Text, Lies and Cataloging: Ethical Treatment of Deceptive Works in the Library

by Jana Brubaker

Overview

What do James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, Margaret B. Jones' Love and Consequence and Wanda Koolmatrie's My Own Sweet Time have in common? None of these popular books are what they appear to be. Frey's fraudulent drug addiction "memoir" was really a semi-fictional novel, Jones' chronicle of her life in a street gang was a complete fabrication, and Koolmatrie was not an Aboriginal woman removed from her family as a child, as in her seemingly autobiographical account, but rather a white taxi driver named Leon Carmen.

Deceptive literary works mislead readers and present librarians with a dilemma. Whether making recommendations to patrons or creating catalog records, objectivity and accuracy are crucial--and can be difficult when a book's authorship or veracity is in doubt.

This informative (and entertaining!) study addresses ethical considerations for deceptive works and proposes cataloging solutions that are provocative and designed to spark debate. An extensive annotated bibliography describes books that are not what they seem.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476632568
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	07/10/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	166
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

With over 25 years of cataloging experience, Jana Brubaker is the acting associate dean for collections, technical services, and digital scholarship at Northern Illinois University Libraries in DeKalb.
With over 25 years of cataloging experience, Jana Brubaker is the acting associate dean for collections, technical services, and digital scholarship at Northern Illinois University Libraries in DeKalb.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
A Few Words about Cataloging Terms
Deceptive Works
Barriers to Accurate Cataloging
Codes and Standards
Memoirs and Autobiographies
Col. Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures in Texas
Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk
The Life of John William Walshe, F. S. A.
Long Lance
The Cradle of the Deep
Pilgrims of the Wild
The Diary of a Surgeon in the Year 1751–1752; Surgeon’s Mate; Man Midwife
My Sister and I
The Long Walk
Travels with Charley
Go Ask Alice
I Married Wyatt Earp; Illustrated Life of Doc Holliday
The Education of Little Tree
Michelle Remembers
Satan’s Underground
Mutant Message Downunder
A Rock and a Hard Place
Sleepers
Stoker
Fragments
Misha
The Autobiography of Howard Hughes
Jihad!
The Blood Runs Like a River; The Boy and the Dog; Geronimo’s Bones
The Cage
A Million Little Pieces; My Friend Leonard
Kathy’s Story
Three Cups of Tea; Stones into Schools
Child P.O.W.
The Road of Lost Innocence
Angel at the Fence
Love and Consequences
The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven
The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz
Other Nonfiction
Never Cry Wolf
In Cold Blood
Roots
In His Image
Arming America
Honor Lost
Ananios of Kleitor
The Last Train from Hiroshima
Imagine
The Embassy House
Fiction
Wild Cat Falling
Jack Rivers and Me
Famous All Over Town
The Hand That Signed the Paper
My Own Sweet Time
Sarah; The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things; Harold’s End
The Honored Society
Poetry
The Darkening Ecliptic
The Love Poems of Marichiko
Doubled Flowering
Saracen Island
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography for Case Studies
Selected Bibliography for Secondary Resources
Index

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2018
In this era of fake news and alternative facts, catalogers have an added burden when it comes to identifying deceptive books, such as James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, a memoir later found to be heavily fictionalized. Brubaker (tech svcs., Northern Illinois Univ. Libs.) explores the cataloger's responsibility in describing these titles and provides useful guidelines on how to catalog them. Brief case histories of autobiographies and fiction, nonfiction, and poetry collections, from 1800 to 2013, examine how literary deceptions have been revealed—after the texts were cataloged. While the standard Resource, Description, and Access (RDA) supports proactive cataloging "to correct or clarify ambiguous, unintelligible, or misleading representation," libraries and the public are dependent on the media and literary sleuths to expose fraudulent publications. Brubaker raises the question: Given the inevitable time lag between initial cataloging and the revelation of deception, which libraries will fund staffing to enhance catalog records with explanatory notes or edited subject fields to better inform end users? VERDICT A timely and thought-provoking work, primarily for catalogers and technical services administrators but also for public service librarians. Also consider Rex Sorgatz's The Encyclopedia of Misinformation, which identifies a wider range of questionable works.—Betty J. Glass, emerita, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno

Library Journal

In this era of fake news and alternative facts, catalogers have an added burden when it comes to identifying deceptive books...Brubaker explores the cataloger’s responsibility in describing these titles and provides useful guidelines on how to catalog them.... a timely and thought-provoking work”—Library Journal; “an informative and occasionally downright entertaining study...recommended”—Midwest Book Review.

From the Publisher