Colonization and Imperialism in Libraries

Book excerpt: Former university lecturer and Caribbean immigrant Mark-Shane Scale offers an unsettling look at how the centuries-old legacy of colonialism and imperialism continues to haunt one of the most seemingly innocuous and unexpected of spaces: the world’s modern libraries. Library and information sciences emerged from a noble commitment to making knowledge more easily accessible to the world. Yet, empowering and global library institutions with the ability to facilitate intercultural communication, social cohesion, and conflict resolution, have simultaneously been weaponized as instruments of ideological and cultural propaganda throughout the ages. A meticulous analysis of historical and current library systems and practices crescendos to a visionary proposal for paving the way ahead: a holistic, integrated approach to finally decolonize global libraries in a way that builds an ever-evolving archive of human knowledge and human experience that is truly inclusive of all voices—indigenous, colonized, formerly colonized, and immigrant voices alike. At the height of the information age, this book is a foundational must-read for all librarians, library school students, and library users around the world, a contemporary perspective that boldly lays out a timely and much-needed reform to an institution that might otherwise risk its relevance to the modern global landscape.