“Is This a SYSTEM?:” Radical Classification and Outsider Archives
Project Description ➺
In this paper, submitted in fulfillment of Professors Jen Cwiok and Iris Lee’s Knowledge Organization class, I surveyed and discussed a small sampling of practice-based challenges to the epistemic imperialism inherent in the systems of classification and knowledge organization which emerged from the intellectual and political perspectives of the western European Enlightenment. Building on a foundational understanding of dominant classifications systems, my paper investigated "challengers" to such a system coming from within and without the institutional bounds of libraries and archives as a profession, from radical catalogers creating alternative classification systems to "outsider archivists" organizing knowledge independently, idiosyncratically, and sometimes extraordinarily. Practitioners featured included Indigenous classification progenitor Brian Deer, X̱wi7x̱wa library founder Gene Joseph, “outsider archivist” Marion Stokes, critical classification advocate Sanford Berman, Black bibliography pioneer Dorothy Porter, and outsider taxonomist/encyclopedist Armand Schulthess.
My Role ➺
I was the sole author of the paper and produced an accompanying presentation in collaboration with Geoffrey Bridgman.
Learning Objective Achieved ➺
Foundations of Library and Information Studies
Rationale ➺
In this project, I worked to showcase and supplement my understanding of the fundamental and dominant library principles and systems by engaging critically with those systems. This was an important step in solidifying the my understanding of the foundations of the LIS field and its applications in service of people and communities.
Reference Service to Incarcerated People with NYPL Jail & Prison Services
Project Description ➺
In the Winter and Spring of 2023, I participated in the NYPL Jail and Prison Services’ Reference by Mail program as a volunteer as a part of Professor Nora Almeida’s class Reference and Instruction. Over the course of the semester, I received three reference request letters from incarcerated patrons and responded to those requests thoroughly, and in accordance with the NYPL and prison guidelines and restrictions. I responded to letters requesting information about a range of opportunities, from creative competitions to higher education programs to the details of starting particular kinds of small businesses. In compliance with the standards and guidelines for the program, I responded with vetted information from a range of sources, whose context and citations I also provided to the patrons.
My Role ➺
I was the sole writer of the reference letters sent to the patrons I was working with.
Learning Objective Achieved ➺
User-Centered Services
Rationale ➺
Throughout this project, I learned to consider reference work as a screening process where the librarian serves as a conduit to vetted, useful, and high-quality information, working to filter out predatory, unverified, or otherwise low-quality sources. This form of reference service requires different attentions and considerations than in-person reference, though I have since implemented the approach and learnings gleaned through the reference by mail program in in-person reference and user services contexts, as well as continuing to volunteer providing reference by mail with the Prison Library Support Network.
Analyzing OCLC Metadata with Python to Consider Retrievability of Bibliographic Records
Project Description ➺
For this project, submitted in fulfillment of Professor Matthew Miller’s Programming for Cultural Heritage course, I worked with a massive (over 1 terabyte) dataset of JSON-formatted search index metadata scraped from OCLC WorldCat. I wrote scripts to randomly sample more manageable chunks of this data and then to analyze those chunks using a range of Python functions and libraries such as Pandas. The goal was to analyze the quality of this metadata and to specify which fields might be more or less consistently populated across the dataset. I formatted the scripts with embedded Pandas data visualizations in a Jupyter Notebook which I then uploaded to a GitHub repository for people to use or adapt to work with their own metadata data sets.
My Role ➺
I was the sole creator of this project.
Learning Objective Achieved ➺
Technology
Rationale ➺
To complete this project, I learned and utilized Python, libraries like Pandas and Matplotlib, and the Jupyter Notebooks platform to fulfill an aim I had set at the beginning of the course to better understand this gargantuan dataset. Since working on this project, I have implemented all of these tools in other contexts and been able to gain even further proficiency. In addition to the comfort with the listed languages and tools, I also gained a greater comfort in navigating and working with data, as well as recognizing its importance in the digital cultural heritage sphere.
Publishing, Paper, and the American Enlightenment: Robert Bell’s 1776 Edition of The Diseases Incident to Armies
Project Description ➺
My research presentation and paper, both titled “Publishing, Paper, and the American Enlightenment: Robert Bell’s 1776 Edition of The Diseases Incident to Armies,” submitted for Professor Kyle Triplett’s course Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Special Collections, explores the historical and material contexts conditioning the creation and continued existence of a single book in the NYPL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts collection. In compiling this paper and presentation, I engaged in deep research, consulting primary sources using the NYPL Research Division’s services as well as numerous other libraries and digital resources to construct a thorough portrait of the papermaking, printing and publishing industries of the Revolutionary period in colonial America. One special emphasis of the presentation detailed the phenomenon of blue paper during this era, resulting from a scarcity of linen rags and the supplementary use of wool scraps, the fibers of which color differently over time than linen due to their porosity, taking on a blue tone that tints the encompassing paper. I devised an exact and accurate collation formula to describe the book’s construction according to the standards of the Rare Books and Manuscripts field, particularly in use with antiquarian materials.
My Role ➺
I was the sole author of this paper and the accompanying presentation.
Learning Objective Achieved ➺
Research
Rationale ➺
For this project I engaged in rigorous scholarly research, adopting the processes and research methods of academic historians and rare books specialists. I explored the work of canonically significant historians of the field of bibliography as well as primary and more remote sources. I then used this research to create an engaging presentation and research paper which aimed to make the object of my study more accessible and interesting to a general audience as well as specialists. Access and understanding are the end goals of research for me, and this project was a successful manifestation of those aims.
Structuring Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Administrative Remedy Program Data for Access
Project Description ➺
Between the nearly 24 years spanning January 2000 to May 2024, 1.78 million complaints or appeals were submitted to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Administrative Remedy Program by people incarcerated in federal prisons across the United States. In 2024, the BOP responded to a 2022 FOIA request placed by the information activism initiative Data Liberation Project, providing the records related to these 1.78 million complaints to the group, whose members have worked to “reformat, clean, document, publish, and disseminate” the dataset for public access. My project, “Structuring Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Administrative Remedy Program Data for Access,” created in Professor Monica Maceli’s Database Design and Development course, has further streamlined and structured this data for public use, facilitating easier access to specific information and subsets of the most relevant portions of the data for advocacy purposes. The final implementation of this project is a lightweight and easily implementable SQL database structure for the dataset developed through several stages of design, from initial proposal to conceptual and logical modeling. After a round of user testing with stakeholders, I intend to share the SQL database and my documentation with the Data Liberation Project to freely disseminate or host with their published dataset. The intended users of this database are those typically considered stakeholders in the criminal legal system and related advocacy efforts: incarcerated people and their families/friends, lawyers and legal advocates, activists, and any combination of the preceding categories.
My Role ➺
I’ve created this database design and structure using open-source data released by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in response to a FOIA request mounted by the Data Liberation Project, who have extensively documented and prepared the dataset for further use.
Learning Objective Achieved ➺
Ethical/Creative/Critical Practice
Rationale ➺
In designing this database to suit a dataset of recently released and potentially highly consequential information about complaints mounted by incarcerated people against the federal prison system over the last two decades, I hoped to use the “hard skills” I have so valued gaining through this program to directly intervene in and contribute to the accessibility of information previously kept private. I admire the work of the Data Liberation Project for this reason and am hopeful that my small contribution to building out the legibility and accessibility of this data will be useful to others.