Currently we are working on genre-fying our fiction collection. At the suggestion of our middle school librarian we have also chosen to add equity and inclusion information to the MARC tags of each title in our fiction collection. The library is an important part of our school's commitment to equity and inclusion and we strive to grow our collection to mirror the needs and wants of our school community. Our hope is that by adding specific information on gender, sexuality, religion, ethnicity and more, we can help students, faculty and parents access books in our collection that may have been overlooked in the past. We started this project back in October and I have already found the information useful for displays, student research and summer reading recommendations. Once the project is complete we will run reports to find holes in our collection and take necessary steps to make our collection more complete.
We use Follett Destiny and when we catalog we import records that are relatively complete. Our parent volunteers work hard to add specific subject-headings that correspond to popular topics and lessons. Along with all this information we are also adding a specific list of categories to better embrace equity and inclusion.
We began by creating a list of categories we felt would help us and our students embrace equity and inclusion. The list was very long and we had to combine areas and cut areas that we felt would never be searched for. Here is the list of categories and information we decided on:
We use Follett Destiny and when we catalog we import records that are relatively complete. Our parent volunteers work hard to add specific subject-headings that correspond to popular topics and lessons. Along with all this information we are also adding a specific list of categories to better embrace equity and inclusion.
We began by creating a list of categories we felt would help us and our students embrace equity and inclusion. The list was very long and we had to combine areas and cut areas that we felt would never be searched for. Here is the list of categories and information we decided on:
A. E & I
Categories/Information:
A. Protagonist Gender
1. Gender: Male
2. Gender: Female
3. Gender:
Questioning
4. Gender:
Transgender
B. Family Type
1. Family: Nuclear
2.
Family: Single Parent
3.
Family: Divorced
4.
Family: Parent Died
5.
Family: Adopted
C. Family Type 2 (May
not apply to all)
1. Family: Same Sex Parents
2. Family: Only Child
3. Family: Orphan
D. Sexual Orientation
1. Sexuality:
Lesbian
2. Sexuality: Gay
3. Sexuality:
Bisexual
4. Sexuality: Straight
E. Race/Ethnicity
1. Ethnicity:
Latino
2. Ethnicity: Caucasian
3. Ethnicity: African-American
4. Ethnicity: Pacific Islander
5. Ethnicity: Asian
6. Ethnicity: Native American
7. Ethnicity: Middle Eastern
8. Ethnicity: Multicultural
9. Ethnicity: Indian
10. Ethnicity: African
F. Geographic
Location
1. Location: North
America
2. Location: South America
3. Location: Asia
4. Location: Africa
5. Location: Europe
6. Location: Australia
7. Location: Arctic Regions
G. Religion
1. Religion:
Atheist
2. Religion: Christian
3. Religion: Muslim
4. Religion: Hindu
5. Religion: Buddhist
6. Religion: Jewish
H. Disability
1. Disability:
Physically Disabled/Illness
2. Disability: Learning Disabled
Determining which MARC tags to use:
Our library uses Follett Destiny. Before we began entering information
into the catalog, I contacted Follett to be sure we were using the
correct MARC tag. I also followed up with a few google searches to be
sure I was not missing something with the cataloging part of the
project. I determined that we should use the 690 tag. It was repeatable
and searchable through Destiny. For the indicator we used 5. At
the advice of Follett, on the second line we used our school code with
the 2 indicator. (Follett said out school code would be useful when
creating reports). For each category entry that the title contains we add a new 690 tag. (We are entering the information exactly as shown : Gender: Male, we are doing this for two reasons: 1. If you do a keyword search on Destiny and just type in Male or type in gender the book will come up, along with any other books in your collection (fiction and non-fiction) that contains the word Male in the title/summary.... 2. If you only want to search your collection for fiction books that we have determined have a male protagonist you can search in a keyword search "Gender: Male" and only those books come up (There is a slight flaw here that you could run across a non-fiction book that has the words "gender" and the words "male" in their summary, you could also do a keyword search for "Gender: Male School code" and then you will be positive only the books you determined were male protagonists are found.) You can also do a bibliographic report using Gender: Male and your school code to get the specific books you want as well.
Our library uses Follett Destiny. Before we began entering information into the catalog, I contacted Follett to be sure we were using the correct MARC tag. I also followed up with a few google searches to be sure I was not missing something with the cataloging part of the project. I determined that we should use the 690 tag. It was repeatable and searchable through Destiny. For the indicator we used 5. At the advice of Follett, on the second line we used our school code with the 2 indicator. (Follett said out school code would be useful when creating reports). For each category entry that the title contains we add a new 690 tag. (We are entering the information exactly as shown : Gender: Male, we are doing this for two reasons: 1. If you do a keyword search on Destiny and just type in Male or type in gender the book will come up, along with any other books in your collection (fiction and non-fiction) that contains the word Male in the title/summary.... 2. If you only want to search your collection for fiction books that we have determined have a male protagonist you can search in a keyword search "Gender: Male" and only those books come up (There is a slight flaw here that you could run across a non-fiction book that has the words "gender" and the words "male" in their summary, you could also do a keyword search for "Gender: Male School code" and then you will be positive only the books you determined were male protagonists are found.) You can also do a bibliographic report using Gender: Male and your school code to get the specific books you want as well.
