‘do nothing.’ In this lightning talk, I will discuss my approach to proactive calendaring and holding a weekly planning meeting with reflection, important tools I use to protect my time and pay attention to my work. This is also fundamental to my imperfect practice of slow librarianship, which focuses on the quality of work, relationship building, community building, and incorporating time for creative practices, as opposed to hurrying to the next item on a to-do list. I will encourage librarians to adopt their own practices and offer a reflection on the inherent inequity in working beyond allotted work hours.
Proactive calendaring, weekly planning, and the practice of slow librarianship.
(Indiana University Libraries Association Colloquium, 2026-06-05) Atwood, Thea
One characteristic of working in academia is that there is always more to do. There can be a tension between the pressure to meet the needs of academia or promotion and tenure, and our ability to rest. Librarianship can feel overwhelming. Our own mental health and well-being are paramount. I will discuss my approach to proactive calendaring and holding a weekly planning meeting with reflection. This is fundamental to my imperfect practice of slow librarianship, which focuses on the quality of work, relationship building, community building, and incorporating time for creative practices. I will encourage librarians to adopt their own practices and offer a reflection on the inherent inequity in working beyond allotted work hours.
Cataloging Wayfinding for Beginners and Learners
(2026-04-15) Liss, Jennifer A.
Library workers find themselves cataloging for all sorts of reasons. For some, cataloging is simply one aspect of their position, while others chose to specialize in cataloging. Increasingly though, library leaders are reassigning cataloging responsibilities in response to staffing reductions, and the learning curve is steep. This webinar provides resources for anyone getting started (or restarted) with cataloging. A foundational premise for this webinar is the notion that “good enough” IS good enough and that levels of cataloging service may be tiered, granting busy library workers autonomy over finding what’s “good enough” to serve their library’s patrons. After completing this webinar, participants will be able to: • Identify standards, best practices, and resources to aid in the creation of accurate and consistent bibliographic records. • Utilize professional networks and communication fora to find answers to difficult cataloging situations. • Articulate a tiered cataloging service that satisfies patrons’ needs and suits the resources available at your institution.
SACO Submissions for Non-SACO Members
(2026-07-10) Sewald, Ronda
Presentation on various options for proposing subject headings to the Library of Congress Subject Authority File for catalogers who are not members of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging's (PCC) SACO program including obtaining SACO membership, the Library of Congress's pdf submission form, and SACO funnels. The presentation also provides information on what the ClassWeb Plus submission process looks like and troubleshooting tips for catalogers who belong to SACO but are unable to access the proposal menu.
Beyond Item-Level: Using DACS to Unlock Artificial Collections in Academic Research Libraries
(2026-05-12) Sewald, Ronda L.
Item-level RDA/MARC cataloging has long defined descriptive practice in academic research libraries. However, applying this approach to large quantities of visual and ephemeral material can quickly create backlogs. Could DACS offer a more efficient path forward? This presentation highlights how IU Libraries is experimenting with DACS-based collection-level description to streamline workflows while supporting the discovery of our artificial collections.
Challenges and Opportunities in Developing a University Press and Library Publishing Collaboration
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2025-06-11) Pyle, Dan; Vaughn, Matthew
The past decade has seen an increase both in the number of library publishing programs and in the number of university presses reporting to their institution's library. While closer collaboration between library publishers and university presses at the same institution might seem like a like a natural outgrowth of these trends, differences in culture, financial constraints, and organizational structure can represent significant barriers to successful library-press initiatives. In the spring of 2024, Indiana University, having both a large, internationally recognized press and a well-established library publishing program, sought to explore opportunities for greater collaboration between these two largely separate organizations. This project began with a series of meetings in which IU library and press staff shared insights into their organizational strengths and inventoried potential avenues for collaboration. In this informational session, representatives from the IU Press staff, the IU library publishing program, and the IU libraries administration will offer their perspectives on this collaboration's progress thus far, sharing insights into what works and what does not when libraries and presses seek to join forces. We have found, for instance, that expanding previously established library-press relationships and working together to build shared infrastructure are promising starting points for greater collaboration. This session will explore, in particular, the integration of the IU press and libraries' journal publishing programs. Both programs have many titles operating on the same publishing platform (Open Journal Systems) while also being supported by the same software development team. And as we were already collaborating on promotion and typesetting services on a small scale, we decided to co-develop an Indiana University Publishing website that would centralize our journal programs' marketing, policies, services, and documentation. We plan to complete the new website in the coming year, and as open access publishing has proven to be productive for library-press collaborations in other areas as well, we also hope to eventually integrate our OER and OA books programs into this new joint venture.
