Commentary
Impacts and Reflections on the Making Meaning
Symposium for Small, Independent Libraries
Eric T. Leonhardt
Public Service Assistant
University of Alberta Libraries
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Email: leonhard@ualberta.ca
Received: 1 May 2018 Accepted: 24 Oct. 2018
2018 Leonhardt. This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons‐Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share Alike License 4.0
International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial
purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the
same or similar license to this one.
DOI: 10.18438/eblip29441
Abstract
This paper discusses how a small volunteer
library changed after attending a symposium on Indigenous Librarianship and
metadata. It provides an introduction to the Aboriginal Teacher Education
Program Library, how it was formed, and the decision making process behind it.
The paper goes on to summarize key points from speakers at the Making Meaning
Symposium, and how they challenge the choices made by volunteers. The results
have all been positive, and continue to shape discussions about how to best
implement what was learned.
When we think we know, we think we own
something, and we take away from what it represents.
-Ambrose
Cardinal, personal communication
Author
Statement
When reading
this document, it is important to note that I have specific backgrounds and
biases that have likely affected this paper. Part of this is my heritage as a
settler colonial in Drumheller, AB, Treaty 7 Territory, Métis Region 3. I
currently live and work as a guest in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, Treaty 6 Territory,
Métis Region 4.
Wherever
possible, those mentioned in the paper have been contacted and asked to provide
the introductions that they would prefer for themselves. These introductions
highlight the importance that land, family, and community has, which is no less
important than academic credentials. For those I was unable to contact, I have
provided an introduction based on their speaker biography from Making Meaning
Symposium.
Ambrose
Cardinal, who is quoted at the beginning of this paper, chose to introduce
himself in his own words:
Nipâhkwêsiminowin
Pâhpimoteht nitsiyihkâson. I am a member of the Mètis Nation of Alberta but my
ancestors and relatives come from the road allowances of what is now known as
Prince Albert. Indigenous people within the fabrication of academia wear many
hats as we simultaneously represent the nation in which we come from while
jumping through the hoops of academia and existing in ‘the politics of
recognition.’ I myself refer to myself as an Oskâpewis,
a helper for the people. A helper to deflect the heavy burden of colonialism
that effects my people on a daily basis. I do this in ceremony, I do this
politically, I do this academically, I do this resiliently. I carry the prayers
of my people in ceremony and through the work that I do. Êkosi mâka.
(A. Cardinal, personal communication, August 14, 2018)
Introduction
Located at the University of Alberta,
the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (ATEP) “is a teacher education program
working to improve the success of Aboriginal children” (“Aboriginal Teacher
Education Program: About”, 2018, para. 1). The ATEP Library is a small
classroom lending library designed to reflect Indigenous Ways of Knowing. It
has given those working with it a chance to re-examine many of our
relationships: relationships of materials, of metadata, and of “parent
communities” and how libraries serve them.
The Making Meaning Symposium
drastically improved those relationships. Held in February of 2018, the
symposium brought together “Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples interested in
Indigenous librarianship, community, and metadata” (“Making Meaning Symposium:
Home”, 2018, para. 1) to discuss the process of decolonizing libraries. By
challenging decisions that were increasingly isolating ATEP Library from
Indigenous communities, the Making Meaning Symposium affirmed that we must all
engage in broader discussions surrounding the Indigenization of librarianship.
This document specifies three volunteer
communities. Library volunteers are those with a background in library studies.
Staff volunteers are those who work for ATEP in any capacity. Future volunteers
are for those who will run ATEP Library in the years to come.
Before Making
Meaning
While ATEP Library has a tentative start
date of July 2017, this collaborative effort has its roots in conversations and
interactions built over many years. ATEP staff have been receptive to questions
from the University of Alberta Libraries (UAL) for a long time and met requests
for support with passion. They are also enthusiastic about the library,
advocating for us while challenging existing barriers to Indigenous Peoples in
academic libraries.
