Library and Information Sciences in Arctic and Northern Studies

This brief chapter outlines the other 15 chapters of the book Library and Information Sciences in Arctic and Northern Studies, as well as provides the purpose and rationale for the book. The chapters and book, as a whole, situate library and information sciences/studies (LIS) as an indispensable companion for Arctic and Northern research and projects and aims to inspire collaboration between LIS and Arctic and Northern studies.

Indigenous communities around the world have been turning to digital media and platforms to preserve and revitalize their culture, language, and ways of life as part of their broader struggle for self-determination and self-representation. This chapter provides an overview of digital storytelling as a methodology and provides examples of its use in systems and approaches for working with Indigenous communities. The chapter introduces the Inuvialuit Voices project, a federally funded collaborative project underway in Canada to explore the use of digital storytelling technologies to enhance digital libraries and provide a seamless platform for cultural heritage preservation and access in Indigenous communities. In addition, the chapter outlines the benefits of a real-time, seamless digital storytelling system, presents a community-focused participatory design methodology as a basis for working with Indigenous communities, and addresses the contribution of information practitioners to the project.

By means of the Digital Humanities of the North (DHN) website, this chapter shows how free access to social and cultural anthropology research is provided not only to scientific communities, but also to interested public and Indigenous communities of Siberia and other parts of the Circumpolar North. The DHN site is primarily targeted at local community use as endangered Indigenous knowledge and languages are best preserved and sustained if their everyday use is encouraged. At the same time, DHN also contributes to the overall preservation of cultural diversity in global perspective. The increasingly important role that use of new technology and social media plays now, and will play in the future, to involve the Indigenous youth is explored as they make use of documented but at-risk Indigenous knowledge of experienced elder community members. A particular focus of this chapter is on the new Environmental Knowledge of the North website, with the aim to bring together both Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous science with mainstream disciplinary social and cultural research combined with methods and data of the natural sciences. Another goal of the chapter is to connect museum collections virtually with fieldwork documentaries of corresponding knowledge and techniques of craftsmen, craftswomen, and artists from Indigenous communities.

This chapter describes activities of the Scientific Library of the Siberian Federal University (SibFU) on the development and implementation of the project Creation of a Scientific and Educational Geographical Library in SibFU. This project, launched jointly with the Russian Geographical Society, aims to provide users with high-quality informational and educational resources on the profile and topics of the main directions of development of geographical sciences and popularization of geographical knowledge among the population of the cities and region of Yenisei Siberia. Study of the Arctic is a priority task of the SibFU, and the activity of the SibFU library reflecting this priority is analysed in this chapter. The Arctic plays an important role in creating a new library model within the context of the formation of information resources via the works of SibFU scientists related to the study of Siberia and the Arctic by providing public access to their accumulated knowledge. The basis of this project’s collection is the unique documents of S. B. Slevich of the Russian Ecological Academy wherein topics include Arctic Indigenous peoples, ecology of the Far North, industrial development of northern territories, and construction on permafrost. In addition, this chapter identifies ways to further promote the project. For example, a plan of collaboration with the Institute of the North and the Arctic at SibFU is under development to train Indigenous peoples of the Russian Arctic on research activities, as well as publish a digest of scientific information on Arctic research carried out by universities throughout Yenisei Siberia.

This chapter is based on data about studies and projects conducted by the regional Central Libraries of Russia collected and published in the report O nauchnykh issledovaniyakh, provodimykh tsentral’nymi bibliotekami regionov Rossiyskoy Federatsii [On Scientific Studies Carried out by Central Libraries of Russian Federation Regions] presented at the All-Russian research conference “Traditions and innovations” held 26–27 November 2020. The current chapter’s scope is geographically limited to the Russian regions that have land in Far North areas. This chapter updates and extends the author’s previous work with some 2020 data not found in the original report.

As an island nation in the North Atlantic, Ireland’s relative proximity to the Arctic raises the question of whether Ireland can be categorized as an Arctic-adjacent state. In support of this claim, this chapter argues that Irish links to Arctic and Northern areas are underexplored but go back millennia, defining Ireland’s identity in the North and can be utilized towards promoting Ireland’s cultural diplomacy activities with Nordic states. Ireland’s growing interest in the Arctic region can be witnessed through its application for Arctic Council Observer status in December 2020 and the release of Ireland’s Nordic Strategy in June 2021 as part of its Global Ireland foreign policy. This chapter outlines the importance of the creation of the Network of Arctic Researchers Ireland (NARI) in February 2020 as a means for cross-disciplinary Arctic researchers to collaborate and develop new networking opportunities. The authors of this chapter were instrumental in developing the NARI Humanities and Social Science (HSS) Working Group and have organized it into three key research areas, which have a pivotal role in shaping future research outcomes in this multidisciplinary field. The NARI is an important means through which Irish HSS research with Arctic or Northern foci can be highlighted and existing research studies across multiple academic disciplines, including library and information science (LIS), and fields within HSS can be reorganized through the lens of Arctic and Northern studies to produce a more effective way of sharing resources and data while encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration. This chapter focuses on the development of the Irish Impact project as a mapping exercise within the NARI HSS Working Group that seeks to demonstrate Ireland’s historical, cultural, social, and political ties to the North Atlantic and Arctic regions. Indeed, the Irish Government has outlined the importance of shared cultural heritage in its Strategy and this chapter discusses Ireland’s historical connections to the North and Arctic through two significant eras: (1) the migration of Irish missionaries to Scandinavia in the early Christian era from the fifth through twelfth centuries, with a focus on Norway, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland; and (2) Ireland’s strong Viking heritage because of successive waves of Nordic invasions during the Middle Ages. The Irish Government is already using these two historical themes for cultural engagement and to foster greater diplomatic ties with Nordic countries. However, to further the policy objectives of Ireland’s Nordic Strategy, LIS systems must be further developed, and new research supports installed. The chapter concludes by outlining the importance of creating digital LIS systems towards the emergence of a visible and robust Irish Arctic and Northern studies university program that could meaningfully contribute to current discourse in the field. To further this objective, two projects are proposed: (1) the creation of an Irish Arctic digital library; and (2) the creation of an Irish university consortium for Arctic and Northern studies in HSS with a supporting university database listing Irish and Nordic partner universities involved in HSS research for Arctic and Northern Studies.