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Creating digital collections with and for Indigenous communities Recording
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Creating digital collections with and for Indigenous communities Recording
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Upload Date:
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Language: EN.
Segment:0 .
OYA RIEGER: Warm greetings.
OYA RIEGER: I'm Oya Rieger, Senior Strategist at Ithaka S+R, and it's a great pleasure to be moderating today's session on. Creating digital collections with and for indigenous communities. We have three terrific speakers to share their experiences and insights on different aspects of the indigenous knowledge infrastructure. Indigenous knowledge is also referred to as traditional knowledge or traditional ecological knowledge.
OYA RIEGER: It is the systematic body of knowledge acquired by local communities through the accumulation of experiences, insights and understanding of the environment in a given culture. It can be in the form of oral and written observations, knowledge, practices and beliefs. Indigenous knowledge infrastructure has different elements and in a very simplified way it is represented by FAIR as the technical, policy standards and practices -
OYA RIEGER: these elements of the infrastructure. And equally important as represented by CARE, is the value driven and sociocultural elements such as trust and ethics. After our speakers presentations, which hopefully will be touching different parts of the infrastructure, we look forward to having a lively discussion to hear your questions and perspectives on several aspects of the infrastructure.
OYA RIEGER: It could be a recognition of the increasing value of indigenous knowledge spaces, collaboration principles, enabling discovery and access, and important issues such as sovereignty, just to name a few. I'm going to, with great pleasure, turn it over to Cindy, Toy and Erica and look forward to talking with you soon. Creating digital collections within for indigenous communities.
CINDY HOHL: Hello, I'm Cindy Hohl from the Santee Sioux Nation, director of policy analysis and operational support at the Kansas City public library. Han, Mitakuyapi. Damakota Isanti Oyate. Ikce takoja Lyle and Philomine Henry. Anpetu waste. Hello I'm from the Santee Sioux Nation. I am the granddaughter of Lyle and philomene Henry. And today is a good day.
CINDY HOHL: I thank you for inviting me to speak about how we can all support our indigenous communities. Living and working right alongside all of us across Turtle Island. And so I'm keeping it simple today with one chart for you to consider. As we're looking at how we can build these digital collections, it's important that we remember that there are a lot of indigenous communities that still struggle with access to internet.
CINDY HOHL: So it's important when you're designing a collection, such as this that you're keeping that in mind, that it's important that people have access to the internet and that they also have access to digital literacy skills. So that they are able to navigate those systems when they are able to access them, hopefully in their home and in their community. So when we talk about access rights, it's important that we're always focusing on reading, viewing and listening and the platforms that those are all available in our communities.
CINDY HOHL: So when you look at from the local, national, global and mainstream areas, it's easy to isolate information. So that you can build upon that. So when you're looking at what the needs are of a community, of course you start with building that relationship with them and making sure that you understand what it means for them as a people to gain information. The other side of that is that we need to understand that we aren't always in the place of retracting information from a community.
CINDY HOHL: And while in our profession, the library and information field, we may struggle with understanding that not all information should be readily accessible online for everyone. It is important that we always uphold what one holds sacred and that we understand that some information is not meant to be shared outside of the community. When an indigenous community is deeply rooted in the oral storytelling tradition, it's important that we recognize the importance of those words in that community and that those stories are gifts that are passed down sometimes within certain clans or families.
CINDY HOHL: And so it's important that when you ask to access stories and information from people, that you do so in a good way. So building those sustainable relationships is really fundamental to making sure that you understand the needs of the people that you seek to serve. While everyone has access to digital collections in urban areas, many small and rural areas do not have that equal access yet.
CINDY HOHL: So when we're looking at how we can build a collection for the area that we do serve, it's important that we're looking first at the local community. Before we scale out to national global communities and looking at what the mainstream looks like in all of those three settings. So when you look at reading material, what is important to a people? It's important that we start with that question by asking them.
CINDY HOHL: What do they need access to? What kind of information can we identify for them and provide them access to? So looking at the culture of the people is something that's very important. And we start at that place because when you build a sustainable relationship with a group of people, you're able to move through developing these collections together in a good way.
CINDY HOHL: And that's something that is vital to not only providing librarianship. And support to them, but to expand their access to information while you were also learning. From their community. So when we're looking at reading history at the National level, it's very important that we're always taking into consideration the context of the words and the text and the narrative that we have access to.
CINDY HOHL: When you look at the source and you identify who it is that wrote the material and that shared that material, it is very important that, you know, that that information was meant to be shared and that you have the permission of the people to access that information. There are many opportunities, even on a global scale, where sometimes information will enter into the mainstream communication channels, where certain things will trend.