When I was asked to create a display
for National First Peoples Day in 2017, Debbie Feisst, Acting Library Head at
H.T. Coutts Library and Metis Librarian from the Red River Settlement area
(Winnipeg), was the one to suggest contacting ATEP. Because the display would
coincide with Canada 150, a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Canadian
confederation, Feisst hinted that staff there might be able to provide some
perspective on the concept of a Canadian national holiday—there are strong
criticisms of the entire affair, including the fact that the celebration is
happening at all (Marsh & Karabit, 2017).
Angela Wolfe, Associate Director of ATEP, did more
than just provide perspective. She found articles, newspaper clippings, and
helped select the posters we would display. She even volunteered her own time:
helping to set up, arrange artwork, and providing resources from ATEP’s student
lounge.
Less than a month later Wolfe and Trish Collins,
administrator for ATEP with a Bachelor of Arts in Native studies, decided to
approach UAL with a project of their own. ATEP had accumulated a considerable variety
of resources over the years, mostly in the form of donations and gifts. These
could be useful for students of the program, but there was no way to circulate
them or record which students had checked items out.
UAL agreed to help by providing library volunteers.
They were Tanya Ball, Academic Librarian Resident and Métis Librarian from
Winnipeg, Treaty 1 Territory, Feisst, and the author of this paper. Additional
meetings were scheduled between ATEP and library volunteers, leading to
consultations on what criteria were needed to ensure correct material handling.
System-Wide Collaboration
Wolfe and Collins wanted to develop a system that
would mirror the best parts of a lending library while avoiding barriers for
Indigenous patrons. This system included a need for revised subject headings, a
system which would allow them to circulate materials, and cataloguing the
collection. It also needed to be flexible on what counted as a patron in case
whole cohorts of students asked to borrow a section of the library for use in a
community outside of Amiskwaciwâskahikan.
To meet these needs, ATEP Library realized it would
need experts from other parts of the library system. Feisst suggested they
connect with Sharon Farnel, chair of the Decolonizing Description Working Group
(DDWG) and Metadata Coordinator for UAL. Ball also invited Sheila Laroque,
Academic Librarian Resident and Métis Librarian from Saskatoon, Treaty 6
Territory, to share her experience working with metadata and decolonizing
descriptions.
Laroque and Farnel were able to
identify resources and provide direction for ATEP Library, like inviting
Library and ATEP volunteers to participate in the Making Meaning Symposium. The
DDWG was interested in seeing how the volunteers would utilize the research
they had already been doing on a University-wide project, and what challenges
or pitfalls we might discover along the way. Their help was critical for the
project, providing valuable knowledge that Library volunteers missed.
Challenges
For ATEP Library to
succeed, volunteers needed to find or create new solutions to long-standing
issues with racism and current models of librarianship. The following is a
broad generalization of the decisions made before attending the Making Meaning
Symposium.
Relationships
of Materials
The first challenge staff volunteers tackled was our
classification schema. The 21 categories of the Library of Congress
Classification system (LCC), and the 10 classes of the Dewey Decimal
Classification System (DDC), are the two most prominent systems across Canada –
they are also problematic, because of how “European partitions within the
thinking space […] are not generally present in such traditional systems”
(Cherry & Mukunda, 2015, p. 550). Items would need to be shelved and housed
beside resources in a way that made sense to ATEP and its community, preserving
the relationship that materials should have to one another. While volunteer
staff briefly considered updating LCC instead of a new system, findings from an
extensive survey conducted between 2009 and 2011 were ample evidence that there
was no consensus on how best to modify it, confirming the choice of an
alternative (Lee, 2011).
The Brian Deer Cataloguing System (BDCS), created by A. Brian
Deer, a Kahnawake librarian in the 1970’s, was put forward by Laroque as a
solution. Citing Swanson’s (2015) article on work done for the Aanischaaukamikw
Cree Cultural Institute:
It [BDCS] was not intended
to be a universal solution for Indigenous materials; however, it has provided a
foundation for other institutions to create their own tailored classification
systems and for the possible development of a more universally used
classification system (p. 571).
