Date of last review: September 2024
The Digital Collections Services department is responsible for assisting in the curation, access and preservation of digital special collections including archival collections. We are committed to upholding the description of archival materials and special collections in a respectful and accurate manner while maintaining the historical context of the collections we manage. However, the materials we describe are not neutral. Users may encounter offensive, harmful, or otherwise outdated language in archival materials and special collections. Indiana University collects and makes freely available materials from hundreds of collections. Language and its cultural context are always changing, and so are our methods of description.
While most of our finding aids and special collections are created by staff, some reflect language that the people and organizations who created the material used. It is standard practice to maintain the description used by the creator/donor of archival materials. Language used in the original historical materials can tell us a lot about the materials. With that said, we are committed to updating language that is in our control to edit. We pledge to reflect the values of the IU Libraries Mission Statement and Diversity Strategic Plan in future description. Please use the harmful language report form to report offensive material and/or description found in archival or special collections.