Recording Creator Characteristics for Native American Authors

The MARC 21 field 386 in bibliographic records allows catalogers to record demographic terms for creator and contributors. In 2015, the Library of Congress published the first terms in the Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT). The MARC 21 field 386 and LCDGT are promising tools for providing better access to works by Indigenous authors. Currently, however, lack of appropriate terminology in LCDGT can be a barrier to implementation and discovery. This article examines how the MARC 21 field 386 is being used to describe Indigenous authors by finding records using this field, studying terminology used, and considering its efficacy.