Making Siberian Turkic Printed Collections Visible

Abstract

In the age of big data, small collections are often overlooked. Too numerically few to cause waves, the issues and problems that affect them are rarely addressed by cataloguing institutions. In the present paper, the author focuses on one such collection – holdings of Siberian Turkic materials at the British Library – to explore how homogenizing trends impact the cataloguing of these materials. The author concentrates particularly on aspects related to MARC21 requirements and authority files, and how these work to occlude the unique printing histories of Siberia’s indigenous Turkic languages. The author concludes that these trends may be overcome by treating the collections qualitatively through the creation of collection guides, addressing the inconsistencies in MARC21 and Library of Congress authority files, and outreach to and engagement with contemporary Siberian Turkic communities.