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Archives for February 2025

The BCIT Unlearning Club Month One: January

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We have described for you a mountain; we have shown you the path to the top. We call upon you to do the climbing.

-Justice Murray Sinclair

Learn along with me and the BCIT Unlearning Club as we engage with materials each month and start on a journey to unlearn racism.

Created and developed during the COVID-19 pandemic the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer put together a curriculum and process for reflecting on racism and its links to health. The resources and documentation for the Unlearning and Undoing Project can be found here. In the BCIT Unlearning Club, Tami and Andrea have modified this established curriculum to reflect an educational context, while also integrating the lenses of health and wellness.

The first iteration of the Unlearning Club at BCIT, which includes faculty and staff, will meet 6 times between January and June 2025, in-person at the BCIT Burnaby campus. Together we will engage with the materials, tell stories, listen, learn challenge ourselves to unlearn the biases normalized in society and make meaningful connections with each other in a safe space.

Each month there is an opportunity to prepare with a shallow or deep dive version of the course materials. The homework for the first meeting was to watch a TedTalk by Dr. Carmara Jones, Former president of the American Public Health Association, who launched a national campaign against racism, Allegories on race and racism  and read an accompanying article Toward the Science and Practice of Anti-Racism: Launching a National Campaign Against Racism.

OR

Watch 13th (2016) on Netflix, a thought-provoking documentary, where scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.

I chose the TedTalk. I would recommend it to anyone. Especially people who, like me, sometime finds it difficult to explain to people the systematic racism baked into government that prevents people from minority groups from succeeding in our society. The allegory of the gardener providing nutrient-rich soil in one garden box and poor rocky soil in another was very strong, well thought-out and not threatening to some who might feel a need to erect barriers before the conversation even got started.

At our first gathering we learned about what brought each of us to the Unlearning Club and we shared a little about ourselves and our family history. There was a fulsome and engaging discussion about the sort of space where each of us feels we can be our authentic selves.

I look forward to sharing more with you very soon.

 

Behind the scenes at the BCIT Library: Decolonizing the Collection

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Indigenous book display in the BCIT Library

Indigenous book display in the BCIT Library.

A hot topic at library conferences has been “Decolonizing the Collection.” This is shorthand for some very technical, intensive, and necessary changes that need to be made to our database(s). Library cataloguing in North America is based on Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) that were started in the late 19th century and have evolved slowly since then. This comprehensive and structured vocabulary list, used for cataloguing and indexing in libraries, is inherently problematic but also very useful for libraries worldwide, making it an essential tool for resource discovery and subject access.

Despite its widespread use, LCSH has faced criticism for its historical biases and limitations. The system reflects a Western-centric perspective, and its controlled vocabulary does not adequately represent marginalized communities or emerging disciplines. Nonetheless, LCSH remains a vital tool for libraries and information professionals, and efforts are ongoing to make it more inclusive and representative of diverse perspectives.

Library & Archives Canada (LAC) has written some strategies and initiatives, as part of their Indigenous Heritage Action Plan, based on United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), “we will adapt the words we use to describe LAC collections related to First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation to enhance access and to ensure a culturally appropriate and respectful approach.” While LAC has made some progress LCSH has made very little. The interconnected, standardized, and digital nature of library cataloguing makes waiting for LCSH the easy route. However, libraries have gotten tired of waiting.

Library workers don’t let our tiredness get us down, instead, we find ways to act. A small but dedicated team in the BCIT Library is working to decolonize our catalogue. Using an Excel spreadsheet of almost 1100 problematic terms found in our catalogue, the work done by the Great Victoria Public Library, Xwi7xwa Library at UBC, and Canadian Research Knowledge Network, we are meticulously combing through the problematic terms and finding appropriate updated, and respectful replacement terms. Once the initial groundwork is complete, we will consult with BCIT Indigenous Initiatives about the exact terms chosen.

You will hear from me again when we launch these changes. The change for BCIT Library patrons will be seamless. Behind the scenes will be a great deal of upkeep and monitoring as digital titles arrive in our Collections all of the time with LCSH terms automatically embedded. Because of the way Library Management Software works LCSH will still be in the system. However, rather than display offensive terms the system will ping the final spreadsheet we create display the updated term(s). Library patrons will be able to use the hyperlinked Subject Heading as they normally would to find related materials. In the end, creating and maintaining this spreadsheet will make it easier for us to update and manage the needed changes to our Subject Headings.

The BCIT Library is striving to be a more inclusive and welcoming space for all. Decolonizing the catalogue is just one of the goals that we are working towards. Thanks to Cindy Chang, François-Xavier Paré, Jarrett Seto, and Cindy McLellan.

A version of this post was previously published on the BCIT FSA blog in June 2024. At that time I had several requests for examples so people could have a better understanding. I have included a couple examples below.

Please be aware that in order to include examples I have taken terms that you will still find in search results or library materials, which reflect the authors attitude or that of the period in which the item was created or catalogued and those terms are considered offensive.

An example of an official Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) still in use:

Haida Indian women.

Essentially removing the word “Indian” will make a more accurate, useful, and respectful Subject Term:

Haida – Women.

A second example of an official LCSH still in use today:

Indian children.

This will be updated to:

Indigenous children OR First Nations children

These changes are long overdue and will help to improve search and to our resources.