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San Diego County (California, USA) contains 18 Indian reservations—more than any other county in the United States. Citizens of these reservations, each recognized as a sovereign nation, have information needs that are highly sophisticated. Coming from a civilization that preserved history through oral tradition, they have only recently made the transition to writing things down and collecting books into buildings. In spite of many tragic events that drastically reduced their population, San Diego County's Indians have retained much of their heritage through efforts of tribal elders and non-Indian historians. With federal and local assistance, tribal libraries were constructed on about half of San Diego County's reservations during the 1980s. Over the next few years, reduction of grant funds adversely affected them, resulting in some closures. Thanks to creative efforts made by many individuals at a local university, the state library, professional associations, and most of all by the Indians themselves, a number of San Diego County's tribal libraries are growing and taking on new shapes. Five local tribal librarians were surveyed twice over a 12-month period regarding their respective libraries. Analysis yielded four key factors for success: (1) the presence of a designated librarian; (2) support from the tribal government; (3) plans and a vision for the future; and (4) partnerships and connections with other entities. The research suggests that these factors are applicable toward ensuring success for small, geographically and culturally isolated libraries in any context.

This chapter discusses some of the challenges faced by tribal libraries. Considering the information provided throughout the rest of this volume, it is clear that some of the core issues—such as poor broadband availability, difficulties in achieving economies of scale, and barriers to collaboration—are shared between tribal institutions and rural libraries throughout the United States.

The chapter presents a brief review of the literature on tribal libraries, establishing how they compare with rural public libraries in the United States. The remainder of the chapter is designed as a conversation piece, with responses from interviews with librarians from two tribal libraries detailing how the challenges faced by these outlets parallel those faced by America’s rural libraries.

• Tribal libraries face obstacles that are common among nontribal rural public libraries, such as poor broadband Internet availability, lack of funding, and geographic barriers that limit patron access.

• Although public libraries exist in some tribal communities, other forms of libraries and cultural heritage institutions often fill the service roles that public libraries occupy in nontribal communities.

• Public-oriented information institutions in tribal communities commonly preserve and promote tribal heritage, often as one of their primary purposes. Considering that this is often achieved on limited budgets, further documentation of these efforts could be useful for guiding nontribal rural public libraries that wish to do more to preserve and promote their local cultural heritage.

Tribal libraries face obstacles that are common among nontribal rural public libraries, such as poor broadband Internet availability, lack of funding, and geographic barriers that limit patron access.

Although public libraries exist in some tribal communities, other forms of libraries and cultural heritage institutions often fill the service roles that public libraries occupy in nontribal communities.

Public-oriented information institutions in tribal communities commonly preserve and promote tribal heritage, often as one of their primary purposes. Considering that this is often achieved on limited budgets, further documentation of these efforts could be useful for guiding nontribal rural public libraries that wish to do more to preserve and promote their local cultural heritage.

This study creates bridges between rural public libraries in the United States and tribal libraries, which are commonly studied as two separate phenomena. Although the authors document how these types of institutions differ from each other in significant ways, barriers of broadband access, geographic isolation, and lack of funding are common across both rural and tribal libraries. The information provided in this chapter shows that both types of institutions need solutions for similar problems.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the operation and management as well as the activities of tribal libraries in general, providing insights and implications in five areas: general operations and management, staffing and human resource management, financial operations, service and program management, and technology-related activities, using Oglala Lakota College (OLC) Library as a case study.

This paper uses information visualization techniques to create visual displays of report data collected from OLC Library. Visualizations were created using Tableau software to provide a quantitative, analytical, and evidence-based view of how tribal libraries operate and are managed.

Tribal populations can be well served despite limited funding and staff resources, providing academic and public library services on par with urban libraries.

Drawing a story from the data proved to be difficult because a bias had been created by the legal service area that most tables of the state data set used to compare reported data. How tribal libraries translate value also posed another challenge. Because the research was conducted in a single tribal library, further research in different, expanded settings and contexts is suggested.

This study is one of the first to investigate tribal library activities by exploring report data and quantitatively using information visualization techniques.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the impact of a grant to fund staffing part‐time technology staff at centers on six reservations in Arizona, USA. The grant was designed to determine whether tribal communities would be able to support part‐time technology staff positions at the end of a one‐year funding period.

Evaluation of the grant was conducted through on‐site visits, interviews with technology staff, grant managers, student interns, and selected American Indian patrons of the technology sites.

Results indicate that a successful technology training site was dependent on several factors, including the personality and dedication of the technology staff, the location of the center, and the customized services provided. Nine recommendations from the study are identified, including the establishment of state‐level advisory and financial support, sharing of information among sites, building local capacity, continuing education for technology staff, continuance of the graduate student internship program, and continued contact with community technologies as a possible recruiting ground for graduate LIS programs.

Until now little information has been available on how to introduce technology services at information settings in Indian country within the USA.

The tribal library is a community center that serves the unique information needs of a Native American community. A tribal library can be a kind of public library for the community, an education and literacy center, as well as an archive that records and preserves the heritage of a tribe. However, tribal libraries typically struggle with inadequate and unstable funding, and in California are often denied the benefits of resource‐sharing agreements within library networks. Tribal library collection development also presents special challenges in terms of identifying, locating and acquiring the materials most needed. This paper provides guidelines for selection of materials, suggestions for sources of Native American materials with an emphasis on California Indians, as well as selected titles for California tribal libraries.

This paper aims to review content provided in an article published in 1993 to determine if there is still a need to provide information services to American Indians living away from their homeland areas.

The design involved reviewing the content and recommendations provided in the 1993 article and then to update this content by reviewing updated US Census data, a literature review and observed examples based on personal observations and experiences.

The paper found that there is still a need for services due to increased American Indian population. While more American Indian librarians are employed, there is still a need for all librarians to learn how to serve this population.

While the article reviews content from 1993, it provides original perspectives and adds additional evaluation criteria.

The purpose of this case study was to explore senior librarians’ perceptions of successful leadership skills in the 21st century. The data gathered from 10 senior library leaders consisted of demographic information and responses to six open-ended interview questions. From the NVivo 10 analysis, several significant themes emerged regarding successful library leadership skills in the 21st century at two levels: foundational and interpersonal. At the foundational level, technical and knowledge skills form the building blocks for the next level of interpersonal skills. Persuasion and collaborative skills are interwoven with these interpersonal skills, both of which are at the core of the postindustrial paradigm of leadership. These two levels of skills, with an emphasis on persuasion skills, should form the basis of succession planning programs for next generation librarians. Implementing such programs could lead to increased leadership diversity, greater job satisfaction, improved job performance and effectiveness, all of which help retain librarians and ease staff shortages. Further studies are recommended.

“Today the imperative need of Indian communities in the field of education is a need to know; to know the past …and to know about the world that surrounds them in the same intimate manner they once knew the plains, mountains, deserts, rivers, and woods.” — Vine Deloria, Jr., The Right to Know 1978.