When Olson quotes that “'[e]quality may well be defined as deliberate indifference to specific differences'”(653), the type of equality in this case hearkens back to our class discussion on Wiegand's view of neutrality as negative. After my summer “Beyond Diversity” workshop and that class discussion, the ideas of “decentering whiteness” and eradicating institutionalized racism have been in the back of my mind.
This article offered the first concrete example of how librarians could actually affect those kinds of changes. It was useful for me to consider how the issues with the Dewey Classification system would actually effect students or patrons. I can imagine an individual looking for information about people of his or her race. Under Dewey's hieracrhies, helpful and relevant materials may be stored in an area apart from other materials on race and ethnicity. This is yet another example of white privilege and how assuming patrons are a collective, homogenous group disenfranchises another group. I liked how Olson illustrated this problem using the railroad: while the Westward expansion of rail lines provided efficiency to some, it negatively affected the lives of others (whose opinions were not solicited nor heeded).
One remedy for the current restrictiveness of information organization that both Weinberger and Olson suggest is collaborative tagging or social cataloging. Authors and readers would not be restrained by traditional cataloging language and thus could label materials with accurate and usable search terms.
It's no secret that Weinberger enthusiastically supports this kind of organization, but I hesitate to turn to tagging in my own information management. It would take the same or more time and effort to tag my photos, for example, than it takes to place them under a date or event heading. I like that my bookmarks and emails are organized under categories and subcategories that I've created. However, I know that my system only works because I created it for myself and no one else. So when it comes to organizing information for the public, either digitally or physically, social cataloging may be a viable solution, like Olson's suggestion that users “leave a trail” for future users.