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Communication, technologies et
développement
14 | 2023
L’éthique de l’information et de l’organisation des
connaissances
The Uncanny Catalog: How Do We “Care” Now?
Le catalogue étrange: Comment nous «soignons» aujourd’hui?
El extraño catálogo: ¿Cómo nos “curamos” hoy?
Melodie J. Fox
Electronic version
URL: https://journals.openedition.org/ctd/9434
DOI: 10.4000/ctd.9434
ISSN: 2491-1437
Publisher
Chaire Unesco Pratiques émergentes en technologies et communication pour le développement
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Melodie J. Fox, “The Uncanny Catalog: How Do We “Care” Now?”, Communication, technologies et
développement [Online], 14|2023, Online since 26 December 2023, connection on 12 March 2024.
URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ctd/9434 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/ctd.9434
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The Uncanny Catalog: How Do We
“Care” Now?
Le catalogue étrange: Comment nous «soignons» aujourd’hui?
El extraño catálogo: ¿Cómo nos “curamos” hoy?
Melodie J. Fox
1 As the only attendee of all four ethics in information organization conferences, I have
become a de facto historian. Thus, in this keynote I will provide an informal summary of
the first three conferences, identifying themes we addressed that have had momentum,
continue with ethical challenges we still face, and end with some new challenges that
have emerged.
Uncanny Valley, Uncanny Catalog: the rst Ethics of
Information Organization Conference, 2009
2 The term “uncanny valley” (Mori, 1970) refers to the uneasy feelings invoked by objects
that replicate a human being, but not quite enough. The object may seem human
enough on the surface, but some clue signals its falseness, triggering revulsion in the
observer. The notion of the uncanny valley returns me to the first Ethics of Information
Organization conference in 2009. Dr. Hope Olson volunteered me to speak on a panel
called “Trust, Authority and Power, the Intersection of IO Professionals with Users,
Standards, and Institutions.” In my segment, I asked, “Can a catalog care about you?”
The question got a laugh, but what I meant was not warm, emotional, romantic love,
but rather care relating to the ethic of care, the theory promoted by Gilligan (1982),
Tronto, (1994) and others who defined care as valuing context, positionality, and
flexibility in ethical decision-making. I believed “caring” in this sense should apply to
ethical dilemmas related to the usability and effectiveness of the library catalog. Most
obviously, the system should allow a user to find resources with relevance and
precision. This relates to accuracy, usability, and an easily navigable interface.
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3 In another sense, a catalog “caring” means the standards are inclusive of your
terminology and reality. It might mean bending standards so a local catalog can
accommodate local needs, so that working in the catalog seems natural and “real.”
However, an uncaring catalog can jar us out of that feeling of naturalness, realness. At
that conference, Tennis described how the catalog can commit “objective violence”
(“Abstracts” 2009), something I later called conceptual violence (Fox & Reece 2012), in
other words, the harms inflicted not through bodily harm but through words or
concepts. In objective or conceptual violence, we see the falsity. Thus, the uncanny
catalog might seem like it “cares,” connecting users with knowledge or information,
but that “naturalness” is disrupted. It feels “natural” to see titles classed under what
seems to be the “correct” heading or classificatory placement, but then a user can be
jolted by a heading that seems uncaring or reminds us that there is a structure of
standards in place, a structure created out of convenience, ignorance, or indifference.
4 Examples of this, as we know, most often relate to human groups. It could be personally
disturbing, like seeing the “Illegal Alien” Library of Congress Subject Heading. It might
mean seeing the deadname or incorrect gender of a trans author in the record or
authority file, a subject heading that does not derive from the human population that it
names, a classification structure that does not favor its community’s organization
principles, or a subject inaccurately shelved adjacent to something distasteful. One of
my favorite quotations from Smiraglia (2006) illustrates this: “when a gay adolescent
searches for literature to help understand and finds that it all falls under ‘perversion’
then we have oppressed yet another youth” (p. 186). This is conceptual violence
resulting from an uncaring catalog.
