Author Diversity in the Book Club Resource

This dataset grew out of an internal project to audit the Book Club Resource collection by focusing on author diversity. Data was collected by the Library Research Service and other State Library staff members. Although we were focused on our own collection development, we believe the data collected is also useful for book clubs interested in this topic, and possibly of interest to libraries wishing to audit their collections, so we decided to share it on this website.

The data presented applies only to authors whose works are in the Book Club Resource collection, and not the themes/contents of their works. The data is not exhaustive, and the tags included may not (in fact, often do not) represent all the possible identity traits an author may have; the identities that have been tagged are only what has been made publicly available, while prioritizing statements from the authors themselves, and not including information when there is any doubt. To avoid imposing our own subjectivity, we have chosen not to include some “diversity” characteristics, as we first wish to focus on a few major traits that we judge to be the most helpful to the intended audience: book clubs and libraries. For example, we have omitted neurodivergence and disabilities as we do not feel like these can be ascertained with reliable consistency by us. As with any characteristic you might find missing, it can easily be searched for in the catalog. For more on the subject of diversity refer the “Defining Diversity” below.

The search field above the table is for entering keyword terms. Note that only exact matches will show up in search results. If you search for a term and get no results, make sure you are using up-to-date terms (for example, we have generally chosen the term “Black” in lieu of the often misused “African American” to refer to Black people).

Beyond this tool, we suggest you also try searching the catalog directly for any term(s) of your choice.

Diversity as a broad concept describes the makeup of groups. In this context, the “group” is authors whose works are in the Book Club Resource. The data shown reflects the identity traits (mostly self-identified) other than dominant, white, cisgender, majority group identities in the USA. The tags help to center minorities such as people of color and the LGBTQIA+ communities, and include a few other identifying traits such as nationality (while you won’t find “American” as a standalone tag, you will find, for example, “Mexican American”). We have chosen to include an author’s gender (regardless of their gender) whenever we could. For this purpose, we have landed on the terms AMAB and AFAB (AMAB = Assigned Male at Birth; AFAB = Assigned Female At Birth). See more about this in the “Terminology Used” section below.

Whenever possible, we have prioritized self-identified characteristics above all. Gender was sometimes inferred by the pronouns that are consistently used in online search results, but when this is not clear we have left the gender out.

AMAB and AFAB

AMAB = Assigned Male at Birth; AFAB = Assigned Female At Birth. These are not universally accepted terms, but we have opted for them mainly for search purposes. If we instead used “man” and “woman,” or “male” and “female” the search function (which gives exact results) would bring up both men and women when searching “man”/”male” because the same letters appear in each respective pair of words. We have chosen to represent transgender and non-binary folks without the sex they were assigned at birth if their self-identified gender is made clear. To be very clear: these particular tags (AMAB and AFAB) are being used mainly for searching expediency, and it should go without saying that there is no way of us verifying what gender an author was assigned at birth.

There is much debate about the relevance of author identities. Some readers feel that the increased focus on author demographics is a publisher’s marketing ploy. Others suggest any focus on author identity detracts from the experience and purpose of reading literature, which is idealized as detached from the creator’s identity. Some suggest that the focus on minority identities is really pandering to majority groups whose goal is to further their own cultural power. Authors themselves may resent being in any way categorized or pigeonholed, whereas other authors see the importance of representation or inclusion. As with all things that relate to identity, this practice cannot be expected to please everyone. That does not mean it is without a purpose or value. In this case, the purpose is increasing discoverability and the value of that is subjective.

A lot of time has gone into ensuring that we have only included verifiable, publicly available information about authors. If ever there was any doubt, or if it was not verifiable, we have sometimes chosen to not tag an author to avoid the possibility of misidentifying them.

We recognize the incomplete nature of datasets such as this, and we are always happy to make improvements or changes if appropriate. Please give us feedback if you notice something is amiss, and remember this is an experimental and incomplete dataset. To contact the collection managers, email [email protected].