Paper Talk: A History of Libraries, Print Culture, and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada before 1960

by Brendan Frederick R. Edwards

The pre-1960 history of print culture and libraries, as they relate to the First Peoples of Canada, has gone largely untold. Paper Talk explores the relationship between the introduction of western print culture to Aboriginal peoples by missionaries, the development of libraries in the Indian schools in the nineteenth century, and the establishment of community-accessible collections in the twentieth century. While missionaries and the Department of Indian Affairs envisioned books and libraries as assimilative and "civilizing" tools, Edwards shows that some Aboriginal peoples articulated western ideas of print culture, literacy, books, and libraries as tools to assist their own cultural, social, and political aspirations. This text also serves to illustrate that the contemporary struggle of Aboriginal peoples in Canada to establish libraries in communities has a historical basis and that many of the obstacles faced today are remarkably similar to those encountered by earlier generations.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2004

About the author

Brendan F. R. Edwards holds a Doctorate in History, specialising in Native-Newcomer relations, from the University of Saskatchewan, and Master’s degrees from Trent and McGill Universities. He is the author of Paper Talk: a history of libraries, print culture, and Aboriginal peoples in Canada before 1960 (Scarecrow, 2005), articles on Aboriginal literacy and publishing in the History of the Book in Canada (UTP, 2005, 2007), and works in the journals Ontario History and BC Studies, among others. He is also the author of a guide to Slovak culture and customs, published in 2011.

Reviews

[Grumpylibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is essentially THE book on aboriginal/indigenous libraries in Canada, historically speaking. Incredibly rich, full of intensely useful information, particularly for MLIS students, aboriginal researchers, or both.

[Nicole Slattery]

A thesis read, but an interesting peak into a history that's not that known!

[Apostate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an tremendously fascinating book about an area of library science history that does not get enough attention. I found it while looking for sources for a LIS paper; while it did not fit in with my paper's original topic, I was so entralled with the book, I decided to re-write the paper to draw on it as a reference.