The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKBLC) serves as an education centre, library, and as a conduit of knowledge for British Columbia and beyond. As part of its mandate to support education and the sharing of knowledge in British Columbia (BC), the IKBLC is responsible for the digitization of many BC cultural heritage materials from their original print formats. Partially modelled off of the IKBLC’s successful BC History Digitization Program, Indigitization supports Indigenous organization participants with matching grant funds for analog media digitization projects. As the major financial enabler of the Indigitization Program, the program infrastructure, including partial salary for a Librarian, paid employment opportunities for UBC students, website development, and other operational costs, has also been consistently funded by the IKBLC since 2013. Core funding enables Indigitization’s community-university relationships to continue beyond the grant project timelines, leading to innovative growth within the program’s key goal of appropriate responsiveness to Indigenous community needs.
The Northern British Columbia Archives and Special Collections at the University of Northern British Columbia
The Northern BC Archives and Special Collections (NBCA) at UNBC partners with the Indigitization Program to offer professional assistance to Indigenous communities in northern BC that are seeking to build capacity and effective in-house management of their digital heritage resources. The Indigitization team engages in community outreach events on campus at UNBC and through meetings with local First Nations community organizations in order to introduce the Indigitization Program.
Museum of Anthropology, Oral History and Language Laboratory (Audrey and Harry Hawthorne Library and Archives)
The Museum of Anthropology at UBC supports the Indigitization Program through its Oral History and Language Laboratory (OHLL) and Audrey and Harry Hawthorn Library and Archives (AHHLA). OHLL Manager Gerry Lawson is the technology and training lead for Indigitization and supports the program by guiding the development of appropriate digitization systems and practices for Indigenous communities, and sharing his specialized knowledge with program participants. AHHLA contributes to Indigitization through testing and refining digitization equipment configurations, practices, workflows, and instructional materials while offering UBC iSchool students hands-on digitization experience.
Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT), University of British Columbia
CTLT Indigenous Initiatives provides support for the development of thematic based resources that can be easily integrated into classrooms through the lens of multiple disciplines and contexts. In partnership with Indigenous communities, organizations, and faculty, we work to create resources that centre Indigenous values, voices, and perspectives. This approach allows for Indigenous perspectives to be centred in the classroom without having to continuously draw on the resources from Indigenous communities and partners.
X̱wi7x̱wa Library
X̱wi7x̱wa Library is a centre for academic and community Indigenous scholarship. Its collections and services reflect Indigenous approaches to teaching, learning, and research. X̱wi7x̱wa Library is the only Indigenous branch of an academic library in Canada, and is often looked to as a leader in Indigenous Academic Librarianship in the province and the country.
UBC iSchool (Library, Archival and Information Studies)
UBC iSchool is an internationally ranked, multi-disciplinary school offering graduate programs in library, archival and information studies, including focused curricula such as the First Nations Curriculum Concentration (FNCC), which centres information needs and services related to Indigenous peoples. UBC iSchool students have contributed to Indigitization through their FNCC work and experiential learning opportunities at the Program. The UBC iSchool provides resource support and promotion for Indigitization Program initiatives and events.
Center for Digital Scholarship & Curation at Washington State University
Washington State University’s Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation (CDSC) brings together community members, students, faculty, and researchers in collaborative digital projects that emphasize ethical curation, scholarship, research, and publication. The CDSC’s mission is to promote collaborations that use technology in ethically minded and socially empowering ways through meaningful partnerships with a commitment to foster long term relationships with Native American nations, First Nations, and Indigenous communities locally, regionally and nationally. The CDSC supports the Indigitization Program through two major long-term programs:
- Mukurtu CMS (https://mukurtu.org/) is the free, mobile, and open source access platform built with Indigenous communities to manage and share digital cultural heritage.
- The Sustainable Heritage Network (http://sustainableheritagenetwork.org/) is a collaborative project that complements the work of Indigenous peoples globally to preserve, share, and manage cultural heritage and knowledge.
Sustaining Information Practices (SIP)
The SIP research team is made up of faculty and graduate students based out of the iSchool@UBC (formally the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia) – Vancouver. SIP works with community/ academic partnerships, supporting their projects in areas where our team has appropriate information skills (e.g., record keeping, database development, digital asset management, data collection/analysis). SIP members worked with the Indigitization team to develop appropriate data gathering and sharing practices that support the continued funding of Indigitization, while respecting partner organizations’ preferences for information sharing. If you have any questions or would like to know more please contact Dr. Lisa Nathan at: lisa.nathan@ubc.ca