Harmful Language in the Library Catalog

At Portland State University Library, we are committed to creating inclusive, anti-racist, non-derogatory bibliographic descriptions that accurately describe our holdings. The library catalog is a shared database including records created and uploaded by a cooperative of libraries, including Portland State University Library. Descriptions of items in the catalog are drawn from subject headings maintained and managed by the Library of Congress and from lexicons and language in use at the time of record creation.  We acknowledge that some of our bibliographic records may contain racist, homophobic, sexist, or otherwise derogatory and offensive language. 

Harmful or offensive language may appear for the following reasons: 

  • Some derogatory terms used to describe historically oppressed people have been reclaimed and used by authors and creators from those communities. 
  • Terms historically used by a community to describe themselves have fallen out of use or out of favor. 
  • We use Library of Congress Subject Headings to enable standardized searching and access across our holdings. LOC Subject Headings changes have to go through an extensive review, editorial, and approval process and sometimes can only be changed by legislative action. Some of these headings continue to use outdated language. 
  • We have transcribed information directly from the materials themselves. 

Portland State University Library is committed to fostering inclusive, anti-racist, non-derogatory bibliographic descriptions that accurately describe our holdings. We’ve worked with our library community to mitigate harmful and offensive bibliographic language in our shared catalog. 

Credit – Emory University Libraries