REPACKAGING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR NON-INDIGENOUS USERS IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

ABSTRACT This research was designed to determine strategies for repackaging indigenous knowledge (IK) for non indigenous users in university libraries. The challenge in this research is not about the usefulness and appropriateness of the IK for both indigenous and non indigenous information seekers but about exploring and taking advantage of their usefulness and appropriateness and repackaging them for the hitherto neglected non indigenous library users. The paper covers rationale for repackaging IK materials in libraries; appropriate methods for repackaging IK for non-indigenous users in the libraries; challenges associated with repackaging of IK in the libraries, and strategies for enhancing the repackaging of IK for non-indigenous users in the libraries. The paper recommends that libraries need to promote a culture of knowledge sharing amongst indigenous and non indigenous people; there is need for documentation and data banking of indigenous knowledge; interviews of elderly people on indigenous knowledge or indigenous information could be tape-recorded and kept in memory bank