Implementing the DDC Optional Arrangement for Religion at a Public Library: A Case Study

Abstract

Professional discussions regarding bias in classification are occurring internationally. Libraries are investigating ways to address these issues in manageable steps as we push for broader changes. This case study details one library’s process for adopting the Dewey Decimal Classification optional arrangement for religion (220-299), following the work done by Emily McDonald. This arrangement reduces the Christian bias of the standard schedule. The reclassification project is a step to improve the inclusivity and browsability of the collection while maintaining the library’s current classification scheme. In addition to process, the paper highlights the advantages and potential concerns for adopting this arrangement.

Keywords:

• Classification
• Dewey Decimal Classification
• case studies
• public libraries
• inclusive classification

Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge Michelle Willis and Linda Rosario for their support of this project, and Seton Hall University Libraries for their valuable feedback.

Notes

1 Jonathan Furner, “Dewey Deracialized: A Critical Race-Theoretic Perspective,” Knowledge Organization 34, no. 3 (2007): 144–168. Supplemental Index.

2 Hope A. Olson, “Mapping Beyond Dewey’s Boundaries: Constructing Classificatory Space for Marginalized Knowledge Domains,” Library Trends 47, no. 2 (1998): 233–254, https://hdl.handle.net/2142/8210.

3 “United States Census Bureau QuickFacts: Scotch Plains township, Union County, New Jersey,” accessed July 12, 2023, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/scotchplainstownshipunioncountynewjersey.

4 “United States Census Bureau QuickFacts: Scotch Plains township, Union County, New Jersey.”

5 Pew Research Center, “Religious Landscape Study,” accessed September 1, 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/.

6 “Scotch Plains-Fanwood Ministerium,” accessed August 20, 2023, https://www.facebook.com/spfministers.

7 025.431: The Dewey Blog, “Reclassifying the 200s at Lawrence Public Library,” by Emily McDonald, posted September 3, 2020, https://ddc.typepad.com/025431/2020/09/reclassifying-the-200s-at-lawrence-public-library.html.

8 Inkyung Choi, “Toward a Model of Intercultural Warrant: A Case of the Korean Decimal Classification’s Cross-cultural Adaptation of the Dewey Decimal Classification” (PhD diss., The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, 2018), 13, https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1775/.

9 Rachel Ivy Clarke, “Library Classification Systems in the U.S.: Basic Ideas and Examples,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 59, no. 2–3 (2021): 203–224, https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2021.1881008.

10 Clarke, “Library Classification Systems in the U.S,” 221.

11 Choi, “Toward a Model of Intercultural Warrant,” 54.

12 Olson, “Mapping Beyond Dewey’s Boundaries.”

13 Molly Higgins, “Totally Invisible: Asian American Representation in the Dewey Decimal Classification, 1876-1996,” Knowledge Organization: KO 43, no. 8 (2016): 609.

14 Oh Dong-Geun and Yeo Ji-Suk, “Suggesting an Option for DDC Class Religion (200) for Nations in which Religious Diversity Predominates,” Knowledge Organization 28, no. 2 (2001): 75–84, https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0943-7444-2001-2-75/suggesting-an-option-for-ddc-class-religion-200-for-nations-in-which-religious-diversity-predominates-jahrgang-28-2001-heft-2?page=1.

15 Choi, “Toward a Model of Intercultural Warrant.”

16 Jadyn Westenberg, “Where ‘Dewey’ Go from Here? Perpetuation of Difference in Public Library Knowledge Organization Systems,” Aletheia 2, no. 2 (2022): 54.

17 Ia C. McIlwaine and Joan S. Mitchell, “The New Ecumenism: Exploration of a DDC/UDC View of Religion,” Advances in Knowledge Organization 10 (2006): 323–330.

18 McIlwaine and Mitchell, “The New Ecumenism.”

19 OCLC, “200 Religion Class,” accessed July 10, 2019, https://www.oclc.org/en/dewey/resources/religion.html.

20 OCLC, “200 Religion Class.”

21 OCLC, “200 Religion Class.”

22 025.431: The Dewey Blog, “Mapping 220–290 standard notation to the Optional arrangement for the Bible and specific religions,” by Rebecca Green, posted May 1, 2019, https://ddc.typepad.com/025431/2019/05/mapping-220290-standard-notation-to-the-optional-arrangement-for-the-bible-and-specific-religions.html.

23 OCLC, “DDC 23 Summaries,” https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/dewey/ddc23-summaries.pdf; “Optional Arrangement Schedule-M220-290,” accessed October 23, 2022, https://tinyurl.com/optionalDDC220-290.

24 Drew Baker and Nazia Islam, “From Religion Class to Religion Classification and Back Again: Religious Diversity and Library of Congress Classification,” Theological Librarianship 13, no. 1 (2020): 27–37, https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v13i1.559.

25 “Optional Arrangement Schedule-M220-290.”

26 Emily McDonald, “200s Dewey Packet—Shared—Google Drive,” October 4, 2019, https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NNHaND1MalCO1EcBtkKpnFzAYdMZxKkn.

27 Emily McDonald, “200s Dewey Packet—Shared—Google Drive: Full crosswalk: Pull List,” October 4, 2019, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OnhOQTe76dzLipVPiK1udGMTyzA2w5eTSxfDyRPq1Gc/edit#gid=2146696814.

28 025.431: The Dewey Blog, “Mapping 220–290 standard notation to the Optional arrangement for the Bible and specific religions.”

29 Denise Kimber Buell, Why This New Race: Ethnic Reasoning in Early Christianity (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2005), 62.

30 Jonathan Z. Smith, “A Matter of Class: Taxonomies of Religion,” Harvard Theological Review 89, no. 4 (1996): 387–403.

31 Smith, “A Matter of Class,” 172.