"Creation and other spiritual stories by American Indians and other people are
found in
the 398.2 folklore section while Judeo-Christian stories are classified in religion
when they are found in the non-fiction section of the library."
Thanks for redirecting us to that previous discussion.
This point that I have extracted above, I believe needs attention immediately. The
implications for this are mind blowing.
I would just as soon put the bible and all the other religious books in my fiction
section (which is arranged alphabetically by author) and put them all under G for
God.
Has anybody else been tempted to do this?
Then again, I don't see myself in that role. It is much much better to have the
children discover this on their own and ask these questions, "why are bible stories
in the non-fiction section and similar stories from Africa in the folklore section?
Aren't bible stories just Jewish and Christian folklore? Why aren't they then both
in the same section?"
For me to answer this, I think I am going to have to find a few biographies on
Melvil Dewey so that I can explain to children why he was so biased in his
formation of his dewey decimal system.
I honestly have no idea myself.
But to dismantle Dewey, as was discussed back in June, NEVER!!!!
Fix it yes, but you would never find another thing in your library again if you
didn't have a classification system to arrange the books.
_________________________
Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS
Passages Academy Libraries
941 Rev. James A. Polite Avenue
Bronx, New York 10459
tel: (718) 861-2003
fax: (718) 861-2039
psarles@schools.nyc.gov
"Nothing of value comes without being earned, That's why great leaders are those
who lead by example first. You can't demand respect because of a title or a
position and expect people to follow. That might work for a little while, but in
the long run people respond to what they see." - Michael Jordan
"Libraries are not made; they grow." - Augustine Birrell
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications on behalf of Judi Moreillon
Sent: Mon 11/12/2007 11:00 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Bias in Dewey
Colleagues,
There was an LM_NET discussion last June (2007) regarding several problems
with Dewey, including religious discrimination.
It is interesting to read the Wikipedia article about Melvil Dewey. Here's a
quote: "While remembered for his Dewey Decimal System, Dewey's personal
views would be considered racist and sexist today. Even in his own day, his
career as a public servant, as New York State Librarian, was negatively
affected by the anti-Semitic policies of the Lake Placid Club (Wiegand
1996:280; Garrison 1983:42); his role in the ALA was curtailed by his overly
familiar attention to women (Wiegand 1996:340)." (Verified by other sources
including the ones cited on Wikipedia...)
If we agree that ALL texts have bias based on the values of their authors,
then Dewey's classification system necessarily reflects his values.
To review the June discussion, you can search the LM_NET Archives for: To
Dewey or Not to Dewey.
The following is a posting I contributed at that time. (Learning from
Madeleine Zember's post, I should amend #2 to read "Christian" rather than
"Judeo-Christian.")
At the risk of being redundant: Perhaps, savvy librarians will develop a new
classification system that better represents the books and other resources
and the sensibilities of 21st-century society and library collections.
Best,
Judi
Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Literacies and Libraries Consultant
Author: Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension:
Maximizing Your Impact
http://storytrail.com
info@storytrail.com
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: [LM_NET] To Dewey or Not to Dewey
From: Judi Moreillon;storypower@THERIVER.COM;
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 08:59:55 -0500
Reply-To: storypower@theriver.com
Sender: School Library Media & Network
Communications;LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU;
Dear Colleagues,
Yesterday, I took a road trip with a teacher-librarian colleague. We talked
about the new Arizona Dewey-less library. After our conversation, I thought
more about two Dewey problems that have been nagging me for years. These
issues make me wonder if it wouldn't be so bad to let the Dewey system of
classification die - a natural or unnatural - death.
To be sure, I am a (real) librarian. I do believe that information must be
organized to be accessible. However, my questions are about Dewey's
classifications. Here goes:
1. There is a proliferation of informational books for children than the
Library of Congress classifies as fiction. This is frustrating when we
explain the Dewey system to young students. Although it is shelved with
fiction, there is no way that Sandra Markle and Alan Marks' book A Mother's
Journey is a "made-up" story. This "story" is scientific facts about Emperor
penguins told in a narrative format. These penguins are not in any way
anthropomorphized. Is this book classified as fiction because the
illustrations are paintings rather than photographs?
The proliferation of multigenre books adds to the dilemma of accurately
classifying books. Joyce Sidman and Becky Prange's book Song of the Water
Boatman and Other Pond Poems is clearly poetry, but the addition of factual
information about the topic or theme of each poem complicates the waters.
You may or may not know that publishers have NO input into the
classification of their books. The Library of Congress assigns the numbers,
and there is NO debate.
2. The Judeo-Christian bias of Dewey has always bothered me. Creation and
other spiritual stories by American Indians and other people are found in
the 398.2 folklore section while Judeo-Christian stories are classified in
religion when they are found in the non-fiction section of the library.
Perhaps, savvy librarians will develop a new classification system that
better represents the books and other resources and the sensibilities of
21st-century society and library collections.
What do you think?
Best,
Judi
-----Original Message-----
From: M S [mailto:drjesons@GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 12:32 AM
Subject: Bias in Dewey
Hello
I read with interest Debbie Reese's comments about the bias in Dewey/LC
shelving
I agree that there is bias in the Dewey system toward certain groups.
My question is- Did anyone ever noticed the bias toward biblical figures?
In many cases, King David, Samuel, Sarah, Rachel, Abraham, Moses, Joshua,
Debra, etc... are treated as biblical figures (subject headings of books
about them) not Jewish leaders and so are all the Old Testament stories
(unless the book title specifies Jewish stories)
If one reads about any figure from Greek Mythology, it would say so "Greek
Mythology" or Greek diety. If one reads folktales, it would say "African
folktale", "Chinese folktale" etc ...not so for the Old Testament which is
early Jewish history.
A picture book titled *Exodus, *would not have with in its subject heading
anything to do with Judaism or with the holiday of Passover (which is based
on the story in Exodus)
For centuries the Bible (Old Testament) was purposely not treated as a
Jewish book. It is the same with Dewey, not puposely but still the same.
In my foundation course in library science, a student asked in which
language the bible was written, I was amazed to hear students say (NYC)
Greek, Latin, and no one except me said Hebrew.
How sad !
Madeleine Zember
Marshall School
Hempstead NY
drjesons@gmail.com
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