Collections Stewardship Projects

The following is a list of starting points for specific disciplines/departments. Given the fact that many programs at Davidson are interdisciplinary in nature, this list is not exhaustive and faculty are encouraged to review additional lists that are of interest.

The library acknowledges the prejudiced and biased nature of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) System and views the evaluation and deselection/reclassification of materials classified in the DDC as one method of decolonizing our collections. As you review lists of titles as they are organized in the Dewey collection, you may notice several glaring examples of racism, misogyny, and bigotry:

• The 200 class, listed as "Religion" includes ten subclasses, nine& of which are dedicated to Christianity. The remaining religions of the world are relegated to the 290 subclass, including all East and South Asian religions which are classified under& 299.
• Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and women's subjects are often grouped into the Social Sciences class (300) instead of the History class (900), which tends to center white voices.
• When Melvil Dewey first created the DDC, he grouped LGBTQ+ subjects under "Abnormal Psychology." Subsequent revisions of the DDC moved those subjects under the "Social Problems" class (360), before moving them into a classification that falls between prostitution/sex trafficking and fetishes/BDSM.