VRA Conference Minneapolis 2024

Implementing Local Contexts in Rights Management to Ground Indigenous Data Sovereignty
Emma Carter

Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has incorporated Local Contexts as part of its standard protocol for object research and collection care. Newfields is committed to being an ethical steward of its art collections and Local Contexts provides tools to better our standards of care and communication with Indigenous communities. I will explain how Local Contexts' Cultural Institutional Notices have been incorporated into our collection management system and describe our future plans for Labels and consultations with Indigenous communities. Newfields continues to work to be in compliance with NAGPRA regulations and to be a better partner to Indigenous communities, locally, nationally, and internationally.

Creating a Guide for the course "Decolonization, Activism, and Hope: Changing the Way We See Native America"
Colette Lunday Brautigam

This presentation will detail how a digital collections librarian collaborated with a professor for the course “Decolonization, Activism, and Hope: Changing the Way We See Native America.” The students had a term-long assignment that culminated in a poster session and they could only use Indigenous sources. The professor wanted a LibGuide to support the assignment and worked with the librarian to make it a great resource. The students needed to assess sources and also use many resources outside library and library databases. This required them to learn to use research skills and critical thinking skills on the open web. The resources involved were videos, podcasts, OA journals, websites, and some journals in JSTOR and the catalog.

Acquisitions of Films from the Global South
Iris Yellum

Streaming media continues to be an essential resource for faculty and students. Despite wider availability and awareness of streaming for university libraries, difficulties remain in acquiring both physical and streaming media. It can be particularly difficult to acquire films from the Global South. The increasingly consumerist approach in higher education can mean that our collections are simply not a representation of broader film production trends. Even contemporary films featured in prominent film festivals can be difficult to acquire, especially those in regional languages. As academic library vendors continue to acquire each other, this is a loss for university libraries seeking to build diverse collections and provide access for undergraduate courses and film scholars. While we must certainly make choices about what to curate, it is important to consider how the democratization of filmmaking should be reflected in collection development. Our film collections increasingly look similar to each other as we outsource some or all of our film acquisitions to media vendors. This paper will discuss the importance of building a diverse film collection and the obstacles to achieving that.