There are two categorizations that you are analyzing in a diversity audit:
1. Key Figures - Who are the primary individuals represented in the collection materials?
The key figures analyzed in the initial audit were the author and the main character(s). The main character can include more than one individual, and will be determined for each item in the audit process. Author and main character(s) are the most direct players in a library's diversity of collection since their identities are on the surface level of what a library collection looks like in terms of diversity. In the spreadsheets, the key figures were separated from each other on the top row.
2. Identifiers - What are the traits that the key figures use to identify themselves?
In the initial audit, the identifiers included three main categories that are strongly recommended to be used in all diversity audits, and a collection of additional identifiers that were determined necessary, but varied among collections and can be easily changed for your audit. The three main categories were race, sexuality, and gender. The main categories contained identifiers that diversified (e.g. Sexuality included hetero-, homo-, bi-, other, and unknown sexuality). These three categories and their identifiers did not change among collections and were converted into pie charts later for analysis. The identifiers that diversified each main category were later compared directly with the demographic data collected earlier. The additional identifiers were added as supplemental data to the pie charts of each collection and varied between author and main character as well as between collections. For example, mental health was determined as appropriate to analyze in the adult popular fiction collection, but not the children's literature collection. While additional identifiers were selected as they were thought to be good diversity categorizations to have in the collections, the main identifiers were selected as they were thought to be required to address diversity. In the spreadsheets, the main categories were displayed with a list of their identifiers in columns below the key figures. The additional identifiers were placed in columns under their appropriate key figures after the main categories.
*Main categories and their identifiers should directly describe the author or main character(s), while additional identifiers described topics that affect the author or main character(s) to some degree.
*In the children's literature, "animal" was used as a main character identifier under the race category, as research showed that the use of an animal as the main character is very common in children's stories.
*It is advised to use "Unknown" as an identifier for all main categories under both author and main character(s). Use unknown when you cannot locate the proper data in a period of time (the initial audit tried to conduct research for each book for no longer than 10 minutes) so that the audit can be feasibly completed in a timely manner. If an additional identifier cannot be determined, leave unmarked.