These are projects I worked on before I started my PhD program, projects that have informed my current research.

Member of the American Indian Library Association (AILA) Executive Board. 2010-2013. I served as President of AILA during this time, as well as Vice President and Immediate Past President. Being on the executive board allowed me to see how a grassroots organization serving the library needs of American Indian populations operates at the national level.

Stories of Arizona’s Tribal Libraries. 2010-2011. This was a project I worked on while working with the Knowledge River program at the University of Arizona. My project partner was Jamie A. Lee, formerly a Knowledge River scholar.  The purpose of the Stories of Arizona’s Tribal Libraries Oral History Project was to capture the history and development of tribal libraries while also demonstrating that these libraries are indeed a vital and valuable part of the community and the state of Arizona. We visited four libraries and collected stories from elders, librarians, library directors, councilors, community cultural directors, museum directors, and library users. We also conducted hands-on oral history workshop at the 10th Gathering of Arizona Tribal Libraries.

Research with Respect. This is another project from my time at Knowledge River. On 2 November 2010, Knowledge River, in collaboration with the School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) and the University of Arizona Libraries, presented Research with Respect: Ethical Approaches to Native American Cultural Research and Archival Practices, a seminar on the ethical issues related to collection, management and accessibility of knowledge resources from Native American populations.  Invited scholars and UA graduate students presented on their perspectives on research integrity.  Scholars included Dr. Jennie R. Joe, Director of the Native American Research and Training Center (NARTC), UA; Karen Underhill, Head of Special Collections, NAU Libraries; and Ally Krebs, Ph.D. student, University of Washington and Knowledge River Alumna, as well as UA students Susan Barrett and Casey C. Kahn-Thornbrugh.  This was sponsored by the UA Office for the Responsible Conduct of Research, The UA Graduate College, and The Project for Scholarly Integrity, an initiative of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS). Here are my opening remarks:

“Knowledge River: A case study of a library and information science program focusing on Latino and Native American perspectives,” Library Trends, 59 (2), 2010. (with Patricia Montiel-Overall).  I co-wrote this article with Dr. Montiel-Overall about the Knowledge River program.

TRAILS: Tribal Libraries Procedures Manual, 3rd edition. This was one of the first major projects I worked on after graduating from library school. In 2006, I was invited by Satia Orange to work with the ALA Office for Outreach and Literacy Services (ALA OLOS) to administer the tribal libraries websites for the ALA committee on Rural, Native & Tribal Libraries of All Kinds. In the process of this work, I discovered a document that came out of the Training and Assistance for Indian Library Services (TRAILS) program that was started in 1985 under the direction of Dr. Lotsee Patterson, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education. I asked if we could include TRAILS in my work, and OLOS gave me the support and connected me with a fantastic team of librarians to revise the TRAILS document.