Calling for an Open Access Biocultural-Knowledge Database Towards Sustained Climate Action

Abstract

With multiplying extreme and chronic global climate changes, it is vital that librarians and information scientists actively facilitate discoverability and open access to relevant, and sometimes underrepresented, information and knowledge systems. Traditional (TK), Local (LK), and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) include discipline-spanning holistic practices and involve reciprocity as a guiding principle of engagement. Academic articles are often inaccessible to communities who might benefit from information relevant or complementary to Living Heritage Traditions. This paper, based on a conceptual article in the Journal of Documentation, argues that library ethical and technical best practices can and should be applied towards creating a stakeholder-respectful global database of Biocultural Heritage supportive of cross-silo information sharing. The project would support ongoing documentation and conservation of Local and Indigenous community knowledge, including “the understandings, skills and philosophies developed by societies with long histories of interaction with their natural surroundings” (UNESCO, 2017). The vision also draws upon findings of the Convention of Biological Diversity Working Group (2019), which noted TK ecosystem management in relation to cultural heritage. The database would embed stakeholder rights, recognizing that communities may not wish to participate or include knowledge elements. This essential rights feature acknowledges that memory institutions have a mixed stewardship history sometimes involving extraction, cultural insensitivity, or inadequate attribution. Nature-integrating and relational paradigms are explored as they pertain to lifecycle and interoperable aspects of digital libraries. The paper also notes methodologies from Library and Information Science which could support sustained engagement by local and global library communities; these include multidisciplinary Open Access and citizen science as catalysts for achieving SDGs via the documentation of biocultural heritage, using library technical and subject expertise. Metadata and interoperability functions suggest key data curation roles for digital librarians.