Association of Canadian Archivists Blog

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Erica Hernandez-Read

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:49:23 GMT

2025 marked the 50th anniversary of the Association of Canadian Archivists—a milestone that offers a unique opportunity to reflect on five decades of archival practice, community-building, and collective professional growth. To celebrate, the ACA Blog team has launched a special interview series to spotlight the voices, experiences, and insights of ACA members past and present through intergenerational conversations. Students and emerging professionals inteview longtime members, offering a space to share personal reflections, institutional memory, and the evolving landscape of archival work in Canada.

In today's feature, Grace Park chats with Erica Hernandez-Read, Head of Archives and Special Collections at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Can you tell us about your first experience with the Association of Canadian Archivists? What drew you to become a member? How did you first become involved with the ACA?

My first experience with the ACA was back in 2002 at the Vancouver conference. I had been out of school for about a year and as a new professional working in the Lower Mainland, I had no professional development funds at all. So, it was an amazing opportunity for me to be able attend a conference of ACA’s calibre so close to home. I remember having read so many interesting articles from Archivaria in school and being able to listen to some of these authors speak at this conference, it was just an incredible experience.

I believe there were a few ACA@UBC events that I probably attended while at UBC but I wasn't actively involved in the ACA until several years later. It took me a while to get my nerve up to volunteer even though I knew it was an important way for me to network and make those important collegial connections, as well as to continue my growth as a professional. After getting over that initial hesitation, I've pretty much been an active member since 2006.

You said you’ve been involved since 2006. I'm curious about what keeps you motivated to stay involved every year, especially since you've been involved in many different capacities. How has it been like and how has it helped in your journey?

When I first started volunteering at the committee level, it was to build my collegial network and my professional portfolio. Back in 2006 I was the only archivist in my institution, and it was important for me, as a new professional, to have colleagues to bounce ideas off of and learn from. But I soon came to understand that working in that kind of dynamic environment with like-minded and amazing people was a powerful way to explore new ideas and new ways of doing archival work — where we could amplify the ideas people were writing about and help support their introduction into archival practice. Helping to encourage, or support, the evolution of our professional practice in this way has been so meaningful and exciting to me both personally and professionally — it’s what’s fuelled my desire to continue on my 20 years (and counting) journey with the ACA.

You are currently the Head of Archives and Special Collections at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). I feel that British Columbia is an interesting place because of its geography and the distant location of cities and towns. You’ve emphasized the collegial aspect of networking. Have these collegial networks been one thing that helps connect you with these dispersed archive communities?

Absolutely! Having found meaningful growth as a professional through collegial networking myself, I've really tried to actively reach out and connect with those somewhat isolated folks working in community archives in my region. Given the distances between communities in the northern half of BC, along with the smaller population bases and lower access to “big city” amenities, it can be very difficult to entice trained archivists to move north of Kamloops. But trained, or not, there are still people doing archival work in northern communities and what's been important to me is to try to connect with these people, and make connections between these people — to ACA, to AABC, to myself and my institution, and to one another. To support that collegial communication within the region so they know they're not alone but rather part of a broader archival community.

It’s clear that the creation of community and networking through the ACA is something that you're very proud of. What are some standout memories or milestones from your involvement with the ACA?

One of my standout memories would have to be my work as the ACA representative on the “Response to the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee Taskforce of the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives,” also known as the TRC-TF. Working with a group of amazing archivists, heritage professionals, researchers, and educators from across the country, we laboured tirelessly for 7+ years to research and develop the framework. It was such a mammoth task, so emotionally challenging and at times overwhelming. Many people didn’t think we’d finish, but we did. I’m proud of this work and honoured to have realized this accomplishment in collaboration with my TRC-TF colleagues. We did the best we could for our colleagues across the country — to help them develop better archival practices — and for every Indigenous person who had ever been denied archival access to the documented truth about systemic colonial violence against themselves, their families and their communities.

