Introduction
The California Community Colleges (CCC) Library Services Platform (LSP) Governance Committee and the consortium of CCC LSP member institutions embrace diversity among students, staff, faculty and the communities we serve and are committed to intentionally creating and maintaining safe, equitable, inclusive and anti-racist environments and actively challenging systems of oppression.
We acknowledge that our libraries are not neutral and may have served–sometimes inadvertently and other times intentionally–as instruments of exclusion, colonialism, and assimilation. We commit to implementing policies and taking concrete steps, large and small, to undo this harm and lead to systemic changes. The process below outlines one of these concrete actions: how the LSP will identify, collect and remove/replace potentially harmful terms present in our discovery layer.
The process outlined below applies to terms listed under ‘Subject’ present in Primo records (origin of ‘subject’ terms might be CDI, NZ or IZ; see Appendix A). This process outlined below does not apply to terminology found in titles, abstracts, table of contents, descriptions, or other parts of bibliographic records.
What constitutes a harmful term?
Within the context of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, a harmful term is a word, term, or phrase that is dehumanizing, stigmatizing, or historically demeaning to members of marginalized groups or socioculturally inappropriate when it is a term co-opted by members not belonging to a specific marginalized group. This may include words or phrases containing racist, sexist, white supremacist, ableist, classist, transphobic, body shaming, or homophobic language or depictions.
Who can submit terms for removal/replacement and how are terms collected?
Any person may submit a term to be considered for removal or replacement using the Report Harmful Language in Library Catalogs form. This form will be housed on the LSP site and will be made available for schools to include in their instance of Primo VE or on their library’s website. The LSP DEI Task Force highly recommends that libraries integrate the form into their local instance of Primo VE. Please see Appendix B for some options.
Submissions from the form will be sent to LSP/Library Consortium Staff and the lead of the standing workgroup responsible for collecting and reviewing terms (see Section 4 below). After receiving the submission, the LSP/Library Consortium Staff and workgroup lead will notify the standing workgroup that there is terminology needing review.
4. Who is responsible for ensuring responsible parties discuss these terms to bring forward to the LSP Governance Committee for final approval?
The LSP DEI Task Force recommends that the LSP Governance Committee establish the Harmful Language Review Workgroup as a standing workgroup, whose responsibility it is to review terms submitted via the form above and, as needed, make recommendations to the LSP Governance Committee for removal or replacement of terms.
The Harmful Language Review Workgroup should have a balanced representation of five to seven members from the field, including a lead, who are experts in certain terminology, represent various groups, and/or who specialize in different aspects of librarianship. Membership should intentionally reflect the diversity of the California Community College system.
In addition to recruiting participation from the LSP-All and CCLibrarians-All listservs, a suggestion for recruitment efforts is to reach out to ALA affiliated groups, which includes but is not limited to, the American Indian Library Association, the Rainbow Round Table (RRT), Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, REFORMA, the Black Caucus of the ALA, California Librarians Black Caucus, and others. Participation is welcome from the membership of the California Community College Libraries.
Members will serve a one year term and will be selected on a yearly basis. An opportunity to serve a second term may be considered, if recruitment of new members warrants the need. In alignment with LSP/Library Consortium operations and in consultation with the LSP Governance Committee, the work group lead may issue a call for volunteer experts in the California Community Colleges library field to contribute additional insights as needed.
5. What decision-making process does the Harmful Language Review Workgroup use for deciding which terms to recommend to the LSP Governance Committee for removal or replacement?
The LSP DEI Task Force recommends that the Harmful Language Review Workgroup uses the following processes as a starting point for deciding which terms are submitted to the LSP Governance Committee for removal or replacement:
Review the example provided in the submission and determine if it falls within the scope of this process (‘subject’ terms present in primo records)
Locate additional examples and establish the scope of the problem
Is it an isolated or widespread problem?
Is it one term or are there several related terms that are also problematic?
Is there any work from other libraries already underway on the particular terminology?
