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Sanford Berman

May 17, 2024

This article is about the librarian. For the philanthropist and hypnotist, see Sanford I. Berman.

Sanford Berman (born October 6, 1933) is a librarian (specifically, a cataloger). He is known for radicalism, promoting alternative viewpoints in librarianship, and acting as a proactive information conduit to other librarians around the world.[1] His vehicles of influence include public speaking, voluminous correspondence, and unsolicited "care packages" delivered via the U.S. Postal Service.[2] Will Manley, columnist for the American Library Association (ALA) publication, American Libraries, has praised Berman: "He makes you proud to be a librarian."[3]

Sanford Berman
BornOctober 6, 1933 (1933-10-06) (age 90)
Chicago
EducationPolitical science, BA
Library science, MS
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
The Catholic University of America
OccupationLibrarian

Biography edit

Berman was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended University of California at Los Angeles, where he earned a BA in Political Science with minors in Sociology, Anthropology, and English, and where he was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After acquiring an MS in Library Science from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Berman began work as a librarian. He worked for the U.S. Army Special Services Libraries, West Germany (1962–1966), where he helped edit an underground press GI magazine titled, Yin/Yang; Schiller College, Kleiningersheim, West Germany (1966–1967); University of California at Los Angeles Research Library (1967–1968), where he rescued back runs of I. F. Stone's Weekly from the trash bin; University of Zambia Library, Lusaka, Zambia (1968–1970); Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University Library, Kampala, Uganda (1971–1972); and Hennepin County Library, Minnesota (1973–1999).[4][5][6]

Library activism edit

Alternative subject headings edit

Berman has been a leading critic of biased headings in the Library of Congress Subject Headings. His 1971 publication, Prejudices and Antipathies: A Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People,[7] sparked a movement to correct biased subject headings. Berman listed 225 headings with proposed alterations, additions, or deletions and cross-references to "more accurately reflect the language used in addressing these topics, to rectify errors of bias, and to better guide librarians and readers to material of interest."[8] Berman stated, "The fact that a number of meanings may be assigned to a given word explains why messages are subject to misinterpretation and why our communication is open to misunderstandings." [citation needed] He asserted that messages and therefore subject headings must convey an idea in a fashion free from prejudice. Berman realized the continued use of biased subject headings would significantly limit the ability of a patron to access materials in the collection. Berman also thought the use of language in headings should be clear and concise, and should reflect the current use of everyday people rather than only scientific or technical terms.[9] Overall, the use of common language in subject headings would enable prompt retrieval of materials by the end user.[10]

Berman also openly criticized centrally performed cataloging and standard cataloging tools that supported bias in subject headings. He stated, "[O]ur national cataloging products and services can't be completely trusted and should not be accepted automatically nor uncritically by anyone who genuinely believes that cataloging should make material more rather than less accessible and retrievable."[11] Cataloging that was outrightly erroneous or inadequate rendered material inaccessible even though it was in the collection. Berman thought poor cataloging was a serious form of censorship. Libraries were supposed to oppose censorship and provide the widest possible spectrum of cultural, social, economic, political, religious, and sexual information. With this in mind, Berman indicated local libraries should make a conscious effort to describe accurately all materials in the catalog for a patron. A considerable amount of conscious effort meant including "public notes" to clarify unfamiliar concepts for patrons. The public notes would let a patron know whether an item would suit the information needs. Furthermore, Berman opposed the practice of not cataloging all important aspects of works. Patrons cannot access materials when they have not been fully catalogued.

