Troy Shaffer
Dr. Hildebrandt
CODES122
19 February 2024
Highs and Lows: How climate change is affecting people and plants in the Himalayas
Summary
The Missouri botanical garden is conducting research in the Himalayas to look at climate change and its effects. They are doing this research in China, Bhutan, and Nepal. This research has been going since 2005 and they are actually collaborating with the local communities where they are doing the research. Their research being climate changes effects on mountain plants, which includes lower elevation plants moving higher due to temperatures rising. The overall goal is to inform people on adaptation strategies and find substitutes of threatened plants. They are also involving local communities in their studies and having them be advisors and monitors in the work.
Analysis
This source was made to inform people on what work Missouri Botanical Gardens is doing and in my opinion is also made to make MOBOT look better, like a PR piece. The source was obviously written by Missouri Botanical Gardens about MOBOT, so I feel like there is a bias. This source was published on December 8th, 2023, and I also find it interesting that National Geographic Society was a sponsor of the work. But I believe the main point of the information in the article is to provide insight on the effects of climate change and how we can grasp and live with the effects. I think that this source is important to us because it is obviously a direct connection to MOBOT, but it also shows us that they have and are willing to collaborate with local communities. This is important to my group specifically as we are working on Indigenous knowledge and the lack of in MOBOT.
This Library takes an Indigenous approach to categorizing books
Summary
The Xwi7xwa Library is at the University of British Columbia and is challenging the Dewey Decimal Classification system, with the goal of decolonizing the organization of information. Indigenous books and information are usually placed in the history section, which causes a bias and limits accurate representation. The library hires Indigenous librarians and uses an adapted version of the Brian Deer Classification system to be able to reflect Indigenous perspectives better. They are organizing books by geographic location, as Native communities have connections to different places. There is also a dedicated section for books with harmful stereotypes, which they call the “Yuck shelf”. Xwi7xwa wants to create productive conversations and awareness about bias in library systems. The library is a resource for Indigenous studies and is correcting decades of misinformation.
Analysis
The point of this article is to show how the Xwi7xwa library is trying to decolonize classification systems in libraries. This article was written in March of 2019. Libraries typically create a bias by organizing indigenous knowledge in the history section, so the article is speaking out against it and showing a way to stop doing it. I believe this is important to our work as it has a connection to our work on Indigenous knowledge and how it is classified/not classified at Missouri Botanical Gardens. The library corrects decades of information, so if we follow the lead of the work done at Xwi7xwa, we can help make changes at MOBOT.
Bibliography
“Highs and Lows: How Climate Change Is Impacting People and Plants in the Himalayas.” Edited by Catherine Martin, Missouri Botanical Gardens, 8 Dec. 2023, discoverandshare.org/2023/12/08/highs-and-lows-how-climate-change-is-impacting-people-and-plants-in-the-himalayas/.
Worth, Sydney. “This Library Takes an Indigenous Approach to Categorizing Books – Yes! Magazine Solutions Journalism.” YES! Magazine, 22 Mar. 2019, www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/03/22/decolonize-western-bias-indigenous-library-books.