Let Me Draw You A Map: Knowledge Management From “Two Completely Different Streams of Thought”

Abstract

This paper represents the results of a conversation between Adrienne Heavy Head, the creator and manager of the Blackfoot Digital Library (BDL), at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, and Mary Greenshields, a new librarian in Alberta. The aim of the conversation was for Mary, a settler living in traditional Blackfoot Territory, to learn about the creation and maintenance of the BDL, and to gain insight into the organization, access, and classification of information within the library as a real life example of some of the protocols suggested by the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA). Adrienne and Mary hope that this conversation will help librarians to better understand knowledge management from a Blackfoot perspective and might inspire librarians to start such conversation with the Indigenous peoples upon whose land their libraries rest.