The spark of Berman's cataloging revolution was the inclusion in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) of the term kaffir, which he came across while working in Zambia, where the term is considered a racial slur.[12] This motivated him to systematically address subject heading bias in his work at Hennepin County Library and in writing Prejudices and Antipathies: a Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People.[4] The work, published in two editions, examines racism, sexism, a Christian-centric worldview, and other biases inherent in the LCSH. Berman also is known for his role in encouraging the Library of Congress to drop such archaic headings as "Water Closet" in favor of contemporary terminology.[13]

During the last six months of 2005, working with the assistance of Steve Fesenmaier, Berman convinced the Library of Congress to create many new subject headings, including "American Dream," "Plutocracy," "West Virginia Mine Wars, 1897-1921," "The Battle of Blair Mountain, 1921," and several others. [citation needed]

With librarian James P. Danky, Berman was the editor of Alternative Library Literature, (1982–2001) a biennial compilation of alternative essays on librarianship from a wide variety of other sources. Berman's other titles include The Joy of Cataloging and Worth Noting. He is the original radical librarian; his followers refer to themselves as "Sandynistas" or guerrilla cataloguers. He was a founding member of a group known as the "Revolting Librarians," which published a manifesto about library-related issues.[14]

American Library Association edit

Berman co-authored the 1990 ALA Policy on Library Services to Poor People, and founded the American Library Association's Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty Task Force, a division of the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT). In 1989 he was honored with the American Library Association Equality Award.

In June 2005, he gave the Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture at the annual ALA conference, dedicated to the founder of OLOS.[15]

Also in the early 1990s, Berman participated in the SRRT Action Council in advocating ALA to address Censorship in Israel with a Task Force on Israeli Censorship and Palestinian Libraries. He would later attempt to move organizing outside of ALA following backlash and conflicts with taskforce chair David Williams.[16]

With other Minnesota librarians, as well as those nationally and internationally, Berman is known for promoting activist librarianship in which social justice is part and parcel of professional work. Thanks to this advocacy, the American Library Association's official policy recognizes the key role of librarians in addressing social ills.

Berman was awarded American Library Association Honorary Membership in 2004.

Post-retirement edit

Having retired in 1999,[17][18] Berman continues to solicit the Library of Congress for additions and modifications to the LCSH system. Since 2005, he has led an effort to honor American labor leaders Mary Harris "Mother" Jones and Eugene Debs with commemorative postage stamps.[17] In 2013, McFarland & Company published a collection of his "Unabashed Librarian" columns as a book called Not in My Library. In December 2019, the Edina Human Rights and Relations Commission recognized Berman's commitment to social justice with the Tom Oye Award.[19]

The Sanford Berman papers [20] are part of the American Library Association (ALA) Archives held by the University of Illinois Library.[21] The data files of the Hennepin County Library catalog are included in this collection.[22]

References edit

  1. ^ Berman, Sanford (2014). Prejudices and antipathies : a tract on the LC subject heads concerning people. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co. ISBN 978-0786493524. OCLC 884533147.
  2. ^ . www.papercutzinelibrary.org. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  3. ^ Manley, Will (1 May 1996). "Reflections from the center-field bleachers". Booklist: 1473 – via Gale Academic OneFile.
  4. ^ a b Dave Wood (August 13, 1995). "Pretty booky: He's writing about reading books on books". Star Tribune.
  5. ^ Peg Meier (August 16, 1993). "Librarian complains it's hard to find everything you always wanted to know". Star Tribune.
  6. ^ Barrett Pashak (September 27, 1999). "Women do it to Dewey: a University of Alberta team plans to feminize library book classifications". British Columbia Report.
  7. ^ Sanford Berman (1971), Prejudices and Antipathies, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, ISBN 081080431X, 081080431X
  8. ^ Knowlton, Steven A. (2005). "Three Decades Since Prejudices and Antipathies: A Study of Changes in the Library of Congress Subject Headings" (PDF). Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. 40 (2): 123–145. doi:10.1300/J104v40n02_08. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  9. ^ "Cataloging the 1990s (February 22, 1993) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  10. ^ "City Pages: Sandy Berman's Last Stand". www.sanfordberman.org. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  11. ^ Sanford Berman (1984). “Where Have All the Moonies Gone?” In Reference Services and Technical Services: Interactions in Library Practice, edited by Gordon Stevenson and Sally Stevenson, 133–43. New York: Haworth Press.
  12. ^ Watson, B. (2020). ""There was Sex but no Sexuality:" Critical Cataloging and the Classification of Asexuality in LCSH". Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. 58 (6): 547–565. doi:10.1080/01639374.2020.1796876. hdl:2022/25766. S2CID 221380703.
  13. ^ Berman, Sanford (1971). Prejudices and antipathies: A tract on the LC subject heads concerning people. Metuchen, N. J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 081080431X.
  14. ^ Jean Weihs (2009). "Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front". Feliciter.
  15. ^ "Classism in the Stacks: Libraries and Poverty". About ALA. 2007-03-29. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  16. ^ Kagan, Al (Spring 2016). "ALA, IFLA, and Israel/Palestine" (PDF). Progressive Librarian (44).
  17. ^ a b Strickler, Jeff (September 14, 2012). "Putting his stamp on history". Star Tribune. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  18. ^ Berry, John N. “Citing "Deception," Berman Resigns from Hennepin County” Library Journal 124. (May 15, 1999): 14.
  19. ^ "Sanford Berman wins 2019 Tom Oye Award". American Libraries Magazine.
  20. ^ "Sanford Berman Papers, 1933, 1942-1943, 1950-1953, 1959-2013". ALA Archives.
  21. ^ New Web Site Honors Sandy Berman, Library Journal, 2002-02-13
  22. ^ "Hennepin County Library Catalog (Archives)". University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Archives.

