As COVID-19 swept the globe, it transformed the way people access information. This has been both challenging and metamorphic for libraries worldwide, particularly those serving indigenous people. Indigenous education has been severely impacted by the pandemic. When the pandemic swept the globe and many countries went into “lockdown,” users were not allowed to visit the physical facilities of libraries and the collections become inaccessible. This chapter is a case study about the adjustment of collection strategies to serve the needs of students in an indigenous studies program during the pandemic. This chapter aims to capture the challenges encountered at a regional-focused collection, the impacts to an indigenous studies program, the adjusting collection strategies to meet the needs of the program, and key lessons learned. The selected case is a regional-focused collection in a research library on Guam.
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The Guam and Micronesia Collection (the Collection), a reference collection in the UOG’s Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC), is a crucial component to an interrelated system of CHamoru history and language education. The Collection’s intent is to gather all known materials about Micronesia. Some materials are rare sources, and some are the only copies of their kind in the region. The Collection is the most extensive repository of CHamoru language materials and primary sources about CHamoru history and culture. Close to 40 percent of materials in the Collection are CHamoru-, Guam-, or Marianas-related resources. The Collection serves a wide range of users, but it is especially important to students, teachers, professors and scholars of CHamoru education because it holds CHamoru language materials, legends, traditional wisdom, literature, and genealogical and historical documents.
Besides formal CHamoru education, the Collection also supports activities that promote CHamoru education. Since 2009, MARC sponsors an annual Guam History Day competition for which secondary education students compete in various types of history projects (papers, websites, documentaries, displays, and more) about the island’s history. The Collection provides resources to support these students. Through the research process, students learn and come to understand their history, and gaining a deeper sense of their identity. The Collection also supports various federally and locally funded projects that promote CHamoru history and culture, such as Guampedia articles, conferences of indigenous affairs and virtual exhibits.
Within the Collection there are 12 sub-collections, and of them, five are essential in supporting CHamoru education: 1) CHamoru language materials; 2) monographs; 3) periodicals, 4) vertical files and 5) photographs.
The CHamoru language materials substantially support CHamoru education in Guam. There are over 700 titles in the CHamoru language and literature materials, which consist of Guam Department of Education (GDOE) teaching resources, dictionaries, children’s books, cultural literature and linguistic materials written in CHamoru. The core intention of CHamoru primary, secondary and higher education is to improve the proficiency and fluency of CHamoru language speakers and pass on key CHamoru values and traditions. CHamoru language learning is emphasized and required in both Guam Department of Education CHamoru Studies curriculum and the mission of UOG’s CHamoru Studies Program (described in more details below). For example, the students of the CHamoru Studies Program (the Program) used to visit the Collection, read CHamoru language materials and record their reading of these materials for class assignments. It was an effective way to improve their language skills. Also, a high school teacher from a private high school brought his students to the Collection specifically for the CHamoru language materials.