CINDY HOHL: And when you're looking at that information and you're thinking about how you can use it in your library setting, it's important to remember that the context isn't always transferable. That is an important part of understanding the culture of the people that you serve. When knowing that some cultures share different information in different ways for certain communities, it's important to think about those terms when you're looking at how you're going to build a collection for your community.
CINDY HOHL: You would not want to offend anyone by offering a program, a service or a collection that would have a detrimental impact on the people that you're serving. So whether that's from signage or text, descriptive language, metadata, whatever it is that you use in your daily work, it's important that you understand how you're going to apply that information. So that it is received in a good way.
CINDY HOHL: Looking at the mainstream is always a place that most people start because what's popular is what receives the most attention. But that's not always the case in indigenous communities that are rooted in deep indigenous knowledge systems. So it's something to remain cognizant of as you're building collections and working with people that you understand what is truly important to them at that time.
CINDY HOHL: So when we're looking at how we view information and we view sharing of that information, it's so important that we are always remembering that certain communities will access information at certain times of the year because that is a traditional way of accessing those stories in that time and in those sacred moments. That's something that we respect and we understand. So if a story is not to be shared outside of a certain season, it shouldn't be readily available on the internet, on demand at any time.
CINDY HOHL: And I hope this has been information to share so that everyone understands that there are many ways that we can all work together and that we can serve one another. And we can grow in this profession. But there is a time for pause. And when we want to make sure that we are serving our community in a good way, we're going to always look at that.
CINDY HOHL: So whether your library has a policy or not as to what kind of information is shared on what platform and at what time of the year, that would be really interesting to share if you do, because as we move towards creating these inclusive collections where everyone is seen in your library spaces, both in the physical sense and online in your digital collections, it's important that we keep this information in mind.
CINDY HOHL: So viewing information, there's a lot of different ways that you can connect to things that matter to people. Looking at awards, what recent books or other media has been awarded by a community that's a good place to start. And then on a global scale, looking at specific communities in the areas. What is something that is a national observation? Do they have special histories? Do they have special holidays?
CINDY HOHL: What is it that the people in those areas hold sacred? Those are really the things that you're going to want to highlight and create guides for and help people access information. And of course, when you're looking at your mainstream, we need to remain cognizant of copyright. And in indigenous communities, it's very important when you're working with those who have the oral storytelling tradition alive and well.
CINDY HOHL: That we are remaining cognisant that those who hold those stories, the culture keepers of those areas, that they receive the recognition when they allow you to share that information. It is always right to say your elders. They are the knowledge keepers of our communities. And it is always right to make sure that everyone receives that proper support and acknowledgment.
CINDY HOHL: But when you're listening to those in the community, it's always important that we have the support and acknowledgment from our elders. So that's always a good place to start. If you're to reach out to tribal headquarters and you want to find out how you can help serve a community. It's important that you remain cognizant of all of the ways that the senior community is supported in that area. On a national scale.
CINDY HOHL: Of course, we have storytellers of all kinds all around us. That's the beauty of this wonderful field. And so on a global scale, we also have our culture keepers and those who hold certain information sacred. So when you see that certain things are observed in certain areas, sometimes that's not always meant to be shared across others. So it's really important that you make a connection with that community to just check with them and see if that's something that can be shared.
CINDY HOHL: Because while it holds great value, that does not mean that the context is there or that the people observe or practice the traditions that surround that story or those songs. So in the mainstream, of course, there's many channels. There are indigenous communication channels that are available, and I suggest that anyone research what those are. There are indigenous publishers and there are many different ways that you can connect to information in those spaces.
CINDY HOHL: So wrapping up, looking at the platform that's available local, you start with your bookstores. Do they have indigenous authors? Do they have local authors? Do they have indigenous collections? And what are other themes that are important to the indigenous people that you serve? We are the experts of our communities and our ways of knowing.
CINDY HOHL: And so we do have modern discussion points, and we do have moderate interests that overlap from the mainstream society. So it's important that we always remember that we are a diverse group of people with our own culture, tradition, ways, language, food, dance, everything. So on that national scale, if you're looking for a database, there is the Murkutu platform that's available and it's something to consider.
CINDY HOHL: If you are consulting with the tribal community, who would like to learn more about how they could start a digital collection of their own, that platform is available to them for them to store information, and it could be password protected for their community. So on that global scale, looking at publishers, seeing what indigenous voices are available in those main streams as well, and then lastly, looking at different indigenous imprints and asking publishers directly for how they can support local collections in your area.
