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Harmful Language in the Library Catalogue

The University of Windsor Libraries acknowledge that the language used to describe our collections, like the material within our collections themselves, may contain harmful or problematic terms, including those that are rooted in bias and bigotry or that perpetuate stereotypes. Our collections are organized and labelled using international and national standards developed historically, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings, that reflect the biases and contexts of those who created the standards. These unconscious and conscious biases can include colonialism, white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, and ableism, among others, and reflect viewpoints that can be rooted in the origin of academic libraries and other cultural institutions as non-neutral bodies. The language used to categorize items in the catalogue may trigger strong reactions in some users and we continue to support our communities by reviewing these problematic terms and working to address them.

The University of Windsor Libraries are committed to becoming a more inclusive space for all members of our community, including those of marginalized groups. 

This is an ongoing, iterative process that requires constant re-evaluation to progress, and we strive to be accountable to our community by updating them on our progress in this work. We welcome any feedback or questions regarding this statement which can be sent to Jennifer Soutter. If you find an offensive or harmful term in the catalogue, use the Report a Problem form available under the Links section in the item record or here. 

To date, we have made progress in the following ways: 
  • Consultation with campus, library organizations, and national partners in decolonization
  • Consultations with colleagues working on similar projects at different institutions 
  • Institutional and individual participation in and provision of seed funding for National Indigenous Knowledge & Language Alliance (NIKLA)’s Respectful Terminology Platform Project (RTPP)
  • Remediation of some outdated subject headings for the Indigenous peoples of Canada 
  • Replacement of “Indians of North America” with “Indigenous Peoples” (Leddy & Law Libraries)
  • Librarian membership in the Ex Libris EDI Advisory Group
  • Librarian membership in the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) Collaborative Futures Decolonizing Description Implementation Working Group (CF-DDIWG)

Future work will include community consultation, inventory and assessment of offensive terms in the catalogue, continuous education and reflection on inclusive and critical cataloguing, and continued support and involvement in provincial and national library organizations and Indigenous-led initiatives around decolonizing description.

This work is in line with the Canadian Federation of Library Association / Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques’s (CFLA-FCAB) Truth and Reconciliation Committee Report and Recommendations, particularly Recommendation 5 which suggests libraries work to, “Decolonize Access and Classification by addressing the structural biases in existing schemes of knowledge organization and information retrieval arising from colonialism by committing to integrating Indigenous epistemologies into cataloguing praxis and knowledge management” (p. 6). The Libraries’ statement was drafted in response to the recommendations found in Ontario Council of University Libraries Collaborative Futures (OCUL-CF) Decolonizing Descriptions Working Group (DDWG) Final Report and it supports the University of Windsor’s ASPIRE strategic plan values of Action in Indigenization, Truth and Reconciliation; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; Prioritizing People; and Trustworthiness, and foundational commitment to “continue to foster and build welcoming, inclusive and engaging physical and virtual spaces” (p. 11). Finally, we are grateful to the pioneering work of other libraries like Western University Libraries, University of Ottawa Library, and the University of Central Oklahoma's Chambers Library, that guided the development of this statement. 
For further information, please see the following resources: 
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