Indigenous People's Programming

Using Digital Library North as an example, this session will review techniques for environmental scanning and community collaboration for creating a digital library. Community input is reflected not only in the structure of the digital library itself (e.g. culturally appropriate metadata), but also in the way the team continues to build their relationships with the community. Attendees will be invited to consider applications for use in their own communities.
Learning objectives:

• Understand what an environmental scan is and how it can be applied to a library environment
• Create a mini-environmental scanning plan for their own context
• Explore iterative ways to collect and apply community input

Marigold Library System recently received a grant from Alberta Municipal Affairs, enabling them to provide library services to on-reserve populations. This session focuses on the process of building relationships with First Nations communities. We will discuss how buy-in from member libraries was encouraged and recount how barriers were overcome to extend public library service in ways it had not been before.
Learning objectives:

• Best practices for engaging on-reserve populations, overcoming barriers, and encouraging library staff buy-in
• A regional library system perspective on extending library services
• Outreach ideas