Gene Anne Joseph is a Wet'suwet'en Nadleh'dena First Nations

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

from

Hagwilget Hagwilget or Hagwilgyet is a First Nations reserve community of the Wet'suwet'en people located on the lower Bulkley River just east of Hazelton in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The community's name means "well-dressed" as in "ostentat ...

, British Columbia. She was the founding librarian of the

Xwi7xwa Library The X̱wi7x̱wa Library is an Indigenous library at the Vancouver campus of the University of British Columbia. The library, which draws its name from the Squamish word for ''echo'', was named by Chief Simon Baker of the Squamish Nation. The l ...

at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

and the first librarian of First Nations descent in British Columbia. In 2018, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws from

Vancouver Island University Vancouver Island University (abbreviated as VIU, formerly known as Malaspina University-College and earlier as Malaspina College) is a Canadian public university serving Vancouver Island and coastal British Columbia. Malaspina College began in 196 ...

. The British Columbia Library Association, the First Nations Interest Group, and the University of British Columbia First Nations House of Learning created an endowed scholarship in her nam

Education

Joseph began studies at the post-secondary level in 1972 at

Langara College , mottoeng = Knowledge is Freedom , established = April 1, 1994 , type = Public , endowment = C$5.8 million , administrative_staff = , faculty = , president = Paula Burns , students = 22,000 , city = Vancouver, British Columbia , coun ...

where she was one of the only First Nations students. She went on to complete her bachelors and masters of library science degrees at the University of British Columbia.

Career

Joseph began her professional career at the

Union of BC Indian Chiefs The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is a First Nations political organization founded in 1969 in response to Jean Chrétien's White Paper proposal to assimilate Status Indians and disband the Department of Indian Affairs. Since ...

Resource Centre. She reportedly was at first rejected for this position, but was hired after writing a letter to Chief

George Manuel George Manuel, OC (February 21, 1921 – November 15, 1989, Secwépemc) was an Aboriginal leader in Canada. Born and raised in British Columbia, he became politically active there and in Alberta. In 1970 he was elected and served until 1976 as c ...

, the then President. She was employed there for three years before returning to school to obtain her Masters of Library Science. She went on to work at the Indian Education Resource Centre, established by the BC Native Indian Teachers Association in the early 1970s to organize the collection. She became the founding librarian of the Xwi7xwa Library when the Indian Education Resource Centre became the Xwi7xwa Library. Joseph has an abiding concern with the way First Nations people and knowledge was represented in libraries and spent her career actively creating new classification systems and subject headings to amend misrepresentation common in standard systems, such as the

Library of Congress Classification The Library of Congress Classification (LCC) is a system of library classification developed by the Library of Congress in the United States, which can be used for shelving books in a library. LCC is mainly used by large research and academic librar ...

system. Between 1978 and 1980 she adapted the

Brian Deer classification system The Brian Deer Classification System (BDC) is a library classification system used to organize materials in libraries with specialized Indigenous collections. The system was created in the mid-1970s by Canadian librarian A. Brian Deer Kahnawake Mo ...

for the l

. Joseph recognized the way the materials in the library were organized was vital to the overarching culture of the library and the use of an Indigenous classification system was vital to the philosophy of Xwi7xwa. In 1992, she published the ''Sharing the knowledge: a First Nations resource guide'' which includes information on First Nations culture and history, issues facing First Nations and resources on future directions for achieving recognition of aboriginal rights. She was active in creating resource libraries for First Nations seeking recognition of

aboriginal title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

. Joseph developed the legal research library for the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en First Nations to support the '' Delgamuukw et al v. the Queen et al'' case. This included the use of oral histories, which Joseph organized and provided access to through computer software and databases. Because these systems were new, Joseph adapted and developed systems to accommodate oral history documents as well as other materials. Further, the use of oral histories in a case of this nature set precedent as did the extensive use of computerized documents and a detailed map documenting traditional land use, which Joseph helped to prepare. Joseph worked for the

Haida Haida may refer to: Places * Haida, an old name for Nový Bor * Haida Gwaii, meaning "Islands of the People", formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands * Haida Islands, a different archipelago near Bella Bella, British Columbia Ships * , a 1 ...

aboriginal title case and advises and oversees research and litigation support for the Haida Aboriginal Title Case at White Raven Law. She also worked with the EAGLE (Environmental Aboriginal Guardianship through Law and Education) organization from 2002 to 2006. Joseph has been a mentor for Indigenous librarians in Canada, especially in connection to the School of Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. Joseph is also a speaker at events, such as International Indigenous Librarians' Forum. Joseph has worked on a committee developing the Library Technician Program for First Nations students at the University College of the Fraser Valley.

Works

*Joseph, Gene. Sharing the knowledge: a First Nations resource guide. Vancouver: Legal Services Society, 1992. NW016.3231 J67 1992. *Burns, Kathleen, Doyle, Ann, Joseph, Gene, & Krebs, Allison. (2009). Indigenous librarianship. M. J. Bates, & M.N. Maack (Eds.), Encyclopedia of library and information sciences (3rd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis. *Joseph, Gene and Kim Lawson. 2003. "First Nations and British Columbia Public Libraries." Feliciter. 49(5): 245-247.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph, Gene Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian librarians University of British Columbia alumni First Nations women Canadian indigenous women academics First Nations academics Langara College people