Thursday, September 01, 2016

CFP: Representing Native American, First Nation and Indigenous Realities in Library Collections (Special Issue of Collection Management)

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Collection Management

Sharing Knowledge and Smashing Stereotypes:
Representing Native American, First Nation and Indigenous Realities in Library Collections

Abstracts due September 15, 2016
Publication date July 2017

Guest Editors:
Paulita Aguilar (paulita@unm.edu), David Hurley (dah@unm.edu) and Sarah Kostelecky (sarahrk@unm.edu)
University of New Mexico

Many librarians are reviewing their collection management and development decisions with an eye towards the global issues of racism, representation and diversity. Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous peoples are generally misrepresented and misunderstood by the dominant culture (if they are acknowledged at all). Consequently many library collections over-emphasize problematic materials. How can cultural institutions, including libraries, represent the reality of Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous peoples?  This special issue provides an opportunity to explore aspects of this question.

We invite you to submit a 500 word abstract for a special issue of Collection Management on Native American, First Nations, and Indigenous studies collection management and development. Submissions may include original research, historical articles, and review articles, which will be peer-reviewed, and editor-reviewed commentary/opinion essays and case studies.  We encourage contributions from a range of authors including tribal librarians, academic librarians, and researchers from a range of disciplines and perspectives.

This special issue will highlight the collection management and development considerations unique to Native American, First Nations, and Indigenous collections. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Identifying and purchasing materials from small presses, non-profit publications, tribal education departments
  • Indigenous language materials
  • Materials with stereotypical Indigenous representation
  • Pop culture materials
  • Providing access to culturally sensitive materials
  • Unique collections
  • Engaging with disciplinary and interdisciplinary research
  • Tribal government documents
  • Politics of cataloging: access and description
  • Special collections and archives
  • Developing collection development policies and guidelines
  • Data repositories, services and management
  • Teaching with Native collections and materials
  • Traditional cultural expressions and intellectual property

Some guiding questions:
  • How do library collections fit within organizations that use an Indigenous framework (including tribal colleges, tribal libraries)?
  • What types of archival collections contain Native voices and perspectives, both historical and contemporary?  
  • How do libraries provide access to materials while educating patrons about potentially sensitive materials?  
  • How do library and archives support or undermine oral traditions and ways of knowing?
  • What are strategies libraries can use to promote materials to specific communities using Indigenous worldview/symbols/organization of information?
  • What would an Indigenous knowledge organization system look like?
  • How do Indigenous scholars deal with research in western oriented classification and cataloging systems?


Important Dates
  • Abstracts are due September 15, 2016 (please submit using journal management system  https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/collectionmanagement OR email one of the guest editors)
  • Selection of abstracts will be completed and communicated by September 22, 2016.
  • Manuscripts are due by December 1,
  • Peer reviews will be due January 15, 2017
  • Acceptance decision will be communicated to authors by January 30, 2017.
  • Final manuscripts due March 1, 2017   
  • Expected publication date is July 2017  


Submission Guidelines
The final manuscript should be between 10-50 pages double spaces, inclusive of references, tables and figures.  Consult the Collection Management website for the style guide.

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