Preserving Cultural Heritage: Considerations for Librarians & Information Professionals

Unger, Amy

Roy, L. l. (2015). Indigenous cultural heritage preservation. IFLA Journal, 41(3), 192-203.

Summary:

Author, Loriene Roy, is herself a member of the White Earth Reservation, a member of the Minnesota (USA) Chipewa Tribe; she is Anishinabe.  Her experience as an Indigenous person contributes to her literature review of  Indigenous cultural heritage preservation, as does her position as faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.  Her review provides summary of the current literature (found to be "still rather sparse and underdeveloped"), albeit still emerging in the field of Library & Information Science, regarding preservation of cultural heritage, as well as statements of the library professional's place in such work; how to attain guidance (such as from IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations); policy documents that are adhered to; and research methodologies/theory.  
Regarding collection development, libraries (as information settings) are recognized as connected to the preservation of cultural heritage from several vantage points:

1. They collect (and house) cultural heritage in its many formats, e.g. print, media, and digital.
2. They create and organize records of cultural heritage, i.e. through the processes of cataloging and classification.
3. They assist and shape a user's understanding of a cultural heritage by providing access to records through specific policies, e.g. employing digitization).
4. They provide location for cultural heritage to be expressed.

Perhaps most interesting is the recognition, noted through review of "Access and control of Indigenous knowledge in libraries and archives: Ownership and future use" (Anderson, 2005) in Correcting Course: Rebalancing copyright for libraries in the national and international arena, out of Columbia University, in light of the paradigm shift occurring in libraries: power is being gained by the people as their voices become heard through the library.  What will this mean for people whom have traditionally been subjected to archives, as they now/soon become able to "gain a recognized voice and question not only status within the archive, but the authority of the archive as a centre of interpretation" (Roy, 2015:193).

It is recommended that an adoption of non-western research methodologies is likely necessary for future successes in preserving cultural heritage; there is a concept of the Cultural Interface - written about by M. Nakata (2002) in IFLA Journal 28(5/6): 281-289 - which is constantly negotiated by Indigenous peoples: the place where their Indigenous lifeways and western viewpoints come together" (Roy, 2015: 197).  And yet, barriers that lie in the means for access to digitization/money/reliable and affordable technologies are as much of concern as the development of sensitivities regarding this work.

The author points to several free online resources that primarily highlight children's and youth collection pieces (this also leads to understanding of the absence in publications of the needs of adult library patrons, and is part of the impetus that led to the US campaign, "We Need Diverse Books" in 2015).  Among the resources are two through the ALA (American Library Association) website, i.e. the TRAILS (2008) notebook, and the Guide to Building Support for Your Tribal Library Toolkit.  One of IFLA's key publications on cultural heritage, the IFLA Disaster Preparedness and Planning manual, is also available for free online.

Roy concludes the literature review with recommendations for further work in preparing librarians to, essentially, be more culturally competent, and prepared - through acquiring knowledge of the specific techniques and processes involved in cultural heritage - for when the Indigenous communities reach out to libraries, archives, and museums "as settings with staff knowledgeable in cultural preservation" (Roy, 2015: 199).

Evaluation:

In addition to my affinity for library experiences of my past, I also look to the future through this reading.  Experiences of my past include visits to exhibits such as that of the State Indian Museum in Sacramento, CA and the Yosemite Museum, which:

has displays that interpret the cultural history of Yosemite's native Miwok and Paiute people from 1850 to the present. Demonstrations of basket-weaving, beadwork, and traditional games are presented. The reconstructed Indian Village of Ahwahnee behind the museum is always open. The art gallery is open periodically and often exhibits pieces from the Yosemite Museum collection.

It is my humble opinion that through explorations such as this, about the care-taking of cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples, I may become a better librarian in service of any, and all, people in the local community that I may serve.  Nonetheless, it is fun, too, to imagine myself as still possibly able to connect with such valuable work as archiving and curating in the second half of my career.  I find it inspiring any time that I see such works going on in public, K-12, special, or academic libraries.  I look forward to this including more of a community's local peoples, and not just authors of published books.