5 Other types of ethical dilemmas can betray “uncaringness.” Mistakes, errors, or
inaccuracy can result from carelessness, the inability to work quality checks into
workflow because of budget constraints, overreliance on copy catalogers or untrained
student workers, standards that are too complex or inaccessible, or the inability to
learn these standards because of understaffing or underfunding. It also means
accepting errors in the catalog, stolen authorship, corporate interference in the service
of labor or cost- savings. It might also mean deciding whether to call out deceit, such as
misrepresented authorship, intellectual property theft, or fiction masquerading as
truth. These types of ethical dilemmas are less obvious, but also signify a lack of care.
Can a catalog care about you?
6 Prior to the panel at the first conference, Dr. Hannes Britz slipped me a note that read,
“The ‘equal principle (meaning equal access to information) cannot override the
‘difference principle,’” which means accessibility of information to different types of
people. What he meant was that equal access to information supports cataloger
convenience, which is undergirded by a theory of justice—everyone has an equal
chance. This is Rawlsian ethics, which I discussed in the second conference (Fox &
Reece, 2012). In other words, universal standards do not consider user differences. This
makes it easier on the cataloger and institutions— no need for accommodations, no
need for “care.” Standards are standardized for a reason, for consistency and
predictability, so systems can function.
7 On the other hand, the difference principle is user focused, considering the many and
what we now call “equity.” It means accommodating users rather than forcing them to
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use a system that does not fit them, caring about them by making information or
knowledge accessible to them on their own terms, and making up for past injustices. At
the conference, Clare Beghtol approached it from another angle: the profound
epistemic shift from anonymous “users” to one singular user and the heterogeneity of
those users as a group, who all need to be cared about in the online catalog (“Abstracts”
2009). Her thesis was that “we need to create information organization systems that are
hospitable to each complex user and to each complex of cultures.” Have we done this?
Each passing conference has revealed more complications.
2nd Milwaukee Conference on Ethics in Information,
2012
8 Three years later, the second conference included high-level presentations on ethical
systems and the ethics behind our systems, along with revisiting the inadequacy of
existing codes of ethics. The focus tightened to be more specific and practice oriented.
Several presentations discussed marginalized groups, mostly relating to sexual
orientation. We expanded to talks on authorship, archives, and digital libraries. A few
presentations addressed the business and labor aspects of librarianship. Both
conferences were well represented by both researchers and practitioners. Smiraglia
(2015) analyzed the content of these two first conferences scientifically, showing that
“work on ethics in KO is based on the core principles of KO, but relies also on evidence
from librarianship and philosophical guidance” (p. 2). This statement was prescient, as
the rest of the conferences continued in this vein.
3rd Milwaukee Conference on Ethics in Knowledge
Organization, 2015
9 The title of the third conference in 2015 shifted from “information organization” to
“knowledge organization,” which also reflected the change from Olson organizing to
Smiraglia. While we continued with our complaints about codes of ethics and
philosophical topics, we added research and publishing ethics and more cultural
heritage, with a surprising number relating to music.
Fourth International Conference on the Ethics of
Information & Knowledge Organization, 2023 First
International Conference of the International Thematic
Network on Ethics in SHS
10 The evolving title for the fourth conference mirrors the evolution of the conference
themes and the ethical issues we face. We are more international, mature, and
technologically advanced, and have brought together information and knowledge
organization. Topics from previous conferences re-emerged, such as the usual
theoretical topics and marginalized groups, but we have added more depth on
museums and cultural heritage and of course, we cannot avoid our recent advances in
technology, no longer social tagging, but artificial intelligence. As we launch into our
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fourth conference, I will show several key areas identified in our first three conferences
where attempts are made to provide a caring catalog. I focus on how research or
parallel work in the field has resulted in progress. I am not arguing for causation; that
is, that our conferences are responsible for progress in the field. If we accept that
knowledge is created socially, our conference is one ingredient.
