Omissions and distortions abound in libraries, too

To the Editor:

by SANFORD BERMAN

Much recent reporting and editorializing has concerned the removal of racist public monuments, changing objectionable names (like Lake Calhoun and Lindbergh Terminal in the Twin Cities), and the enshrinement of colonialism in galleries and museums.  Never mentioned is the alarming and pervasive fact that libraries, too, often misrepresent, overlook, and even defame marginalized, exploited, indigenous, and ostracized communities.

Try searching almost any school, public, or academic library catalog under the subject ”Native American Holocaust” (or “Native American Genocide”).  You”'ll find nothing.  It will seem as if the library either owns nothing on that topic or that such an event or experience never happened.  Why?  Because nearly all libraries rely totally on the Library of Congress (LC) to create subject headings.  And LC has thus far failed to recognize the 1492-1900 Indian tragedy by establishing a heading to denote it.  If LC won”'t do it, neither will anyone else.  (The nearest LC comes to such a descriptor is “Indians, Treatment of.” This would be tantamount to cataloging materials on the Jewish Holocaust under “Jews, Treatment of”!)

Similarly, LC refuses to replace “Armenian Massacres” with “Armenian Genocide,” although scholars and historians overwhelmingly endorse such a change, which better reflects what some million and a half Armenians in Turkey underwent between 1915 and 1923.… Read the rest “Omissions and distortions abound in libraries, too”