Text, Lies and Cataloging: Ethical Treatment of Deceptive Works in the Library, by Jana Brubaker. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2018. 158 p. $55.00 softcover (ISBN: 978-0-7864-9744-7).

The first thing that gave this reviewer pause was the title of this book. The 1989 movie Sex, Lies and Videotape and 1981 book The Joy of Cataloging: Essays, Letters, Reviews, and Other Explosions by Sanford Berman have similarly provocative titles.1 The two books, however, are worlds apart in their content. How on earth can cataloging be sexy? The complex theme of deception is found in both the 1989 movie and Brubaker’s 2018 book, thus the similar titles.

The second thing is that the idea of deceptive works as a classification has never crossed this long-time cataloger/librarian/book reviewer’s mind. Deception, mixed with ethics and guidelines for responsible cataloging, are the book’s main topics. Catalogers, unbeknownst to many in our field of librarianship, have a weighty responsibility when practicing original cataloging. We are responsible for deciding what a book or item is “about.” This reviewer is responsible for originally cataloging all the theses and dissertations, and any locally published items or archives, for an academic library and takes this responsibility very seriously.

What happens when the information in a book is a lie? When a book is published as non-fiction and then is later discovered to be a fictional work, or partly fictional, who decides to change the access points and the descriptions in the bibliographic records? Should they be changed? Brubaker’s Text, Lies and Cataloging attempts to grapple with this thorny issue.

The author begins with an excellent point: deception is something librarians should be mindful of with respect to collection development and collection management. Deception in literature has been around since people began to write and share information. These books are not unworthy for a collection; however, cataloging deceptive materials is more problematic and less straightforward. The scope of deceptive works in this book includes books from the English language from 1800 to the present day: memoirs, autobiographies, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry have been examined. Some of the examples in the case studies are literary classics. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is examined. A current title is James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, which caused controversy in the publishing world when Oprah Winfrey chose it for her book club.

There is a brief section explaining cataloging terms. It includes a visual of an OCLC MARC record, which is helpful for non-catalogers. This section may date the book at some point. Cataloging rules, regulations, and guidelines are now a moving target. They are now seen as guidelines that are currently in flux, as Linked Data, Bibframe, and RDA are mixing things up. This constant fluctuation significantly impacts the ability to describe deception bibliographically.

There is a short philosophical section discussing the phrase “deceptive works,” authorship, authenticity, and the veracity of a work. False names and literary hoaxes are discussed. The author raises the point that the value of a work could conceivably come from the deception itself. These are all challenges for catalogers as they attempt to describe works.

There is also a concise chapter concerning barriers to accurate cataloging. The questions of who can the cataloger can trust to accurately describe the work and who decides when a work is deceptive are examined. A section on codes and standards for descriptive cataloging is deliberated in depth. Access points, controlled vocabulary, the history of classification from Charles F. Cutter and IFLA, FRBR and RDA, subject entries, and the American Library Association Code of Ethics are discussed.

Possible cataloging approaches are promised in the remaining chapters, which include case studies. The four chapters of case studies provide the reader with a background introduction on each piece and then delve into each title in detail. These case studies’ narratives are written with historical context in mind, including news articles and court cases. These case studies are highly readable stories and describe why each title is judged as deceptive. Each case study includes the authors’ opinion on how their bibliographic records could be updated to include information on the scandals and/or deceptions for each one.

In conclusion, the author explains that once a cataloger has evidence that a work is deceptive, it must be clearly described in its respective bibliographic record. Brubaker adds the disclaimer that while her solutions will work in the MARC environment, many more questions arise in the ever-changing online environment (Bibframe world) we face in the future. She did an exhaustive amount of research when developing this book. There is a notes section for each of the chapters plus comprehensive notes for each of the titles discussed.

Text, Lies and Cataloging may be used as a resource manual for catalogers as it provides background, context, and structure for decisions that must be made when cataloging deceptive materials. OCLC records are discussed in detail with regards to descriptive cataloging. The author includes her opinions on how a book might be cataloged, yet she mentions that this is her opinion and that there are sometimes multiple solutions.

This book is not just for catalogers. The important topic of ethics in librarianship and the perplexing idea of deceptive works should be a topic that is discussed widely in our field.

Text, Lies and Cataloging would be excellent in any library science core course curriculum. The book also functions as a resourceful decision-making tool, aiding librarians in learning more about deceptive works and guiding the decision-making process on how to handle cataloging them.—Amy Parsons (parsons_amy1@columbusstate.edu), Columbus State University, Columbus, Georgia

References

1. Sex, Lies, and Videotape, directed by Steven Soderbergh (1989; The Criterion Collection, 2018), DVD; Sanford Berman. The Joy of Cataloging: Essays, Letters, Reviews, and Other Explosions (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1981).