Decolonisation in Libraries and the ghost of Dewey. Thinking about libraries with Libraries Uncorked Edinburgh.

On Thursday 14th of November, Luca and Elena went to Librarians Uncorked, an informal meeting that happened in Edinburgh in a very sophisticated location. We were very curious about the topic and Elena came all the way from Lanark to participate to the meeting and see what it was about!

The main topic was decolonisation in libraries. The suggested background reading can be found here and here. The conversation started by talking about the very term 'decolonisation'. Unfortunately, we missed people introductions, because a lot of things happened on our way to the location (also, we have to admit it, we could not find the entrance at first*). But the pool of participants was varied: academic, legal and school librarians, as well as information and library studies students.

One of the participants (which we happen to know because also Luca's dissertation supervisor, Lauren) started the conversation noting that we were talking about much more than decolonising. Decolonisation is a specific term usually used in academia (in expressions like decolonising the curriculum) which relates to freeing curriculum in previously colonised areas from colonisers' patronising and diminishing influences. What we were talking about at Librarians uncorked was a complete change of paradigma (additional reading can be found at the end of the post). 

The event was surely different from others we attended, organised by CILIP or CILIP Scotland:  it was very informal and the location peculiar. However, these provided the participants with a relaxed atmosphere, so that they could ease into the conversation, share their own concerns on the two topics of the meeting and ideas on how to make them applicable to the library contexts. It also came in handy that there were representatives from some of the main library sectors: there were school, academic, special and public libraries, which made it possible to compare how their own sectors were 'colonised'. The interesting thing is that amongst them, there were people from South Africa, New Zealand (we think) and of course Italians. Interestingly enough, all representing the point of views of those coming from places that used to be a colony.

Declassifying DDC 

As suggested by the meeting title, part of it wanted to direct the discussion on why we still use the Dewey Decimal System to classify books almost across every library. The ALA has already decided to strip off Dewey’s name from the homonymous award for creative leadership in the fields in which Melvil Dewey was mostly interested, like management, training, cataloguing and classification.

While reading the material suggested for the event, we also read another article written by Anne Ford on the American Libraries Magazines, “Bringing Harassment Out of the History Books: Addressing the troubling aspects of Melvil Dewey's legacy” (link here). 

Themes from the articles and from the ALA’s resolution, resounded during the discussion of the event: Dewey was a renowned sexist, racist and anti-semite. Even in those times, many were the complaints against Dewey, and the ALA was already pressured to have him resigning from the position state librarian of New York.

The sentiment is understandable and obviously shared, since these behaviours should not be accepted anywhere, in any workplace. ALA’s decision also should be shared.

However, how many awards for good, positive things, are named after questionable people?

Not only was Dewey a questionable person, but also his system has numerous flaws. This has been duly acknowledged by LIS professionals across the world: its Eurocentrism, the strong focus on Christianity and more. It is an americophile and anglophile system, quite Eurocentric, with a strong focus on Christianity (see the 200 section). Looking at the Literature section (800), very few languages are privileged (English, American, German and French have their own numbers, and then it is a potpourri and clash of other languages: the endings in the 890 section include all African or Asian cultures. Or look at the Danish Literature relegated into 839.82). Therefore, as the practice has proved various times, DDC is not apt for very specific libraries. As per Luca's experience at the Oriental Languages Library in Venice, if Dewey was to be applied, most of the books would have been in the 890 something section. The classification system adopted saw books catalogued according to broader topics, like literature or semantics, and then shelved according to their date of acquisition. Maybe not the most effective system, but, as students, we always found the books.

Well, let’s change it, let’s create a whole new better system, done by better people, with better principles. Sweden has already created its very own classification, the SAB system, which is confusing at first sight, but if someone explains it to you makes actually sense (SAB stands for "Sveriges Allmänna Biblioteksförening" -Sweden's public library association-). SAB's members probably said “this Dewey guy is quite immoral, we shouldn’t be using his system...let’s create our own!”, and they got together in a commission to invent a new way of classifying their material, and this “is regularly revised to track developments in new subject areas”. This happened in 1921. In 2008 they decided to switch to DDC for simplification reasons (Elena didn’t see this change in Stockholm Public library this year, though).

Since a different system is surely possible, let’s complain less and put some more real efforts in this enterprise.

On the other end, we should also acknowledge the humongous effort that all the people working on the Dewey new editions are putting into amending, correcting and fixing all the controversy in DDC. We should mention in this regard the work of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) Editorial Policy Committee (EPC), a ten-member international joint committee of OCLC and ALA. Its purpose is “to make recommendations to OCLC with respect to editorial policy for the DDC”. The EPC meets annually to represent the interest of libraries around the world as they guide the ongoing development of the DDC.

Still, from our point of view, the system is flexible enough to be extended and modified at will, thanks to the open sections and the numerical system, while it seems that an alphabetical system might run short. Sometimes we wonder if a system like Ranganathan Faceted Classification could actually be used more easily and less controversially in libraries, but we might want to leave this thought for another post.

Although Laura did not attend the event, she thanks Elena and Luca for pushing her to do some reading and get to know a bit more on the subject of decolonising libraries, which she had never given the careful consideration it deserves. She did hear in the past comments on Melvin Dewey’s controversial past but, she admits, never delved into this matter before. Now that she knows, she feels slightly disturbed: the Dewey Decimal Classification is so widely adopted, internationally, that it would take a tremendous effort to erase it and replace it with a different system. It can be done, as nothing is impossible. Nevertheless, it will require resources, a considerable amount of staff and time. And libraries are already struggling at this regard. In addition, there are other things we might want to prioritise. Let’s be honest: re-classifying an entire library collection is a huge project, especially when you are already struggling to provide the essential services due to budget cuts. On the other side, it is really irritating that libraries, places that most than any other promote inclusion, diversity and equality, have to bear the omnipresence of a figure who undoubtedly, gave a positive contribution to our profession, but who also did so much bad. What do we do then?

We do not have a solution to this dilemma. We cannot erase Dewey from the history books and we cannot deny that he created something very useful, despite its flaws and limitations that groups like the EPC are working on to reduce their impact. The magic recipe to sort this out will probably contain two key ingredients: awareness and collaboration. It is essential that, if we keep using Dewey’s scheme - as it is likely to be for the foreseeable future - we ensure that we recognise his contribution, but also remember who he really was. And collaboration because, yes, we will need to do something to change this at some point and create classification schemes that are more inclusive; and this can only be achieved with a collaborative effort, possibly with the bigger and richer in resources institutions - such as national libraries - taking the lead.   

Post Scriptum: Lost Librarians in Edinburgh

Elena and Luca got lost looking for the location of the event. It was literally 20 feet away from the train station, but a locked gate and time constraints pushed them in the wrong direction, through the wrong flight of stairs and round and round. Also, the big-hearted Elena helped a boy in distress who was without money and paid for his train ticket. Then he was very keen in returning the money, but when they went to retrieve cash to the station cash machine, that was out of order, and then they had to go to a farther cash machine, of course in the opposite direction of the event. But they managed to arrive not too late!

Additional links:

Decolonising the curriculum: what’s all the fuss about? (Link; accessed 02/12/2019)
Academics: it's time to get behind decolonising the curriculum (Link; accessed 02/12/2019)
Melvil Dewey Medal (Link; accessed 02/12/2019)
Resolution on Renaming the Melvil Dewey Medal (Link, Pdf; accessed 02/12/2019)
Bringing Harassment Out of the History Books : Addressing the troubling aspects of Melvil Dewey's legacy (Link; accessed 02/12/2019)
Dewey® Services (OCLC) (Link; accessed 02/12/2019)