All Guides: Decolonizing the Collection: Home

The Canadian college library community recognizes that library systems are built on Western and colonial constructs that are harmful to Indigenous peoples and do not accurately represent them. While these structures allow us to work with libraries around the world, they do not always reflect the Library’s commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization. We are working and learning within a global and local library context to create greater inclusivity within our systems of knowledge. Libraries at every level are educating themselves and taking action.

National and Provincial Committees

Indigenous Matters Committee (CFLA-FCAB)
Representing libraries nationwide, this committee works with Indigenous people across Canada to address issues related to libraries, archives and cultural memory institutions.
Indigenous Matters Committee (CLO)
Representing the 24 Ontario college libraries, this committee provides support in the development of policies, services, collections, and programming which advance an Indigenous worldview and knowledges across member libraries.

Current Projects

Collection Development

In recent years, we've strengthened our commitment to purchasing materials that better represent Indigenous perspectives by taking the following actions:

Updated the Collection Development Policy with an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion section.
Purchased new titles from the Indigenous Voices Awards and First Nations Communities Read Awards.
Currently working with faculty to evaluate our film collection and identify new titles for purchase.

Additional recommendations by the community are always welcome.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

For decades, libraries around the world have relied on Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) to support discovery of library materials. As part of the data imported into our library catalogues when new items are added to the collection, LCSH are deeply embedded within the global library ecosystem. However, we recognize the shortcomings of these subject headings and their inherent structural biases. The 24 Ontario colleges represented by College Libraries Ontario (CLO) have committed to addressing these issues. Sheridan Library is proud to sit on the following committee:

Decolonizing the Library Catalogues Subcommittee
The subcommittee will provide recommendations to implement changes to the structural biases in Library of Congress subject headings.

Find Resources

Indigenous Studies
Research resources for students studying Indigenous topics. Created by Sheridan Library.
Indigenous Inclusion (by The Learning Portal)
Resources for faculty in Ontario colleges. A collaborative project of College Libraries Ontario.

Decolonizing the Collection

National and Provincial Committees

Current Projects

Collection Development

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Find Resources

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