Methodology
11 My methodology is not scientific nor exhaustive, but observational. I do not mean to
ignore work prior to our first conference. Rather than analyzing the research, I have
reviewed what is happening for practitioners in some of the areas addressed in our
conferences. As researchers, it is easy to live in a theory bubble, but at some point, our
work should inform and receive feedback from practice. I will be focusing mostly on
the Anglo-North American realm with which I am most familiar and ingrained;
however, some international overlap exists.
12 I observed communications in several online cataloging groups and resources where
ethical topics are discussed. These are informal, but I wanted to see what was bothering
catalogers on a day-to-day basis, in their habitats. Additionally, these groups allow
more access, and epistemology researchers see the knowledge creation here is outside
of Foucault’s (1972) “enunciative modalities,” in other words, more than just those who
“allowed’ to speak. One source was the traditional listserv, AUTOCAT, which is
“devoted to issues relating to cataloging and classification.” This list tends more
toward “what number should I use” questions, a little about theoretical aspects and
much less toward the technical aspects, such as dealing with cataloging software.
Another source was the highly active Facebook group Troublesome Catalogers and
Magical Metadata Fairies (TCMMF), where conversations range from the mundane to
the esoteric. It has 9,930 members from across the globe and across many cataloging
contexts. Library Twitter (now known as X) also was consulted because it provides
news, announces talks, and generally shows what librarians and catalogers are
outraged about, an ideal forum for identifying ethical dilemmas. Several hashtags can
be searched on Library Twitter, such as #critlib, #critcat, #critcatinate #droptheiword.
While many more resources exist, many are compiled on the website The Cataloging Lab,
which is a clearinghouse for critical cataloging information and activism and will be
discussed.
Codes of Ethics
13 In all three conferences, repeated cries bemoaned the lack of a formal code of ethics for
catalogers. Sheila Bair’s (2006) code of cataloging ethics was regularly mentioned but
considered inadequate. The 2008 ALA Code of Ethics was recurrently accused of being
too broad to be useful to cataloging and of not acknowledging the complexity of what it
means to be biased. At the second conference, Austin Reese and I provided high-level
recommendations for a code of ethics but admittedly not one that would be meaningful
for day-to-day work (Fox & Reece, 2012). There is a hero to this story, however, and she
is Beth Shoemaker, who presented at the third conference. She described the
inadequacies of the 2008 ALA Code of Ethics as well as the Association for Library
Catalogs and Technical Services (ALCTS) supplement, and her talk provided
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recommendations for creating a new one (Shoemaker, 2015), and five years later, she
did just that.
14 Along with Karen Snow, who also attended the third conference, Beth Shoemaker
helped form the Cataloging Ethics Steering Committee (CESC) in 2019 who then in 2020
released a Code of Ethics for Catalogers, with a final draft in January of 2021. It was
created by an Anglo-American group, but has since been translated into Greek, Arabic,
Welsh, and French, which are all freely available online. The new code of ethics has ten
statements of ethical principles, many of which are familiar because they address the
issues that have arisen at these conferences. It is privacy and bias conscious, calls for
transparency and workplace support, advocates for diversity and community voice, and
asks that we recognize our personal and institutional biases and work to overcome
them. The principles are action-oriented and focus on users and communities,
changing problems with us and our standards, and cooperating and supporting
catalogers and their communities.
ALA Code of Ethics
15 Not to be outdone, in 2021 the ALA added a principle to their code of ethics that states:
16 We affirm the inherent dignity and rights of every person. We work to recognize and
dismantle systemic and individual biases; to confront inequity and oppression; to
enhance diversity and inclusion; and to advance racial and social justice in our
libraries, communities, profession, and associations through awareness, advocacy,
education, collaboration, services, and allocation of resources and spaces.
