Social Criticism of Four Major Knowledge Organization Systems: An Annotated Bibliography

Social Criticism of Four Major Knowledge Organization Systems: An Annotated Bibliography

This bibliography, prepared for INFO 522: Information Access and Resources course (2012), covers criticism of bias in the four major knowledge organization systems currently in use in the majority of libraries across the globe. They are the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the Library of Congress Classification (LCC), the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The articles listed were published between 2000 and 2011. In spite of a relative slow-down in research in this time span, it was chosen to both provide the most recent research and to reveal changes to the systems made since the criticism hey-day of the 1970s and 1980s. One article emphasizes the impact on multidisciplinary research. However, most other articles discuss the bias’ impact upon specific linguistic, regional, ethnic, racial, historical, gendered, and sexual communities. Most articles also utilize prior critiques in their analyses and several employ established critical theories. Three
articles track progress since the 1970s and provide foundational vocabulary. All articles were published in English language journals within the Library and Information Sciences discipline, except one that has a multidisciplinary focus on social criticism.

Carole J. Griffin

October 7, 2012