Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

PUL's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statement

Princeton University Library (PUL) is committed to building a culture in which people of all backgrounds, identities, and perspectives feel valued as individuals. We recognize that our varied cultures, races, ethnicities, genders, ages, religions, languages, physical and neurocognitive abilities, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses, geographic origins, and other ways in which we identify ourselves are among PUL’s greatest strengths.

To ensure our success, we commit to:

Building an inclusive environment for all members of our community.
Creating inclusive physical and digital spaces.
Assessing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging among staff on a regular basis.
Identifying and implementing employee hiring and employment strategies aimed at recruiting and retaining staff from marginalized groups.
Communicating with PUL staff on a regular basis and encouraging feedback by providing anonymous feedback tools.
Developing, driving, and supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) educational programming in collaboration with institutional partners for PUL staff and other stakeholders as appropriate.
Continually reviewing, assessing, and updating this statement.
Measuring and reporting our progress against our DEI goals.

Creating an environment where people feel they belong and feel safe to present their authentic selves is a continuous individual and organizational responsibility. Only when we closely examine ourselves and our surroundings can we move beyond tolerance toward a culture that recognizes and celebrates the richness inherent in our individual identities, diverse perspectives, and myriad backgrounds.

University resources

Statement on Language in Description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. However, for a variety of reasons, users may encounter offensive or harmful language, for example, language that is racist, sexist, or homophobic, in finding aids or catalog records. While some descriptions are written by staff, others reflect language that was used by the people and organizations that created the material. For example, it is standard practice to transcribe book titles, and to not change folder titles when they are present; these are entered as they are represented in the source material and are included for academic purposes. Language that comes from the original material can provide information about the people who created it. In such cases, the work of library staff is to provide additional context. When we encounter problematic language that was created by library staff, we update it.

The Library is currently implementing practices to address offensive or harmful language as part of routine description work. In addition, we encourage users to provide feedback to help us tackle this issue. We recognize that terminology evolves over time and that efforts to create respectful and inclusive descriptions must be ongoing.

If you encounter problematic language, please submit feedback using the contact or feedback mechanism available on any page on the library’s website. You may also notify staff at any library location. Staff will review the description and update it in a way that balances the preservation of original context with an awareness of the effect of language on our users. Revisions may include providing additional context and/or replacing problematic terminology. We welcome your feedback.

Statement on Harmful Language

Princeton University Library’s collections contain historical and contemporary materials documenting human expression and lived experience, thus some content includes harmful, offensive, distressing, or inappropriate images or language, including but not limited to materials that document violence or hate speech. Library users may encounter images and language that are now recognized as offensive and unacceptable; some may have been widely viewed as unacceptable when they were created. Inclusion of such content in Princeton’s digital collections is not an endorsement of its language, images, or ideology. Princeton University Library openly rejects oppressive views reflected in our collections, and we believe in the importance of fostering access to our collections in a responsible and transparent way that preserves historical evidence of social conditions and attitudes.

Princeton University Library strives to describe and provide access to all the content in its collections in ways that are inclusive, respectful, and do not cause harm to those who interact with the collections. This includes people who create, use, and are represented in the collections Princeton stewards. Staff are currently engaged in addressing or contextualizing this content and language, including the addition of notes in the description of materials and the implementation of content warnings or cover images for distressing images, audio, or video. We are also working on developing a feedback form for users to report instances where they come across harmful content that has not been identified or contextualized as such. (For archival collections, researchers are encouraged to use the Report Harmful Language form on the finding aids website to submit feedback.)

For more information on how Princeton University Library staff describes collections, please see the Statement on Language in Description. Please also see PUL’s Takedown Policy statement regarding copyrighted materials and privacy concerns.

This statement was informed by similar statements of other institutions, including Yale, Drexel, and Tufts Universities.