17 “Every person” echoes Clare Beghtol’s “a user” from the first conference and the Code
of Ethics for Catalogers. ALA, too, are making efforts to care.
“Ethicalness” around Human Groups
18 The next area where progress has occurred in both research and practice is the ethics
around naming human groups, using the vocabulary of human groups, and how human
groups are represented on the descriptive side of records. This hits several principles:
acknowledging bias, being user focused, and working with user communities, and
working to change standards. One of the few talks on specific human groups at our first
conference was from Julianne Bealle, then the assistant editor of the Dewey Decimal
Classification, presenting on racially mixed people categories in DDC. The talk mainly
focused on the use of MARC fields and tables, with little on epistemology or knowledge
generation. The second conference included a few talks on topics on human groups,
particularly on sexual orientation and indigenous groups. The third delved to even
deeper marginalized groups, including children, traditional musicians, and archival
subjects.
Critical Cataloging
19 Out in the world, similar momentum was building toward what we would come to call
“critical cataloging.” Critical cataloging was named by Olson in 1997 but picked up
steam recently. It is “a movement that focuses on developing critical practices around
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cataloging which can mitigate harmful ideology present in library catalogs, cataloging
standards, and controlled vocabularies” (Pratt Institute, 2023). It “focuses on mitigating
the ways in which classification and the organization of knowledge codify systems and
hierarchies of oppression” (Bruce, 2022). It is considered a narrower term of “radical
cataloging” and critical librarianship and relates to dismantling systems of oppression
within the catalog. Some of the related efforts include “decolonizing” the catalog,
“queering” the catalog (Drabinski, 2013), “conscientious cataloging” (Ford, 2020) or
many instances of “inclusive cataloging.”
The Cataloging Lab
20 At the second conference, my co-author Austin Reece and I (2012) described the
pragmatic ethics of John Dewey, how they resembled the pragmatic epistemology
related to domain analysis and how that seemed like an ideal ethical take for
knowledge organization. Pragmatism requires that concepts are “developed in relation
to a particular need or task,” “revising current practices in light of new experiential
evidence,” and “testing done with the help of the ‘community,’ however defined” (p.
381). The Cataloging Lab, introduced in 2018, is a mechanism that fulfils the promise of
pragmatism. The Cataloging Lab was created and is overseen by Violet Fox (no relation),
who attended our third conference, and who has had a sizeable impact on the ethical
aspects of information and knowledge organization in North America.
21 The Cataloging Lab is a cheat sheet for critical cataloging and activism. It not only allows
catalogers to keep up with current events, but also provides a voice for people to get
involved. For those who study epistemology, it offers a chance for the knowing subject
to be heard. It also meets several principles of the new code of ethics. The site
compiles:
problematic subject headings and classification and hosts SACO funnels
catalog statements about problematic language and materials in catalogs, and cataloging
mission statements
activities around critical cataloging, including events/committees, webinars, talks,
documentaries, and blog posts
resources for best practices, such as indigenous authority work best practices and
instructions on how to propose a change to an LCHS subject heading
22 The Cataloging Lab has a specific point of view, but it firmly aligns with the Code of Ethics
for Catalogers.
Highlights of Critical Cataloging
23 Along with the Code of Ethics for Catalogers and the ALA Code of Ethics revision, both in
2021 and The Cataloging Lab launching in 2018, between 2013 and 2023, many events
promoting critical cataloging occurred. The Homosaurus, a vocabulary for LGBT+ topics
that was devised in 1997, underwent significant changes in 2015 to make it more usable
by mainstream audiences and specifically as a supplement to LCSH. Other events
include the founding of CESC, National Indigenous Knowledge and Language Alliance
(NIKLA), the Queer Metadata Collective, the Trans Metadata Collective, and the Gender
& Sexuality SACO funnel.
