The Decolonizing Description project comes out of the work of the Decolonizing Description Working Group (DDWG) struck by the University of Alberta Libraries (UAL). The purpose of this working group was to investigate some of the ways that UAL can address some of the problematic terminology that are still being used by our libraries.
In order to be able to begin this process, the first thing that we need to do is to strengthen and build upon our relationships. By bringing people together in this symposium, we are hopeful that this will be the first in a continuing series of steps to gain understanding of how people who will be using the library would like to see the project proceed. Overall, we cannot move forward in changing the terminology used in our libraries, without knowing what to change it to. Knowing which words would be preferred over what is being used in our current systems can only come through an ongoing, relationship building process.