Mercer County Library System is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all of its library patrons. With that goal in mind, our collection includes materials and resources that meet the needs of our diverse community. In order to make the collection accessible, we use a standardized set of terms, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings, to describe materials.
Unfortunately, some of these terms may be outdated and offensive. Some derogatory terms once considered acceptable and used to describe historically oppressed peoples have been reclaimed by authors and creators from these communities. Other terms historically used by communities to describe themselves have fallen out of favor. What constitutes appropriate description changes with context over time. This impacts the description standards we apply to our collection. Such descriptions do not reflect the library’s viewpoint but rather the social attitudes and circumstances of the person or place in which it was created.
We are dedicated to critically examining our descriptive practices. We do this by:
- Regularly updating subject authority files. This is a way of keeping abreast of changes in potentially offensive subject headings used to describe materials.
- Consulting industry accepted alternative sources when the standard subject heading may be considered offensive or inadequate.
- Striving to use terms that communities and individuals use to describe themselves when updating older records/descriptions and creating new ones.
- Continually learning and updating our best practices to ensure the library’s materials are presented and described appropriately.
Maintaining accurate and updated descriptions of materials is an ongoing process and we may not always make the right decisions. We encourage feedback from all resident library cardholders so that we can learn and adjust our practices. Please use our Problematic Language in the Library Catalog Reporting Form for feedback.
This statement was adapted from those of STELLA and the Schaumberg Township District Library. Last updated 1/2025.