•
•
•
•
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24 A few other catalyzing events occurred in that timeframe. First, the “Illegal Aliens”
subject heading controversy began in the US. In 2016, students from Dartmouth
University created a documentary called “Change the Subject” on their efforts to
change the LCSH from “Illegal Aliens” to something less offensive, something more
caring. Politicians from both sides got involved and the Library of Congress struggled to
manage the situation. Library school students followed in real time as it unfolded,
which brought a human face to the consequences of uncritical cataloging. In 2021 LC
changed the heading to “Noncitizens” and “Illegal Immigration.” However, many were
unsatisfied with the change, which then led to further activism to “drop the I word,” an
example of objective or conceptual violence. The murder of George Floyd by the police
in Minneapolis, MN in 2020, along with seemingly endless real violence and political
turmoil in the US combined with the trauma of the pandemic mobilized many against
systemic injustice.
RDA Trouble
25 While socio-cultural issues in subject cataloging often took the spotlight, other issues
with description arose. At the first conference, Smiraglia (2009) discussed how resource
description can “present threats to information ethics” by being bibliocentric (p. 676).
In other words, by focusing on books and not other types of resources, discovery can be
compromised. RDA was implemented in 2013 between those two conferences, and at
the second conference, McCourry (2015) described how RDA does not address user
needs, and that a standard that “meets the needs of the average user will serve no user
fully” (p. 344). In other words, it meets the equal principle rather than the difference
principle and thus does not meet the principles of our future code of ethics.
26 RDA is a perennial topic on the TCMMF Facebook group, but only minimally about
discovery. Instead, there are diatribes about the increasing complexity of the rules and
the usability of the RDA Toolkit. The Toolkit has been a constant theme, especially since
the new toolkit interface was launched and the old was scheduled to be sunsetted but
was delayed to 2026 because the new version is almost unintelligible for new users and
experienced users alike. Similarly, posters on AUTOCAT felt that the complexity of RDA
and the FRBR model was pointless. Julie Moore, cataloging librarian, 2020 Margaret
Mann Citation award winner, and one who understands RDA, lambasted the
complexity, abstractness, and cost associated with RDA on TCMMF:
With each iteration, RDA seems to be straying further and further away from their
initial focus to try to create a set of rules that will be simpler for more catalogers to
be able to understand...How ethical is it really when we have a set of rules at our
core that are so difficult to understand and use that they require extensive
interpretation? … Even when [libraries] buy it for a princely sum, they tend to be
put off by how difficult it is to understand.
27 Moore’s critique points directly to this principle in the code of ethics for catalogers:
“We support efforts to make standards and tools financially, intellectually, and
technologically accessible to all cataloguers, and developed with evidence-based
research and stakeholder input.”
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The Business of Cataloging
28 The ALA Code of Ethics states, “We insist on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the
workplace. We promote education, training, equitable pay, and a fair work
environment for everyone who catalogues so that they can continue to support search
and discovery.” The business of librarianship has profound impacts on practice and
tends to be front of mind with the cataloging groups, enough that it made the new Code
of Ethics for Catalogers. In our first two conferences, Gross (2012) discussed why we
should elimiate library consultant reports and she also categorized the various ways
that catalogers are attacked and devalued by management. Keeping the principle of the
code of ethics in mind, some of the labor aspects in the US and Canada noted on library
social media include exploitation of professionals and paraprofessionals, reliance on
copy catalogers/students, and low pay while requiring an advanced degree. Thus, a
push to unionize, has been urged forward by Emily Drabinski, 23-24 president of the
American Library Association and critical cataloger.
Uncanny Cataloger: Can ChatGPT Articially Care?
