Sunday July 9th, 2017 Decolonisation

Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL) was an active participant in the Confederation of Canadian Library Associations (CFLA) Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC). John Pateman, the TBPL Chief Librarian, was one of the Team Leaders on this Committee, which was made up of representatives from all types of libraries and library organisations across Canada.

The TRC produced a report, which was adopted by CFLA and TBPL, which put forward ten recommendations in response to the 94 Calls for Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. TBPL is now going to put these ideas into action via a number of short term initiatives and, in the medium and long term, through its next Strategic Plan 2018-23; in doing so we will be working with a wide range of stakeholders, and particularly the Indigenous community in Thunder Bay. So, what does this all mean in practice?

TBPL will ensure that collections and programming will be fully accessible to all Canadians.   We will ‘decolonize Access and Classification by addressing the structural biases in existing schemes of knowledge organization and information retrieval arising from colonialism by committing to integrate Indigenous epistemologies into cataloguing practice and knowledge management’.  In other words we will review our use of subject heading and the Dewey Decimal Scheme and move towards a more user-friendly, inclusive and intuitive approach to how we arrange and present our collections.
TBPL will also  ‘decolonise Libraries and Space by recognizing and supporting Indigenous cultures, languages and knowledges through culturally appropriate space planning, interior design, signage, art installations, territorial acknowledgements of geographic-specific traditional territories and public programming in collaboration with local Indigenous stakeholders’.  We will work with our Aboriginal Liaison staff member and the Aboriginal Advisory Group to make these changes. Our ambition is to create Indigenous Knowledge Centres in our branch libraries.

In addition, TBPL will be responding to the recommendations from the Seven Youth Inquest into the deaths of seven Indigenous youth in Thunder Bay. Thirty-one of these recommendations were directed at the City of Thunder Bay and its partners. We particularly want to work with the City at putting in place programs that improve the physical, social and cultural infrastructure. We want everyone who uses TBPL to feel included, engaged, safe and have opportunities to succeed. We will work with  Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School and Matawa Learning Centre and other community organisations to achieve these objectives.

TBPL is a free information, cultural and recreation resource which is open to everyone who lives, works and studies in Thunder Bay. We have over three million interactions with the community every year. We are in the process of transforming our libraries into Community Hubs which can deliver a range of local and provincial services in partnership with a number of organisations. In the fall of 2017 we will be starting a program of Community Conversations to get as many people engaged in this process as possible. Libraries will be hosting Open Houses where you can Meet the Team and join a local Community Action Panel. TBPL is your library service and we need to hear your voice.

John Pateman