Further reading edit

  • Dodge, Chris; DeSirey, Jan (1995). Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sandy Berman But Were Afraid to Ask. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0081-1.
  • Roberto, K.R., ed. (2008). Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-3543-2.
  • Pashak, Barrett. "Women do it to Dewey." Alberta Report 20 Sep 1999: 34. Academic OneFile. 13 Oct 2014.

External links edit

  • The Sanford Berman website 2/8/2020

May 17, 2024
sanford, berman, this, article, about, librarian, philanthropist, hypnotist, sanford, berman, born, october, 1933, librarian, specifically, cataloger, known, radicalism, promoting, alternative, viewpoints, librarianship, acting, proactive, information, conduit. This article is about the librarian For the philanthropist and hypnotist see Sanford I Berman Sanford Berman born October 6 1933 is a librarian specifically a cataloger He is known for radicalism promoting alternative viewpoints in librarianship and acting as a proactive information conduit to other librarians around the world 1 His vehicles of influence include public speaking voluminous correspondence and unsolicited care packages delivered via the U S Postal Service 2 Will Manley columnist for the American Library Association ALA publication American Libraries has praised Berman He makes you proud to be a librarian 3 Sanford BermanBornOctober 6 1933 1933 10 06 age 90 ChicagoEducationPolitical science BALibrary science MSAlma materUniversity of California Los AngelesThe Catholic University of AmericaOccupationLibrarian Contents 1 Biography 2 Library activism 2 1 Alternative subject headings 2 2 American Library Association 2 3 Post retirement 3 References 4 Further reading 5 External linksBiography editBerman was born in Chicago Illinois He attended University of California at Los Angeles where he earned a BA in Political Science with minors in Sociology Anthropology and English and where he was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa After acquiring an MS in Library Science from The Catholic University of America in Washington D C Berman began work as a librarian He worked for the U S Army Special Services Libraries West Germany 1962 1966 where he helped edit an underground press GI magazine titled Yin Yang Schiller College Kleiningersheim West Germany 1966 1967 University of California at Los Angeles Research Library 1967 1968 where he rescued back runs of I F Stone s Weekly from the trash bin University of Zambia Library Lusaka Zambia 1968 1970 Makerere Institute of Social Research Makerere University Library Kampala Uganda 1971 1972 and Hennepin County Library Minnesota 1973 1999 4 5 6 Library activism editAlternative subject headings edit Berman has been a leading critic of biased headings in the Library of Congress Subject Headings His 1971 publication Prejudices and Antipathies A Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People 7 sparked a movement to correct biased subject headings Berman listed 225 headings with proposed alterations additions or deletions and cross references to more accurately reflect the language used in addressing these topics to rectify errors of bias and to better guide librarians and readers to material of interest 8 Berman stated The fact that a number of meanings may be assigned to a given word explains why messages are subject to misinterpretation and why our communication is open to misunderstandings citation needed He asserted that messages and therefore subject headings must convey an idea in a fashion free from prejudice Berman realized the continued use of biased subject headings would significantly limit the ability of a patron to access materials in the collection Berman also thought the use of language in headings should be clear and concise and should reflect the current use of everyday people rather than only scientific or technical terms 9 Overall the use of common language in subject headings would enable prompt retrieval of materials by the end user 10 Berman also openly criticized