CINDY HOHL: So I hope that this was helpful information for you today and I am very proud to serve on the NISO diversity, equity and inclusion and antiracism committee, and it was a pleasure to meet with you all today and I am happy to answer any questions. So I say Pidamaya ye. Wopida tonka. Am grateful for this time and I thank you for joining me today. Again, my name is Cindy Hohl of the Santee Sioux Nation and you can reach me at Cindy for libraries at gmail.com or in my website Cindy for libraries.com So thank you.
CINDY HOHL: Have a good day.
JOY OWANGO: Hello, everybody. My name is Joy Owango I'm the executive director of the Training Centre in communication. And I'm going to take you through how, as a center, we are striving at increasing African indigenous knowledge and research output through digitization.
JOY OWANGO: So the Training Centre in Communication known as TCC Africa is an award winning trust established in about 15 years ago, and it's housed at the University of Nairobi. We provide capacity, support and improving research as well through visibility in scholarly and science communication. And this is through capacity, this is through training and research capacity.
JOY OWANGO: Support and hot on the heels of scholarly communication is the entire spectrum that supports researchers. So we are looking at open science. We are looking at open science, the umbrella body of open science in supporting researchers, in improving their scholarly communication, increasing their visibility. And we work with governments in supporting, in supporting, in working with governments, in supporting them, in how they can improve their research output and also increase their visibility.
JOY OWANGO: Our mission is to contribute is to contribute to the increased profile locally and internationally of African science. And this will actually be extremely relevant in my subsequent slides on the activities we are doing in promoting African science and also and how it can impact the life of Africans through technical communication in all forms, at academia and also at various relevant forums in Africa.
JOY OWANGO: So as we are going through my presentation, you'll see how our mission is in line with some of the new projects that we are. We are launching now our values because we are constantly our premise on working with all our partners is our premise on all our projects is through partnerships. So we are collaborative, we are supportive and goal oriented. So we closely work with our partners in making sure that we are able to achieve the various goals and objectives.
JOY OWANGO: That we have set aside in order to make sure that these objectives are met as well. So as a center we train, support, empower researchers, government, institutes and governments and governments through capacity and improving their research output and visibility. And to date, over the last 15 years, we've produced over 15,000. We've supported over 15,000 researchers.
JOY OWANGO: Please note MSc, PhD researchers. We work with over 80 institutes. We've trained over 9. We've trained we have a mentorship group of over 900 researchers. And we support we've worked in over 40 countries. And this is building up and it's building up. So and for us, what we feel is that the reason why we took up this mantle is that we're not taking over what universities do.
JOY OWANGO: But it's also being complimentary on the services that they provide, especially when it comes to supporting researchers. Now when it comes to the partnerships, our institutional capacity strengthening is based on supporting the research life cycle of the higher education sector. So that means working with Grant in councils, research councils, universities and libraries.
JOY OWANGO: And our capacity strengthening is based on education, facilitation and partnership. When you are working with in this life cycle. And that leads to our new project. So one of the things as a center, as I said earlier on, we are a not for profit making organization. And as we were going through the process of our activities, one of the things that came up very clearly, especially when it comes to open science, was how do you support open science for industry?
JOY OWANGO: So what TCC Africa has done is set up with partners, has set up a startup called Helix Analytics. And the objective of helix analytics is promote data for impact by leveraging on open science and modern data infrastructure to enhance public insights. And this one is also, please note, even though this one is a commercial entity, it is on a social entrepreneurship, it's on it's a social entrepreneurship organization whereby the economy is cyclic.
JOY OWANGO: So we are working with data scientists who also happen to be students. And then the revenue that is being generated is not only supporting these data scientists, but most importantly, it's supporting the activities that we are launching for our projects out of helix analytics, where it will be data science for industry, which will be supporting data science for industry. I mean, open science for industry.
JOY OWANGO: Now what industry sectors are what industry sectors are going to benefit from Helix Analytics you're looking at research institutions, you're looking at the health care industry, agriculture, logistics, transport, manufacturing and the higher education sector. Now, the healthcare, agriculture, logistics, transport and manufacturing will fall under the business optimization research division, and the higher education and research institutions will fall under the higher education divisions, which leads to our latest projects coming out of this, which is actually going to connect literally governments, industry and also higher education.
JOY OWANGO: Now our flagship project. Out of helix analytics is the Africa PID alliance. The Africa alliance is a community of enthusiasts in and from Africa, aiming to lead and realize a fair sharing of access and data through the use of persistent identifiers in innovation, research and technology within the cultural, scientific and cross-industry ecosystems.
