Statement on potentially harmful language in Library Search

This statement covers harmful language that you may encounter when using Library collections and resoucrces. 

The Library at Queen’s University provides access to a large variety of teaching and research material. Our collections are diverse and have been gathered over a long period of time, with some material reflecting the language and values of their period. We acknowledge the content and existing descriptions of our collections reflect the personal and societal biases of both their creators and the times in which they were produced. As such it is not uncommon to encounter material containing offensive language or imagery.

Describing and interpreting the collections

Following standard professional practice our collections are described using controlled vocabularies and thesauri, mainly the Library of Congress Subject Headings. While the official bodies are reviewing and updating the terminology used, outdated and harmful vocabulary might still be present in our catalogues. This includes language that is racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic or demeans the humanity of the people we describe.

We recognise we have a responsibility to describe materials in a culturally responsive and respectful manner, and to repair our description when it contains inappropriate language. We also have a responsibility to describe, interpret, and present our collections in ways that make them useful to a wide variety of people. We are committed to reparative description work and are undertaking a project to review and update offensive controlled language in our catalogue records.

In some instances, the standards require us to use language transcribed from the source itself and in such cases potentially harmful words are not censored because they provide historical context for understanding the time and place and the position of their creators and publishers. Also, many of our resources are hosted by external institutions and commercial vendors, which create and provide accompanying descriptive records that we are unablee to amend.

The Library at Queen’s University adheres to the Cataloguing Code of Ethics. We are committed to creating an inclusive culture and support the University’s commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. We understand that terminology constantly evolves over time and that efforts to create respectful and inclusive descriptions is an ongoing process. We aim to keep abreast of new changes and apply these to our metadata.

If you discover language which you perceive to be harmful or discriminatory in our descriptive content, please use this online form to tell us.

Drafted

September 2025

This statement was developed by the Library’s EDI Group with the Inclusive Cataloguing project group. It was adapted from a number of statements generously shared or obtained online and we gratefully acknowledge the work already done in this area. In particular, we have used the Statements from Cardiff University, University of York, Aberystwyth University, Glasgow School of Art, National Library of Scotland, John Hopkins University and Brandeis University.

We will update this statement as required to reflect our evolving understanding of the issues involved.