Values statement

The Offensive Materials Statement is firmly grounded in the River Campus Libraries’ values. We recognize that this work is ongoing, and we welcome insights, questions, concerns, and participation.

 

History of materials collecting

A library collection is neither random nor neutral; it reflects the priorities and biases of people, groups and individuals, who at specific points in history chose and influenced its materials. For the overwhelming majority of history, these priorities have been centered on a colonial, white-, male-, hetero-, cisgender-normative view of the world, which means that research collections are typically overwhelmingly white and homogenous. The University of Rochester and River Campus Libraries are not exempt, and therefore, our collections include offensive materials alongside tremendous resources.

 

Content warning for materials

We collect and license a wide variety of resources as part of our mission to support teaching, learning, and research for members of the University community. Additionally, the University acts as custodian of resources that represent a portion of our shared cultural heritage. Some of these resources, while part of the larger historical record, also contain images, text, or other content that is offensive by today's standards.

 

Our work

Our work is grounded in best practices, standards, and procedures developed through longstanding professional activities, collaboration, and research. These activities and best practices are, necessarily, shifting and evolving with the world and the communities we serve. We are committed to the effective, sustainable stewardship of and access to our collections and continually reviewing and revising how we work.

Collecting practices

The ongoing development of a modern library collection involves conscious decision-making— from the purchase of physical and electronic materials, acceptance or rejection of donated items, and licensing of online content to the deaccession of materials no longer deemed relevant or useful for learning and scholarship. We do not withdraw nor make inaccessible any offensive materials as these items often remain important for study and scholarly research. They enable us to learn from and confront our past.

Guided by our collection priorities, we continuously evaluate our existing collections and prospective acquisitions. We strive to deepen the scope and breadth of our collection by acquiring and providing access to materials that raise the awareness of and increase knowledge about underrepresented peoples. We seek out diverse voices through engagement within and beyond our community to foster inclusive representation in our collections. We maintain high standards for our digital content vendors and seek accessible platforms and content that reflect and support underrepresented communities. And our Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation actively develops local history collections to reflect a diversity of issues and perspectives around race, gender, and place.

Descriptive practices

To facilitate the search, discovery, access, and use of our collections, we create textual descriptions of our resources. These verbal snapshots or descriptive surrogates power our search interfaces, such as DiscoverUR, allowing our community to locate relevant materials for use. We rely on professional content standards and best practices to support the creation of consistent and comprehensible descriptions. 

While, historically, catalogers and metadata professionals attempted to take a “neutral” approach, these descriptions—and the tools that leverage them—reflect the perspectives of the people who created them. These perspectives may be dated or even harmful. Additionally, our descriptions often include language from the resources themselves—a “take what you see” approach—which provides veracity but may in some cases cause harm. When creating descriptions, we seek to minimize harm while also doing our best to adhere to our shared standards and best practices. In some cases, the descriptions are outside of our control (e.g., licensed materials), and we are actively working with vendors to improve these descriptions.

 

Contact us

If you have questions about this rationale or specific resources in our collections, or if you have recommendations on how to make our collections more inclusive, please contact us at ask@library.rochester.edu.

For more information and resources please see the Offensive Materials Statement—Additional Resources LibGuide.