Another milestone from my involvement with ACA is when I was President. I had the honour to work with the Indigenous Matters Working Group (IMWG) to research and compile “Caretaking Memory: A Resource Guide for Archival Practitioners working in Indigenous-centred Archives.” We also undertook an assessment of ACA services, programs, events, membership frameworks, governance, and organizational structures in light of the recommendations outlined in the Reconciliation Framework. We made recommendations to the ACA Board for strategic changes to support the fundamental need for Indigenous-focused equity, diversity, and inclusion within the ACA. This important work came out of the recommendations of the TRC-TF and were actualized by the ACA, by this working group. I’m excited to see where this work leads the ACA in future.

On a related note, what kind of significant changes have you seen in the archive profession? How have changes been reflected in the ACA? What has the rate of change been like? As someone who has recently graduated from the MAS program, I feel there is more conversation on community archives, participatory archiving, and oral history of Indigenous histories.

In my early years as a young professional, I often felt like change within the profession moved at a snail’s pace. But once the TRC’s “Calls to Action” came out in 2015 and the broader non-Indigenous population started learning the truth of our shared and parallel histories and our complicity in the ongoing legacy of colonial violence against Indigenous People, I felt people were finally willing to open their minds to a revised understanding of Canadian history and the role of archival practice in daylighting those revisions. And while changes to archival practice (or any professional practice really) certainly don’t happen overnight, they are happening and the ACA has played a fundamental role in supporting this change. Not only has the ACA provided a safe space for difficult conversations to be held, it has also facilitated myriad educational opportunities for archivists looking to update or revise their core practices. Ultimately, it has supported the centering — or privileging of — historically marginalized collegial voices.

What would you like the ACA to prioritize and continue to build upon for the next 50 years?

I’m hoping that the ACA continues to balance the needs of the university-trained, professional archivist with those who have learned their craft through lived experience. Through post-graduate studies we are able to conceptualize and test new archival methodologies, technologies, and theories. But our true strength lies in understanding those methodologies, technologies, and theories through the lens of “diversity of lived experience” as provided by archival practitioners and public researchers. It’s via this diverse allyship that we as a collegial body can assess applicability, versatility, and scalability of our academic-centred advancements by running them through real-world applications. Through inclusion and consideration of myriad voices, we have the opportunity to continue to actively work against the marginalization — or downright exclusion — of any person(s)/communities from representation in record descriptions, as well as from our profession and its evolution. Through greater continued inclusivity, we’ll be able to more comprehensively and iteratively assess what works versus what doesn't and identify whose research needs are being met versus whose aren’t, helping to contribute to a stronger archival profession and practice overall. That is my dream for ACA, idealistic though it may be!

On one last note, do you have any advice for early career archivists or new ACA members trying to start engaging with the profession?

Imposter syndrome is real! Everybody has it. Whether you’re new to the profession, or just new to the ACA, I would wholeheartedly recommend volunteering for and actively engaging with the ACA. You will absolutely learn new skills, expand your collegial network, and contribute to the continued development of the archival profession in Canada. Plus, you’ll get to meet some truly amazing people!

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Catherine Bailey

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:24:42 GMT

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Association of Canadian Archivists—a milestone that offers a unique opportunity to reflect on five decades of archival practice, community-building, and collective professional growth. To celebrate, the ACA Blog team is launching a special interview series to spotlight the voices, experiences, and insights of ACA members past and present through intergenerational conversations. Students and emerging professionals will interview longtime members, offering a space to share personal reflections, institutional memory, and the evolving landscape of archival work in Canada.

In today’s feature, Carolyn Smith chats with Catherine Bailey for an insightful conversation.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience in the archival field.

Catherine: I have been a member of ACA for many years. Originally from Edmonton, I completed my training at the UBC archival studies program from 1986 to 1988. Following that, I moved to Ottawa to accept a position at the then-National Archives of Canada, intending to only stay a few years. 30 years later I retired from Library and Archives Canada after being a government records archivist the whole time. I am now a retired archivist living in Ottawa, though I remain actively involved with the ACA through my work with Archivaria and the Records Management Working Group.

In essence, that summarizes my 36-year professional journey.

Can you tell us about your first experience with the ACA? What drew you to become a member?