It also solved another major issue: racist descriptions. Instead
of modifying settler colonial schema we would start with respect.
BDCS is not an adaptation of other cataloguing systems, but an
arrangement that respected how Indigenous Ways of Knowing should be better
represented. Unfortunately, it brought its own well documented trials. As
Swanson (2015) said,
We found that our challenges
were similar to those who had adopted this system in the past. Lack of
resources, notably case studies, a lack of dialogue between small libraries
that use non-traditional classification systems, and practical guides to
implementation, caused difficulty (pp. 575-576).
Relationships
of Metadata
Discoverability
became the central challenge for ATEP Library. Library volunteers were unable
to find any practical resources that addressed Indigenous Worldviews without
adapting the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCHS). Library volunteers,
hoping to find something rooted in Indigenous Ways of Knowing like the BDCS,
decided to continue searching for alternatives. This decision meant subject
headings would not exist when items were ready to circulate, requiring a
temporary remedy: Web 2.0 functionality.
Laroque, while
running a comprehensive search for alternative subject headings, recommended an
article on the formation of the National Research Centre for Truth and
Reconciliation. In it were descriptions of a “participatory archive” in which
community comments, stories, and contributed headings would be treated with
equal weight to “professional” metadata (Lougheed, Moran, & Callison, 2015,
p. 607-608). The need for Web 2.0 functionality became a critical requirement
of the online public access catalogue (OPAC).
The OPAC needed to
offer friendly, flexible support for users with little to no library
experience. Omeka, Librika, Evergreen, Koha, and LibraryThing’s TinyCat were
all evaluated, as each offered free or low-cost opportunities for classroom
libraries. While many provided Web 2.0 options and allowed for copy
cataloguing, few of them were deemed easy to use. Both the front and back-end
of these options needed to be designed with users in mind, while avoiding
excessive references to MARC tags or library jargon.
After several
discussions, Library volunteers selected TinyCat. TinyCat is an OPAC offered by
the creators of LibraryThing, which began as a free, browser-based cataloging
service for private individuals and small libraries. Its cataloguing system
(LibraryThing) was user-friendly - although not without technical issues.
LibraryThing treats empty fields for subject headings and classification systems
as auto-generating fields, surprising library volunteers who thought they had
eliminated racist terminology. TinyCat’s design and functions proved less
demanding; the layout of records and how to manage the OPAC were clear to
volunteers without library experience.
Relationships
of Parent Communities
A
final challenge for library volunteers was the longevity of the project—
administrators and students in ATEP will operate and maintain the library
exclusively, without support from UAL. Library volunteers looked at the Corley
Smith Library in the Galapagos Islands and Illinois State University for
guidance on future volunteers.
Corley
Smith Library, when migrating to a new web-based OPAC, had been staffed almost
entirely by local and international volunteers; while some had a background in
library studies, few if any had catalogued since graduating. To ameliorate
these concerns, Corley Smith Library built guides and recorded their workflows,
which they revised with input from new staff (Taylor, Jacobi, & Foster,
2013). In 2007, Illinois State University developed a volunteer coordinator
program, which focused on policies for how to train, retain, and evaluate staff
performance (Schobernd, Tucker, & Wetzel, 2009).
Although ATEP Library would have
a smaller future volunteer population then either library, they recognized a
need for clear and consistent procedures. Library volunteers began creating
guidelines for LibraryThing cataloguing, utilizing some of the language and
techniques from Corley Smith Library. Other staff began discussing and drafting
possible policies surrounding the library, using Illinois State University as a
template for successful practice. Discussions about creating the role of
volunteer coordinator were considered but did not produce any results.
