Emylie Fossell (Wisconsin)

A Cataloger’s Lament

Cross stitch
Designed and stitched by Emylie Fossell

“In a previous position, I did a lot of music cataloging. I felt that this work was undervalued by administration and created this piece as an expression of not being seen or heard. The piece is made up of some basic fields for a music MARC record. While it is simple looking, it took many hours of work to complete. Even if something looks very basic, it shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

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Emylie Fossell is a librarian in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This piece is a stitched MARC record, with a call number classification created by the stitcher. The call number classifies the work under Music — Vocal music — Secular music — One solo voice — Accompaniment of keyboard instrument, keyboard and one other instrument, or unaccompanied — Separate works — Keyboard instrument accompaniment. F67 is the Cutter number for the author of the work (Fossell) and U57 is the Cutter number for the title of the work (Unseen songs). This call number reflects the subject of the piece, Songs (Low voice) with piano. Researchers and patrons are often not aware of how much information metadata professionals are conveying through MARC records.