Implementing Antiracism in Technical Services

Abstract

It is a sad reality that racist bias is inherent in cataloging standards and collection development practices. Whether racism in cataloging and collection development practices is intentional or not, Technical Service librarians can be intentional about combatting it. This article presents three antiracist projects implemented to address racism in collection development and classification. Leslie Engelson discusses the results of an effort initiated by the music faculty to determine the representation of BIPOC in the music score collection at Waterfield Library. Brinna Michael demonstrates how racist language is represented in the Library of Congress Classification schedule and her efforts at Pitts Theology Library to update call numbers. Finally, Caitlin Soma details a diversity audit of the books assigned on course reserve at Candler School of Theology to identify potential collection gaps and to encourage faculty to develop curricula that include more diverse voices.