29 This leads to another current and future threat: artificial intelligence. Here, the
uncanny catalog becomes the uncanny cataloger: artificial intelligence completing
metadata and taking our jobs. While large language models such as ChatGPT do not
have bodies, they replicate human activity, and do so in a way that seems human, down
to the blinking cursor, as if the machine was thinking or typing. Like many fields, much
chatter has emerged, both dismissive and fearful. In nearly all cases, the enthusiasm for
using AI as another productivity tool is met with admission that it does a bad job except
on simple tasks. It potentially could be trained to do a better job, but even then, it
would likely would only replace data entry jobs. For example, because of the
biobliocentrism in our standards, AI probably could adequately assign metadata to a
very standard and popular book, but any deviations from a very standard resource
would likely be not only wrong, but more dangerously, look correct to the uninitiated.
Also present in cataloger social media reactions to AI was fierce resistance to any
cataloging without human intervention, and of course, predictions that catalogers will
be replaced by chatbots in the service of budgets. However, one cataloger noted that
ChatGPT is just the latest of many automation tools introduced throughout the years
that have caused similar fears.
30 We are back to several age-old questions in our field. Will computers replace us? How
can we make administration understand the value of human expertise? The threat of
artificial intelligence hearkens to the classic question asked by Santamauro and Adams
(2006), “Are we trained monkeys or Philosopher Kings?” In short, what is the meaning
of cataloger’s judgment? Are we just autofilling forms according to the standards, or is
there a requisite knowledge and skills set for deciding what goes in each field? For what
it’s worth, Chat GPT violates nearly every principle of the new code of ethics in some
way. Perhaps its poor quality of work can be used to demonstrate the value of a real,
caring cataloger who creates a caring catalog. We will find out what the next chapter
holds, perhaps at the next Ethics of Knowledge Organization conference.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
American Library Association. Code of ethics. https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics
Bruce, S. (2022). Critical cataloging and classification. American University Library. https://
subjectguides.library.american.edu/c.php?g=1025915&p=7749829
Bair, S. (2005). Toward a code of ethics for cataloging.” Technical Services Quarterly 23(1), 13- 26.
Bechtol, C. (2009). “Ethical Information Organization: Users, The User, A User.” Abstracts. The
Ethics of Information Organization Conference.
Cataloging Ethics Steering Committee (CESC). A code of ethics for catalogers. https://
sites.google.com/view/cataloging-ethics/home
Drabinski, E. (2013). Queering the catalog: Queer theory and the politics of correction. The
Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy 83(2). 94-111.
Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge & the discourse on language (Trans. A.M. Sheridan
Smith). New York: Pantheon.
Ford, A. (2020). Conscientious cataloging: Librarians work to advance equity in subject headings.
American Libraries. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2020/09/01/conscientious-
cataloging/
Fox, Melodie J. and Reece, Austin M. 2012. “Which Ethic? Whose Morality?: An Analysis of Ethical
Standards for the Organization of Information.” Knowledge Organization 39: 377- 383.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard UP.
McCourry, M. (2015). Domain analytic, and domain analytic-like, studies of catalog needs:
Addressing the ethical dilemma of catalog codes developed with inadequate knowledge of user
needs. Knowledge Organization 42(5), 339-345.
Mori, M. (1970). The uncanny valley. Energy 7(4), 33-35.
Olson, H.A. (1997). Thinking professionals: Teaching critical cataloging. Technical Services
Quarterly 15(1-2) 51-66.
Pratt Institute. (2023) Inclusive language. https://libguides.pratt.edu/c.php?g=1278195&p=9456636
Santamauro, B. and Adams, K.C. (Sept./Oct., 2006) Are we trained monkeys or philosopher-kings?
Technicalities 26(5), 11-16.
Shoemaker, E. (2015). No one can whistle a symphony: Seeking a catalogers’ code of ethics.
Knowledge Organization 42(5). 353-357.
Smiraglia, R.P. (2006). Curating and virtual shelves: An editorial. Knowledge Organization, 33(4),
185-187.
Smiraglia, R.P. (2009). Bibliocentrism, cultural warrant, and the ethics of resource description: A
case study. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 47. 671-686.