Geographic Splits, Mergers, and Reorganizations
(2025-12-12) Sewald, Ronda L.
This presentation walks audience members through the process of determining whether to establish geographic name headings under the Library of Congress Name Authority or Subject Authority file and how to select the proper heading when a country has undergone a series of splits and mergers. It includes helpful charts and references to specific instructions in the LC Subject Headings Manual.
Behind the Curtain: How Library of Congress Vocabulary Terms Are Created and Maintained
(2025-04-28) Sewald, Ronda L.
The Library of Congress (LC) maintains a set of controlled vocabulary terms that are used to describe and promote the discovery of materials through library catalogs and online databases around the world. But how are these terms added and maintained, and what determines which term is the “authorized” heading displayed to researchers and other users? Intended as an overview for non-librarians, this presentation attempts to remove the mystery surrounding these processes and discuss some of the current forces, such as critical cataloging, metadata remediation and the political climate, on LC vocabulary terms.
Preserving Ukraine in American Libraries through Authorized Access Points
(2025) Dantchenko, Laikin
Derussification and Reparative Cataloging of Music from the Margins of the Soviet Union
(2025) Dantchenko, Laikin; Nighan, Jack Haig
New Guidance on Gender-Sensitive Cataloging from the PCC Task Group on Gender
(2025) Dantchenko, Laikin; Levy, Morris
This presentation highlights recent advances in gender representation in the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF), as well as metadata in bibliographic records emphasizing impacts on music cataloging practices. As understandings of gender identity and personal privacy evolve, music catalogers face new challenges in creating catalog records that are both accurate and inclusive. We will focus on guidelines proposed by the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Task Group on Gender, with an emphasis on recommendations for creating NACO name authority records and description in bibliographic records. Through specific examples, the session will illuminate how these updates form a framework for addressing complex issues around gendered terms and representation in authority and bibliographic records. Key topics include guidelines regarding gendered occupational terms and best practices for gender-neutral terms for recording associations with corporate bodies. Additional considerations include recording former names in ways that balance historical accuracy and personal privacy and incorporation of individuals’ personal preferences in the process of creating authority records in accordance with new PCC recommendations. By engaging with these updates, music catalogers will gain practical insights into implementing gender-sensitive practices that honor inclusivity and respect and adhere to PCC’s latest guidance.
Decolonizing Ukrainian Music
(2024) Dantchenko, Laikin; Goldberg, Halina; Voloshyna, Iryna; Dobczansky, Jurij; Gleason, Scott
Russian colonization has had a lasting impact on the historiography of Ukrainian music, resulting in historical misattributions and omissions, and an overall inaccurate portrayal of Ukrainian music. This workshop initiates the process of rectifying the current situation by providing musicologists and music librarians with strategies to identify and correct inaccuracies in English-language scholarship, reference resources, and library catalogs—all interconnected information sources. Participants will explore specific strategies, such as creating and amending reference entries to ensure proper attribution of musical works, detailed bibliographic references for Ukrainian composers and performers, and accurate romanization of Ukrainian names. Additionally, the workshop emphasizes collaboration with key institutions. Engaging with librarians and professionals from the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Name Authority Cooperative (NACO) will help participants understand the processes for reclassifying and renaming authority and bibliographic records, ensuring accurate representation in library catalogs and archives. The workshop also advocates for additions and revisions of terms for controlled vocabularies by incorporating Ukrainian-specific music genres and forms, increasing visibility and accurate representation of Ukrainian music in libraries. The development of inclusive and detailed Grove Music Online entries will be encouraged, focusing on comprehensive information such as the place of birth, activity, and death of musicians, rather than solely on nationality or ethnicity. For composers known by their Russian names, variant spellings using Ukrainian romanization and Cyrillic script will be included to avoid confusion for Ukrainian-speaking users. By implementing these strategies, musicologists will be empowered to contribute to a just and accurate portrayal of Ukrainian music, rectifying historical biases and enriching the global understanding of this cultural heritage.
Decolonizing Ukrainian Music in Library Catalogs and Music Resources
(2024) Dantchenko, Laikin
Decolonization of Ukrainian music in library catalogs, reference resources, and scholarship involves addressing the deep-rooted effects of historical suppression, misrepresentation, and cultural erasure, while striving to provide a more accurate and inclusive portrayal of Ukraine's musical heritage. Catalog metadata plays a crucial role in this effort, as it not only reflects but actively shapes the way musicians and musical traditions are represented in research tools like Grove, RILM, and MGG. The way we catalog and classify significantly influences the visibility and accuracy of cultural narratives, while also depending on the scholarly resources available. This interconnected relationship is especially clear in the case of Ukrainian music, which has long been marginalized, misrepresented, and even erased under Russian colonization.
