Diversity Monitoring in the Library: Categorisation Practices and the Exclusion of LGBTQ Library Users

Abstract

The collection of data about the identity characteristics of library users is the latest development in a long history of contested categorisation practices. In this article, I highlight how the collection of data about lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) people has implications for the undertaking of diversity monitoring exercises in academic and public libraries. Based on experiences in the United Kingdom, I argue that recuperative efforts to ‘fix’ categorisation practices are not enough and overlook how categories of gender, sex and sexuality are constructed through the practice of diversity monitoring, how categories are positioned in time and space, and who is involved in decision-making about who to include and exclude from the category of ‘LGBTQ’. To encourage those working in the field to uncover and challenge the shortcomings of traditional approaches to categorisation, I conclude with six practical considerations for information professionals engaged in the collection of gender, sex and sexuality data. My critical account of diversity monitoring practices is not a question of (further) politicising the library nor simply a question of doing the right thing; an overhaul of categorisation practices, so that they meaningfully recognise the lives and experiences of people from minoritised groups, is central to the survival of libraries