LibGuides: Decolonizing Resource Guide: Home

Welcome

Decolonization and Indigenization are words with power and mean different things to different people. These are ever-changing concepts as we learn, grow, and move forward together in a good way. In this Resource Guide we will explore the on-going work happening in the Learning Library, as well as in libraries, information, and education spaces across Turtle Island and beyond.

As we expand our understanding we will look at building relationships with all of our Relations with a mindfulness towards the Land on which we learn, live, work, and play. We will explore information sources, organization practices, library and social justice terminology, and look to others to acknowledge the good work being done and where improvements can be made.

This is a living document that will develop as we continue to change as a Library and a profession.

What is Decolonization? What is Indigenization?
Queen's University Centre for Teaching and Learning
Feb 2023

Academic Libraries & Organizational Frameworks

The Library of Congress - Classification System
The Library of Congress Classification (LCC) is a classification system that was first developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to organize and arrange the book collections of the Library of Congress. Proposals for additions and changes are reviewed regularly at staff meetings in the Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division (PTCP) and an approved list is published.
Updating Network Zone Records Policy ver 0.1 - Do No Harm -- OCUL
Policy Statement
Do not delete any information unless it is egregiously misleading. In other words, "Do no harm."

Decolonizing Work in Canadian Libraries

Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action
In order to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes the following calls to action.

Calls to Action Specific to:

Museums and Archives

67. We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Museums Association to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of museum policies and best practices to determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to make recommendations.

68. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, and the Canadian Museums Association to mark the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 2017 by establishing a dedicated national funding program for commemoration projects on the theme of reconciliation.

69. We call upon Library and Archives Canada to:

i. Fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against them in the residential schools.

ii. Ensure that its record holdings related to residential schools are accessible to the public.

iii. Commit more resources to its public education materials and programming on residential schools.

70. We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Association of Archivists to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of archival policies and best practices to: appropriate memorial ceremonies and commemorative markers to honour the deceased children.

76. We call upon the parties engaged in the work of documenting, maintaining, commemorating, and protecting residential school cemeteries to adopt strategies in accordance with the following principles:

i. The Aboriginal community most affected shall lead the development of such strategies.

ii. Information shall be sought from residential school Survivors and other Knowledge Keepers in the development of such strategies.

iii. Aboriginal protocols shall be respected before any potentially invasive technical inspection and investigation of a cemetery site