Harmonizing the Legacy: Challenges and Strategies in Processing the Ella Fitzgerald Collection
(2024) Dantchenko, Laikin; Walker, Jared DeShawn
The Ella Fitzgerald Collection at Indiana University represents a vital repository of materials that document the life and career of one of the most iconic jazz vocalists of the 20th century. However, the collection's potential has been historically undermined by its fragmented nature, split and dispersed among multiple archives within the university. Over the years, various departments and archives within the university independently acquired portions of the collection, resulting in a lack of cohesion and comprehensive documentation. The absence of a centralized catalog exacerbated the problem, making it arduous to locate and integrate related materials. Additionally, inconsistencies in preservation practices and metadata standards across the different archives further complicated the processing task. This presentation will delve into the challenges encountered during the processing of this incomplete collection and detail our approach for enhancing its usability and accessibility. Additionally, it will examine the critical issues of representation of creative output related to Ella Fitzgerald and various other jazz composers, lyricists, and musicians within United States cataloging practices. By investigating how historical and systemic biases have influenced cataloging practices, the presentation will reveal the marginalization and misrepresentation of key jazz figures. Through specific case studies, including Fitzgerald's underrecognized contributions as a composer and lyricist, as well as the works of lesser-known jazz artists, the presentation highlights discrepancies in recognition and documentation. Furthermore, it critiques the methodologies used in categorizing jazz works, proposing more inclusive and accurate approaches. Ultimately, this discussion aims to shed light on the cultural and scholarly implications of these practices and advocate for reforms that honor the rich and diverse legacy of American jazz.
Protecting Musical Heritage: Reparative Cataloging of Ukrainian Music Resources at Indiana University
(2024) Dantchenko, Laikin; Nighan, Jack Haig
The ongoing war of aggression by Russia in Ukraine has brought international attention to the conflation of Ukrainian and Russian cultures and identities. Such conflation exists in various forms, at its most dangerous in weaponized distortions of history and pretexts for violence such as Vladimir Putin’s essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” which served as a preamble to the 2022 invasion. These two distinct cultures can also be misunderstood unintentionally in ways that appear harmless, even in music libraries. However, in any form, failure to identify and appreciate the independence of Ukraine's cultural identity contributes to erasure and the perpetuation of historical and political conflict. Cataloging the Ukrainian music materials contained within the Margarita Mazo Collection at the Cook Music Library at Indiana University has necessitated a thoughtful examination including the historical relationships in general and the influence of the Soviet Union on music publications in particular. In describing the contents of the Mazo Collection and highlighting the significance of Ukrainian music in libraries, we suggest measures to ensure accurate and inclusive representation. Best practices for catalogers, such as appropriate use of controlled vocabularies and accurate transcription of text, are expanded upon to promote understanding and appreciation of Ukrainian music and to ensure access to users who search in the Ukrainian language—perhaps the users for whom these materials are most vital. Librarians must be critical and well-informed to understand Soviet publications of Ukrainian music, intrinsic to which are state control, censorship, and the manipulation of cultural expression for ideological purposes. The content and language of these resources were always impacted by contradictory demands to which Ukrainian musicians were subject: to conform to Soviet norms while preserving their artistic identity. One form of erasure was the Soviet publication of Ukrainian music resources by Ukrainian creators only in the Russian language. Here lies a crucial opportunity for reparative cataloging, as further research often reveals the original Ukrainian names of individuals, musical works, and even medium of performance terms and genre/form terms, which afford authentic representation in authority records. This presentation will provide insights into the cultural differences between Russia and Ukraine, the complexities of Soviet music publications, and our power as librarians to either defend or hinder the authentic representation of Ukrainian music and creators in library catalogs. Librarians navigating these issues with cultural sensitivity can demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine and contribute to cross-cultural understanding. We hope that the reparative description of these materials might serve as a model to anyone tasked with representing a culture or musical tradition that has been conflated with others in harmful ways.
