DEIAA Work Group Blog - CCCLibraries at Community College League of California-CCLC

Welcome to our blog. A group of diverse people line up in a row.

The The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Anti-Racism, and Accessibility (DEIAA) Work Group is launching a blog! Our goals to raise awareness about DEIAA issues related to the LSP Program and increase transparency around the group's activities have led to this blog. Please stay tuned for new posts and announcements. Fill the form to subscribe to be notified by email of new blog posts.

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2023-2024 DEIAA Work Group Members

Edeama Onwuchekwa Jonah, Equity and Engagement Librarian, San Diego Community College District (Work Group Lead)
Esteban Aguilar, Electronic Resources Librarian, Mt. San Antonio College
Joshua Gray, Assistant to Dean of Library and Learning Resources, City College of San Francisco
Darren Hall, Systems/Technical Services Librarian, Citrus College
Katie Leach, Librarian, Shasta College
Stephanie Roach, Library Systems and Applications Developer, San Mateo County Community College District

Recent Posts

Library of Congress Changes “Gulf of Mexico” and “Mount Denali” subject headings–What you need to know

On Friday March 14, 2025, Library of Congress published changes to subject headings for “Gulf of Mexico” and “Mount Denali” with new official subject headings as follows:McKinley, Mount (Alaska)America, Gulf ofAll related subject headings were also changed, for example “America, Gulf of, Watershed” and “Mid-ocean ridges—America, Gulf of”These changes now appear in official Library of Congress subject authority files, and have been processed by OCLC, and from OCLC synced to the catalogs of other libraries using Library of Congress subject headings, including our LSP Program’s Alma institutions.Both changes are controversial. Below you will find additional background information on the subject heading change as well as information about steps you can take at your Alma institution if you prefer not to use the Library of Congress’ new subject headings.Background information: How and why the change happenedOn January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14172 was issued. This order called for the renaming of Mount Denali and Gulf of Mexico by federal government agencies. For geographic features such as mountains and seas, the Library of Congress typically follows naming conventions in use by the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) (H 690, Subject Headings Manual). As such, when BGN changed terminology in early February, Library of Congress did too, despite the controversy and politics involved in the decision, and despite the harm caused to library users when Indigenous and Mexican place names are erased and supplanted with names meant to celebrate “America” (meaning the “United States of America”) which is also arguably part of greater rhetoric meant to center and preserve whiteness and white culture in the United States. This has now become part of our authoritative subject headings as a result of the Executive Order, and subsequent follow through by BGN as the office who standardizes geographic terminology in use across federal agencies including Library of Congress.Once BGN officially made their changes, the Library of Congress began their process to implement changes immediately thereafter as part of an off-cycle public review process. Tuesday, February 18, 2025, just after President's Day holiday, the Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs (PTCP) Division of Library of Congress published the off-cycle list of tentative subject heading changes (the list used the naming convention associated with December 2024, despite a February 13, 2025 backdated publication date). The community was invited to submit comments by the same day, Tuesday, February 18, 2025. Others have written about this short timeline. The new proposed changes have been announced and updated in the Library of Congress authority file as of March 14, 2025, can be found on the ClassWeb website, and appear in our local catalogs. It is unclear exactly when the changes were approved as the quarterly editorial meeting where the Summaries of Decisions from Subject Editorial Meetings is not meeting until April 18, 2025. Additional content posted on their Subject Editorial Meetings webpage from February office hours does not include relevant information.Visit the Library of Congress website for more information about their process to add or revise a Library of Congress subject heading.What this means for your recordsAs of Wednesday March 19, 2025, the first records with the new subject headings have been noticeable in your catalogs and Primo VE. See the examples pictured below. In addition to the main subject heading, they may appear in a variety of 6XX MARC Library of Congress subject fields with geographic subdivisions.Example 1: The pirates Laffite650 fields displayed in the MARC record for The pirates Laffite display the subject “America, Gulf of.”651 fields displayed in the MARC record for The pirates Laffite display the subject “America, Gulf of.”The subject “America, Gulf of” as it displays in Primo VE for The pirates Laffite, which has 650 and 651 occurrences of the subject.Example 2: Minus 148 degrees65X fields displayed in the MARC record for Minus 148 degrees display the subject “McKinley, Mount” or "McKinley, Mount (Alaska)The subject “McKinley, Mount” as it displays in Primo VE for Minus 148 degrees, which has 650 and 651 occurrences of the subject.Record Syncing and Some Issues ReportedFull bib record syncing from OCLC and indexing had not yet occurred by March 19, 2025, but individual records were present. Additional record updates have come into our Network Zone in subsequent loads. MARC records will include a note in field 995 $$c indicating that the 65X has been updated during the load, as pictured below. 995 MARC field specifies which changes occurred to the record during the “All CCC Ongoing load 2025.” Note changes to 650 and 651.Notably, some colleges have reported search issues on these topics since the updates were made as terminology and indexing have likely been out of sync. It is expected to resolve as additional Network Zone jobs run. Our Network Zone Administrator has been alerted and is monitoring the situation.Want to use “Gulf of Mexico” and “Mount Denali” Subjects? Here's howWe recommend use of a Primo VE display normalization rule for the subject field if you don't want to use LC’s new subject headings. Essentially it is an automatic find and replace function in Primo VE, that allows you to replace non preferred terminology with preferred terminology.To edit display of the subject field in Primo VE, go to: Configuration Menu > Discovery > Display Configuration > Manage Display and Local FieldsHere is how to do it and instructions from Ex Libris.This example Primo VE normalization rule from San Mateo County Community College District updates the terminology for both terms as follows, displaying in full record details LC subject line (600, 650, 651, 655, 662):“Denali, Mount (Alaska)”“Mexico, Gulf of”Record details for The wilderness coast display the subject “America, Gulf of” before the normalization rule was applied and “Mexico, Gulf of” after.Additionally, the normalization rule does the following:Changes Library of Congress subject “Illegal immigration” to “Unauthorized immigration”Limits display to primarily Library of Congress Subjects by hiding display of any subjects with 650 second indicator 1-8Limits display of uncontrolled vocabulary terms found in 653 by hiding any with second indicator 0-6, and 8Changes various uncontrolled vocabulary terms found in 653 including Gulf of Mexico, Mount Denali, Unauthorized immigration, and other terminology related to Change the Subject project previously approved by the LSP Governance CommitteeOf note, when using a Primo VE normalization rule for subjectsOnly full record details display in Primo VE is changed (brief search results subject list in filters is not changed)All Primo VE views in the institution are updatedMARC records are not changedAuthority records are not changedCentral Discovery Index (CDI) records are not changedResourcesApproved subject change lists (Monthly List 12 LCSH 2 (2025))Subject Editorial meetingsSACO calendar with meeting schedule (next Subject Editorial meeting April 18th)RSS feeds Library of Congress VocabulariesSubscribe to “Library of Congress Vocabularies Announcements” to receive tentative lists, approved lists, and summaries of decisions.Process for Adding and Revising Library of Congress Subject HeadingsEvaluating Process Proposals (PDF)ALA Subject Analysis Committee response to subject change proposal (PDF)Anticipatory Obedience at the Library of Congress by Violet Fox.Special thanks to Yvonne Reed and the Harmful Language Review Subgroup. Updated April 2, 2025 4:50pm to correct the publication timeline of the tentative list from Library of Congress....

