Velma S. Salabiye facts for kids

Velma S. Salabiye (born in 1948, died in 1996) was a special librarian from the Navajo Nation. She worked hard to support libraries and information for Native American communities. She led the American Indian Culture Center Library at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She also helped start the American Indian Library Association, a group that helps Native American libraries and librarians.

Velma Salabiye's Early Life and School

Velma S. Salabiye was born in 1948 in Bellemont, Arizona. She finished high school at St. Michael Indian School in 1966. She then went to the University of Arizona and earned a degree in education in 1971.

In 1974, she earned another degree, a Master of Library Science. She got this degree from the University of Arizona's Indian Graduate Library Institute. This special program helped Native American students become librarians.

Velma Salabiye's Library Work

While studying for her master's degree, Velma worked at the Navajo Nation's Window Rock Public Library. In 1975, she created plans for a new center. This center would later become the Navajo Research and Statistics Center.

In 1977, she helped organize a meeting for the Special Libraries Association on the Navajo reservation. This showed her dedication to bringing library discussions to Native lands. In 1979, she received a special award called the D'Arcy McNickle Fellowship. This allowed her to study the important contributions of Navajo women at the Newberry Library.

Velma became the director of the UCLA American Indian Culture Center's library in 1980. She worked as a librarian at UCLA until she passed away in 1996.

Helping Native American Libraries

Velma Salabiye believed it was very important for Native people to have access to their own history. In a 1978 article, she wrote about this need. She said that Native Americans:

as a people, have gone too long with non-Native Americans posing as keepers of written material about us. We deserve to know what has been written about us, to know what the general public is learning. We don't need any more cowboy-frontier stories; we don't need to be researched any more to earn someone a Ph.D. What we do need is information power to fight a modern world that has been able to use this powerful weapon against us for so long.

She felt that Native communities should control their own stories and information.

Velma thought that information about Native peoples should be easy for them to find. For example, she suggested keeping tribal records on reservations. She also saw the need for more Native American librarians.

Throughout her career, she wrote many articles and books about library collections for American Indians. She worked hard to support Native American librarianship and collections. In 1987, the U.S. Department of Education recognized her efforts. They gave her an award for helping library services for Indian tribes. In 1988, she became an assistant editor for the American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

Velma was also very active in the American Library Association. This is a large group for librarians in the United States. She was chosen to be on the organization's council in 1994. She was also a founding member of the American Indian Library Association. This group is connected to the ALA and focuses on Native American libraries. Velma Salabiye passed away in the summer of 1996.