OCUL Truth and Reconciliation Committee (OCUL-TR)
OCUL is committed to supporting its member institutions in the ongoing work to advance the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) Calls to Action. We acknowledge the importance of this work as being local, iterative and in partnership with local Indigenous communities. Working in consultation with key stakeholders, the OCUL Truth and Reconciliation Committee serves to identify potential strategies and initiatives that will support collective and individual OCUL member responses to the TRC Calls to Action and Universities Canada’s 13 Principles on Indigenous Education. The Committee will identify areas where collective action at the provincial level can help OCUL and our member libraries and communities move forward.
OCUL Collaborative Futures (CF) Decolonizing Descriptions Working Group Final Report
The broad objective of the working group is to develop recommendations on how to make descriptive metadata in Omni, the Collaborative Futures (CF) shared library services platform, more accurately and respectfully reflect Indigenous Peoples, knowledges, and contexts. The following report was created by the OCUL-CF Decolonizing Descriptions Working Group and submitted to the OCUL-CF Metadata Management and Standards Committee as per its Terms of Reference.
Maamwi: The Learning Portal - College Learning Portal
Welcome to Maamwi. The Maamwi Hub is inspired by the TRC 94 Calls to Action to ensure that the 24 Colleges of Ontario lead in the education of both staff and students on Indigenous history, culture, knowledge, and current Indigenous worldviews. The word "Maamwi" means "Together" in Anishinaabemowin, one of the widely spoken Indigenous languages in the territory currently referred to as Ontario. The Maamwi hub comprises of 5 major sections (About, Discover, Inquire, Inspire, and Empower) with each section categorized thematically.
Maamwi: Inquire - Knowledge Use - The Learning Portal - College Libraries of Ontario
Indigenous Knowledge (IK) or Traditional Knowledge (TK), is "commonly understood to refer to collective knowledge of traditions used by Indigenous groups to sustain and adapt themselves to their environment over time. This information is passed on from one generation to the next within the Indigenous group. Indigenous Knowledge is unique to Indigenous communities and is rooted in the culture of its peoples. Indigenous Knowledge is usually shared among Elders, healers, or hunters and gatherers, and is passed on to the next generation through [ways such as] ceremonies, stories, [and] teachings" (Assembly of First Nations).
Indigenous Matters Committee - Canadian Federation of Libraries (CFLA)
The Committee on Indigenous Matters (Le Comité des affaires autochtones) exists to: explore issues and identify work-related concerns as well as sound practices and identify current work and sound practices related to the service offerings of libraries, archives and cultural memory institutions with and for Indigenous (First Nations, Metis and Inuit) peoples on behalf of CFLA-FCAB; promote initiatives in all types of libraries that advance and implement meaningful reconciliation as addressed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report and in the Calls to Action; to promote collaboration on these issues across all Canadian memory institutions including, libraries, archives, museums, and educational and cultural organizations; and to monitor ongoing progress in these areas.
Decolonizing Descriptions in the Library Catalogue - UOttawa
The uOttawa Library, along with 17 other Ontario academic libraries, is a member of Collaborative Futuresnorth_eastexternal linknorth_eastexternal link (CF) – a collaborative initiative of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) to implement a shared library management system (Omni) and use it effectively to manage print and electronic resources. In 2021, the OCUL-CF Decolonizing Descriptions Working Group was created to prepare recommendations on how CF institutions can support and build upon existing initiatives related to decolonizing description in our library catalogues.
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the General Assembly on Thursday, 13 September 2007, by a majority of 144 states in favour, 4 votes against (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) and 11 abstentions (Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Samoa and Ukraine).
Years later the four countries that voted against have reversed their position and now support the UN Declaration. Today the Declaration is the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples. It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world and it elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms as they apply to the specific situation of indigenous peoples.
The First Nations Principles of OCAP®
The First Nations principles of OCAP® establish how First Nations’ data and information will be collected, protected, used, or shared. Standing for ownership, control, access and possession, OCAP® is a tool to support strong information governance on the path to First Nations data sovereignty. Given the diversity within and across Nations, the principles will be expressed and asserted in line with a Nation’s respective world view, traditional knowledge, and protocols. If you work with First Nations, consider how you interact with First Nations data.
OCAP® asserts that First Nations alone have control over data collection processes in their communities, and that they own and control how this information can be stored, interpreted, used, or shared.

Problematic or Harmful Language Statements

UOttawa Statement on Harmful Language
uOttawa Library acknowledges that bibliographic descriptions in our discovery platform Omni are not neutral and may contain language that is considered offensive or harmful to different marginalized groups. For consistency and access purposes, we use controlled vocabularies and standards to describe our collections (e.g. Library of Congress Subject Headings, Library of Congress Name Authority Cooperative Program), which may contain insensitive, outdated, or inappropriate language that reflects the norms and biases of the time in which they were created.
Problematic Language in Omni: Advisory Statement - MacOdrum Library, Carleton University
Carleton University Library provides access to a diverse range of materials held within our collections, as well as access to materials held at other libraries. These collections, which are discoverable in Omni, use national and international controlled vocabularies and bibliographic standards to describe library materials, including Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Library and Archives Canada Canadian Subject Headings (CSH) and the Library of Congress Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO).
Notices About the Collections - Library & Archives Canada, Canadian Government
Certain parts of the collections held by Library and Archives Canada (LAC) contain historical language and content that may be considered offensive or potentially harmful, such as language used to refer to racial, ethnic and cultural groups. The items in the collections, their content and descriptions reflect the period in which they were created and the views of their creators. These items retain their original descriptions to ensure that attitudes and perspectives are not erased from the historical record. LAC does, however, provide additional descriptive information to offer more context on the records. This is an ongoing process.

Decolonizing Resource Guide

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Welcome

Academic Libraries & Organizational Frameworks

Decolonizing Work in Canadian Libraries

Problematic or Harmful Language Statements