Fleet Library at RISD is dedicated to describing print and visual materials in an inclusive and respectful way that will not cause harm. Many of the records in the library catalog were created years or decades ago and might include outdated, racist, colonialist, homophobic, and otherwise offensive terms. Library staff are engaged in an ongoing effort to revise and update the descriptive language in our library records. If you encounter language in the online catalog, research guides, digitized collections, exhibitions, archival finding aids, or elsewhere that you find inappropriate or harmful, or if you have questions about the work we are doing to make the descriptive language we use more inclusive, we welcome your feedback. Please fill out this language feedback form, and a library team member will respond.

This statement relies on and borrows language from similar statements by other museums, libraries, and archives that have been actively building more equitable and inclusive collection descriptions, including the Morgan Library & Museum, University of Maryland Libraries & Indiana University Libraries.