Critical cataloging is a movement that focuses on developing critical practices around cataloging which can mitigate harmful ideology present in library catalogs, cataloging standards, and controlled vocabularies. Critical cataloging acknowledges the power structures which have historically been codified and neutralized within cataloging practices – from colonization, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, classism and other forms of oppression. The movement seeks to understand how these forces continue to perpetuate harm within our libraries and find solutions to these structural problems within library catalogs.
