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

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?