BC Library Conference 2020

Generously Sponsored By: UBC Library

We don’t have a verb to describe the work that a librarian does. Librarianing? That imprecise language shapes our considerable professional anxiety and can encourage us toward inaction in an attempt to remain neutral. Imagine if we could move past the limitations of our professional identities. Imagine a different kind of librarian. Imagine if we could move beyond wanting to be perceived as doing good. We might be able to envision our work as distinct from neutral service and more closely tied to active, affirming relationships where our futures are inextricably tied up in the futures of the communities that host our libraries. In Cree language, verbs matter more than nouns, and Cree kinship is affirmed through actions, not simple titles. Imagine the possibilities if we could orient our libraries not toward neutrality, but toward justice.

Jessie Loyer is Cree-Métis and a member of Michel First Nation. She's a librarian at Mount Royal University in Calgary, on Blackfoot and Treaty 7 territory. Her research looks at Indigenous perspectives on information literacy, supporting language revitalization, and building capacity for oral history sharing and digitization for communities. She's interested in creating ongoing research relationships using kinship. Follow her on twitter: @jmloyer.