JOY OWANGO: And so far what is exciting us about this, this project is that we already have commitments from continental partners who are our launching partners, and that is the Africa Academy of sciences, the Association of African universities, which is the umbrella body of all African universities. And the Africa Academy of Sciences is the umbrella body of all National Academies in the continent.
JOY OWANGO: The African library and information associations institutions, which is the umbrella body of all libraries, national, and government and private within Africa, and also the Kenya education research network, which is a National Research network that will be providing the tech and cyber support for our activities. And the community engagement drivers will be TCC Africa and also the helix analytics team.
JOY OWANGO: What does this involve? As i said TCC Africa Africa and now its new start up is based up is based heavily on partnerships and stakeholders. So we are looking at the African PID Alliance workflow will be on knowledge collection and we are focusing on three areas patent information, indigenous knowledge and African research outputs. So we are looking at the curation of this information. And then not only that, but also the registration and consolidation of this information and then data accessibility.
JOY OWANGO: Now, why are we keen on this and why is it exciting for us? And also it's exciting. And at same time, scary is because from a global South perspective, it is literally the global South that has suffered when it comes to indigenous loss of indigenous knowledge because we've not quite figured out how to protect it and how far back, especially when it comes to provenance, how far back you are able to protect your data. OK and then also, when it comes to patent information, we need to be very honest.
JOY OWANGO: When we look at the patent information that exists in databases, it's actually assigned to the research output. So you can go do a history search and find the funder gets to see the research output that was produced and the innovations, hence the patents. But then when you critically look at some of look at our patent agencies, not all of those patents are. Come out of research.
JOY OWANGO: So you don't end up having the full picture of the patent and innovation landscape coming out of the. Of of a region now that Africa is being perceived as the Silicon Savannah because of the large scale startups that are coming up and the innovation landscape that is really building up. We still do not have the true picture of the innovation landscape because it is based on research that has been produced, not necessarily the entire patent landscape that is filed within our patent agencies.
JOY OWANGO: So we are trying to remedy that. And also most importantly, we are also noticing that not all the patent agencies have digitized their information. So we are trying to see how we can support that entire process so that we can have this information accessible. So this is heavily following under the Fair principles in making research outputs, especially African research outputs accessible, visible.
JOY OWANGO: And you can have a true picture of what is happening out of the continent. Now beyond that, as a center we are we manage a podcast and also we decided to make research the whole activities of what we're doing on scholarly publication much easier by also going on tiktok too, because we noticed that researchers are getting younger and younger. So we are using various platforms to make sure that they are accessible to us.
JOY OWANGO: So it goes beyond just all the work that we are doing by talking to government stakeholders and researcher leaders or academic leaders, but also working with researchers to see how we can make the activities of research capacity much more accessible, increasing the visibility of the content of the continent, and most importantly, seeing how we can work together in improving our research visibility coming out of the continent.
JOY OWANGO: So right now, what is happening going back to the last slide is we are seeking partners not only because we've already said consolidating our partners in the global south, we are seeking partners in changing the landscape when it comes to the visibility of the output with the project we are doing. So we are seeking partners we could work with in, we could collaborate with in realizing the African PID Alliance As I said, we already have launch partners.
JOY OWANGO: We've committed to this process. It's going to be a learning process not only for us, but also for the partners we are going to work with. And we are more than happy and excited to work with you in realizing the dream, in making sure that African research output is much more visible. African research output is. You can see the true picture of what is coming out of the continent in terms of not only research, but it's patent information and also most importantly, which is dear to anyone in the global south, because this is just not an African issue protecting our indigenous knowledge.
JOY OWANGO: With that, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you so much for listening to me. And we look forward to working together. Thank you for now.
ERIKA VALENTI: Good morning. My name is Erica Valente. I am the regional director for emerald publishing, North America.
ERIKA VALENTI: I am so pleased to be part of this session on a very important topic and for allowing me the space to be part of this. Cost before I share with you about an ongoing emerald project that speaks to this session's topic, I would like to provide a bit of context about emerald's focus on research publications.
ERIKA VALENTI: Now, as the scholarly publishing house, we have long had a commitment to supporting societal injustices in many any manner that we can, particularly, of course, Dia issues. We believe that learning and research modalities have to reflect diversity in global public populations, and this is why we are really guided by how we can be good and better stewards of research impact and research equity.
