Diversity, Recognition, Respect: Embedding Indigenous Services #wlic2015

Catching up with a final post from the IFLA Indigenous Matters Special Interest Group at  the World Library and Information (IFLA) Conference. The presentation Diversity, Recognition, Respect: Embedding Indigenous Services at the State Library of New South Wales, Australia was made jointly by Kirsten Thorpe and Monica Galassi (Indigenous Services, State Library of New South Wales, Australia).

The speakers started by acknowledging the traditional holders of the land and placing themselves. They introduced the services of the State Library of New South Wales (NSW). The aboriginal studies collections are among its strengths: they provide evidence from the colonial past and from current days of resistance and protest. In NSW in 2011 2.9% of the population were indigenous, and the speaker highlighted the districts which are most disadvantaged, which often have high percentage aboriginal population.

The library has developed and indigenous services business plan, with indigenous people and communities as partners. The libararians brainstormed, had focus group sessions, did benchmarking and a literature review, and evaluated past services.

Their vision is that “indigenous people are connected, engaged and represented within the library, collections and services. The vision is everybody’s business.” They are working first to implement the ATSILIRN protocols. Secondly they are developing a collection strategy. Thirdly they are investigating needs for digital resources preservation, creation and access (with emphasis on local keeping places). Their Indigenous Languages website is here http://indigenous.sl.nsw.gov.au/ (they showed a video celebrating indigenous languages at a symposium) and their Tumblr blog (which includes a word of the week feature) at http://indigenous-services-slnsw.tumblr.com/