Doing Better with Dewey
How a GUS parent seeks to improve upon the Dewey Decimal System.
When GUS first announced plans for the new Collins Family Library, Caroline McCarthy P ’25, mom to Cian, got excited. Not just because she happens to have her master’s in library science and extensive experience working in libraries, but because she saw an opportunity to improve upon one of the most basic and well-known systems in place in libraries across the country - the Dewey Decimal System.
The eponymous library classification system, taught to generations of students beginning in elementary school, was originally published in 1876. And, while McCarthy says it is “brilliant about grouping things together,” she sees room for improvement. “The Dewey Decimal System was the work of one man 150 years ago, and expresses his personal worldview,” says McCarthy.
She points to the religion section, which contains almost entirely subjects related to Christianity, reserving the last numbers for ‘other,’ which includes all works about Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam (not to mention other religious traditions). Similarly, the literature section also prioritizes works produced in America and Europe, categorizing all other countries in a narrow band of ‘other.’
“I don’t think this sort of ‘us and them’ organization is consistent with the values of inclusion at GUS, or many other communities and schools for that matter,” says McCarthy.
McCarthy approached GUS in the spring after it was announced that the library renovation project would take place this summer (knowing all the books would be moved off the shelves already!), and quickly got to work. She developed a simple program to pilot at GUS that would organize all materials in the literature section in alphabetical order, by last name, the same way works of fiction are already classified. A simple, and small, yet important step she believes all libraries should take. She plans to produce a guidebook for other librarians to follow. While she recognizes that Dewey has other problems that are trickier to fix, she hopes this is a step in the right direction.
Thank you!
From all of us at GUS, thank you Caroline for your work on this important project and for all your efforts to ready the Collins Family Library to open this fall. We truly cannot thank you enough for the countless books you carried, your discerning eye for items ready for retirement, and for showing our students that there are many ways to work for change.