The CCCs LSP Harmful Language Review Form and Process Launched!

Exciting news! Today (September 16th, 2024) is launch day for the harmful language reporting form and process! The link to the harmful language reporting form now appears in the library catalogs (OneSearch or Primo VE) of all 110 community colleges who participate in the LSP Program. The link is located near the end of the item’s full display, as pictured below. See our September 3 blog post and FAQs for more information. Members of the CCC library community are welcome to attend the Harmful Language Review Subgroup’s Wednesday Webinar on September 25th at 11 AM for more information! Event details will be posted on the LSP-All and CCLibrarians-All lists. ...

Harmful Language Reporting Form and Process to Launch September 16, 2024!

The California Community Colleges Library Services Platform Program Harmful Language Reporting Process is set to launch September 16, 2024. Our goal with this project is to empower our stakeholders to help us eliminate harmful language found in library catalog records and replace it with more inclusive terms. It is a five step process managed by the Harmful Language Review Subgroup, a work group of the DEIAA Work Group.The LSP Governance Committee approved the rollout of the reporting form system-wide at their May 3, 2024 meeting (PDF).The Harmful Language Reporting Form Link in Primo VEThe harmful language reporting form will be input as a general electronic services link in the Network Zone so that it appears in Primo VE views across the LSP Program on September 16, 2024.The reporting form is easily filled using details from the resource record in Primo VE. This form submission demonstration video (1:25, no sound) shows what it will be like for users.The link will appear with a public note explaining that form submissions go to a Harmful Language Review work group of the California Community Colleges, to help clarify that the form is being submitted to the LSP Program (not to the local college library).What to expectYou do not need to do any work locally to embed the link in your library’s Primo VE: The reporting link will be launched from the Network Zone and rolled out to your institution’s Primo VEThe reporting link will use the general electronic services link method that appears at the bottom of the record’s full display. The link will appear in addition to whatever local (institution-level) general electronic services links already appear thereLearn more about the projectAnswers to frequently asked questions about the harmful language review process can be found on the DEIAA Work Group LibGuideContact Harmful Language Review Subgroup lead Stephanie Roach with additional questionsWednesday Webinar - September 25, 2024, 11amDEIAA Work Group Office Hour - October 1, 2024, 1pmPlease monitor the LSP-ALL list and/or subscribe to this blog for communications and updates about the upcoming change....

Harmful Language Reporting Process to Launch Fall 2024!

The California Community Colleges Library Services Platform Program Harmful Language Reporting Process is set to launch Fall 2024. Our goal with this project is to empower our stakeholders to help us eliminate harmful language found in library catalog records and replace it with more inclusive terms. It is a five step process managed by the Harmful Language Review Subgroup, a work group of the DEIAA Work Group. This process was born from efforts of the LSP Program’s Cataloging Work Group to implement LSP Program “Change the Subject” terminology changes related to immigrants and undocumented immigrants in 2020-21. The LSP Governance Committee recommended a formal process be developed to manage any future changes to subject terminology, and the DEI Task Force was formed and drafted a process that was revised and approved in August 2023, then refined and prepared for implementation during the 2023-24 academic year by the Harmful Language Review Subgroup. The LSP Governance Committee approved the rollout of the reporting form system-wide at the May 3, 2024 meeting. The general electronic services link will be input at the Network Zone so that it appears in Primo VE views across the LSP Program beginning in Fall 2024. What to expect You do not need to do any work locally to embed the link in your library’s Primo VE: The reporting link will be launched from the Network Zone and rolled out to your institution’s Primo VE The reporting link will use the general electronic services link method that appears at the bottom of the record’s full display. The link will appear in addition to whatever local (institution-level) general electronic services links already appear there We’ll announce the exact go live date closer to Fall 2024 so you can share with your library team and local campus community New content about the reporting form and review process will be posted to the Harmful Language Review Subgroup LibGuide page during the summer. Please monitor the LSP-ALL list and/or subscribe to this blog for communications and updates about the upcoming change. ...

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