Our goal.

This four-year grant-funded project will oversee the development and launch of a digital library infrastructure for the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and Canada's north.

Methodology.

Ethnographic methodology will be employed to conduct observation and interviews, review documentation, and immerse in the community’s culture and the worldviews of members of the community. Surveys, focus groups and interviews will be used to gather information about:

  • information needs and seeking behaviours
  • the use of metadata standards and practices suitable for the ISR community
  • resources and physical materials to be digitized and incorporated into the digital library

Grounded Theory will be used to analyze the qualitative data gathered in order to draw out dominant themes that represent information needs, behaviours and practices of the participants.

Finally, a user-centered evaluation of the digital library and metadata framework will be conducted to ensure its usability and usefulness.

MacFarlane Collection, cat. no. E2167-2, source: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/176 By Roy Goose (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The top image is a pair of snow goggles from the MacFarlane Collection (Invialuit Living History). The bottom image is a Traditional Inuvialuit whaling camp protected by driftwood on the shores of the Arctic Ocean 20 miles from Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, Canada (Author: Roy Goose).