Reshares: name changes for trans and cis authors
"Best Practices for Queer Metadata", the Queer Metadata Collective
This document is the result of two years of work by a group of nearly one hundred knowledge organisers, cataloguers, librarians, archivists, scholars, and information professionals with a concerted interest in improving the metadata treatment of queer people, communities, and items in GLAMS (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Special Collections) and other informational institutions. Their work has been supported by over 800 peer reviewers; combined, these groups make up the Queer Metadata Collective (QMDC; queermetadatacollective.org).
It's very important for trans authors to be able to change their names, and reclaim their work under their new names. One doubting question you might end up asking yourself is: are librarians going to be okay with this?
And the answer is yes. They are okay with it. Librarians are, on the whole, not transphobic. Correctly representing someone's published work is part of their duty, and a challenge they will usually rise to if they're aware of it and have good guidance. Don't feel bad for making someone's job more interesting!
So when it comes to good guidance, Best Practices for Queer Metadata is a long and exquisitely-researched document on things libraries should take into account for all kinds of queer authors and queer topics. I certainly haven't read the whole thing, but I read Section 4.3, "Names, Naming & Authorities" and I wholeheartedly support its recommendations.
I've just dropped a link to that section to a certain group who has been dragging their feet on supporting name changes in an archive.
"My personal digital decolonization", Olexandr Konovalov
I did not want to have a name which prompts false assumptions about my background. For example, like assuming that one can see me for the first time and try to talk to me in Russian without asking if I agree to that. And then Russia started its full-scale invasion into Ukraine on February 24th, 2022. I switched to “Olexandr” as my official name on that very day, starting to change all email display settings and signatures.
Name changes aren't just for trans people! I was excited to read Olexandr's article on his own name change in science. He made use of many resources that were informed by the recommendations of the Name Change Policy Working Group, a group that is almost entirely trans.