Breaking the Rules Carefully: Implementation of Inclusive Terminology in the Catalog

Abstract

In January 2020, a group of employees at Towson University's Cook Library petitioned the Metadata Subgroup of the University System of Maryland & Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) to change the OPAC display of authorized Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) containing the pejorative term "illegal alien" to the more inclusive term "undocumented immigrant," and other LCSH containing "alien" to "noncitizen." As the technical liaison to the subgroup, I implemented a proof of concept in the Aleph Test OPAC to facilitate evaluation of the proposal. This presentation outlines the technical considerations of such a change and its implementation using tools available in the Aleph integrated library system. If you are interested in more inclusive library systems, then this poster will give you insight into the technical work that goes on behind the scenes.