{"id":1242,"date":"2016-04-13T18:37:01","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T01:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galencharlton.com\/blog\/?p=1242"},"modified":"2016-04-14T06:25:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T13:25:45","slug":"changing-lcsh-and-living-dangerously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galencharlton.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/changing-lcsh-and-living-dangerously\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing LCSH and living dangerously"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 22 March 2016, the Library of Congress announced<\/a>\u00a0[pdf] that the subject heading\u00a0Illegal aliens<\/em> will be cancelled and replaced with\u00a0Noncitizens<\/em> and\u00a0Unauthorized immigration<\/em>. This decision came after a couple years of lobbying by folks from Dartmouth College (and others) and a resolution<\/a>\u00a0[pdf] passed by the American Library Association.<\/p>\n

Among librarians, responses to this development seemed to range from “it’s about time” to “gee, I wish my library would pay for authority control” to the Annoyed Librarian’s “let’s see how many MORE clicks my dismissiveness\u00a0can send\u00a0Library Journal’s way!” to Alaskan librarians thinking “they got this change made\u00a0in just two years!?! Getting\u00a0Denali<\/em>\u00a0and Alaska Natives\u00a0<\/em>through took decades!”.<\/p>\n

Business as usual, in other words. Librarians\u00a0know the importance of names; that folks will care enough to advocate for changes to LCSH comes as no surprise.<\/p>\n

The change also got some attention outside of libraryland: some approval by\u00a0lefty activist bloggers, a few head-patting “look at what these cute librarians are up to” pieces in mainstream media, and some complaints about “political correctness” from the likes of Breitbart.<\/p>\n

And now, U.S. Representative Diane Black has tossed her hat in the ring by announcing that she has drafted<\/a>\u00a0(update: and now introduced<\/a>) a bill to require that<\/p>\n

The Librarian of Congress shall retain the headings\u00a0\u2018\u2018Aliens\u2019\u2019 and \u2018\u2018Illegal Aliens\u2019\u2019, as well as related headings,\u00a0in the Library of Congress Subject Headings in the same\u00a0manner as the headings were in effect during 2015.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s of course a really big substantive reason to oppose this move by Black: “illegal aliens” is in fact pejorative. To quote Elie Wiesel: “no human being is illegal.” Names matter; names have power: anybody intentionally choosing to refer to another person\u00a0as illegal is on shaky ground indeed if they wish to not be thought racist.<\/p>\n

There are also reasons to simply roll one’s eyes and move on: this bill stands little chance of passing Congress on its own, let alone being signed into law. As electoral catnip to Black’s voters and those of like-minded Republicans, it’s repugnant, but still just a drop in the ocean of topics for reactionary chain letters and radio shows.<\/p>\n

Still, there is value in opposing hateful legislation, even if it has little chance of actually being enacted. There are of course plenty of process reasons to oppose the bill:<\/p>\n