This upcoming IGBIS webinar will be of interest to anyone concerned with descriptive language and representation in library and information services.

During an IGBIS webinar late last year discussing the Subject Authority Cooperative (SACO) Program, concerns were raised regarding Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) using terminology that is offensive in certain headings. Shortly after the webinar changes were made to the identified headings. This event highlighted the need for South African cataloguers to assist in creating respectful topical headings in LCSH.

Realising this necessity, Dimakatso Malungane-Netshifume and Fatima Darries began the South African SACO funnel.

Join us as Dimakatso and Fatima present the scope and vision of the South African SACO funnel and put out a call for participation. Guests will have the opportunity to suggest new subject headings or improvements and will be introduced to the project proposed by the Africana SACO funnel regarding the amending of the existing Khoisan subject headings.

Fatima Darries PL(SA) is the Deputy Director of the Cataloguing Division of the University of South Africa’s (UNISA) Library and Information Services. She leads and manages strategic library initiatives in research data curation, digitisation of heritage and special collections, and metadata description of commercial and digitised information resources.

Fatima served two terms of office on the Board of the National Library of South Africa and has served in various portfolios in the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) and was the immediate past chair of IGBIS.

Dimakatso Malungane-Netshifume PL(SA) is the acting manager in the Cataloguing Section at UNISA Library and Information Services. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Information Studies and is currently working on a research proposal for a Master of Arts degree in information science.

An active LIASA member, Dimakatso has previously served on the IGBIS Executive Committee (2015-2018) and was instrumental in the Cataloguing Code of Ethics translation project, translating the Code into Sepedi, Venda, and Tsonga. Dimakatso’s primary expertise involves creating quality metadata to enhance the visibility, accessibility and discoverability of information resources.