How do you solve a problem like Dewey?
by Jenny Chang, Lisa Seddon, and Sarah Wethered
Three secondary teacher-librarians in New Westminster, British Columbia express their discomfort with classifying resources in their respective school libraries using the Dewey Decimal System. They explore alternatives and settle on the Brian Deer Classification System (BDC). The writers state that, “we should be focusing on acts of reconciliation, and by decolonizing our library catalogue by making the switch the BCD, we are doing just that.” They share their process and the steps they went through to complete this project as well as reflections and helpful considerations for readers.
Jenny Chang: Jenny is one of the teacher-librarians at New Westminster Secondary School and is an instructor for the Teacher-Librarian course at Queens’ University. Jenny received the 2021 BC New Teacher-Librarians of the Year award.
Lisa Seddon: Lisa is a teacher-librarian at Queensborough Middle School and New Westminster Secondary School in New Westminster. Prior to becoming a teacher-librarian, she taught drama and social studies in Virginia and Texas. Lisa has served on the executive committee of the BC Teacher-Librarians Association since 2019, and is the current vice-president. Lisa is the 2024 BC Teacher-Librarian of the Year.
Sarah Wethered: Sarah is one of the teacher-librarians at New Westminster Secondary School, and is an instructor for the Teacher-Librarian course at Queens’ University. She is a member of the BC Teacher-Librarians Association executive committee, and currently serves as its treasurer. Sarah has recently joined the executive of the Canadian School Libraries also as treasurer. She is the 2020 recipient of the Angela Thacker Memorial Award from Canadian School Libraries.
Jenny, Lisa, and Sarah - thanks so much for creating and sharing this article. Joseph gave me a heads-up that I might like the way it began, and I definitely did!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the detailed information about Dewey. I knew of generalities but not specifics. Can we separate the person from the person's work? Why does it seem easier to do for some than for others? Why do I still hear Michael Jackson songs on the radio, but not R. Kelly? Why did I remove books by Bill Cosby but not J K Rowling?
I appreciated the review on pages 4-5 of the alternatives that have been discussed (BISAC, METIS, and UDC). The steps you took were also helpful to see. May I ask: if the BDC is community-specific, ("Each library grounds their catalogue based on the Indigenous territory that it is situated on, and all knowledge radiates from it. Each library has the flexibility to have a slightly different classification and to tailor their classification system to their own personal context.") then how do big library systems catalog and locate items shared in a single system? Also, I make no secret that I do not have a MLIS degree or have the same cataloging training as library technicians. Is this work that someone without this background can accurately do? Can/would the fiction sections that use the author's last name as the sorting mechanism still remain?
Much of TMC8 will refer back to the new CSL document, Foundations. Foundations has a statement related to library classification systems. If the three of you could wave a magic wand, what changes would you like to see in Foundations that relate to this topic?
Looking forward to more dialogue,
Diana
Hi Diana,
DeleteLet me start with the easy question first. Fiction (inclusive of standalone books, series, graphic novels, and picture books) are not classified under BDC in New West Schools. We've retained the conventional labels for fiction, etc. We chose to focus on nonfiction.
As for specificity, because the New Westminster school district sits on the stolen land of Qayqayt First Nation (and only Qayqayt), it has admittedly been easier than it would have been in districts that cover a larger, more diverse geological area. In that case, I would argue it's the responsibility of the T-Ls (or their chosen representatives on a committee) to work with the Indigenous communities on whose land your district sits, and make that the first step. The rest of the catalog can be consistent across the district after an agreement has been reached regarding an individual school's or a group of school's location in relation to Indigenous communities. So it won't necessarily be a completely different system from school to school.
As for larger systems, I can't answer that. I don't have that information. I can say that even just doing my small middle school library (with weeding beforehand!) and the secondary school's collection, it's taken two years to get where we are. (My collection is labelled, but not all MARC records have been changed, and NWSS is in the process of changing their labels and MARC records, and I'm just starting to reassign call numbers to the 320s.) It's a process...
I would say how we classify information falls under the accountability section of the framework. If we're meant to align with school and community goals, what does it say about libraries that we're working within a system that does not contain the flexibility to adapt as needed? (That also leads into staffing, because if a district as inadequate staffing, regardless of what system one chooses aside from DDC, it's going to be difficult to even start.)
Coming from a single unified catalog across a school district (and 3 overlapping traditional territories plus a large number of transplants from another 10ish under the Carrier-Sekani grouping) we have been struggling with how to pivot away from DDC. We are currently sitting at around 1 million items and 400K titles within the library system and one library tech and me to do the work of any pivot away. For now we are looking at how we can push back against the traditional rules of DDC within our practice.
ReplyDeleteSo Indigenous topics are not put in 970 anymore unless they are historical. Governance goes in Governance, etc. This, along with our local subject headings has been our way of trying to make do with the people power we have, but be a step towards reconciliation we can take.
I'm also interested in how you fit certain things into the classification.
Looking at the headings:
Reference Materials
Local History
History
International
Education
Economic Development
Housing and Community Development
Criminal Justice System
Constitution (Canada) and First Nations
Self Government
Rights and Title
Natural Resources
Community Resources
Health
World View
Fine Arts
Languages
Literature
----
Where did you put things like technology or sports? Did you split biography between local and non-local history?
Another thing we have discussed with our Indigenous Ed department is looking at BDC for just Indigenous materials and whether this would be enough.
Hi Lisa, Sarah and Jenny,
ReplyDeleteWow! What a great way to dive into the dewey controversy and the many alternatives to the dominant, dated (?) classification system. With a balance of research, experience and narration I found this paper enjoyable to read, a few parts made me nod my head in agreement and smile. You are a fantastic writing team! I am looking forward to examining the reference section, and spending time together on Saturday!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, this! This is the essence of advocacy. Advocating for your SLLC's when the mainstream says "it's too hard" or "not yet, we're not ready!"
ReplyDeleteKudos on a definitive act of reconciliation that is pushing #libraryland to recognize what we inherently know to be true - Dewey is no longer serving us and it needs to go. Bravo!
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DeleteThis article is the reason I attend Treasure Mountain. I have been pondering a way to update our wall of books arranged using Dewey. Reading your article with all the details of how we can decolonize our collection by removing this system of organization is giving me lots of ideas. I already defy some of the categories in favour of my own, in order to make the collection easier to navigate for my students. I'm going to do reread your article and learn more about the system you used in order to make decisions for the collection in my middle school. Well done pushin our thinking forward!
ReplyDeleteHi Toni,
DeleteI brought a couple of copies of our guidebook in case anyone wanted to have a look. We’re willing to share a digital copy, too. It’s not perfect, but we tried!