For Indigenous communities, the benefits of community libraries range from literacy, to community development, to decolonisation. These are findings from a pre-publication copy of a study that assesses Write to Read BC partnerships with isolated communities.
The study assesses the effectiveness of indigenous-led libraries in isolated BC communities. Simon Fraser University’s Community-Engaged Research initiative (CERi) arranged the study to evaluate Write to Read BC’s ongoing libraries project. The research was conducted in 2025, and the report will be published in spring 2026.
In the pre-publication copy, some findings of the academic literature review are:
- A library has the most impact when it’s an integrated part of the community. This refers to more than a physical location that’s easy to visit; it’s about contributing to community identity. A community’s vision for itself needs to include a library.
— From M Asselin and R Dorion, 2013. - Printed and digital material in Indigenous-led libraries needs to present indigenous culture as equal, not inferior, to Western culture. This is because libraries can alter the social status of Indigenous communities previously shaped by Western sovereignty. In effect, a library can help counter the dispossession of traditional lands and historical prohibitions on language and cultural practice.
— From B Parkin, H Harper, I Wallace, and P Mickan, 2020. - Libraries are essential for diversity of culture and language. In isolated indigenous communities, libraries can counter the loss of knowledges and languages, including through online content. That’s because unequal in-home access to digital information makes online participation harder for some.
— From B Parkin, H Harper, I Wallace, and P Mickan, 2020. - Libraries can step beyond traditional concepts of learning as passive, focused on rote methods and recitation. Indigenous storytelling can play a part in learning, including remotely or via recordings. Basically, a library can embrace inclusion.
— From M Asselin and R Dorion, 2013, and from M Kovach, 2017. - Community libraries are often initially created to foster literacy. But they become a way to support community engagement, social exchange, and cultural resiliency.
— From R Sarjeant-Jenkins and K Walker, 2015.
Funding and sources
The research described here was made possible with Simon Fraser University’s CERi funding. The researcher’s analysis included these sources:
- Asselin, M., & Doiron, R. (2013). Linking Literacy and Libraries in Global Communities (1st ed.). Routledge.
- Ball, J. (2004). As if Indigenous knowledge and communities mattered: Transformative education in First Nations communities in Canada. American Indian Quarterly, 454-479.
- Burgess, M. A. (2017). Investigating the impact upon First Nations students on reserve, in relation to their elementary school experience (Doctoral dissertation, University of Northern British Columbia).
- Froehlich Chow, A., Wahpepah, K., Humbert, M. L., Houser, N., Brussoni, M., Erlandson, M., … & Ali, F. (2025). Nature’s Way-Our Way: A Journey Through the Co-Creation and Sharing of an Indigenous Physical Literacy Enriched Early Years Initiative. Engaged Scholar Journal, 11(1), 18-35.
- Kovach, M. (2017). Doing indigenous methodologies. The SAGE handbook of qualitative research, 383-406.
- Helen Klieve, Bev Fluckiger. (2015). Towards an evidence base: Exploring the impact of community-based literacy programs in remote Indigenous communities. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 40(2), 89–98.
- McMahon, R., McNally, M. B., Nitschke, E., Napier, K., Alvarez Malvido, M., & Akçayir, M. (2024). Codesigning community networking literacies with rural/remote Northern Indigenous communities in Northwest Territories, Canada. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 29(1).
- Morcom, L. (2014). Determining the role of language and culture in First Nations schools: A comparison of the First Nations Education Act with the policy of the Assembly of First Nations. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, (163).
