In 2020, I was appointed to the American Library Association’s Rainbow Roundtable (formerly the ALA LGBT Task Force) program planning committee. Last summer, the committee brainstormed programming ideas, and I came up with the idea of having a panel discussion on the term Latinx and its relevance to discussions about access terminology. I argued that this was an important discussion to have because it dealt with folks who are nonbinary–trans people essentially, and that it would help raise awareness of the issues in the broader queer community. After discussing the idea with the rest of the committee, we agreed to expand the focus some to include the broader LGBTQ+ community as well as the Latinx community. I did the bulk of the work on this program, including identifying speakers, submitting the program proposal to ALA on behalf of the RRT program planning committee, and following through on the remaining work once the program was approved. I received a lot of support from my colleague Susan Wood, a fellow member of the committee. She helped me with the program description and agreed to moderate the program, which was a huge help. The program took place virtually on a Saturday afternoon and drew a crowd of over 600 viewers. We received very positive feedback and everyone involved agreed that the program was a success.

Saturday, June 26, 2021

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM CT

ALA Unit/Subunit: RRT

Over fifty years ago, Sanford Berman spoke up about serious problems with some of the word choices employed by the creators of Library of Congress subject headings. Some terms were downright offensive to different groups, while others were antiquated, and some necessary terms simply didn’t exist. Over the years, Berman and many others, including Ellen Greenblatt and Hope Olson, have worked tirelessly to raise awareness among catalogers and librarians of the need for more culturally sensitive, modern terminology. The struggle continues to this day, particularly when addressing terminology that describes diverse populations, such as trans people, queer people, immigrants, and people of color. In this session, we will discuss progress, share ongoing concerns and consider potential strategies for further improvement.

A news article about the program by Carrie Smith, appeared in American Libraries magazine on July 26, 2021. It provides an excellent summary of the panel discussion. The article is titled, “What’s in a Naming Term? Subject headings and inclusion for LGBTQ+ and Latinx communities“. Click here to read it.

Click here to view the program. Then click the button that says “video”. (Available only to ALA members who attended the conference. You must sign in with your email address and ALA Conference access code to view the video). For more information contact Bob at joserobertodiaz@cox.net.

Moderator(s)

Susan Wood

Associate Professor of Library Services
Suffolk County Community College

Speaker(s)

Jamie A. Lee

Associate Professor
The University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona

Emily Drabinski

Interim Chief Librarian
The Graduate Center, CUNY
New York, New York

 Andrea Guzman

Library Assistant
The Oakland Public Library
Oakland, California

Learning Objectives:

• • Upon completion, participant will be able to identify the key issues and challenges related to subject headings, metadata and cultural sensitivity.
• • Upon completion, participant will be able to have a deeper understanding of the power of words in librarianship and the need to be vigilant and strategic in addressing inequity.
• • Upon completion, participant will be able to identify problems with controlled vocabularies that affect access to materials, by, for and about people in marginalized communities.

Click here to see comments and questions brought up during the program.