The Royal Library (KB) is establishing a council for national minorities.
The council will help the library take responsibility for offensive or disturbing material in its collections.
Now, KB is seeking members who, through "mutual exchange of perspectives, views, and interpretations" of the library's collections, can contribute to the council's work. In a press release, KB writes that its older collections may contain material that is offensive or disturbing, and that the library needs to take responsibility for this.
For example, this could involve describing the material's metadata, how a particular material is displayed or disseminated, or whether it should be accompanied by an explanatory text.
"We know that there are parts of KB's collections and descriptions that today may be perceived as offensive, because they were created during a period when the view on minorities was different. KB's mission includes providing what is requested, but sometimes it needs to be put into context," says National Librarian Karin Grönvall in the press release.
Corrected: In an earlier version, it was incorrect about who should take responsibility for the offensive material.
