Sandy Berman isn't mincing words and he isn't fucking around. Herb Biblof my favourite librarians, ever. The letter is too long for the description, but not for the post here on hackers.town so:

3-22-25
Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division
Libraryof Congress
Washington, DC
2054D-4305

Dear Colleagues,

BRAVO! Your recent conversion of DENALI, MOUNT (ALASKA) and MEXICO, GULF OF to MCKINLEY, MOUNT (ALASKA) and AMERICA, GULF OF, respectively, as both primary and subheadings was breathtakingly thorough and detailed. You are masters of your craft.

Alas, you are also willful handmaidens of chauvinism, ethnocentrism and fascism. Also: Trumpism.

Many weeks ago I expressed the hope that LC would resist temptation to implement this palpably capricious, arbitrary, and baseless name-charging. That admonition appears to have gone unheeded.

Our President has no authority to wantonly replace the name for international waters that abut more countries than our own. Beyond that, the Gulf of Mexico has been so known since about the 16th Century. Its renaming, totally rejected by neighboring Mexico, smacks of arrogant linguistic imperialism.

It seems the whole state of Alaska prefers the Athabascan place-name, Denali, to McKinley, a U.S. President associated with American expansion who never set foot in Alaska. The widely-unwanted name-change is an affront to Alaska's indigenous population, as well as its state legislature and two Republican senators.

Although LC has now fully demonstrated its lock-step deference to bigoted, unjustified authority, I hope American librarians will muster moral and intellectual strength to ignore its dismal example.

Sorrowfully,
Sanford Berman

Margaret Marn Citation Recipient

Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award Recipient

ALA Equality Award Recipient

Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice & Equality Recipient