Residential School survivor supports Library’s latest project

“Instead of doing this (typing and searching) and getting all these entries and sifting through… after a while you try to get it but finally you just give up,” he continued.

The Library spent months correcting more than 1100 subject headings, and Library Director Paul Burry says the effort was well worth it.

“Most of us can intuitively understand the power of words and the shaping of our ideas, beliefs, attitudes, but I think it’s also important to appreciate the role in history of cultural institutions like libraries in shaping how language is used,” Burry said.

While Quaw was happy to see the Library’s effort in this massive project, he says if you really want to learn about the truth and Indigenous history the best way to do so is to speak with people like him who have the lived experience.

“I dealt with the truth first, and later on the reconciliation, and I’ve been doing that since 2008. Instead of September 30, TRC day, I do this every day, not just one holiday, I do this all the time,” Quaw said.

PGPL Library Director Paul Burry explained subject headings are similar to social media hashtags, in the sense that subject headings help you find works related to the subject. Most libraries in Canada use subject headings from the Library of Congress headings in the USA, but Burry explained this does come with the unfortunate side effect of terms like “Indians of North America,” which has been changed to “Indigenous peoples of North America.” Wanting to continue supporting our Indigenous community members in truth and reconciliation as much as possible, the Library got to work changing more than 1100 subject headings which impacted more than 1500 items.

“We want to be sensitive to using the term that a particular nation or tribe uses to refer to themselves. So an authorized term like ‘Athabascan Indians’, we want to get rid of not only the word Indians, but that group of people prefers to be known as the Den’a, so we’ve changed that heading too so that we’re using the accepted terms for the people to refer to themselves,” Burry said, in regards to one aspect of how they approached the project.

Burry wanted to give a huge thank you to all the library staff that undertook this massive project, as it took a great understanding of IT and technology to finish the project.

by Tommy Osborne

Residential School survivor supports Library’s latest project

What's Trending