Press Release July 2019  Library of Congress and LLMC are excited to announce that the Indigenous Law Portal (ILP) is now publicly available on LLMC Digital www.llmcdigital.org.

The Indigenous Law Portal (ILP) was begun by the Law Library of Congress staff as a way to provide access to American and Canadian indigenous materials at the Law Library. It is based on the subject arrangements and structure of the Library of Congress Classification schedules for Law of Indigenous Peoples in the Western Hemisphere (Classes KI-KIZ) developed by Dr. Jolande Goldberg, Senior Law Classification Specialist. The Portal has grown to include 1,165 Tribes and links to 4,539 external websites, far beyond the original Law Library boundaries.  In 2018, the Law Library of Congress agreed that LLMC could assume ongoing development of the ILP going forward.  

Jane Sánchez, Law Librarian of Congress, said, “We are proud to have developed this substantial resource providing enhanced access to information of Indigenous Peoples. The proof of its considerable value is the consistently high usage of ILP around the world.  It is now time to responsibly transition this service to LLMC, committed to expanding coverage while maintaining and growing its potential.”

LLMC, a non-profit consortium serving hundreds of libraries and other institutions, has supported this initiative from the beginning by providing access to relevant content, especially Hawaiian Kingdom and Native American charters and constitutions.  In addition, LLMC’s Chairman of the Board, Dr. Richard Amelung, Emeritus Professor of Legal Research Vincent C. Immel Law Library Saint Louis University, has worked with Jolande Goldberg to verify thousands of Indigenous Peoples’ websites in North, Central and South America in order to establish the proper name authorities for tribes and indigenous organizations and to identify other informative ILP links. 

The Indigenous Law Portal will continue to be accessible to the public at no charge on LLMC Digital www.llmcdigital.org.  Users of ILP on Library of Congress site will also note that LLMC designed its version to closely resemble features of the Library of Congress service, such as the popular tribe selection through maps, while offering greater sustainability and scalability as an updatable database.  

LLMC’s Amelung, and Library of Congress’ Goldberg will lead a committee of experts to monitor existing ILP links as well as adding new content.

Dr. Amelung said, “On behalf of the LLMC organization, we are very excited to take on such a meaningful resource.  The original concept for the design of ILP was developed by the Library of Congress and both organizations appreciate its success as well as the opportunity to continually expand its coverage and outreach, and secure its relevancy.  With the assistance of Library of Congress and LLMC’s extensive network of libraries, we are uniquely qualified and honored to be ILP caretakers.”

For additional information please send an email to llmc@llmcdigital.org.