Professional paper

Gender Sensitivity: On the Concept of Gender in the Name Authority Files

Petra Pancirov orcid.org/0009-0001-7177-7875 ; Nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica u Zagrebu *
Ana Knežević Cerovski orcid.org/0000-0001-8436-2110 ; Nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica u Zagrebu *

* Corresponding author.

Abstract

Purpose. The aim of the paper is to to review the practice how some of the world libraries manage gender information about the person entity, uniquely identified in name authority files by an authorized access point, variant access points if they exist, and publicly available biographical data necessary for identification. The issue of gender sensitivity in the Croatian librarian community is a new topic that is very current in world libraries, and the paper provides an overview of the handling of the issue of gender when we talk about name authority files.
Approach/methodology/design. The first part of the paper refers to handling gender information in conceptual data models, standards and formats for resource description, while the second part provides examples of practice from the Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France, the National Library of Czech Republic and the National Library of Spain, as well as library gender policies of the Library of Congress, the National Library of New Zealand, and the British Library.
Findings. Some national libraries are changing their practices related to specifying gender in name authority files, such as the Library of Congress in Washington, which gradually abandons the practice of specifying gender as a separate attribute in the description of the person entitiy.
Originality/value. Gender identification in name authority files can be a challenge for library community for a variety of reasons, such as lack of public sensitivity, incomplete or outdated information, lack of standardization in recording gender data, and gender binaries. The introduction of gender-sensitive practices into name authority files requires careful consideration, as information about gender must be in accordance with the cultural and linguistic context, while respecting the autonomy and privacy of a person. In this sense, this work is a contribution in opening up the topic of the issue of gender sensitivity in contrast to the current practice of library catalogs when it comes to the identification of the person entity in name authority files.

Keywords

entity of a person, gender, gender sensitivity, library policy statements for gender, name authority files

Hrčak ID:

316714

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/316714

Publication date:

9.5.2024.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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