Addressing problematic terms in British Library’s catalogues (BL Labs Staff Award Joint Winner 2020)
Channel: British Library Labs
Date: 2020-12-15

BL Labs Staff Awards Winner 2020 by the British Library’s Qatar Foundation team at the British Library, Serim Abboushi - Arabic & English Web Content Editor, BL Qatar Project, Mariam Aboelezz - Translation Support Officer, BL Qatar Project, Louis Allday - Gulf History Cataloguing Manager, BL Qatar Project, Sotirios Alpanis - Head of Digital Operations, BL Qatar Project, John Casey - Cataloguer, Gulf History, BL Qatar Project, David Fitzpatrick - Content Specialist Archivist, BL Qatar Project, Susannah Gillard - Content Specialist, Archivist, BL Qatar Project, John Hayhurst - Content Specialist, Gulf History, BL Qatar Project, Julia Ihnatowicz - Translation Specialist, BL Qatar Project, William Monk - Cataloguer, Gulf History, BL Qatar Project, Hannah Nagle - Senior Imaging Support Technician, BL Qatar Project, Noemi Ortega-Raventos - Content Specialist, Archivist, BL Qatar Project, Francis Owtram - Content Specialist, Gulf History, BL Qatar Project, Curstaidh Reid - Cataloguer, Gulf History, BL Qatar Project, George Samaan - Translation Support Officer, BL Qatar Project, Tahani Shaban - Translation Specialist, BL Qatar Project, David Woodbridge - Cataloguer, Gulf History, BL Qatar Project and Nariman Youssef - Arabic Translation Manager, BL Qatar Project and special thanks to the BAME Staff Network at the British Library, see: https://www.bl.uk/press-releases/2020/july/british-library-commits-to-becoming-an-anti-racist-organisation

This was started by colleagues on the Qatar Foundation Partnership Project and has been worked on over lockdown. The idea to start the work was inspired by a talk by Melissa Bennett about decolonising the archive and how terms used in catalogue records can be problematic. This project has analysed the terms used in cataloguing including the terms used when translating our catalogue records into Arabic so that they can be added to our bilingual Qatar Digital Library. 

The project is creating a guide to help cataloguers and translators as well as list of problematic terms. 

As part of the project, python scripts have been created to search catalogue records, such as from IAMS and Flickr using the API and using xml files of downloaded catalogue records, to analyse instances of such terms, how and when they are used and collate statistics about them. These have helped the project understand the scale of the issue. 

Furthermore, it has enabled the project to start updating catalogue records, such as removing some inappropriate and concerning image tags that were created automatically for Flickr images.

This has been a successful, interesting and highly worthwhile collaborative project between many teams. It was initiated as it was identified that there was an issue that needed to be dealt with sensitively and that could be greatly helped by the combined knowledge, experience and technical expertise of a variety of staff. They have worked together, whilst working from home, coordinating a variety of tasks including writing scripts, testing changes, comparing terms in English and Arabic, creating spreadsheets and working with the technical teams to make changes to catalogue records. Without the python scripts, this work would have been slow and manual. 

The innovative work to create a variety of scripts to search catalogue records, including IAMS and Flickr via the API and downloaded XML files, has enabled data to be searched and analysed in bulk. This has, and will continue in future to, enable the project to resolve, avoid and remove problematic terms that can reflect poorly on the British Library. By creating and testing practices and writing a guide to report on these developments, they are also building knowledge and information to ensure that this can be applied to other records and future cataloguing practices in future.

Judges comments:
The second winner is from the British Library’s Qatar Foundation team. Congratulations go to Serim Abboushi, Mariam Aboelezz, Louis Allday, Sotirios Alpanis, John Casey, David Fitzpatrick, Susannah Gillard, John Hayhurst, Julia Ihnatowicz, William Monk, Hannah Nagle, Noemi Ortega-Raventos, Francis Owtram, Curstaidh Reid, George Samaan, Tahani Shaban, David Woodbridge and Nariman Youssef and special thanks to the BAME Staff Network. 

This is incredibly important work as it is something that continues to require attention. Perhaps it’s fair to say it is now getting even more focus because of world events such as ‘Black Lives Matter’.

Congratulations to everyone, we know this work isn’t easy but it is MOST definitely needed!