Harmful Content Warning Statements for Library Archives: Implementing an EDI Initiative

ABSTRACTHarmful content warning statements, which alert the public that materials with harmful language or images are present, may be considered to have their roots in the film industry and are beginning to be utilized in library archives as an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiative. This paper will provide an historical overview of those roots. Its main thrust is to serve as a case study or model of the implementation of harmful content warning statements for Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library at the University of West Georgia in order to help other librarians and archivists who desire to craft similar statements for their institutions. The paper will also introduce examples at other institutions and close with a discussion of the opportunities and difficulties that harmful content warning statements present.KEYWORDS: Harmful contentwarning statementstrigger warningsharmful languagelibrary archivesEDIEDIAJDEIdiversityequityinclusiondonor profile sheet AcknowledgmentsThis paper is based on a virtual PowerPoint presentation delivered by the author during the annual meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Music Library Association on October 15, 2021 and incorporates feedback from those colleagues (especially Holling Smith-Borne, Vanderbilt University, on EDIAJ). The author expresses grateful thanks to Blynne Olivieri Parker and Miriam Nauenburg at UWG. This paper is only possible because the author learned from them in the course of the project and continues to benefit from their wisdom. Thanks to Margot Davis at UWG for EDI discussion. Many thanks to Anne Barnhart at UWG for her revision suggestions and to the two anonymous peer reviewers, who were enormously helpful.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. At the time of writing this paper, Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library, the University of West Georgia, and the American Library Association (https://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity) all utilize the EDI acronym, so the author is using that acronym instead of DEI, which is commonly used in business and industry. The author acknowledges the equal importance of the concepts of accessibility and justice, as denoted in the acronym EDIAJ.2. 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