I am once again going to speak on decolonization

Dearest Snoopers,

I am required to speak on decolonization in libraries this week. I promise I have range. Return later for evidence.

Warmly,

Steffi Ando, Japanese Cowboy Worldwide

African Studies Center Library at the University of Leiden

African Studies Center Library entrance. The staff did not acknowledge the Middle East during the presentation. I’m not sure why.

At the African Studies Center, we listened to three presentations from staff members in the seminar room of the center. It’s important to note this building recently underwent a renovation to include the library at the center of the center, please read that with a sense of empathy for my redundant-adjacent phrasing. The location of the seminar room demonstrates how all of the African Studies Center staff, not just the library, meets regularly. The construction of the building facilitates more cross-departmental collaboration, which has been a positive experience for the library staff thus far. The staff noted the collaboration between the research team and the library team has significantly elevated their research and achieving more goals as a team.

Acquisitions

The African Studies Center sends one representative on a book acquisition trip each year to a different African country. This lends some organization in their acquisition collection collocation in their physical collection where they assign a “call number” and place the material on the shelves in the order they receive it. For example, the 4,598th book will be assigned 4598 as its “call number” and placed on the shelf before 4599 and before 4597. Books within an undetermined range will be from the same country and may be from around similar topics. For example, if one country is known for its diamond industry, the books from this trip will most likely reflect the diamond industry.

Using an acquisition order, ignoring the slight oxymoron within that term, alleviates the staff from assigning call numbers that could implement biases. The materials are assigned subject headings in the catalog, so the collection is not completely free from bias. When one the staff members described assigning subject headings, they noted that they look for the reason a user would need a particular document. For example, even if a book had one page on a subject, it could still be assigned to that subject if the staff member feels this is what researchers would be interested in.

The potential danger in this system is that we only met white European staff members who do not speak any African languages. The generational colonial influence on assigning subject headings without any reference or collaboration with the community the document refers to can lead to colonial biases in the catalog. They mentioned on colleague does speak an African language and the person presenting took pride in becoming familiar with languages during their time at the library, which places a lot of power on these two people without room for checking their decision making.

The African Studies Center Library uses end caps to display contemporary culture in various African countries. In this photo, I am looking through a contemporary photography book. I apologize I do not have the name. 

Decolonization Opportunities

I tip my hat to the staff members admitting the African Studies Library is imperfect in its decolonization efforts. One staff member admitted that on the book acquisition trips, the university does not take any action to give back to the country they are extracting knowledge from. They did not mention if they collaborate with the country’s indigenous populations and/or academics in developing their collection, but I cannot confirm they do not. I would recommend working with organizations in the country they are visiting to market the center’s open access digital repository and how to get connected with the center. Ideally, the center would provide documentation on how to access their digital collection in an effort to acknowledge and close the potential for a digital literacy gap.

The staff mentioned difficulty in acquiring digital-born content, such as novels written on Facebook.  I do not have an answer as to how to document these materials, but I appreciate how the library is concerned with adding non-academic material to their collection. Further developing this idea, the library staff could consider developing a space on their website for students in African countries to publish their creative and literary works. This could act as a way to connect University of Leiden students to peers in the countries they are studying and engage with the current public opinion on current events.

Admittedly, I do not know if my ideas would make a dent in decolonizing this library. However, I believe shifting power and agency from hegemonic powers to the oppressed is a good start.

Ando Dutch Cat Watch Count

18. Can you believe?

Leiden cat.