ERIKA VALENTI: And here on the screen, you can see a sampling of some of this content across our book and journal program. We also have an established focus on mission based research. And really this is tied to supporting the United Nations sustainable development goals. And through this we commissioned research that can help solve real world problems and issues.
ERIKA VALENTI: For example, the creation of a fairer society, equitable access to education and quality education for everyone, as well as supporting healthier lives to name a few of the topic areas. Additionally, we were a founding signatory in 2020 of the SDG publishers compact. For us, it again was another way of making a clear commitment to the underlying principles of developing sustainable practices and acting as champions of the SDGS by publishing content that is intended to help inform, develop and inspire action in that direction.
ERIKA VALENTI: In 2020, we commissioned our first global inclusivity report. This report was intended really to shine a light on inclusion, the issues that are facing our academic communities and the actions that we could take to create a more equitable global research system. And ecosystem. So that was 2020. And then in order to really benchmark how these academic perceptions and experiences around inclusivity have evolved, we published a second follow up inclusivity report this year, and we included a new topic area on indigenous research.
ERIKA VALENTI: Now this section of the report explores challenges within indigenous research and what academia and publishers can do to promote inclusion. So for respondents who self-identified as having indigenous ancestry, we wanted to tap into and learn about the challenges that they face. There's a sampling here of some of the questions that I pulled out.
ERIKA VALENTI: You can see the question at the top. And really, what we discern from the results is that indigenous researchers face challenges at every single stage of the research process, from obtaining funding and support to finding collaborators, deserving networks, all the way through to securing an editor who is willing to publish their work. And what I think you can see here from the screen and these responses is that discrimination really appears to be at the heart of these issues with almost across the board indigenous respondents saying that their research is often viewed from a Western perspective and unfortunately therefore is considered inferior, inferior, irrelevant or not referable within the canon.
ERIKA VALENTI: So this is the part where I share with you a really exciting project that's ongoing here at emerald publishing. The project is called first voices first, and this came out of a discussion with copel in the fall of 2019. Copel is a consortium of academic libraries in Western Canada and we did launch this project in mid 2021, so we wouldn't let COVID stop us from just launching something we're all really passionate about.
ERIKA VALENTI: But mid 2021 was really also a historical inflection point for many, if not all of us. This period in time coincided with the murder of George Floyd, the subsequent global protests in support of Black Lives matter, and specific to the Canadian focus of first voices first. This was the period when there were really revelations and discoveries of mass graves, unmarked graves of the first nations, peoples who were forced into Canada's residential school system.
ERIKA VALENTI: So these sort of catalytic events really just made us want to double down even more on how emeralds could do their part supporting fundamental, foundational changes within the global research community. So working alongside Koppel and the University of Saskatchewan in the same area, the partnership launched with the primary purpose of providing research content, access to a selection of indigenous post-secondary schools, as well as to communities, first nations communities and indigenous communities in that area.
ERIKA VALENTI: Through a current subscription to 120 research journals that are in the University of saskatchewan's entitlements and holdings, this is what we opened up with and open access to as the project developed. One thing that we learned after listening closely was that digital technologies, viewed solely through the needs of our user, was a really critical piece of this project, which we were hoping to be very transformative, and I think it is.
ERIKA VALENTI: And we know that learning and research modalities need to reflect both our institutional partners, as well as the First Nations community partners. So for some of the colleges that you can see represented here, they were able to access the 120 journals through University of Saskatchewan via IP designations for peoples within the communities that we were hoping would benefit from access. We came up with sort of an open identifier where they could easily register and then immediately have full access to the journals.
ERIKA VALENTI: Here's a sampling of some of the research that is freely available through the first voices first project. It's just really important not just to think about how do you move research into the hands of communities that have been underserved in terms of equitable access to research, but also beyond the ivory tower and the walls of academe. And on the heels of the first voices first project launch, we quickly formed an advisory board of indigenous librarians and researchers globally.
ERIKA VALENTI: This group was really critical for the ongoing amplification of the project through providing indigenous perspectives. As we kept building out. What more can we do around first voices first and the ongoing amplification of the importance of putting the indigenous research voice front and center. So you can see at the top left, Ashley Richard is part of the advisory board.
ERIKA VALENTI: She's awesome. A rising star, if not an established star. She is associate director of the National Indigenous hub at the Aspen school of Business at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. And her work focuses on building an inclusive innovation system for indigenous women entrepreneurs. So that really is my piece of this session.
ERIKA VALENTI: Again, thank you so much for allowing me to share this with you. And I'm going to turn back and I'm so excited to be a part of the discussion that is really just where the fun stuff happens with these sessions. Thank you.