Our challenge: Library catalogues use subject headings to index collections and enable users to discover resources. However, indexing practices are not neutral nor fully understandable for the user. Moreover, the controlled vocabularies or indexing languages used are hard to conceptualize. In this challenge, we want to use data visualisation to explore how selected subject headings are used across libraries catalogues and over time, focusing on terms related to LGBTQIA+ identities. We want to work on the swisscovery SLSP catalogue and the catalogue of the bibliothèque nationale de France. As they both use the RAMEAU subject headings, we’d like to make comparisons on the use of some terms as well as try to visualise the structure of the RAMEAU language.

Research questions:

• How often is a specific subject heading used? When and how was a subject heading modified?
• When was the subject heading integrated in the thesaurus? And since when is it used to index resources in the library catalogs?
• Which other subject heading most frequently co-occur with the selected term?
• How does a specific subject heading relate to other terms in RAMEAU? How is the language structured?
• …

Possible visualisations:

• Histogram (subject heading/frequency of occurrence)
• Mind map (links between headings)
• Graphs (frequency of occurrence/date)
• Reconstruct the tree structure of a selected heading in RAMEAU
• …

Data sources:

• API BNF: https://api.bnf.fr/fr/sparql-endpoint-de-databnffr
• Swisscovery SLSP metadata services: https://slsp.ch/en/metadata/
• RAMEAU: https://data.bnf.fr/en/vocabulary/rameau and https://data.bnf.fr/en/vocabulary

Who we need: Programmers, Developers, Catalogers, Catalogs and library users, Anyone interested in queer history and/or critical cataloguing, Linguists, Glitter lovers etc.

We bring glitters!