After
Making Meaning
The
Making Meaning Symposium influenced nearly all aspects of ATEP Library. It was
both eye-opening and humbling to receive direction from professionals whose
articles informed the ATEP Library, and from community members for whom racism
and settler colonialism in the library has a direct, negative impact on library
services. The following paragraphs discuss how the Symposium corrected many
decisions by library volunteers who would have damaged our relationships with
materials, metadata, and parent communities.
Relationships of Materials
While our choice of using BDCS fit the frame of
many previous libraries, it was clear that adapting the cataloging system would
require far more work then ATEP Library could manage alone. Kim Lawson, a
member of the Heiltsuk Nation of Bella Bella BC, librarian at Xwi7xwa Library
at UBC, and former Librarian/ Archivist at the Union of BC Indian Chiefs
Resource Centre, MLIS, spoke on behalf of Xwi7xwa Library. She shared the
challenges and opportunities that existed when changing or developing
cataloguing systems. For Xwi7xwa Library it required building lifelong
relationships with Elders and their communities, with the expectation that
these lines of communication be maintained and welcomed by Xwi7xwa staff.
Anything less would guarantee that the library becomes out of date, and no
longer represent authentic Indigenous Ways of Knowing (K. Lawson, personal
communication, February 8, 2018).
Library volunteers also learned our decision to
eradicate all traces of racist or discriminatory classification systems was not
ideal. Molly Swain, Metis from Calgary, and a master’s student in the Faculty
of Native Studies invited library staff to be aware that this would sweep a
long history of colonial violence out of sight, which is akin to censorship.
She utilized racist terminology as a way to hunt for resources that challenged
existing settler colonial structures (M. Swain, personal communication,
February 9, 2018). In ATEP Library, that would become impossible under our
current classification. Instead of removing these terms or allowing them to
appear for everyone, Swain suggested that libraries consider technical
solutions, which could mask specific results before they arise.
Deborah Lee, Indigenous Studies and Community
Initiatives Librarian, provided some in-depth context for understanding the
spirit of Indigenous Librarianship. She displayed how the University of
Saskatchewan had made Indigenous worldviews part of not just the
classification, but also the entire website. After consulting with local Elders
and participants at five Indigenous academic gatherings, Lee was able to glean
insight into the complexity of determining “preferred” terminology by a diverse
representation of 50+ Indigenous community members (Lee, 2011).
These insights included discussions about essential
components for designing a decolonized and culturally significant website and
virtual library that Indigenous peoples are proud to call their own (i.e., the
Indigenous Studies Portal) (D. Lee, personal communication, February 8, 2018).
Until this point, volunteers had imagined ATEP Library as something which,
under the surface, was Indigenized and appropriate, but there had been no
discussion how the website or look of the physical collection might prove a
barrier to users.
Relationships of Metadata
Jessie Loyer, Cree-Métis and a
member of Michel Nation, also a librarian at
Mount Royal University, made library volunteers aware that their lack of community engagement
would also reflect in work surrounding subject headings. Pointing out that the
“way we refer to Indigenous Peoples has always been shifting” she argued that
this needed to be an ongoing learning opportunity, not a problem (J. Loyer,
personal communication, February 9, 2018). While ATEP
Library had not yet found a source material for subject headings, some library
volunteers had envisioned a single, finished work that would require little in
the way of updating. If that happened, ATEP Library would become just as
outdated as the systems we were seeking to avoid.
Dr. Chris Andersen, a Professor and the Dean of the
Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, called on library sciences
to start anticipating “categories that did not yet exist” (C.
Andersen, personal communication, February 9, 2018). Not only, as others had
pointed out, were the terms likely to change, but the very concept of change
required systems and policies that were ready for flexibility. No fixed,
finished system was possible, and libraries that intended to decolonize and
create spaces for the Indigenization of their resources would have to embrace a
continual cycle of revision and change (C. Andersen, personal communication,
February 9, 2018).
Relationships of Parent Communities
Gwichyà Gwich'in historian Crystal Gail Fraser
revealed a flaw in the plans surrounding the ATEP Library regarding policies.
