Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate what metadata elements for access points currently exist to represent diverse library reading materials, either in libraries or from external sources, as well as what metadata elements for access points are currently not present but are necessary to represent diverse library reading materials. Design/methodology/approach A field scan of thirteen contemporary metadata schemas identified elements that might serve as potential access points regarding the diversity status of resource creators as well as topical or thematic content. Elements were semantically mapped using a metadata crosswalk to understand the intellectual and conceptual space of the elements. Element definitions and application of controlled vocabularies were also examined where possible to offer an additional context. Findings Metadata elements describing gender, occupation, geographic region, audience and age currently exist in many schemas and could potentially be used to offer access to diverse library materials. However, metadata elements necessary to represent racial, ethnic, national and cultural identity are currently not present in specific forms necessary for enabling resource access and collection assessment. The lack of distinct elements contributes to the implicit erasure of marginalized identities. Originality/value The search for metadata describing diversity is a first step toward enabling more systematic access to diverse library materials. The need for systematic description of diversity to make visible and promote diverse materials is highlighted in this paper. Though the subject of this paper is library organization systems and, for clarity, uses terms specific to the library profession, the issues present are relevant to all information professionals and knowledge organization systems.

Although laudable strides have been made to highlight and provide access to diverse library materials about and made by traditionally marginalized communities, current approaches are curatorial, non-scalable, and non-systematic. Using a critical design approach, we address how libraries might move beyond curatorial practices with the proposal of a “Critical Catalog” that advocates for diverse materials and discusses the problems and challenges of categorizing identity. The proposed provocative catalog offers the possibility to raise awareness of diverse library materials; expose readers to new and different resources, ideas and cultures; alter reading habits; and ultimately provide more equitable representation by preventing the inadvertent and unintentional erasure of diverse library materials, thus giving a stronger voice to marginalized communities.

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In my art practice, I study the material world and how something forms, catches meaning, gets named, and becomes embodied. I am interested in how abstract things like feelings, love, and perceptions of lived experience take form, and how concrete things form, as in how an object becomes identifiable and understood. For example, why is an object, say a chair, its particular shape? What set of assumptions, beliefs, and materials underlies the formation of said object? I often explore these questions through language and materials. I play with instances where the material/formal (the visual and sonic) and semantic properties of language converge and blur, and potentially both describe and create alternative modes of seeing and knowing.Authoritative Forms is a participatory poem-object that invites playing and reordering of how formal entities-for my purposes, what is bound into something named and known-shape and construct our belief systems and assert authority on our ways of being. The work comprises a sheaf of handmade watermarked abaca and cotton paper arranged on a handmade wood table surrounded by work stools (figs. 1-2). Viewers are invited to take a seat at the table to handle, look at, read, and rearrange the papers.This work began with ruminations on how authority and information are expressed, concretized, and embodied through and with materials. These ruminations led me to the power of the document, the authority of the written word, and the materials used to assert this authority. One such material is paper.

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