centrally performed cataloging and standard cataloging tools that supported bias in subject headings He stated O ur national cataloging products and services can t be completely trusted and should not be accepted automatically nor uncritically by anyone who genuinely believes that cataloging should make material more rather than less accessible and retrievable 11 Cataloging that was outrightly erroneous or inadequate rendered material inaccessible even though it was in the collection Berman thought poor cataloging was a serious form of censorship Libraries were supposed to oppose censorship and provide the widest possible spectrum of cultural social economic political religious and sexual information With this in mind Berman indicated local libraries should make a conscious effort to describe accurately all materials in the catalog for a patron A considerable amount of conscious effort meant including public notes to clarify unfamiliar concepts for patrons The public notes would let a patron know whether an item would suit the information needs Furthermore Berman opposed the practice of not cataloging all important aspects of works Patrons cannot access materials when they have not been fully catalogued The spark of Berman s cataloging revolution was the inclusion in Library of Congress Subject Headings LCSH of the term kaffir which he came across while working in Zambia where the term is considered a racial slur 12 This motivated him to systematically address subject heading bias in his work at Hennepin County Library and in writing Prejudices and Antipathies a Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People 4 The work published in two editions examines racism sexism a Christian centric worldview and other biases inherent in the LCSH Berman also is known for his role in encouraging the Library of Congress to drop such archaic headings as Water Closet in favor of contemporary terminology 13 During the last six months of 2005 working with the assistance of Steve Fesenmaier Berman convinced the Library of Congress to create many new subject headings including American Dream Plutocracy West Virginia Mine Wars 1897 1921 The Battle of Blair Mountain 1921 and several others citation needed With librarian James P Danky Berman was the editor of Alternative Library Literature 1982 2001 a biennial compilation of alternative essays on librarianship from a wide variety of other sources Berman s other titles include The Joy of Cataloging and Worth Noting He is the original radical librarian his followers refer to themselves as Sandynistas or guerrilla cataloguers He was a founding member of a group known as the Revolting Librarians which published a manifesto about library related issues 14 American Library Association edit Berman co authored the 1990 ALA Policy on Library Services to Poor People and founded the American Library Association s Hunger Homelessness and Poverty Task Force a division of the Social Responsibilities Round Table SRRT In 1989 he was honored with the American Library Association Equality Award In June 2005 he gave the Jean E Coleman Library Outreach Lecture at the annual ALA conference dedicated to the founder of OLOS 15 Also in the early 1990s Berman participated in the SRRT Action Council in advocating ALA to address Censorship in Israel with a Task Force on Israeli Censorship and Palestinian Libraries He would later attempt to move organizing outside of ALA following backlash and conflicts with taskforce chair David Williams 16 With other Minnesota librarians as well as those nationally and internationally Berman is known for promoting activist librarianship in which social justice is part and parcel of professional work Thanks to this advocacy the American Library Association s official policy recognizes the key role of librarians in addressing social ills Berman was awarded American Library Association Honorary Membership in 2004 Post retirement edit Having retired in 1999 17 18 Berman continues to solicit the Library of Congress for additions and modifications