Technology, metadata and my positionality

Exploring the Japanese collection, I reflect on technology’s role in mediating understanding and the impact of uncatalogued metadata.

By Saranya Satheesh

Unfamiliar reading

Unlike my previous engagements with other collections, the Japanese collection felt distant and unfamiliar. My only reference point for Japan was Doraemon, and I had no deep understanding of the language or culture. When I came across Ebisu Diary, I was struck by the vertical, right-to-left script—a format I had never encountered before. 

Technology mediating the knowledge

To navigate the challenge faced, I turned to Google Translate and image translation tools, but each translation slightly altered the meaning, making it challenging to follow the original intent.

As I attempted to read, I realised that my understanding was shaped not by the text itself, but by the technology mediating it. 

  • What was I really engaging with?
  • Was I reading Ebisu Diary, or was I interacting with a distorted, fragmented version of it?

This felt like a constant negotiation with the text—between what the technology could show me and what I could infer from it.

How metadata influences the knowledge

Engaging with the Japanese Collection of the LCC Library, I discovered that the collection was uncatalogued. It led me to rethink not just the content of the collection, but how knowledge is structured, mediated, and accessed. I asked myself: 

  • From whose perspective is the cataloguing done?
  • What metadata is assigned, and what is left out?
  • How could metadata be reimagined to centre diverse perspectives and promote social justice?