This is a document compiled by Helen Kim at the GRI to survey institutions working on changing problematic Library of Congress subject headings. Links and summaries are included wherever provided.
Cornell University (in progress)
California State University libraries
"California State University Libraries to change the display of the subject heading “Illegal Aliens” in joint public catalog." December 2, 2019.
Chicago History Museum
Changed display of “illegal aliens,” in process of changing LGBTQIA+ headings and replacing with vocab from Homosaurus
Chicago Public Schools
CPS Librarians Critical Cataloguing Group embellished “illegal aliens” with “Undocumented Immigrants”, “Slave” to “Enslaved person” and “Slaves” to “Enslaved People.” Currently working on Latinx and LGBTQIA+ and then will address Abilities and Indigenous people.
Columbia University Libraries
Changed display of “aliens,” “illegal aliens,” and 21 other related terms.
Deschutes Public Library -
Changed display of “illegal aliens” on all LCSH related terms. Also changed 185 additional terms to either add discovery to DEI titles or to provide better sensitivity to LCSH terms.
Dartmouth (both local and LCSH terms are in the MARC Records, but the LCSH terms are suppressed from display)
Getty Research Institute
changed display of “illegal aliens,” now doing prep work reviewing other potentially problematic terms
Great River Regional Library (Minnesota)
Harvard (change to display of terms in progress; also a contextual banner appears when searching "Illegal aliens.")
Hennepin County Library (Minnesota)
Lawrence Public Library (Kansas)
Removed problematic subject headings or, in some cases, added in preferred terms while still keeping the old subject heading. Deleted “illegal aliens” from catalog.
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2020/09/01/conscientious-cataloging/
Removed problematic headings and added preferred terms in cases when subject headings weren’t removed
North Carolina Central University
North Carolina State University
New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library Change the Subject Project (METRO Equity in Action Grant Recipient, 2020-2021)
Orbis-Cascade Alliance (includes University of Washington, Oregon State University, University of Oregon, Western Washington University and a few dozen other colleges and universities in the Pacific Northwest)
SUNY Libraries Consortium
State University of New York Libraries
Removed “illegal aliens” from directly-imported records and replaced with “undocumented immigrants,” excluding records originating from Central Discovery Index (mostly article-level records that only display in discovery and are not directly cataloged in Alma) https://slcny.libguides.com/c.php?g=986218&p=7623203
The Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum
Incorporating indigeneous terminology
Triangle Research Libraries Network (Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Has overlaid about 20 terms (https://trln.org/resources/subject-remapping/)
Duke University Library. "Managing Problematic Metadata." Blog post, August 16, 2019.
"Managing Problematic Metadata, Take Two." Blog post, February 2, 2020.
"Metadata for Everyone: Inclusive Description at Duke University Libraries." Blog Post, November 23, 2020.
University of California libraries
Waiting for new ILS to implement changes
UC Berkeley Library. "Words matter’: Why the UC Berkeley Library is embracing another term for ‘illegal aliens.'" November 17, 2020.
University of Colorado-Boulder
López, Sol María and Wright, Laura. Radical Cataloging: Using alternative subject headings locally to promote inclusiveness and diversity. CU-Boulder Libraries, October 26, 2018
University of Denver
University of Manitoba | Association of Manitoba Archives (AMA)
Removing “Indians of North America” and adding more appropriate/localized terms. See also: Christine Bone & Brett Lougheed (2018) Library of Congress Subject Headings Related to Indigenous Peoples: Changing LCSH for Use in a Canadian Archival Context, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 56:1, 83-95, DOI: 10.1080/01639374.2017.1382641
University of Miami
University of San Francisco, The Gleeson Library
Changed illegal aliens to Undocumented immigrants and changed the subject heading Aliens to Noncitizens. Also changed related subject headings, and plan on working on changing more problematic headings.
University of Texas, Arlington
University of Texas, Austin
Villanova University, Falvey Memorial Library. "Falvey Staff Members Work Together to 'Change the Subject' on the Term 'Illegal Aliens'." January 13, 2020.
Wheaton College (MA). “Changing the Subject at Wheaton.” As of April 2021, we have removed the subject headings “illegal alien,” “alien detention center,” “alien labor” and “boat people” from our catalog.
Williamsburg Regional Library (Virginia)
Yale University Libraries
An initial project was carried out in early 2019 to add alternative local subject headings to records with the term "Illegal aliens" and its variants, using the term "Undocumented immigrants" instead. YUL recognizes that this approach was not ideal, as it left the offensive language visible and was ad-hoc rather than systematic. YUL staff, particularly in YUL's newly-formed Authorities and Identities Advisory Group, are currently exploring whether and how to implement a more programmatic organizational and technical solution.
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Other Institutions' Responses
Examples of other institutions' statements on cataloging language
Thank you to Matthew Haugen at Columbia University Libraries for sending a long list to include in this document!