Catherine: I joined the ACA quite some time ago—back in 1985, when I was a summer student working as an archival assistant at the Provincial Archives of Alberta in my hometown of Edmonton. That year, the 10th annual ACA conference was being held there. Brian Speirs served as the program chair and Jean Dryden as the local arrangements chair, and both were wonderfully encouraging to the summer students. They urged us to get involved and to attend the plenary session.

By that point, I already knew I was going to be an archivist—it was clear to me even then—so I was very eager to participate. I no longer remember exactly what the plenary was about, but I do remember enjoying it and wanting to continue being involved. The following year I applied to the Master of Archival Studes program at UBC and when I got there, Terry Eastwood was incredibly encouraging about becoming involved with the ACA. We also had a lot of encouragement from Hugh Taylor, who was a visiting professor in my first term. And honestly, the passion that those two had for the archives and ACA was a powerful source of positive reinforcement and further inducement to get involved.

My first experience with a full ACA conference was in Hamilton in 1987, themed “Archives in the Information Age.” At the time, I was specializing in what were then referred to as machine-readable records. I found the entire conference was really exciting, especially being able to meet, in person, many of the archival figures that I had just spent a year reading about in great detail. I met people like Terry Cook, Harold Naugler and Jay Atherton and countless others.

That was also when I discovered the East–West softball game, and from that moment, I was hooked—I was fully in. That was my first direct involvement with ACA, just as a conference participant. But after that I started to get more involved. Once I got to the National Archives of Canada, there were a lot of people there who worked with the ACA and were very encouraging. I thought, well, I'll just start volunteering – and so I did.

How has your work as an archivist evolved over the course of your career, and what role has the ACA played in that journey?

Catherine: Full disclosure: apart from the four summers I spent working at the Provincial Archives of Alberta, I spent my entire career as a federal government records archivist at National Archives and Library and Archives Canada. That experience shaped my perception about my work and how it evolved.

I would say that overall, I don’t believe the fundamental nature of archival work—the core principles and underlying practices—has changed significantly over the years. What has changed though, is how we go about applying those principles and the specific methods we use in practice.

I did a lot of thinking about this, and for me, the development and implementation of macro appraisal based on functional analysis, that was a game changer. I've often said it's a rare treat for a recent graduate in archival studies, particularly one who's been immersed in learning appraisal theory, to walk right into a testing ground for a new approach. But that's what happened to me.

Since I joined the National Archives not long after the findings of the DeschênesRoyal Commission were released—the commission that investigated the destruction of immigration records potentially containing information about Nazi war criminals—I witnessed firsthand how profoundly those findings reshaped archival practice.

The findings of the Deschênes Commission were a very, very significant game changer for government records appraisal practices, particularly in terms of processes and documentation.

In terms of the practice, at the time I joined, appraisal had been largely based on trying to identify the secondary value of records, which is following what Schellenberg had outlined. When I was reading about appraisal in school, that made sense to me. But once I began examining actual records—under specific instructions to assess them and make recommendations about how they might be used in the future and by whom—I realized that it was often quite straightforward to identify a record’s secondary value.

In fact, it soon occurred to me that everything has a secondary value to somebody for something. And if you kept on doing this for government records you were going to get a tsunami of archival records. I think it took me about two years of shifting from the, “oh this is really cool, we need to preserve it” to “there's an awful lot of records here, is there a good reason this should not be disposed of”?

Shortly after I started working, macro appraisal was starting to be developed. As it was articulated and refined over the coming years, I'd say it had strengths and weaknesses. But overall, I thought it was a good means of dealing directly with exponential record growth and it didn't matter what the format was, because at the same time, it was preserving key archival principles and practices.

To a certain extent, this approach also helped us manage the growing pressures of budget cuts and staff reductions. That said, conducting extensive research with increasingly limited personnel was both time‑consuming and challenging. These constraints were not unique to us; many of our colleagues across the country, in institutions of all sizes, were facing the same realities. Eventually, even in the latter part of my career, I'd say about the last five or six years, events pushed us to think even more strategically in terms of macro appraisal and disposition and actually come to accept the component of risk management and reappraisal as being essential parts of government records programs. I'd have to say that neither one of those two concepts was easy to embrace, but it was a very, very necessary evolution for the kind of archival work that we were carrying out.

