Just so you know …

… All Is Not Quiet In the Library Catalogs. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In the discussions I mentioned above, fellow catalogers were unabashedly stating that certain  marginalized groups should get to decide how a book should be labeled. If a cataloger who is a  member of a marginalized social group believes the book in question is harmful or offensive, he is fully in the right to add a note in the catalog stating his beliefs. Thus we now have four books in the international catalog (used by libraries worldwide) with the label “Transphobic works”. Several books that are critical of the current gender affirmation care model now have the subject heading “Transphobia”. These books are not about transphobia, so the subject heading is likely being used as a way to warn the reader of the record (and potentially the librarian choosing which books to order for the library) that these are “bad books” and should not be read or purchased.