CILIP London: Beyond the language of Control 

Tuesday 12th August - 17:30-18.30pm

In 2019 an idea was mooted to review and update ‘A Classification Scheme for Medical and Veterinary Libraries’, by Cyril. C. Barnard. The aim was a scheme which met the collections-specific requirements of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) Library and reflected the research priorities and teaching interests of LSHTM. And so, a journey began.

A journey through the history of LSHTM, Barnard and 1950s society; a steep learning curve of classification schemes and medical and veterinary subjects; colonialism and decolonization initiatives in HE and academic libraries; and library research tools and related search behaviour. 

Fast forward to 2025 and LSHTM Library has fully incorporated the revised scheme into its collections and workflows.  The scheme has also been adopted across LSHTM to help decolonize the curriculum, in the web staff profiles of LSHTM’s research information system (Elements), and a project has just begun mapping LSHTM Data Compass research outputs to Barnard.  The scheme is the first book published by LSHTM Press (open access).  

This presentation will explore the project and challenges faced, before focussing on the practical applications of the revised scheme.

Link to newly revised edition of the Barnard Classification scheme: https://press.lshtm.ac.uk/books/m/10.56920/lshtmp-1 

This event is relevant to PKSB areas 5.5 (Classification schemes and taxonomies) and Ethics.

This event is free for members and £5 for non-members.

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