The Change the subject project started in 2014 by a group of Dartmouth College students. The reason behind it was the Library of Congress (LC) Illegal aliens subject heading. The students believed that such a heading is pejorative and racist and should not exist in the library catalogue. Assisted by the Dartmouth College librarians, the students addressed the American Library Association (ALA) and LC in order to get the term Illegal aliens deleted from all the subject headings that it could be traced. Their aim was to have it substituted by another term more inclusive and non-offensive. Despite LC’s intention to replace the subject heading with two other headings (Noncitizens and Unauthorized immigration), this never happened due to reactions from Republican lawmakers. With ALA’s support the Change the subject project gained supporters not only in the United States, but around the world.
Libraries around the world began to change their subject headings despite the fact that LC did not. They preferred to introduce unauthorized terms to their catalogue than to keep a term that is offensive.
At the University of Macedonia Library and Information Center we searched for these terms in our catalogue. They existed in one way or the other in various headings, either English or Greek. The term Illegal aliens had been translated in Greek as Παράνομοι ξένοι. We proceeded with manual changes to our subject headings due to the relatively small amount of subject headings in September 2021. We consulted ALA for changes to the English subject headings. As to the Greek subject headings we consulted the websites of the Ministry of Migration & Asylum as well as that of the United Nations. The heading Παράνομοι ξένοι was substituted by Παράτυποι μετανάστες.
The paper will present a short history of the project, the international actions on the matter as well as how the University of Macedonia Library and Information Center addressed the issue. Finally, we will present an update on LC’s recent decision to substitute the term Illegal aliens with Noncitizens and Illegal immigration, as well as how the international community received this move.