Determine the sources of the terminology
Does the subject term originate from CDI records, NZ records, and/or IZ records?
Determine if the workgroup needs to bring in additional experts for help with review
Determine what input is needed from stakeholders
Establish a timeline and proceed with review
Submit recommendation for removal or replacement to the Governance Committee
It is understood that the group may receive submissions via the form that fall outside of the scope of this process or that a particular review will not result in a recommendation for removal or replacement. In anticipation of both of these scenarios, the Harmful Language Review Workgroup will need to determine how they plan to communicate inaction (decisions to not invoke this process as result of scope or to not recommend a terminology change after a review) to the individual who submitted the form and to the LSP field.
6. For terms that are approved for removal or replacement, who is in charge of carrying this out and how are these changes tracked?
Depending on where the subject terms originate, different entities will be responsible for carrying out changes after a recommendation for removal or replacement has been approved by the LSP Governance Committee. One action, or a combination of actions, may be necessary:
The NZ Administrator is responsible for carrying out changes related to subject terms originating from NZ records.
Even if a specific change has been applied at the NZ level, libraries may still have records originating from their IZ that display a particular term. In these cases, libraries are encouraged to apply the relevant display norm rules in their IZ as well. (Example)
If the subject term originates from CDI, the Harmful Language Review Workgroup will submit it to Anti-Bias@exlibrisgroup.com (Ex Libris’ Anti-Bias group manages the review process for complete removal of terms from CDI records)
Individual libraries are also highly encouraged to submit harmful terms originating from CDI to Anti-Bias@exlibrisgroup.com
Individual libraries are also highly encouraged to use the DEI Exclude List for hiding terms in Primo VE that have been recommended for removal, but that either have not been removed permanently yet or originate from CDI
The list of terms that are approved for removal or replacement will be made available on the LSP site. Depending on the origin of the term under review, the Harmful Language Review Workgroup will identify which steps outlined above need to be taken.
7. How should the entities involved in making removal or replacement decisions respond to critiques of censorship?
The LSP DEI Task Force is guided by Title V of the California Code of Regulations, Chapter 2.5 of Division 6, Section 51201. The Task Force is
“invested in cultivating and maintaining a climate where equity, anti-racism, and mutual respect are both intrinsic and explicit by valuing individuals and groups from all backgrounds, demographics, and experiences.”
“In order to embrace diversity, we acknowledge that institutional racism, discrimination, and biases exist and that our goal is to eradicate these from our system. Our commitment to diversity requires that we strive to eliminate those barriers to equity and that we act deliberately to create a safe, inclusive, and anti-racist environment where individual and group differences are valued and leveraged for our growth and understanding as an educational community" (Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the California Community Colleges, 2020).
In the act of removing or replacing harmful subject terms as defined above, we are not curtailing freedom of speech because “U.S. law establishes several exceptions to free speech, including defamation, hate speech, breach of the peace, incitement to crime, sedition, and obscenity.” (2020). The Harmful Language Review Workgroup is not removing or changing content, instead they are recommending changes to subject terms that allow a user to locate materials.
Appendix A: ‘Subject’ terms in Primo’s Detailed Record
‘Subject’ terms originating from CDI
‘Subject’ terms originating from an NZ record
Appendix B: Suggested Options for Including Form in Primo VE
One option might be to use General Electronic Services to display the link to the form (Configuration > Fulfillment > Discovery Interface Display Logic > General Electronic Services). Depending on configuration, the link will show up in various places on the full record. See picture below for one option. Another option might be to utilize the Links Menu that displays at the top of Primo VE ( Discovery > Configure Views > Edit View > Links Menu).
April 2022: Reviewed and approved by the LSP DEI Task Force
May 6, 2022: Presented to the LSP Governance Committee for a first reading. Conversation will continue at the July 2022 Summer Retreat.
July 27, 2022: Second reading. LSP Governance Committee members will review and suggest recommendations via email. Recommendations collected from Governance Committee will be forwarded to new LSP DEIAA Work Group in the Fall 2022.
