Library FAQs

Roehampton’s Library and archival collections have been acquired over a long period, beginning with the founding of each College in the 19th century, and may contain material that is even older. Such material reflects the prevailing attitudes of the time and place in which it was produced, much of which may be deeply offensive today. Whilst our Library collections are updated and refreshed on an ongoing basis, some of these items are kept for their value in researching such attitudes, and the history of the subject. They are historical objects and therefore the original titles and content cannot be changed, but must be understood in context. The existence of such items in our collections does not imply that the university or library endorses any such outdated and offensive viewpoints.  

What are we doing about this?  

We understand that such language and content can be harmful to encounter, causing offence in terms of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia and more. We’ve recently added a message to the top of all UR Library Search pages, explaining that students could encounter an offensive term, and advising what action to take if that happens.  

Secondly, we’re working gradually on replacing some outdated subject headings that appear in UR Library Search records. For instance, if a book was previously catalogued with the Library of Congress Subject Heading “Oriental literature,” this has now been replaced with the more modern term “Asian literature.” (For an example, please see this book record: Monolingualism and linguistic exhibitionism in fiction ).  

For more information about our ongoing work towards improving Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, please see the Library EDI Guide.  

We’re always open to suggestions on how we can improve the UR Library Search experience for all our users. If you find an offensive or outdated word, please do let us know using the Library feedback form.