The X̱wi7x̱wa Library () is an Indigenous library at the

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

campus of the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

. The library, which draws its name from the Squamish word for ''echo'', was named by Chief Simon Baker of the Squamish Nation. The library is notable for its approaches to organizing

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

knowledge and major collections and holdings in a way that expresses Indigenous thought and culture. Holding some 15,000 items, it is fully integrated with the main library of UBC.

History

X̱wi7x̱wa (pronounced "whei wha") Library began as a small collection of Aboriginal materials in a mobile home. The collection was maintained in conjunction with the University of British Columbia's (UBC) NITEP Indigenous Teacher Education Program. In 1993, the library became the First Nations House of Learning Library, part of a

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from lumber, timber and ...

for Indigenous students and scholars. The university's senate later established a X̱wi7x̱wa librarian position in 1995, which was first held by Gene Joseph. The library became a branch of the UBC Library in 2005. It is the first First Nations branch of a Canadian academic library. The library began digitizing materials related to the First Nations House of Learning Longhouse in 2008, with the goal of sharing university resources with Aboriginal people worldwide. As of 2015, the library held over 15,000 items, consisting primarily of Indigenous materials, including those produced by First Nations peoples, organizations, schools, and tribal councils.

Building

The primary donor and namesake for the library building was William Bellman; he was named X̱wi7x̱wa by Squamish Elder and Chief, Koot-la-cha. The library building's design is inspired by buildings of the

Interior Salish The Interior Salish languages are one of the two main branches of the Salishan language family, the other being Coast Salish. It can be further divided into Northern and Southern subbranches. The first Interior Salish people encountered by Ameri ...

nations. Its primary structure is called a Kekuli in the

Chinook jargon Chinook Jargon (' or ', also known simply as ''Chinook'' or ''Jargon'') is a language originating as a pidgin language, pidgin trade language in the Pacific Northwest. It spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to othe ...

, a S7istken in Ucwalmicwts ( Lil’wat nation), and a

pit house A pit-house (or pit house, pithouse) is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions, this type of earth shelter may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a la ...

in English. The library building is integrated into the library's logo, which was created by

Tsimshian The Tsimshian (; ) are an Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace, British Columbia, Terrace and ...

artist Glen Wood. This logo represents

the Raven "The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a visit ...

transforming the university. The windows are decorated with the names of approximately eight hundred donors to the library. Xwi7xwa Library interior sign

Classification and cataloging

The X̱wi7x̱wa Library uses First Nations House of Learning (FNHL) Subject Headings, a local taxonomy that remedies many of the shortcomings of the

Library of Congress Subject Headings The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) comprise a thesaurus (information retrieval), thesaurus (in the information science sense, a controlled vocabulary) of subject headings, maintained by the United States Library of Congress, for use ...

with regard to First Nations materials. This classification system arranges First Nations geographically and refers to them by their own names (autonyms), rather than alphabetically by their European names. This is a British Columbia-specific variant of the Brian Deer Classification System, developed by librarian A. Brian Deer ( Mohawk) in the late 20th century. This organization system gives priority to relationships in its structure, reflecting an Indigenous worldview. In 2004, the 11,000 FNHL headings were lost due to a system migration. They were not recovered until 2009. The library also records a subjective measure of suitability of materials that may be used to teach Indigenous children. This practice rejects dominant conceptions of cataloging as "objective". It recognizes the frequent misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples by mainstream European-Canadian and American cultures.

References

External links

Official site

Classification system

Bibliography of publications about X̱wi7x̱wa Library
{{Authority control University of British Columbia libraries Academic libraries in Canada First Nations librarianship Indigenous culture in Canada