Alumna’s creation brings librarians’ ‘Unseen Labor’ into the light
Beth Morgan ’01 has known Marc for years.
Marc, or more properly MARC, stands for Machine-Readable Cataloging, and it prescribes how libraries sort, code and catalog materials, such as books and digital resources.
So while Morgan has known MARC her entire career, most library users are unaware of the behind-the-scenes structure that ensures books can easily be found based on their topic and subject matter. They are also likely just as unaware of the discourse surrounding MARC among catalogers.
But Morgan has brought MARC into the light as part of a global exhibit that aims to similarly bring that behind-the-scenes work done at libraries across the world into the spotlight.
Morgan made MARC the subject of her submission to the “Unseen Labor” exhibition, featuring work by 35 creators from a wide variety of libraries from all over the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.
The participants created cross-stitch works highlighting the unseen work done by cataloging and metadata librarians.
The exhibit took shape after Ann Cardos, a metadata librarian at the University of Massachusetts, reached out to colleagues.
“Her message to the cataloging listserv was describing her idea for a cross stitch art project on the unseen labor of technical services librarians,” Morgan said. “And she invited librarians to submit pieces.”
At the time, the Grace Doherty Library was seeking funding to hire a cataloging librarian who could devote more time to updating the 911 collection. Morgan was doing the cataloging work in addition to serving as archivist and head of special collections. So the message behind the call struck a chord.
“The theme of feeling unseen as a cataloger really resonated with me, because at this point in my career as a librarian, I had been cataloging for about 20 years,” said Morgan. “And I consistently felt like no one understood what I did, how I did it, or how it fit into their notions of what a library is and what librarians do.”
For her submission, she cross-stitched an image of the grim reaper with the words “MARC; Killin’ It Since 1970.” She was inspired by a 2010 article that argued the system should be replaced. It was titled “MARC must die.”
“A computer programmer named Roy Tennant wrote an article just trashing MARC,” Morgan said. “Mr. Tenant didn't have an alternative… Nobody has one. We're still using MARC.
“So here we are. For better or worse, MARC has been killin’ it since the 1970s.”
Morgan had the chance to highlight her work during several events hosted by the Grace Doherty Library this fall including at a Building Bridges Day and Community Day event in November. She and 911’s new cataloging and metadata librarian, Elizabeth Burton, spoke about the exhibit and shared more about all their behind-the-scenes work. 911 is the final stop of a 2-year tour by the exhibit.
This article also appears in the Fall/Winter edition of 911piece.
