When librarians are moved to create fake patrons, complete with licenses and birthdates, in order to save books; when this leads to a suspended branch supervisor and various other disciplinary actions, yes, the right term to use is “Automated Culling”.
Please take note that the situation @imperialgazetteer describes above:
At the last library I worked at, we had a “section” of books on Mi'kmaq history that was kept in a storage closet in the staff-only part of the building. This was because they circulated poorly and some of them were quite old, and so there had been pressure to get rid of them so that the section of shelf that they used to occupy could be filled with something that would be read more. My boss’s boss thought this was unacceptable, though – that it was important that these books stayed accessible to the public. So as a sort of compromise, they wound up in the back, on a shelf in this closet. Functionally a closed stack – people could still get them by request.
Non-white, non-Western History, relegated to a shelf in a staff-only closet.
Native American History, on a shelf, in a staff-only closet.
This is what I am talking about when I say MARGINALIZED. HISTORIES. It’s not just an idea, it’s not “Theory”.
It is physically removing books from shelved labeled “History”, and put into a back closet where patrons can only find them if they
1. already know they are there
2. know that they can ask for them
3. are ABLE to ask for them
4. the employee who is asked for them knows what they are and that they are there.
This is literally institutional pressure to remove history books from the shelf, because even ON THE SHELF people often don’t know they’re there, they don’t know what to look for, how to ask, or are unable to do so because the library might not be accessible, or they may be unable to be physically present, or know how to ask for them.
Another reason that this is not only “Theory”: Do you have any idea how much i had to pay, in US American dollars, for the privilege of being taught the history of my own people by a white man?
for an ELECTIVE credit???
Do you have any clue how much I am committed to trying to prevent that from being the case for other marginalized people? As many as I can manage?
The history of my people and of other marginalized peoples is not a “weed”. It is not some embarrassing side effect of other, “more important” people’s history. It belongs in the hands of our peoples, not on a shelf in a literal “staff-only” closet.