Learning Commons & Library

Leeward Library is excited to announce the expansion of its library instruction offerings to include music-focused research instruction, broadening the ways students engage with ʻike, history, and scholarly resources.

Most recently, Leeward Library partnered with Professor Aamodt to deliver in-depth research instruction for a music course at the Waiʻanae Moku Campus. Two new research modules were developed and presented by Hauʻolihiwahiwa Moniz, Hawaiian and Pacific Resource Librarian, to support students in critically engaging with music as cultural knowledge, history, and lived experience.

The first module explored the history of Hawaiian music, introducing students to a wide range of traditions, including oli (Hawaiian chant), leo kiʻekiʻe (Hawaiian falsetto), kō (a stylized vocal technique emphasizing elongated vowels and sustained notes), and kī hōʻalu (slack key guitar), among many others. Students were also guided through specialized repositories and resources for researching Hawaiian music, lyrics, composers, and the cultural stories and contexts behind musical compositions.

The second module focused on Portuguese music and migration in Hawaiʻi, tracing the arrival of Portuguese communities, primarily from the Azores and Madeira, and the musical traditions they carried with them. Students examined fado, a melancholic working-class music style known for its emotional intensity and themes of longing and saudade. The module also explored the history of the ʻukulele in Hawaiʻi, tracing its development from Portuguese stringed instruments such as the cavaquinho and braguinha. Research repositories centered on Portuguese communities, music, and local histories in Hawaiʻi were shared to support deeper inquiry.

Through these music-centered modules, Leeward Library continues to demonstrate how library instruction can be adapted to discipline-specific learning, connecting students with research tools that honor cultural context, migration histories, and creative expression.

Leeward Library looks forward to continuing to expand the scope of its instructional offerings across disciplines. Faculty interested in developing or requesting a customized library instruction session by Hauʻolihiwahiwa are encouraged to contact her at hmoniz@hawaii.edu.

On February 12, 2026, Hauʻolihiwahiwa Moniz, librarian at Leeward Community College, served as a guest speaker for the Indigenous Librarianship course at the University of Alberta’s School of Library and Information Studies. The session was hosted by Professors Lorisia and Kirk MacLeod, whose course examines Indigenous approaches to knowledge organization, stewardship, and library practice.

Moniz’s presentation explored the Nā Mea Kanu Series, a bimonthly library programming initiative she developed at the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies’ Laka me Lono Resource Center. Nā Mea Kanu is grounded in an innovative Indigenous knowledge organization system designed by Moniz that centers Hawaiian religious and ecological frameworks. The system organizes library collections, programming, and related cultural activities through akua (Native Hawaiian gods), their kino lau (body and elemental forms), and associated ʻike (knowledge domains), offering an alternative to Western classification models.

Through this framework, patrons are able to engage library materials relationally, connecting texts, archival resources, plants, seasons, and cultural practices, rather than encountering collections as disconnected subjects. The Nā Mea Kanu Series extends this system into experiential programming, supporting deeper access, cultural literacy, and community engagement within the library.

The presentation also situated this work within broader Indigenous librarianship discourse. It complemented an international, Mellon Foundation–funded research project for which Moniz served as Principal Investigator. That project documented contemporary Indigenous librarianship practices and environments across 40 Indigenous communities globally, representing the first major primary-data study in the field that moved beyond single case studies.

Students have engaged with the global study over the course of the semester. To read this study please visit:
 https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/items/2ef1a453-e0bc-406a-913e-f041c440e770

This invitation reflects the growing international interest in Indigenous librarianship practices that are place-based, relational, and rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems, and highlights the role of Hawaiian approaches in shaping conversations about the future of libraries worldwide.