ATG Special Report — The Use of Content Analysis to Promote Discovery of and Access to Unbiased Resources

Column Editor: Lesley Rice Montgomery, MLIS (Catalog Librarian, Tulane University Libraries’ Technical Services Department) <lesleylrmontgomery@gmail.com>

Introduction and the State of the Art

Recent developments in the field of cataloging and metadata such as the thoughtful use of textual content analysis can positively impact the policies and processes that professional catalogers use to facilitate discovery of and access to relevant, useful, and unbiased university library resources. This article will focus on the use of content analysis by university library catalogers, but to fully describe this complex topic, it is necessary to give an overview of cataloging processes and describe how these fit into the overall standards of the modern information industry. One first must ask, “What is the relationship between a data catalog and metadata management?” Succinctly put, data catalogs are tools that support and enable metadata management, whereas metadata management can be defined as a strategy. “An organized inventory of data assets in the organization… uses metadata to help organizations manage their data. It also helps data professionals collect, organize, access, and enrich metadata to support data discovery and governance” (Oracle, 2023). Information specialists would be well-advised to explore how the university online public access catalog (OPAC) and online databases can be structured in ways that will support effective metadata curation and flexible search and discovery options (Oracle, 2023). To make a comparison to other information providers, Google’s distributed storage systems and Amazon’s catalogs of products are not just acquired and assembled out of thin air. As with a library catalog that enables patrons to discover whether the library holds a book, describes its location, and provides a description of a specific edition that is available, many object stores and data warehouses offer catalogs that provide deep visibility into all the data. Managing large volumes of structured datasets that grow exponentially over time – or big data as it’s currently called – allows for immense amounts of varied data that can be recalled with alacrity and incorporates speed and confidence in the user experience (Kanade, 2022; Taylor, 2023; Wells, 2023). In the modern world of big data, both data access and data governance are increasingly challenging. Challenges to locating and retrieving relevant and useful data include difficulties in capturing missing knowledge; wasted time when searching for and retrieving data; a lack of common vocabulary or cataloging standards; and difficulties when assessing provenance, quality, and credibility (Oracle, 2023). Big data analytics and catalogs that reside in the cloud have changed the way institutions manage, access, and fully use information, which in turn contributes to cost savings, operational efficiency, and a better user experience (Oracle, 2023; Wells, 2023).

Qualitative Content Analysis: Why It’s Important

Large companies like Amazon use well-established procedures for mining relevant information, such as qualitative content analysis, which is a useful tool that allows researchers to derive the presence of keywords, themes, concepts, and relationships from qualitative data. Academic catalogers, archivists and other information specialists can use these processes to inform the OPAC and to help patrons discover and access the university’s online databases. Open access libraries’ holdings that provide digital editions of single-authored scholarly titles and primary source documents should be cataloged with controlled subject headings. A thoughtful, holistic assessment of an author’s work will aid information professionals who are gleaning keywords to allow users to access, retrieve and use data that is relevant and useful for their teaching, learning and research needs. All the while, one must keep in mind the essential idea that a catalog is not a distinct entity from the metadata. Rather, the two are intertwined. That is, the access points for authors’ works, museum items, archival records, and digitized historical manuscripts, are both composed of and interact with the entirety of the metadata that is incorporated in the catalog or online databases.

Researchers may investigate contemporary cultural, political, and social issues via the study of keywords. The Library of Congress Authorities site provides free and easy access to catalogers who wish to use authorized phrases called search strings that can name issues or concepts that typically refer to or impact vulnerable members of society, like “social exclusion,” “social isolation,” “marginal peoples,” and “culture conflict” (Library of Congress, 2019). In this era of information being promoted and accessed on a global scale, it is of paramount importance that keywords, search strings, and controlled subject headings are informed by the best practices of the modern information industry. Being mindful of the ethical implications of cataloging and classification standards is part of a process called critical cataloging. This thoughtful focus on how one chooses and uses library metadata “…can lead to a more inclusive approach by sharing, collaborating, and enhancing collections information based on user needs” (Collections Trust, 2023).

Who Benefits?

