Linking Aboriginal communities to the National Library

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Deborah Pelletier has a busy, exciting time ahead of her. She became the first person to be named as co-ordinator of Aboriginal resources and services at the National Library of Canada on Oct. 4. The new position is designed to develop and promote the library's collection, and to encourage more people, communities and organizations to access the library's resources, especially the Aboriginal resources.

As co-ordinator, it will also be Pelletier's responsibility to recommend and co-ordinate future National Library initiatives relating to its Aboriginal resources, and to help develop partnerships between the library and Aboriginal communities across the country.

Pelletier brings to the position a background in library services and education, and in working with Aboriginal communities.

"I've been working in education as a teacher. And then I worked as a teacher librarian . . . and then, most recently before this came up, I was working with Saskatchewan Learning in the Aboriginal education unit where I was working in curriculum development and Aboriginal content and perspective with material, resources, books, videos, all that kind of thing, suggesting and recommending what would be appropriate to dispel the myths and get teachers and teacher librarians to restock their shelves with more appropriate content."

Originally from Lebret, a Metis community in southeastern Saskatchewan, Pelletier spent most of her life in Regina where she did her undergraduate work. She completed her master of library and information studies degree at the University of Alberta and was recipient of the National Library of Canada's Library Science Trainee Program Award, which involved hands-on training at the National Library.

"So I worked here in '96 and '97, and then I went home to my community. But when I was here before, certainly, I fell in love with Ottawa and the library and all that we do here. So when this advertisement came out, it was, 'Wow. It would be an interesting opportunity, a challenge.' And again an opportunity to work with Aboriginal people."

While she said she was "quite pleased" to be chosen for the position, Pelletier stressed that more important is the fact that the position has been created, which came out of the work of an internal working group looking at what programs and services were being provided by the National Library.

"This working group about a year or so ago said we really need to have an Aboriginal person hired to look closer at what the needs are, the information needs, what services exist, and ensure a presence in the activities that go on here, an Aboriginal presence," Pelletier said.

Pelletier said her background will serve her well, helping connect the National Library with Aboriginal communities.

"I think it provides a link. It provides a link between the institution, the federal institution, with the Aboriginal communities. I worked with parents and people at the grassroots. I've worked with communities. As well, I'm aware of the different organizations, from my work in the Aboriginal education unit, of the people who make decisions, the policy makers, both at provincial and federal levels. I don't necessarily know all of them, but I'm aware of how things work. And I think what it does then, it provides a focal point, me as an Aboriginal person within this federal institution. But it's really linking the community with this institution and sort of hoping to work toward more of a collaboration and co-operation on the different initiatives. Even in terms of collection policies, and how we can work with that to make it more meaningful and accepting and responsive to Aboriginal communities, if it's meeting their needs as well."

With Canada such a big country and with so many different jurisdictions responsible for library services for Aboriginal people, Pelletier expects there to be challenges. But one of the biggest challenges is raising the awareness of Aboriginal people to the importanc of using libraries and resource centres to preserve information about Aboriginal culture and language, and of developing ways that information can be shared.

Once people are aware of the importance of preserving and sharing this information, the next challenge is getting the different players involved in the preservation process to start working together.

"Whether it's Indian and Northern Affairs that has a role, whether it's the tribal councils, whether it's public libraries, whether it's school libraries, there's so many different players, and it all varies from region to region.

"Whether one library has been set up as a research library as part of a lands claims negotiations or whether it's a library that has been set up by an educational institution such as GDI (Gabriel Dumont Institute), whether it's, say, a little school library on a reserve, there's different players involved. So I think that'll be the big challenge there again, just to start saying these are important for preservation, for sharing our knowledge, for ensuring it's available for the next generation," Deborah Pelletier said.

She is looking to involving the communities in what happens at the library.

"I'm hoping we'll be able to pull together an external group where we can work then together, so that we're not seen as this federal institution, we're not seen as making decisions in isolation. We're involving people in the communities, we're involving particularly the Aboriginal community who are already doing work in this area, who have done a lot. And hopefully, with their advice, they will be sort of our key people in the different provinces to keep the lines of communications open and develop plans together."

She is also hoping to put together a database of the people and organizations across the country working in the area of Aboriginal library services or resource management.

"So first of all, I'm trying to identify the people in the different areas, and then hopefully, like in ibraries, language institutions, like, say, the Aboriginal education unit in Saskatchewan. In Edmonton, who's at Alberta Learning? Who works in this area that can be a contact person for whomever in the region at least just to ask questions? Because if you're out in some little community and you don't even know who to call... so if you can't get any information from your school library or there isn't a public library for maybe 200 miles... So I'm hoping to be able to identify people and their services, as well as the directories of say University of Saskatchewan or GDI who have substantial collections of Aboriginal materials and resources. And hopefully we'll be able to make that available to the public."