Project Overview

The Centering Washington Tribal Libraries: Building Relationships and Understanding Libraries
From the Stories of Their Communities (CWATL) project aims to explore the past, present, and
future of tribal librarianship in Washington state. Through a series of face-to-face visits across
Washington and a convening of Washington tribal librarians, the project will build the
foundation for tribal librarians and community members to discuss regional needs of their
communities and the roles of their libraries.

Between July 2022 and December 2022, we had conversations with community members
about their tribal library. Our goal is to visit with staff at four tribal libraries as well as those in
the community who are involved with the library, such as community members whose
programs and tribal duties intersect with that of the library, or who make decisions about
funding and programs at the tribe. These visits gave everyone a chance to talk about tribal
libraries, what they are doing, what they hope for, and how they view the role of their libraries
in their communities. The conversations that took place allowed us to explore themes for reporting on the grant activities and plan topics to be considered for the convening of the librarians.

In March 2023, we hosted a convening of tribal library staff in Wenatchee as a pre-conference
before the Washington Library Association (WLA) annual conference. The full-day convening took place on March 30, in Wenatchee, and it brought tribal library staff and other tribal community stakeholders together to share with each other across the state in order to build a supportive network together. By offering financial support to attend the pre-conference convening through the Mellon grant, tribal librarians were able to attend the WLA
Conference and begin to build relationships with other tribal librarians, their public library neighbors, and previously unmet colleagues.

The CWATL project was modeled with research methods that are mindful of Indigenous
practices and protocols, establishing a collaborative approach that benefits the communities.
Besides being an opportunity to learn more about our state’s tribal libraries. One of the key
areas of focus for this grant is to document practices that allow for research projects in
collaboration with tribal communities and to demonstrate for all institutions and funding
agencies that wish to work with tribal libraries and tribal communities how such work is most
effectively accomplished. The relationships that the three grant co-collaborators build with tribal participants will be an important result of this work and will be on-going and ever-growing, as a result of the conversations they have together in this year-long project. As a result of these relationships, tribal libraries will have an understanding of the resources
available to them, from the UW Information School (iSchool), from other institutions and
funding agencies and from other libraries in the state, including other tribal libraries.