"All we want are the facts, ma'am:" Negotiating User Needs and Creator Privacy in Name Authority Records

This chapter will use the University of Notre Dame’s Marble (Museum, Archives, Rare Books, and Library Exploration platform) project as a useful framework for exploring some ethical cataloging concerns of biographical metadata as they relate to linked data in libraries, archives, and museums (LAM). During the development of this platform, extensive user testing revealed frequent requests for additional information about content creators. While a linked data solution could be deployed to enhance personal information about creators, the team questioned the ethical implications of such an approach. This chapter is the result of their analysis. First, the authors will provide an overview of how linked data infrastructure is leveraged by Marble to meet user needs within resource limitations. Next, the authors will describe the methods used for product testing and development. After presenting a review of current literature, the authors will then use the framework of the slow movement, or the effort to slow down aspects of our society, to explore how time is an important factor for creating more ethical metadata. Finally, the team concludes by considering potential future solutions for the tension between user needs and ethical cataloging of creator metadata. While time is not an unlimited resource of LAM, the authors argue that focusing cataloging efforts on local holdings and working with living creators to create ethical metadata will benefit the community on a whole.