Who will benefit from the modern developments of enhanced metadata user access and retrieval standards? In the academic setting, ultimately the exemplary enforcement of best cataloging processes that incorporate a holistic approach will assist students, faculty, and researchers hunting for peer reviewed journal articles. Examples include instructors who are assigned to teach freshman experience courses at university libraries; reference librarians who, due to the proliferation of distance learners over the past several decades and recently by constraints brought about by the pandemic, primarily are offering information services online via chat reference; as well as members of exhibits committees who are adding value to the learning experiences of university stakeholders by assembling interesting and educational displays of special collections artifacts and library print collections. Patrons may be relying on search terms that were added to bibliographic records prior to the American Library Association’s (ALA) incorporation of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) terms into its glossary. This emphasizes the need for well-constructed data catalogs. It is crucial to help users find, inventory, and analyze diverse data assets that will provide unbiased information and data that is clear and precise (Gartner, 2019).

DEI: An Example

Many scholarly endeavors have a focus on DEI initiatives and on numerous factors that build information literacy skills like critical thinking. How might one define DEI and how does the DEI paradigm apply to the cataloging and metadata standards within the academic library setting? Tuskegee University’s Cooperative Extension provides a thorough description of diversity as being “the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment, or political perspective” (TUCE, 2022). Equity is the promotion of “justice, impartiality and fairness within the procedures, processes, and distribution of resources by institutions or systems.” It is imperative that catalogers and other library stakeholders gain an understanding of underlying factors that produce outcome disparities within society. Issues like the digital divide that impact school children who live in impoverished communities continue to plague populations on a global level. The digital divide prevents our vulnerable underage learners as well as many college students from gaining easy access to modern technologies that allow the discovery and use of digitized library collections. The sad truth is that societal inequities do tend to hinder a fair and impartial distribution of learning resources. The third aspect of the DEI paradigm, which is inclusion, constitutes “an outcome to ensure those that are diverse actually feel and/or are welcomed” (TUCE, 2022). As with the principles of diversity and equity, it is critical that catalogers add this DEI vocabulary to academic glossaries and to OPACs. Again, this will encourage educators and researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of how to discover unbiased resources that will promote impartiality and fairness in the academic community, as well as inspire students to behave with civility and to gain a sense of responsibility for promoting justice in the greater community when they graduate from the university. Therefore, the subject headings available in the OPAC should follow ALA-approved policy standards, and catalogers are advised to carefully analyze resources’ content to produce search terms that promote DEI principles, as well as provide easy access for works and for general information that is relevant and useful for university patrons.

The ALA’s Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services maintains a glossary of terms that are meant to provide guidance and start open discussions “in the spirit of creating a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive society,” given that “language can both contribute to oppression and be a tool of liberation” (ALA, 2022). Terms, some of which were added as recently as 2021, include “racial justice,” “social justice,” and “systemic vs. individual bias” (ALA, 2022). Occasionally a patron wants to locate unbiased and culturally sensitive resources but is impeded by cataloging that predates the addition of DEI terms to OPAC indexes. An example is print books that primarily are listed under the topical heading “social life and customs,” but in fact discuss DEI issues. These materials may be difficult to find, not having had the terms “racial justice” or “social injustice” added to the bibliographic records. Instances of these phrases may be rare in current catalogs, with “racial justice” tending to retrieve only items that have these words in the title. While time and money restraints make it impossible to retrospectively catalog entire collections, these examples illustrate how DEI outcomes will be successfully met only when the cataloging and metadata standards are inviting to all and diverse individuals can participate fully within the organization. In short, the processes and procedures of cataloging going forward must fully incorporate equitable search terms and subject headings that eschew societal disparities (TUCE, 2022).

Content Analysis: How it Works

Content analysis provides a specific example of a data management trend that enhances unbiased research outcomes and offers implications for promotion of new and creative research activities. Textual content analysis of a single-authored work is “a method that may be used with either qualitative or quantitative data and in an inductive or deductive way” and the analysis processes are represented by three phases of preparation, organization, and reporting (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008). Inductive content analysis is mainly used for the topical study of phenomena for which there is scant previous research data, and the deductive approach generally is used to test previous theories or to compare categories of data from varying time periods (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008). The topics to be investigated are endless, but one pertinent example is the content analysis of library and information science literature (LIS), whereby researchers in the LIS field could perform a qualitative keyword or thematic content analysis of journal articles that discuss nontraditional students and lifelong learning. In this instance, researchers might conduct a study on LIS education journal articles published during a specific period, potentially from the increased growth of online learning in the early 1990s through today, to see if or how LIS education literature has discussed nontraditional students over time. Investigators would formulate relevant questions in order to randomly retrieve an appropriate sample of online sources; would design a study that incorporates approaches that are typically used for analyzing the retrieved qualitative data; and then would compile an index of keywords and themes that would mine pertinent information from the peer reviewed online documents. This then would allow the investigators to effectively code and qualitatively analyze the data from LIS journal articles. A thoughtful interpretation of the results of the content analysis could provide useful suggestions on how to enhance learning experiences for nontraditional students who are pursuing programs via distance-based formats.

