Background:

In May 2023, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Policy Committee (PoCo) charged the Task Group for Metadata Related to Indigenous Peoples of the Americas to review and address the recommendations put forth by the PCC Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Accessibility (EDIBA). This included the identification and evaluation of vocabularies used to describe Indigenous peoples. The Task Group submitted its final report to PoCo on March 10, 2025, and the report was approved on April 10, 2025.

Based on the recommendations outlined in the final report, a new Task Group will be formed to carry out the following deliverables.

Charge: 

The PCC Task Group on Metadata for Indigenous Peoples of the Americas is charged to:

• Partner with Indigenous librarianship organizations, including the American Indian Library Association (AILA), the Association for Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM), NIKLA/ANKLA, applicable Funnels, and IndigenizeSNAC, to identify both new and existing controlled vocabulary development initiatives.
• Identify and develop controlled vocabularies for describing Indigenous groups, topics, geographic relationality, and related subjects.
• Explore methods to maintain and support alternative controlled vocabularies outside of LCSH.
• Collaborate with the Library of Congress Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division to address terminology related to Indigenous groups (e.g., renaming "Indians of North America") and integrating spatial relationality in classification schemes.
• Coordinate with the Standing Committee on Training (SCT) to promote the use of alternative controlled vocabularies within PCC institutions.
• Work closely with the Library Systems and Vendors Advisory Committee to advise library system vendors on Unicode issues related to cataloging and discovery.
• Draft a best practices primer on Unicode for Indigenous languages.

PCC Strategic Directions progress 2023- (working document):     

• SD 6.5: Build a knowledge base of metadata practices that have been or should be evaluated and possibly identified for harm-reducing remediation efforts (sometimes referred to as “critical cataloging,” “reparative cataloging” or “reparative description”). 
• Action item 1: Continually track the work of organizations, both within and outside the PCC, that identify and redress problematic subject headings and other vocabulary terms. 
• Action item 3: Determine how and when to boost the signal of such work happening externally to the PCC and encourage PCC members to participate in that work. 
• Action item 4: Where appropriate, actively identify additional reparative efforts, taking care to avoiding duplication of effort with other communities 
• SD 6: Explore partnerships with other organizations and institutions to participate in and promote ADEI initiatives. 
• Action item 2: Reach out to other organizations (including but not limited to National Indigenous Knowledge & Language Alliance/Alliance nationale des connaissances et des langues autochtones (NIKLA-ANCLA), OCLC, LD4 Ethics in Linked Data Affinity Group).               

Time Frame: 12 months

Date charged: June 5, 2025

Date preliminary report due: Feb. 5, 2026

Date final report due: June 5, 2026

After the final report is reviewed by PoCo, a follow-up phase may be required before the group is disbanded, to address implementation of recommendations, etc.

Reports to: 

PCC Policy Committee

Roster:   

• Allison Bailund (abailund@sdsu.edu), co-chair, San Diego State University
• Charles Riley (charles.riley@yale.edu), member, Yale University
• Christina Needham (christina.needham@ubc.ca) member, University of British Columbia
• Cleire Lauron (cleire.lauron@kpu.ca), member, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
• Devon E. Murphy (devon.murphy@austin.utexas.edu), member, University of Texas Austin
• Katherine Witzig (katwitzig@gmail.com), co-chair, Oklahoma Department of Libraries
• Jill Strykowski (jill.strykowski@sjsu.edu) liaison from Advisory Committee of Library Vendors and System, San Jose University
• Matthew Haugen (matthew.haugen@columbia.edu), liaison from SCS, Columbia University

*Below is the complete charge document.