Introduction
The LSP DEI Task Force is charged with drafting “an LSP DEI statement reaffirming our commitment to DEI efforts” and articulating a “DEI mission and vision.” (Charge from LSP Governance Committee, Fall 2021)
Our statement is informed by the California Community Colleges Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Title V, CA Code of Regulations: § 51201). This statement says in part:
“... the California Community Colleges embrace diversity among students, faculty, staff and the communities we serve as an integral part of our history, a recognition of the complexity of our present state, and a call to action for a better future.
“...we also acknowledge that institutional racism, discrimination, and biases exist and that our goal is to eradicate these from our system….we act deliberately to create a safe, inclusive, and anti-racist environment where individual and group differences are valued and leveraged for our growth and understanding as an educational community.”
“...we develop and implement policies and procedures, encourage individual and systemic change, continually reflect on our efforts, and hold ourselves accountable for the results of our efforts…. [we] are committed to fostering an antiracist environment that offers equal opportunity for all.”
“...we are invested in cultivating and maintaining a climate where equity, anti-racism, and mutual respect are both intrinsic and explicit by valuing individuals and groups from all backgrounds, demographics, and experiences.”
We also reviewed statements from other consortiums, colleges, archives, and libraries and have drawn from those and our own experience to draft a statement for the LSP Community.
Draft Statement
The California Community Colleges (CCC) Library Services Platform (LSP) Governance Committee and the consortium of CCC LSP member institutions embrace diversity among students, staff, faculty and the communities we serve. We are committed to intentionally creating and maintaining safe, equitable, inclusive and anti-racist environments and actively challenging systems of oppression.
We acknowledge that our libraries are not neutral and may have served–sometimes inadvertently and other times intentionally–as instruments of exclusion, colonialism, and assimilation. We commit to implementing policies and taking concrete steps, large and small, to undo this harm and lead to systemic changes.
To that end, we pledge to:
Raise the visibility of the LSP Community’s commitment to ending racism, anti-Blackness, classism, ableism, and gender inequities while advocating for systemic change
Include the DEI statement in a prominent place on the LSP LibGuide and LSP libraries’ web sites
Share the DEI statement in multiple languages
Explicitly invite students, staff, faculty and community members to engage with us in this work
Embed a DEI lens into all LSP Governance Committee and work group activities
Recruit more diverse members for LSP committees and groups
Include DEI issues as standing agenda items for meetings
Develop LSP training that includes DEI perspectives or helps with the growth of underrepresented members
Use the LSP LibGuide and other mechanisms to inform member libraries about local DEI initiatives
Assist with the revision of the CCL Annual Data Survey so that it includes qualitative measures and DEI-focused questions
Reduce the harm caused by policies and practices originating out of historical legacies of colonialism
Implement the recommendations of this task force (detailed later in this document) for identifying and handling potentially harmful, dehumanizing, or stigmatizing subject terms in bibliographic records in the LSP
Create opportunities for reference and instruction librarians to engage students and other library users in the process of identifying and changing potentially harmful terminology and practices
Use analytics to uncover inequities in program data
Direct each LSP work group to review and update current policies and practices that may be exclusionary or harmful
Reimagine the LSP as a model of diversity, equity, and inclusion
Increase and enhance access points to make resources by and for historically marginalized populations more discoverable
Adopt usability standards that make the LSP accessible to all
Increase and highlight collections and courses with OER and ZTC options
Find solutions to adapt to changing student needs (e.g., digital lockers, on-demand digitization, Alma Digital)
Evaluate our progress, adjust our goals as needed, and recommit to our statement and pledge on an annual basis
We invite feedback and suggestions from all our constituencies to help us advance our DEIA initiatives.
April 2022: Reviewed and approved by the LSP DEI Task Force
May 6, 2022: Presented to the LSP Governance Committee for a first reading. Conversation will continue at the July 2022 Summer Retreat.
July 27, 2022: Second reading. Minor revisions to draft statement. Revised statement approved for adoption by the LSP Governance Committee.
