Harmful Language

Definition

Language that causes uncomfort, pain, feelings of unsafety to an individual or group of people.

Definition source: Combatting Bias definition.

Stakes

part of: discrimination

Harmful language can cause hurt to people and make the spaces they access your data in feel unsafe.

Where does it occur in the lifecycle?

3 - Process

• Convert data into readable format

Questions to consider throughout your work

• Does your data contain offensive/harmful language and/or categories?

Examples

• Globalise Commodities Thesaurus: https://thesaurus.sd.di.huc.knaw.nl/commodities/en/
• Change the Subject documentary: https://n2t.net/ark:/83024/d4hq3s42r
• List of statements on harmful language in library and archives descriptions: https://cataloginglab.org/list-of-statements-on-bias-in-library-and-archives-description/

Good-better-best practices

Good	Better	Best
Present offensive terms taken directly from the archive in quotation marks.	Explaining that words were or were not maintained from (primary) sources and/or other datasets, and explaining why this decision was made.1	“For collections or discovery portals where users may be harmed by encountering offensive language, it may be appropriate to replace offensive language in primary user-facing description. For an example of this approach, refer to the language policy for the Find & Connect website on child welfare in Australia.”2
Contextualise potentially harmful descriptions and words.	Acknowledge the evolving nature of terminology guidelines.	During annotation, use alt- and pref-labels to curate how your dataset will be viewed and read.
Reference community-approved guidelines. See resources below.	Create research guides with relevant search terms for users on offensive language in historical records.	Create standardized institutional language that can be reused. See resources below.
		Implement participatory methods for tagging and description. Consult communities and experts on terminology. See Collaboration.

Resources

• Chilcott, Alicia. “Towards Protocols for Describing Racially Offensive Language in UK Public Archives.” In Archives in a Changing Climate - Part I & Part II, edited by Viviane Frings-Hessami and Fiorella Foscarini, 151–68. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19289-0_10.
• DE-BIAS:
  • Vocabulary: https://pro.europeana.eu/page/the-de-bias-vocabulary
  • Identification tool: https://pro.europeana.eu/page/the-de-bias-tool
  • Words Matter: https://www.materialculture.nl/en/publications/words-matter
• Words Matter: https://www.materialculture.nl/en/publications/words-matter
• Inclusive Terminology Glossary: https://culturalheritageterminology.co.uk/
• Transformative Arabic Language Guide: https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/beirut/22183-20250724.pdf
• Indigenous Peoples Terminology: https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/indigenous-peoples-terminology-guidelines-for-usage
• DEI Controlled Vocabs List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19solOX6tQTYvlF4lr_JNz2WlcsA76CcK3bxvYZ8cHzg/edit?gid=0#gid=0
• Gender, Sex and Sexual Orientation: https://gsso.research.cchmc.org/#!/ (ontology) Homosaurus: https://homosaurus.org/ (linked data vocabulary)

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1. Adapted from Archives for Black Lives, Anti-Racist Description Resources (2019). ↩

2. Taken from from Archives for Black Lives, Anti-Racist Description Resources (2019). ↩