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Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums : LIS Resources

This guide is intended to assist students participating in the iSchool's Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums program.

Ask Us About This Guide!

The guide was created by Zoey Colglazier and Lizzie Oswalt. They were both students (now graduated) in the Library and Information Science Master's program at UW-Madison.

For questions about TLAM, contact tlam@ischool.wisc.edu.

Professional Organizations Specific to TLAM

Slow Archiving

Indigenous nations have long had their own methods for keeping memories and cultural traditions alive. A Western Euro-centric approach to archiving has historically delegitimized these avenues of archiving and instead infringed on Indigenous cultural sovereignty through holding materials in Non-Native institutions. Because of this, many Indigenous communities are cautious of archival practices that come from Western Euro-centric organizations, such as many universities, historical societies and heritage centers, and federal agencies.

Several professional organizations in the LIS field have recommendations for slow archiving and decolonizing the library through culturally responsive and respectfully practices. Some of these focus on respectfully handling, displaying, or repatriating materials, while others look at knowledge organization systems (KOS) in general and how they can be reimagined away from the Western Euro-centric models such as the Dewey Decimal System and Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Decolonizing the Library

Most broadly, decolonizing libraries and information fields is about focusing on the voices of people of color and decentering whiteness. This encompasses collection development, programming, policies, information organization, acquisitions/accessioning, and more. The following resources go into these areas more deeply, or link to additional articles on topics ranging from institutional case studies to concrete actions libraries can take to decolonize their collections.

Historical Professional Organizations

Archival Protocols and Policies