ARLIS Cat & Class ethics series: The Qatar Digital Library

The British Library has been working in partnership with the Qatar Foundation and Qatar National Library to create the Qatar Digital Library (QDL), a free, online, bilingual portal. The QDL contains images of material from British Library collections relating to the Gulf, including over 9,000 individual items from the India Office records. An important output of the programme is enhanced catalogue descriptions, which are translated into Arabic, providing access to the digitised material in both languages.

Since the summer of 2020, we have sought to engage critically with the language and terminology found in the records. Inspired by work such as the Words Matter glossary, a small project team comprised of cataloguers and translators formed to reflect on how we catalogue, looking at terms in English and Arabic, and developing a consistent approach to treating each term in the processes of cataloguing and translation. This work is ongoing.

Simultaneous projects have also become part of our efforts to catalogue more ethically. This includes the development of our transliteration database, and our work to improve the QDL glossary. This has involved reviewing and expanding the list of glossary terms, providing definitions and historical context to assist understanding and interpretation of the records to an online global audience.

This talk will outline our approaches to this work, the challenges faced, and benefits gained.

Curstaidh Reid is a Gulf History Cataloguer at the British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme. Active in the heritage sector since 2015, she qualified as an archivist with an MSc in Information Management and Preservation from the University of Glasgow in 2018. She has held cataloguing and project archivist roles at a variety of institutions, including university, local authority and private archives. Her interests include international/bilingual archives, community-based archives, and conscientious description.

David Woodbridge (PhD) is a Gulf History Cataloguer at the British Library/Qatar Foundation PartnershipProgramme. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Manchester, and his research focuses on the history of British imperialism in Asia.

Ethical issues in cataloguing and classification are a critical area of library thinking and practice and are high priorities for libraries seeking to make their services and collections more inclusive and diverse.

We believe that this series of talks will help to introduce and share past, recent, and ongoing acquisitions of ethical practices in cataloguing and classification.

This series will cover the inherent tensions between inclusive design in a local setting, following global practices, and the potential barriers toward changes. The talks will look at case studies of ethics scenarios around cataloguing and/or classification.

** Attendance is free and all are welcome - no prior knowledge of cataloguing or classification is required. Furthermore, you do not have to be a member of ARLIS or work in an art library to attend **

Host or Publisher Arlis Cataloguing and Classification Committee