Change the Subject film poster, by Dartmouth Libraries, cropped, Released under CC BY-SA 4.0
“Change the Subject” follows the story of undocumented students at Dartmouth College who were troubled that their library’s online catalog used the dehumanizing term “illegal aliens” and demanded that it be replaced. Their campaign expanded to focus on changing the term in the Library of Congress Subject Headings and garnered support from libraries around the country. The film offers a fascinating look at how students and librarians collaborated to push for change.
Please register if you plan to attend this event in person or online.
Register nowPlease join us for an in-person screening of the documentary “Change the Subject,” on April 21, 3-4 p.m. Light refreshments will be served! The documentary is also available online to view for free any time at the Change the Subject website.
After the screening, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., a panel of U of M librarians will discuss the film and their social justice work. The panel discussion will be streamed in the screening room space for in-person attendees and on Zoom webinar for remote attendees.
The panel discussion will feature:
This event is co-sponsored by the Asian American Student Union, Asian American Studies Program, and Department of Chicano and Latino Studies.
Tina Gross (she/her) is a Metadata Analyst at the University of Minnesota Libraries. In 2016, she served as chair of the American Library Association’s Subject Analysis Committee Working Group on the LCSH “Illegal aliens” (see its report at https://alair.ala.org/handle/11213/9261).
Amy Riegelman is a Social Sciences and Evidence Synthesis Librarian at the University of Minnesota Libraries. In 2024 she organized a letter writing campaign to advocate (successfully) for the American Psychological Association (APA) to change the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms subject heading from “Blacks” to “Black People” (see letter at https://hdl.handle.net/11299/260238).
Aiden Bettine is the Curator of the Tretter Collection at the University of Minnesota Libraries Archives and Special Collections. He implements the Homosaurus, an international LGBTQ+ Linked Data Vocabulary, that helps to more inclusively and expansively describe the archival holdings in the Tretter Collection.
Lara Friedman-Shedlov (she/they) is Digital Records Archivist for the Archives and Special Collections Department of the University of Minnesota Libraries. As a member of the department’s Reparative Description Leadership Group, they co-developed internal guidelines for redressing harmful language in description of archival materials and helped-organize two department-wide “subject sprints” to update subject headings for archival collections. Learn more about these projects at Reparative description in Archives and Special Collections.
Natalie Holmes (she/her) is the Cataloging Librarian at the University of Minnesota Duluth Library. Last year, she began a project focused on the library’s stewardship of their large collection of Sámi materials. Through cataloging, she encountered an offensive term for Sámi people still in use in the Library of Congress Classification system and submitted a proposal for its replacement.
Cathy Coats is a Metadata Specialist at the University of Minnesota Libraries. She is working on a remediation project to update DVD and streaming video records so they accurately reflect language and accessibility options like closed captioning and audio description. She has been awarded two grants to hire students for data collection and hopes to move on to the step this summer.
Kristi Bergland is the Music Metadata Librarian at the University of Minnesota Libraries. She is working on a metadata remediation project to bring consistency and accuracy to the description of accessibility features for audiovisual resources and to implement use of newer fields to describe those features.
What: Librarians and Social Justice: ‘Change the Subject’ documentary screening and panel discussion
When: Monday, April 21, 2025 | 3-5:30 p.m. | Film screening at 3 p.m. | Panel discussion at 4 p.m.
Where: Elmer L. Andersen Library, room 120 | Parking and directions
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