This paper contains a report of two interdependent knowledge organization (KO) projects for an LGBT2QIA+ library. The authors, in the context of volunteer library work for an independent library, redesigned the classification system and subject cataloguing guidelines to centre LGBT2QIA+ subjects. We discuss the priorities of creating and maintaining knowledge organization systems for a historically marginalized community and address the challenge that queer subjectivity poses to the goals of KO. The classification system features a focus on identity and physically reorganizes the library space in a way that accounts for the multiple and overlapping labels that constitute the currently articulated boundaries of this community. The subject heading system focuses on making visible topics and elements of identity made invisible by universal systems and by the newly implemented classification system. We discuss how this project may inform KO for other marginalized subjects, particularly through process and documentation that prioritizes transparency and the acceptance of an unfinished endpoint for queer KO.

Subject access in Canada, whether through subject headings, classification, thesauri or other structures, is dominated by systems originally created in the United States. Building on a 2019 literature review that identified current subject access systems and developing projects in the Canadian context, this paper will explore the patterns of divergence and convergence between systems and across borders. As subject access systems from the United States do not meet all the needs of Canadian scholarship, next steps include considering how these gaps and distortions impact Canadian scholarship and what institutions in Canada are doing to create systems consistent with their values. L'accès par sujet au Canada, que ce soit par le biais de vedettes-matière, de classifications, de thésaurus ou d'autres structures, est dominé par des systèmes créés à l'origine aux États-Unis. S'appuyant sur une analyse documentaire de 2019 qui a identifié les systèmes d'accès par sujet actuels et le développement de projets dans le contexte canadien, ce Le document explorera les modèles de divergence et de convergence entre les systèmes et au-delà des frontières. Étant donné que les systèmes d'accès par sujet des États-Unis ne répondent pas à tous les besoins de la recherche canadiennes, les prochaines étapes consistent à examiner l'impact de ces lacunes et distorsions sur la recherche canadiennes et les efforts des institutions canadiennes visant à créer des systèmes cohérents avec leurs valeurs.

Out On The Shelves is Vancouver’s only Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Two-Spirit, Queer, Intersex, Aromantic/Asexual (LGBT2QIA+) library. Due to recent organizational changes, it has become apparent that its current classification system is no longer working effectively. Not only was the previous system unstructured and confusing, it failed to explicitly represent many aspects of the community it serves. This project was undertaken during the summer of 2018, researching alternative classification and queer issues in knowledge organization to determine how to improve it. This research, combined with careful consideration of the needs of the library itself and its users, suggested that building a local, contextually-situated, classification system would be best. A new classification system has been built for Out On The Shelves Library, and will be implemented in several stages beginning in October 2018, with the end goal to be finished by the end of December 2018. The new system intends to be living and changeable, one that lays bare its structures and decisionmaking processes while centering and celebrating the LGBT2QIA+ community and working within the realities of being a small, unfunded, volunteer-run, public library.