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Materials in the library come with various tags and information that help you find what you're looking for. This is called metadata.
Metadata have a long history of coming with biases, especially fields that identify a material's subject. These biases can include offensive, derogatory, or otherwise problematic language. They can also include implications about what is "normal" by implying certain kinds of individuals are unusual, unnatural, or strange.
There are a variety of projects at Emory, nationally, and internationally to combat and think critically about these biases. In the meantime, however, being aware of these biases can help you navigate the collection by highlighting the need for multiple and alternative modes of research. If you have questions or need help, please contact the appropriate subject librarian by clicking here.
Over time, fields and publications have become broader and more open to diverse voices. It is true that discrepancies in representation still exist, but in many cases the gaps of representation are smaller than they once were.
However, this increase in representation can be deceptive. Deborah Rosenfelt notes that sometimes when the historically-underrepresented are included, it is done so on the terms of the dominant group. In her example, she points out how as women authors became more represented in the canon of Western Literature, only women whose work closely resembled existing esteemed forms of writing were "admitted." That is, women who wrote novels or poetry were more likely to be included than those whose writing was primarily that of diaries or letters (1).
This approach carries over into other types of collection besides the canon, such as "Best of" lists and award winners. It may be true that more diverse voices are included in such groupings than was previously the case, but if the expanded inclusion is still biased, its effect is limited.