Check out this excerpt from the article B.C. First Nations council is moving to Indigenous-developed library system, by Winston Szeto

“The Dewey decimal classification has long been the standard of organizing library collections around the world, but a First Nations tribal council in B.C.’s Central Interior says it will ditch the system because of its colonial legacy. 

The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council is transitioning to the Brian Deer Classification System, which was developed by the late Kahnawake Mohawk librarian Alec Brian Deer in the 1970s. Its taxonomy is based on the geographical locations of Indigenous communities.

The council’s archivist Kat Louro created a Brian Deer catalogue manual last February, based on the classifications used at the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and the University of British Columbia’s Xwi7xwa Library. She has added new classifications for themes such as missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Louro said the Dewey decimal system, developed in the late 19th century, is inherently problematic because of its designer, Melvil Dewey, whose name was stripped from the American Library Association’s medal award last year due to his history of racism, anti-Semitism and sexual harassment.”