Classifying Away Diversity: Questioning Indexing Structures of Local Populations

Abstract

This paper is part of an ongoing project examining classification and control of knowledge from local populations. This paper explores the effects of language-diversity erosion on subject access, classification schema and knowledge diversity. It contains examples of national language policy on language diversity and connects these examples to critiques of subject access for non-mainstream persons within schema in general. Many of the examples for this come from critiques of Library of Congress Subject Headings.