Indigenous Historical Publications Working Group

Purpose

The Indigenous Historical Publications Working Group is responsible for guiding efforts to improve discovery of, access to, and preservation of publications by and about Indigenous communities on whose lands COPPUL members live and work. These publications may include newspapers, newsletters and various forms of grey literature. Initial work will focus on identifying publications held by member academic libraries and archives, expanding to include born-digital publications and those held by allied organizations across the national cultural heritage sector as applicable.

Membership

6-8 members from full COPPUL member institutions. The group will include a minimum of 2 Indigenous members.

The initial round of member nominations will be managed through an invitation process, primarily through an expression of interest process from COPPUL Library Directors. We are seeking working group members from COPPUL libraries that have strong Indigenous materials in their newspaper collections. These COPPUL libraries will be responsible for inviting non-librarian stakeholders who have relevant relationships with communities. These
stakeholders will be asked to communicate with communities and determine their interest in being involved with the project. Subsequent membership is subject to nomination by the committee members and approval by the Board.

Member experience and/or interest in any of the following areas is encouraged:

• Indigenous collections and community engagement
• Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights
• Print and/or digital collections management
• Digitization project planning

When possible, membership will consist of a balance of experts and those who wish to expand their knowledge. Representation from each province is also preferred but not mandatory.

The term of service is 2 years (renewable), and will be posted on the COPPUL website by the
Executive Director. Some initial terms of service may be 1 year to allow the members’ terms to
be staggered.

The COPPUL SPAN Coordinator, CDSN Coordinator and Indigenous Knowledge Coordinator
will serve as ex officio members.