It was more than just the cataloguing language that required community
oversight, but also what materials could be displayed, and how the organization
behaved internally. Fraser also pointed to the University of Alberta’s adoption
and promotion of “Pan-Indigenous” narratives and symbology, found on the
University of Alberta’s library website (C. Fraser, personal communication,
February 8, 2018.) Without engaging those represented in ATEP library resources
on its design and structure, volunteer staff ran the risk of failing to
properly develop and display resources in a way that respected the differences
between peoples.
While others reinforced that ATEP Library
overlooked the challenges of engaging in communities, Camille Callison[1] opened
the doors to collaboration between those in library studies as well. Using her
previous work across Canada as examples, she invited Indigenous librarians and
allies to join national action being done through the Canadian Federation of
Library Associations Indigenous Matters Committee, regarding the decolonization
and indigenization of information services. Collaborating meant more than local
interactions, but work with governments and communities in areas outside of
traditional library spaces (C. Callison, personal communication, February 9,
2018).
Without joining CFLA-FCAB IMC, ATEP Library would
be unable to connect with communities across Canada effectively. It will also
allow future volunteers to direct their activity in ways that are meaningful,
avoiding having to duplicate work already done by those with more extensive resources
and staff complements.
Moving Forward
After the Making Meaning Symposium, the following
concerns are now high priorities for the ATEP Library:
·
A lack of mechanisms for strong community voice and
oversight in current design plans.
·
How to best preserve racist or outdated terminology
while minimizing harm to users.
·
Evaluation of how the collection is accessed, with
special consideration for website design that preserves material relationships
throughout ATEP library.
·
Flexible systems and policies regarding future
developments.
·
Staff engagement with larger metadata initiatives.
The ATEP Library still has a great deal to review
after the Symposium. While finishing the initial cataloguing, library
volunteers are reconsidering the relationships of materials, metadata, and
parent communities so that these connections are valid and form the core of
ATEP Library. In the words of the Symposium itself, “we cannot begin the
process of ‘decolonizing’ our practices without bringing in our relatives and
community partners” (“Making Meaning Symposium:
Home”, 2018, para. 2.)
References
Aboriginal Teacher Education Program. (2018).
Retrieved from https://www.ualberta.ca/education/programs/undergraduate-admissions/aboriginal-teacher-education-program
Cherry, A.,
& Mukunda, K. (2015). A case study in Indigenous classification: Revisiting
and reviving the Brian Deer scheme. Cataloging
& Classification Quarterly, 53(5-6),
548-567. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2015.1008717
Lee, D. (2011).
Indigenous knowledge organization: A study of concepts, terminology, structure
and (mostly) Indigenous voices. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library
and Information Practice and Research, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v6i1.1427
Lougheed, B.,
Moran, R., & Callison, C. (2015). Reconciliation through description: Using
metadata to realize the vision of the National Research Centre for Truth and
Reconciliation. Cataloging &
Classification Quarterly, 53(5-6), 596-614. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2015.1008718
Making
Meaning Symposium. (2018).
Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/makingmeaningsymposium/home
Marsh, K., &
Karabit, M. (2017). Reflections on reconciliation after 150 years since
confederation – An interview with Dr. Cindy Blackstock. Ottawa Law Review,
49(1), 15-26. Retrieved from https://commonlaw.uottawa.ca/ottawa-law-review/reflections-reconciliation-after-150-years-confederation-interview-dr-cindy-blackstock
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Swanson, R.
(2015). Adapting the Brian Deer Classification System for Aanischaaukamikw Cree
Cultural Institute. Cataloging &
Classification Quarterly, 53(5-6), 568-579. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2015.1009669
Taylor, S.,
Jacobi, K., Knight, E., & Foster, D. (2013). Cataloging in a remote
location: A case study of international collaboration in the Galapagos Islands.
Cataloging & Classification
Quarterly, 51(1-3), 168-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2012.729552