PRESENTATION

Presentation Description:
In 1876, Melvil Dewey introduced the Decimal Classification System, a structure that fundamentally shaped the way libraries organise knowledge. One hundred and fifty years later, Dewey remains deeply embedded in library practice and education—rigidly present even as our communities, cultures, and worldviews evolve. This anniversary offers more than a moment of commemoration; it invites critical examination of what we classify, who we centre, and who has historically been silenced.

This presentation explores the legacy of Dewey through a critical and decolonising lens, asking how a system born from Western, Protestant, industrial-era values continues to influence the way we order the world in 2026. From the marginalisation of First Nations knowledge to the positioning of entire cultures under “Other religions” or “Folklore,” Dewey reveals both the power and the harm of classification. While celebrated for creating access, it has also encoded hierarchies—privileging some ways of knowing while rendering others invisible.

Drawing on my experience as a lecturer in Library and Information Services within the Australian VET sector, I reflect on how today’s emerging library technicians react to Dewey—not as a neutral tool, but as a contested and political space. In the classroom, students instinctively question why Aboriginal spirituality is placed outside religion, or why LGBTQIA+ histories are fragmented. Teaching Dewey has become less about rules and more about critical literacy: helping future library professionals recognise that every classification system carries cultural power.

The session also highlights practical movements toward reform, including Indigenous knowledge organisation projects, alternative subject schemas, and the growing shift toward user-centred, community-led classification. Rather than advocating for Dewey’s abandonment, it proposes a more ethically conscious approach: one that invites libraries to hold tradition in one hand and transformation in the other.

By situating Dewey’s 150th anniversary within broader conversations about cultural safety, library justice, and intellectual freedom, this presentation challenges delegates to reconsider classification as an active choice rather than an unquestioned inheritance. Ultimately, the future of library practice depends not on how well we maintain order, but on how courageously we make space for all ways of knowing.