Free Republic

I was vilified for criticizing the Dewey Decimal system. We librarians need to stop perpetuating its systemic racism in our libraries. Almost a decade ago, my colleagues and I wrote an article for SLJ entitled “Are Dewey’s Days Numbered?” in which we made the argument that the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system had lost its relevance. We took a bold stance, and the backlash was swift. Fellow librarians would wait outside the rooms I was speaking in at conferences, backing me into corners to demand that I stop talking about alternative systems.

When then-President Obama awarded California labor leader Dolores Huerta the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — one person was notably absent from the ceremony in the White House’s East Room: Julie Chavez Rodriguez. Huerta has known Chavez Rodriguez, the granddaughter of the legendary Cesar Chavez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Huerta, since she was an infant. Chavez Rodriguez was working in the Obama administration at the time, but those who know her said her absence from the ceremony was not the least bit surprising. “I couldn’t find Julie because she was busy...