Business entities typically utilize software to compile indexes of keywords and employ certified professional coders to perform a deep analysis of themes derived from the datasets. The processes of qualitative content analysis can be used by university library catalogers who become familiar with textual resources, discern patterns and connections, interpret the data, and draw conclusions when they are working with subject headings. Additionally, these processes can promote the incorporation of DEI principles into the cataloging workflow. Ultimately, a well-considered application of traditional qualitative data analysis that adds DEI subject headings into the OPAC and online databases will positively shape library reference pedagogies and will aid the retrieval of information by library access services.

The Role of Librarians

The DEI paradigm has never been more important than during the current age, when cultural norms are being strained on a global level by economic and sociopolitical factors that typically widen the digital divide and negatively impact our most vulnerable citizens. Modern university librarians might struggle to devise online or in-person workshops or to create first-year experience seminars that will address the mission, values, and vision of the home university, but it is possible to reflect core ethics while meeting the goal of transforming institutional practices to build a stronger and more equitable organization. The techniques are varied and can include collaborative efforts among library liaisons and student outreach, marketing, and display committees, and the university’s office of inclusive excellence. Collaboration among university library departments is necessary if administrators wish to foster empathy and to promote standards of good citizenship within the academic institution’s student body.

Library catalogers play a crucial role in the promotion of unbiased and authoritative resources that will add value to these endeavors. Using the tool of content analysis to discern important concepts, themes and relationships within textual materials will serve to enhance the OPAC and will make university online databases more accessible and useful for all library patrons. Enhancing search and explore options and managing the textual glossaries will enrich the user experience by allowing patrons to gain a holistic overview of the academic library’s data assets (Oracle, 2023). Acknowledging the expertise of regular faculty and engaging colleagues when working toward the shared objective of embedding DEI principles into the academic curriculum will improve the quality of literacy instruction and research; will encourage the development of a more civil and inclusive environment; and ultimately will enhance student success rates and persistence toward completion of their academic programs.

References

American Library Association (ALA). (2022). ODLOS glossary of terms [ALA’s online dictionary]. https://www.ala.org/aboutala/ odlos-glossary-terms

Collections Trust. (2023, April 4). Museum makers – People centred cataloging [Blog]. https://collectionstrust.org.uk/blog/ museum-makers-people-centred-cataloguing/

Elo, S., & Kyngäs, H. (2008). The qualitative content analysis process. Jan, 62(1), 107-115. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04569.x

Gartner. (2019, September 12). Augmented data catalogs: Now an enterprise must-have for data and analytics leaders [Industry research paper]. https://www.gartner.com/en/ documents/3957301

Kanade, V. (2022, April 27). What is a data catalog? Definition, examples, and best practices . spiceworks. https://www. spiceworks.com/tech/big-data/articles/what-is-a-data-catalogdefinition-examples-and-best-practices/

Library of Congress. (2019, September 25). Library of Congress Authorities [Authorities file]. https://authorities.loc.gov/

Oracle. (2023). What is a data catalog and why do you need one? [Industry article]. https://www.oracle.com/big-data/datacatalog/what-is-a-data-catalog/#:~:text=Simply%20put%2C%20 a%20data%20catalog,Discover%20OCI%20Data%20Catalog

Taylor, D. (2023, March 11). What is big data? Introduction, types, characteristics, examples. Guru99. https://www.guru99. com/what-is-big-data.html

Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension (TUCE). (2022). What is diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)? https://dei. extension.org/

Wells, D. (2023, May 2). What is a data catalog? Data catalog features & benefits [Blog]. Alation. https://www.alation.com/ blog/what-is-a-data-catalog/