Success Stories

First Nations Periodical Index

SchoolNet Digital Collections Brings First Nations Information to the Internet

The First Nations Periodical Index is a web site containing a list of journals of mainly Canadian Aboriginal content. An important information tool about First Nations for high school and university students, educators and researchers, the Index was researched and put into digital format by a team of young people under contract to the SchoolNet Digital Collections program. The team members hope to continue building the index, adding new materials as they become available.

The project was carried out under contract to Industry Canada’s SchoolNet Digital Collections program, which gives people 15 to 30 years of age entrepreneurial and technology-based job experience converting collections of Canadian material into digital form for display on SchoolNet. The SchoolNet Digital Collections web site has grown to become possibly the largest single source of Canadian content on the Information Highway.

April Chiefcalf, project leader and library technician at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College in Saskatoon, notes that the Index is a resource that has been needed for a long time. "We’ve had good feedback about this web site", she said. Researchers can now find periodicals about Canadian First Nations listed and described in one place. It makes their work easier, and helps them make sure that nothing gets left out in their projects.

Chiefcalf was impressed by the five First Nations young people who helped her research the information for the project and produced the digital components by scanning the journal covers for the site. Three of these team members had never done any technical work on the web before, she said. Two of them were single mothers, and that was an additional challenge for them.

The team developed the site in twelve weeks. They all gained new skills, including digitizing material for the web, leadership and team work. One of the team members, Duane Turner, had worked on Our Elders: Interviews with Saskatchewan Elders, another SchoolNet Digital Collections web site that brings the wisdom, stories and images of the Saulteaux, Dakota, Assiniboine, Dene and Cree elders to the Information Highway. A graduate of the Library Technician Program at Saskatoon’s Kelsey Institute, Turner is now working for the University of Saskatchewan.

Chiefcalf noted that the other team members are now back in school, and one hopes to work on another SchoolNet Digital Collections project on native newspapers. "The Internet has proved to be a wonderful way of promoting the richness and diversity of First Nations cultures", she said. "Only recently has so much material and information been available on this subject."

Team member Celeste Lerat is enthusiastic about her experience with the program. In addition to web page design and data entry, she digitized the journal covers for the site. "The project helped me develop a whole new set of skills. I had done some keyboarding, but no programming before this. For me, the best thing was that there was something new to learn every day. Also, the project made computer technology and the Internet much more accessible", she said. Lerat is now working on a web page for the Library Services for Saskatchewan Aboriginal Peoples project under the direction of April Chiefcalf. She hopes to continue developing her knowledge of Internet technology.

Other team members were Terri Lavallee, Tanya Tootoosis, and Anita Cameron.

January 1998