A statement letting users know that there are potentially offensive or disturbing materials contained within the collection. Content warnings are included to empower users in choosing if and how they will approach these materials.
Content warning notes should be placed in a separate Scope and Contents note labelled “Content Warning.” Describe the nature of the content, its medium, and its location in the collection (if describing on the collection or series levels). Note any alternate formats which omit the potentially distressing elements and their location. Content warnings do not restrict the collections to which they are applied.
Add content warnings only to collections with potentially harmful content. When used, the note is required at the collection level, as well as at the series, file, and/or item level based on the collection’s processing level.
Content Warning Template Statements
Warning: this record contains offensive [racist, homophobic, sexist, descriminatory, anti-immigrant, anti-semetic, etc.] [language or imagery] about [x] group(s) [or by] [x].
Warning: this record contains [language, description, imagery] of [violence, abuse, war, killing, death, forced separations, lynching, human-rights abuses, etc.] that may be [disturbing, offensive] to viewers.
Examples
From the Ira Lohman Films of Thorne-Loomis Tour of Europe (MC-0720)
Warning: This record contains imagery of United States students wearing Nazi military regalia prominently featuring swastikas and also general film scenes of the German Nazi state in 1938 that may be disturbing to viewers.
The MIT Sloan school has a separate edited digital copy combining the two films that does not show this imagery. See the Location of Copies note for the details and link.
From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tech Show records (AC-0299)
Collection level
Warning: This collection includes a show program which contains racist minstrel show imagery that may be disturbing to viewers. This item is located in Series I: Show Materials.