04/06/2025 –, 2306/2309
Langue: English
Background:
Medical libraries can play a significant role supporting reconciliation through reparative description and classification practices. This lightning talk will showcase our group’s collaborative efforts to address systemic bias in cataloguing systems by engaging in decolonization initiatives in academic and health authority library settings. Our project highlights our work to implement recommendation #5 of the CFLA-FCAB Truth and Reconciliation Report—the call to "[d]ecolonize access and classification by addressing the structural biases in existing schemes of knowledge organization and information retrieval”1.
Project Description:
Our project involves two key areas: revising harmful and outdated subject headings and adapting classification systems. The first component, reparative description, involves replacing harmful Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) by integrating interim vocabularies such as those by the Manitoba Archival Information Network (MAIN) and the Greater Victoria Public Library (GVPL). The second component centers on adapting Métis-settler Librarian, Ashley Edwards’s, modification of Kahnawá:ke Librarian, Brian Deer’s Classification (BDC) system in a medical library setting.
Outcomes:
Reparative description and classification is an ongoing and iterative process. While key milestones include the integration of inclusive vocabularies and our initial adaptation of BDC, the work is far from complete. Future goals involve expanding community engagement to guide collection development practices, with the recognition these efforts must remain flexible and responsive to ongoing changes in the decolonization of description and classification.
Conclusion:
This lightning talk will encourage attendees to collaborate to advance reparative cataloguing practices, fostering a commitment to decolonizing libraries and building inclusive futures together.
References:
1 Callison C, chair; Canadian Federation of Library Associations. Truth and reconciliation report and recommendations [Internet]. Canadian Federation of Library Associations; 2018 [cited 2025 Jan 17]. 87 p. Available from: http://cfla-fcab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Truth-and-Reconciliation-Committee-Report-and-Recommendations-ISBN1.pdf
Melissa Caines is a settler and the Library Services, Manager at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM). She has a BA Hons in Germanic and Gender Studies from Rutgers University, a research MLitt in Germanic Studies from Trinity College Dublin, and a Library Technician Diploma from Snəw̓eyəɬ leləm (Langara College). Currently, she is an MLIS candidate at University of Alberta and the Vice President/President Elect of the Health Library Association of British Columbia (HLABC). At CCNM Melissa works collaboratively and interdepartmentally to support curriculum and research, ensuring students and faculty have access to current evidence-based resources.
Erin Brady-Randle is a settler and a librarian at Fraser Health, serving from the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer (ARHCC). She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in writing from the University of Central Arkansas and holds an MLS from Texas Woman's University. Erin applies her background in public librarianship to the health library, providing a patient-centered library services model with equity as a core value.