Войны Для Воинов: The Far-reaching Poetics of 1980’s Soviet Punk Music and Political Dissent in the Lavrov Collection at Indiana University Cook Music Library
(2023) Dantchenko, Laikin
Punk music came to fruition in Soviet-Russia roughly ten years later than Western parts of the world, but kept much of the same themes--short, fast-paced songs with hard-driving melodies and vocal declamation, minimal instrumentation, and often shouted political, anti-establishment lyrics. The genre embraced the do-it-yourself ethic that includes self-produced recordings, distributed through independent record labels. Fedor Lavrov and his home-studio of Begemotion Records in Leningrad created the few records still in existence from the early 1980s Soviet Union. As stated by Lavrov, “Abort [Lavrov’s first album, 1982] was recorded in two sessions… in the original location of Begemotion studio, my [Fedor Lavrov’s] bedroom in a Soviet family apartment in Leningrad, USSR.” Fedor Lavrov smuggled his work out of Russia and donated recordings and ephemera to the Indiana University Cook Music Library as his bands had been banned by the KGB, and he had personally been summoned by the KGB. Fedor’s music—its themes, influences, and styles—are still as relevant today as they were in the 1980s. This is even more true with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and he remastered some of his band’s music and rereleased it as a single, Военная Монархия (Military Monarchy) with music performed by his KGB-banned band Отдел Самоискоренения (Department of Self-eradication) produced through his new label FLOOR IS LAVA, in solidarity with the war in Ukraine. This paper outlines the provenance, arrangement, description of, and access to the collection. It also discusses the processing of the collection in a non-archival institution in collaboration with a living donor (currently in asylum) and the far-reaching and timely themes of the materials.
Nurturing Inclusivity: Empowering Patrons and Creators in Library Collections
(2023) Dantchenko, Laikin; McClanahan, Allison
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility (DEIJA) have been prominent concepts discussed at the national level for years, sometimes serving as mere trends or buzzwords. However, it is crucial to explore how we can genuinely embrace, employ, and demonstrate inclusivity in representing individuals within our collections, whether as creators, cultures represented (with varying degrees of accuracy), or users seeking relevant materials. As information professionals, we grapple with prescribed practices that may either facilitate or impede our commitment to respectfully representing diverse groups and individuals. In this conference presentation, two librarians from Indiana University, who specialize in recorded sound collections, delve into the local-level implementation and adaptation of these practices and professional norms within their respective collections. We will introduce innovative approaches and current practices that empower patrons and creators to assert their agency regarding their diverse identities and cultures. Key initiatives include soliciting input from individual creators and community members, incorporating inclusive practices in authority records and subject headings, and enhancing bibliographic description. By sharing our experiences, we aim to inspire others and provide practical guidance for fostering inclusivity and agency within their own institutions. This presentation emphasizes actionable steps that can be taken at both local and institutional levels to enable patrons and creators to actively participate in shaping their representation and access to information.
Opportunities and Challenges Of Cataloging Soviet Materials Of the Margarita Mazo Collection
(2023) Dantchenko, Laikin; Nighan, Jack Haig
Cook Music Library at Indiana University recently acquired the collection of internationally known Russian ethnomusicologist Margarita Mazo, professor emerita at Ohio State University and renowned scholar of vernacular traditions, classical music, and musical life in the Soviet Union. Her collection comprises 1,350 books and 350 music scores—most of which were published in the U.S.S.R. between 1950 and 1990—and includes many unique items. Processing this collection has entailed searching, enhancing, and creating bibliographic and authority records as well as proposing Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms and LC Medium of Performance Terms. We have identified recurring issues in the bibliographic records of materials published in languages spoken in the Soviet Union such as improperly applied subject headings, genre/form terms, LC call numbers, Romanization practices, and understanding the format of materials. We will discuss the opportunities and challenges we have encountered while cataloging this collection.
Cook Music Library Audio Rapid Cataloging Project
(2023) Dantchenko, Laikin; Peters, Charles
Resources for Representation: Supporting Discovery of Gender Diverse Creators in Music
(2022) Cole, Freja; Dantchenko, Laikin
Many users of the Cook Music Library come to browse the stacks for new music to perform, but the collections they browse there are not complete. In addition to three floors of open stacks, the Cook Music Library hosts a large collection of non-browsable scores, books, and sound recordings in the frontlog. To support the Cook Music Library’s vision to “improve access to and discovery of the collections” and to commit to Indiana University Libraries’ foundational value of diversity, we consider how to facilitate better access to the library’s non-browsable materials and highlight diverse and underrepresented composers and performers. A collaboration between technical and public services, this project first prioritizes works of trans and gender-diverse people. We take into consideration recent recommendations for recording gender in personal name authority records–consider the problems with and identities excluded from current description practices–and examine how they affect discovery of these materials. We present our progress and reflect on the significant challenges in developing services that supplement the catalog, compensate for areas where current cataloging practices might fall short of supporting user searches, and improve access to non-browsable materials at the Cook Music Library.

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