Smiraglia, R.P. (2015). Ethics in knowledge organization: Two conferences point to a new core in
the domain. Encontros Bibli: revista eletrônica de biblioteconomia e ciência da informação, 20(1), 1-18.
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Tronto, J. (1994). Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care. New York, NY: Routledge.
ABSTRACTS
Can a catalog “care” about its users? This question, introduced at the first Ethics of Information
Organization conference in 2009, asked whether catalogs adhere to the ethic of care, the theory
put forward by Tronto (1994) and others that calls for context and flexibility in ethical decision-
making. This keynote address for the 4th International Conference on the Ethics of Information
& Knowledge Organization expands on that question, adapting the notion of the “uncanny
valley” (Mori 1970), where the ability for a catalog to “care” is disrupted by ethical decisions that
cause conceptual violence for its users. This keynote address provides an informal summary of
the first three Ethics in Information Organization conferences, identifying themes that have been
acted upon in practice, ethical challenges knowledge organization continue to face, and new
challenges that have emerged, demonstrating that a “caring” catalog is still a work in progress.
Un catalogue peut-il "se soucier" de ses utilisateurs? Cette question, introduite lors de la
première conférence sur l’éthique de l’organisation de l’information en 2009, demandait si les
catalogues adhéraient à l’éthique de l’attention, la théorie avancée par Tronto (1994) et d’autres
qui appelle au contexte et à la flexibilité dans la prise de décision éthique. Cette conférence
invitée dans le cadre de la 4e conférence internationale sur l’éthique de l’organisation de
l’information et des connaissances revient sur cette question, en adaptant la notion de "vallée
étrange" (Mori 1970), où la capacité d’un catalogue à "prendre soin" est perturbée par des
décisions éthiques qui causent une violence conceptuelle pour ses utilisateurs. Mon article tiré de
la conférence invitée fournit un résumé informel des trois premières conférences sur l’éthique
dans l’organisation de l’information, en identifiant les thèmes qui ont été mis en pratique, les
défis éthiques auxquels l’organisation des connaissances continue à faire face, et les nouveaux
défis qui ont émergé, démontrant qu’un catalogue "bienveillant" est toujours un travail en cours.
¿Puede un catálogo “preocuparse” por sus usuarios? Esta pregunta, presentada en la primera
Conferencia sobre Ética de la Organización de la Información en 2009, preguntaba si los catálogos
se adherían a la ética del cuidado, la teoría avanzada por Tronto (1994) y otros que exige contexto
y flexibilidad en la toma de decisiones éticas. Esta conferencia invitada en el marco de la 4ª
conferencia internacional sobre la ética de la organización de la información y el conocimiento
vuelve a esta cuestión, adaptando la noción de "valle inquietante" (Mori 1970), donde la
capacidad de un catálogo para "cuidar de " se ve perturbado por decisiones éticas que causan
violencia conceptual a sus usuarios. Mi artículo de la conferencia invitada proporciona un
resumen informal de las tres primeras conferencias sobre ética en la organización de la
información, identificando los temas que se pusieron en práctica, los desafíos éticos que la
organización del conocimiento continúa enfrentando y los nuevos desafíos que han surgido,
demostrando que un catálogo “cariñoso” es todavía un trabajo en progreso.
The Uncanny Catalog: How Do We “Care” Now?
Communication, technologies et développement, 14 | 2023
10
INDEX
Keywords: ethics of information organization, knowledge organization, users, “benevolent”
catalog
Mots-clés: éthique de l’organisation de l’information, l’organisation des connaissances,
utilisateurs, catalogue «bienveillant»
Palabras claves: ética de la organización de la información, organización del conocimiento,
usuarios, catálogo “benevolente”
AUTHOR
MELODIE J. FOX
Assistant Vice President of Curriculum and Knowledge Management Milwaukee School of
Engineering
The Uncanny Catalog: How Do We “Care” Now?
Communication, technologies et développement, 14 | 2023
11