Chair/Lead: Karla Jurgemeyer

Members: Mary Huismann

The Problem

A number of the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) have been identified as being culturally insensitive. While LC’s controlled vocabulary has always been slow to adapt to cultural changes, recent political maneuvering by the GOP has blocked the Library of Congress from changing some of these headings. Library staff, in collaboration with Carleton, will follow the national cataloging community’s best practice recommendations for the temporary replacement of outdated Library of Congress subject terms such as “Illegal aliens” in the local catalog.

Goals

1. Remove the ‘illegal aliens’ subject heading from our local catalog as much as possible, either by Library of Congress update, or a locally-applied adaptation, by the end of May 2021
2. Maintain the local updates as needed
3. Articulate a threshold required for future changes, which is sustainable in light of existing national cooperative cataloging workflows

Actions Taken

Catalogers from the Bridge Cataloging Working Group (CWG) will identify insensitive terms, and prioritize which may need local adaptation; Formulate a work plan for maintaining term alternatives locally which can be maintained in tandem with automated systems for catalog maintenance; recommend to the Bridge [Library] Management Team when alternative temporary replacement of such headings is warranted, and propose a work plan Implement the work plans approved by Bridge Library Management Team Articulate a threshold required for future changes, which is sustainable in light of existing national cooperative cataloging workflows (i.e. the proposed alternative term is rejected by Library of Congress) Determine an action timeframe for local adaptations for the ‘illegal aliens’ term specifically, since 2021 political shifts such as the Biden presidency may spur the Library of Congress to reconsider its previous refusal to change ‘illegal aliens’

Accomplishments so Far

1. Removed the ‘illegal aliens’ subject heading from our local catalog using a locally-applied change, May 5, 2021

2. Formulated a work-plan for maintaining such local changes

3. Articulated a threshold required for future changes, which is sustainable in light of existing national cooperative cataloging workflows (i.e. the proposed alternative term is rejected by Library of Congress)