Diversity Standards Collective
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| Diversity Standards Collective | |
|---|---|
| Name | Diversity Standards Collective |
| Formation | 2019 |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Region served | International |
| Leader title | Executive Director |
| Leader name | Kat Anderson |
Diversity Standards Collective The Diversity Standards Collective is a nonprofit organization that develops standards, vocabulary, and best practices for inclusive metadata, cataloging, and cultural heritage description. Founded in 2019, it seeks to coordinate work across libraries, archives, museums, publishers, and technology companies to improve access, representation, and ethical description of marginalized communities. The Collective engages with standards bodies, academic institutions, advocacy groups, and professional associations to align controlled vocabularies and workflows with contemporary social justice concerns.
History
The Collective was established in the wake of heightened attention to representation stimulated by events such as the Black Lives Matter protests and institutional responses from entities like the American Library Association, Smithsonian Institution, and Library of Congress. Its origins involved collaborations among scholars from Harvard University, practitioners from the New York Public Library, activists from Color of Change, and metadata specialists with roots in the Association of Research Libraries and OCLC. Early milestones included pilot projects with the Digital Public Library of America, consultations with the National Archives and Records Administration, and workshops held in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art. The organization has since worked alongside international partners such as the British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the International Council on Archives.
Mission and Activities
The Collective's mission emphasizes equitable description, community-led terminology, and trauma-informed practices for cataloging and metadata. Activities include convening working groups with members from American Alliance of Museums, drafting recommendations used by the Getty Research Institute and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and organizing conferences modeled after events like Dublin Core summits and Code4Lib meetings. It provides training adopted by university programs at Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Chicago and issues guidance used by publishers such as Penguin Random House and Oxford University Press. The Collective also advises technology firms including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon on algorithmic bias in cultural datasets.
Standards and Publications
The Collective publishes guidelines, vocabularies, and implementation profiles intended to be interoperable with existing frameworks like Library of Congress Subject Headings, Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus, MARC 21, and Dublin Core. Notable outputs include best practices for renaming offensive headings, protocols for community-contributed descriptions inspired by models from Europeana and the Smithsonian Institution Research Online, and controlled vocabularies developed in consultation with organizations such as GLAM Labs and the Council on Library and Information Resources. Publications are distributed through partnerships with presses including MIT Press and Routledge, and discussed in journals like the College & Research Libraries and the Journal of Documentation.
Governance and Funding
Governance comprises a board drawn from leaders affiliated with institutions such as Yale University, Princeton University, University of Toronto, and the Carnegie Corporation. Advisory committees include representatives from the National Library of Medicine, American Historical Association, and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Funding sources have included grants from foundations like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations, as well as project-based contracts with entities such as Wikimedia Foundation and municipal cultural agencies including the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Governance policies reflect nonprofit requirements similar to those of Charity Navigator-listed organizations.
Partnerships and Collaborations
The Collective partners with an array of institutions: universities (University of Oxford, University of Melbourne), cultural organizations (Tate, National Gallery of Art), standards bodies (ISO, NISO), and community groups such as Transgender Law Center and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Project collaborations include linked data pilots with Wikidata, catalog remediation with WorldCat participants, and joint initiatives with the Internet Archive and HathiTrust. Training programs have been co-hosted with professional associations like the Special Libraries Association and the Society of American Archivists.
Criticism and Controversies
Critics have raised concerns similar to disputes seen in debates over Library of Congress Subject Headings revisions and controversies around institutional renamings at museums such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Some scholars affiliated with Princeton University and journalists at publications like The Chronicle of Higher Education and The New York Times have questioned the extent to which centralized standards can accommodate local community needs. Others, including technologists from Apple and privacy advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have argued that certain metadata practices risk privacy harms or algorithmic misclassification. Additionally, tensions have emerged between proponents of rapid change and preservationists at institutions like the British Museum and the Bibliothèque nationale de France over historical record integrity.