Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Classification From The Margins : Three Alternative Classification Systems, 1930-1975, Sasha Frizzell

Library Scholarship

Library classification systems frequently fail librarians and patrons because they do not provide space for the depth and breadth of topics both about and created by people within marginalized communities. This presentation explores three classification systems, created in North America between 1930-1975, that were produced by people in and for the communities that they represent. In 1930, Dorothy Burnett Porter Wesley, a librarian who helped to build the collection at Howard University, also created a classification system to better represent the works by, about, and for Black people. During the same time period, Alfred Kaiming Chiu was creating the Harvard-Yenching …