to the LCSH system Since 2005 he has led an effort to honor American labor leaders Mary Harris Mother Jones and Eugene Debs with commemorative postage stamps 17 In 2013 McFarland amp Company published a collection of his Unabashed Librarian columns as a book called Not in My Library In December 2019 the Edina Human Rights and Relations Commission recognized Berman s commitment to social justice with the Tom Oye Award 19 The Sanford Berman papers 20 are part of the American Library Association ALA Archives held by the University of Illinois Library 21 The data files of the Hennepin County Library catalog are included in this collection 22 References edit Berman Sanford 2014 Prejudices and antipathies a tract on the LC subject heads concerning people Jefferson N C McFarland and Co ISBN 978 0786493524 OCLC 884533147 Sanford Berman father of radical cataloging Papercut Zine Library www papercutzinelibrary org Archived from the original on 2015 06 26 Retrieved 2018 01 17 Manley Will 1 May 1996 Reflections from the center field bleachers Booklist 1473 via Gale Academic OneFile a b Dave Wood August 13 1995 Pretty booky He s writing about reading books on books Star Tribune Peg Meier August 16 1993 Librarian complains it s hard to find everything you always wanted to know Star Tribune Barrett Pashak September 27 1999 Women do it to Dewey a University of Alberta team plans to feminize library book classifications British Columbia Report Sanford Berman 1971 Prejudices and Antipathies Metuchen NJ Scarecrow Press ISBN 081080431X 081080431X Knowlton Steven A 2005 Three Decades Since Prejudices and Antipathies A Study of Changes in the Library of Congress Subject Headings PDF Cataloging amp Classification Quarterly 40 2 123 145 doi 10 1300 J104v40n02 08 Retrieved 31 May 2014 Cataloging the 1990s February 22 1993 Library of Congress Information Bulletin www loc gov Retrieved 2021 01 28 City Pages Sandy Berman s Last Stand www sanfordberman org Retrieved 2021 01 28 Sanford Berman 1984 Where Have All the Moonies Gone In Reference Services and Technical Services Interactions in Library Practice edited by Gordon Stevenson and Sally Stevenson 133 43 New York Haworth Press Watson B 2020 There was Sex but no Sexuality Critical Cataloging and the Classification of Asexuality in LCSH Cataloging amp Classification Quarterly 58 6 547 565 doi 10 1080 01639374 2020 1796876 hdl 2022 25766 S2CID 221380703 Berman Sanford 1971 Prejudices and antipathies A tract on the LC subject heads concerning people Metuchen N J The Scarecrow Press Inc ISBN 081080431X Jean Weihs 2009 Radical Cataloging Essays at the Front Feliciter Classism in the Stacks Libraries and Poverty About ALA 2007 03 29 Retrieved 2020 06 04 Kagan Al Spring 2016 ALA IFLA and Israel Palestine PDF Progressive Librarian 44 a b Strickler Jeff September 14 2012 Putting his stamp on history Star Tribune Retrieved July 24 2013 Berry John N Citing Deception Berman Resigns from Hennepin County Library Journal 124 May 15 1999 14 Sanford Berman wins 2019 Tom Oye Award American Libraries Magazine Sanford Berman Papers 1933 1942 1943 1950 1953 1959 2013 ALA Archives New Web Site Honors Sandy Berman Library Journal 2002 02 13 Hennepin County Library Catalog Archives University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Archives Further reading editDodge Chris DeSirey Jan 1995 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sandy Berman But Were Afraid to Ask Jefferson North Carolina McFarland amp Company ISBN 0 7864 0081 1 Roberto K R ed 2008 Radical Cataloging Essays at the Front Jefferson North Carolina McFarland amp Company ISBN 978 0 7864 3543 2 Pashak Barrett Women do it to Dewey Alberta Report 20 Sep 1999 34 Academic OneFile 13 Oct 2014 External links edit nbsp Biography portal Berman website on the Wayback machine The Sanford Berman website 2 8 2020 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sanford Berman amp oldid 1223634415, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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