AIHEC Virtual Library Project

The AIHEC Virtual Library Project is a result of the collaboration efforts between the American Indian Higher Education Consortium leadership, the 33 member tribal colleges, and the Alliance for Community Technology (ACT) at the University Of Michigan School Of Information, funded by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Broad project goals were to design and create a prototype for enhancing capacity within the AIHEC tribal college community using the Internet and the associated world-wide web to facilitate information sharing and collaboration. One goal of the project was to transfer the prototype system and management responsibilities to a native-controlled organization at the end of the grant in July 2002. That date was met, and the project is currently being managed by Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana.

Tribal college librarians met with AIHEC and ACT staff to develop collection policies and procedures, relevant American Indian database categories, duties and requirements of the Virtual Library Manager position, and participated in training sessions giving feedback on the interface designs while they were being developed. Interface design and technical assistance was provided from the faculty and staff of the Internet Public Library (IPL) at the University of Michigan. The only records that are being added to the centralized database are from the members of the AIHEC tribal colleges, ensuring that information collected is a valuable resource to the curriculum of the tribal colleges and communities.

Each individual AIHEC tribal college has a customized web interface portal integrated into their college website that links into a centralized database of records maintained by the AIHEC Virtual Library Manager, Jane Kirby. In addition to organized access to the free information found on the world-wide web, the grant also negotiated a two year subscription to access Ethnic News Watch to be made available to all AIHEC tribal college member institutions and students.

To view a generic interface into the AIHEC Virtual Library: (http://www.aihecvl.org/).

Information about the American Indian Higher Education Consortium may be found at their website (http://www.aihec.org/).

To reach the AIHEC Virtual Librarian, Jane Kirby, her email address is: virtuallibrarian2002@yahoo.com.

Further questions and information regarding ACT's role and activities on this grant may be directed to JoAnne Kerr.