Article #1

Christensen, R. (1975). Materials Selection for Indian Libraries: Guide 10. National Indian Education Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 108783). Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/

This is a great guide to people working in Indian libraries (libraries located on reservations and/or the majority of patrons are of Native American decent). Christensen does a great job to explain how to be sensitive of the needs that Indians have in a library. She explains that many books written before the 1970’s are racist to Indians because many of them refer to them as savages and use the word massacre to describe confrontations with early white settlers. Then she makes the comparison between the uses of these terms in describing the Indians to white people. Example: The Battle of Wounded Knee was considered a glorious victory for the US Army yet they killed men, women, the elderly, and children after cornering them in a river bend. But when the Indians defeated Custer at the Little Bighorn it was a terrible massacre because it was in retaliation for the US victory at Wounded Knee. After explaining the difference in the wording she goes on and lists steps one can take to make sure the library will be used by Indians and how not to insult them by using improper materials. I am not going to list them all but some, I think, are very important to a good selection of materials. One was to include the Indian counsel/community in all selection decisions, make sure all history books are accurate in their descriptions, and do not consider yourself an Indian expert if you are not Indian ( this will make you look arrogant). These are only a few of the many she included.

As a member of the American Indian Library Association it is very important that I know these criteria because with my background in Native American archaeology/history I would love to become a librarian in an Indian community. Most of the criteria she included are common sense; basically do not pretend to be something you are not. Make sure to include the community in all library related decisions to make sure all information is accurate. These are all things I learned during my undergraduate but had never really thought about it in a library setting. This was guide 10 out of 11 so I would really like to read the other ten articles related to this subject. This is an incredibly important part of being a librarian no matter what culture you work among.