Academic Health Sciences Libraries' Outreach and Engagement with North American Indigenous Communities: A Scoping Review

• Main Authors: Cruise, Allison, Ellsworth-Kopkowski, Alexis, Villezcas, A. Nydia, Eldredge, Jonathan, Rethlefsen, Melissa L.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Center for Open Science 2022
• Subjects: Briggs; Canada; Prisma; First Nations; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/59rq7

Objective: Through this scoping review we sought to identify trends and themes in how academic health sciences libraries in the United States, Canada and Mexico have supported engagement and outreach with Native Americans, Alaska Natives, First Nations, and Indigenous peoples, in or from those same countries. We also sought to learn and share culturally effective practices for libraries engaging with these communities.Methods: We searched seven bibliographic databases, E-LIS, and multiple sources of grey literature. Results were screened using Covidence and Google Sheets. We utilized Arksey and O’Malley’s framework for scoping reviews and followed principles from Joanna Briggs Institute’s Manual for Evidence Synthesis. We also followed the PRISMA and PRISMA-S guidelines. We determined types of interventions used by academic health sciences libraries in engagement with our included populations, the level of public participation reached by these interventions, what partnerships were established, and what practices emerged.Results: Database searching returned 2,050 unique results, 110 of which were relevant and screened in full text. Additional searching returned 211 unique results for full text screening. After screening, 15 results from database searching were included, and 50 from other sources. From these 65 reports, 45 unique programs were identified. Data extraction was conducted on these programs to identify partners, intervention type, and evaluation method. The programs were categorized using the IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation.Conclusions: Our scoping review found that many programs were health information trainings, and did not move beyond informing the public with little further involvement. The need for sustained funding, greater community participation and more publishing on engagement and outreach are discussed.