How Did We Get Here? Race and Ethnicity in Dewey Decimal Classification

There is burgeoning interest in decolonizing the library catalog to recognize and remove longstanding bias. This article takes a step back and examines how theories about human classification from antiquity informed 18th and 19th century ideas of race and ethnicity and how these ideas became embedded in Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). It explores the evolution of DDC with respect to these subjects across four editions and over the course of 130 years, reflecting on DDC's presentation of changing dominant societal views. Finally, the article acknowledges the role librarians play in tending to the values of knowledge organization and our need to continually evaluate the impact of our work on the production, organization, and distribution of knowledge.