We come to the second part of that question, which is, what role did the ACA play in this evolutionary journey? And I think it's fair to say that although the approach started and was centered at the National Archives, the evolution of macro appraisal was playing out regularly and very publicly within the context of the ACA. Year in, year out, we had spirited debates at conference sessions, in workshops, at special interest section meetings, and of course, we had articles in Archivaria.

For me, the Association has been an integral part of my world for more than three decades. The ACA has been a very important part of my own personal journey. I was reflecting on this, when I retired from LAC and I got my chance to stand up in front of all my colleagues. I had an opportunity to thank them for their support and encouragement over the years, and I talked to them about how that support allowed me to not only thrive professionally but have some great experiences and develop important skills that touched every part of my life. That applies equally to my own work in the ACA community. Quite simply, I don't think I would have been the archivist that I was, or the person that I am today, without the work and the experiences I've had in ACA.

I've said many times that being an archivist isn't a job. It's a calling. And when you have a calling and you find other people who have the same calling, what you end up with is a community. Communities are very useful, very helpful and very supportive.

What are some standout memories or milestones from your involvement with the ACA—whether at conferences, committee work, or advocacy efforts?

Catherine: You know, I thought about this a lot. I thought, hmm, I have a lot of really good ones. If somebody gets me going, we could be here for a really, really, really long time. So, I'll just try to pick out a few that I think might resonate. First and foremost, for me, it's anything to do with working on Archivaria. I’ve been involved with the journal in some capacity ever since I began my career as an archivist at the National Archives. I believe my involvement began around issue number 29. And since we're up to number 100 right now, that is a really, really, really long time. I know that journal very well—almost inside out—because over the years I’ve done everything from coordinating the teams of volunteer archives staff who proofread the galleys, all the way to serving as General Editor, along with many roles in between.

I am especially proud of the work I contributed to e-Archivaria. I was the technical coordinator behind the scenes working on setting up the platform and under the direction of general editors, Barbara Craig, and particularly Bob McIntosh, who was general editor when it launched. And there was a great deal of hard work from a lot of people, we ended up having to proofread an awful lot of scanned galleys and change the metadata right before it went live. And that wasn't what we'd planned on, but we had a lot of people step up and give us a hand at that point. We still managed to complete it on time, which was remarkable. What we produced is a truly significant archival digital resource. It is especially meaningful, in our 50th year, to have a journal that has endured for the entire half‑century and is still going strong. That is certainly something to be proud of.

Another good memory for me was co-editing the first ACA website back in 1996 and later as the editor, I took it through a full redesign in 2002. That was particularly a highlight because I'd never led such a large project before. It was a fantastic opportunity to work with a broad range of members and find out what they wanted or needed from the website and then turn those wants and needs into an honest to God reality.

I started thinking a bit more about other standout memories, and one that feels especially fitting to mention now is being in the audience in Halifax in 2010 for Terry Cook’s closing plenary session, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Next Generation of Canadian Archivists. Reflections and Prospects,” which was the last ACA talk he gave.

As was so often the case with Terry, the session was thoughtful and inspiring. He spoke about the passing of the torch across the various generations of archivists that have brought Canadian archives to where they were in 2010 and where they would go after that. I remember being in the audience and recall a standing ovation.

It was one of those moments that made me feel genuinely proud to be part of the profession—and, at that stage of my career, to feel like I might be one of the people he was symbolically handing that torch to. And later, as I approached retirement myself, I found myself thinking it’s time for me to pass the torch on to the next generation in fine tradition. It remains a particularly meaningful memory for me.

If anyone is curious, the transcript of Terry’s speech is still accessible. Through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, if you look at the ACA website as it appeared in June 2014, the announcement of Terry’s passing includes links to the archived version of the speech. It’s quite something to revisit.

If you’re interested, you can find the transcript on the old ACA Website in the Internet Archive from June 2014.

In your view, what have been the most significant changes in the archival profession in Canada over the past 50 years?

Catherine: There's been an awful lot of them, but I must admit that when I was reading Terry Eastwood's blog interview, he pointed out the development of pre-appointment education for archivists and I would have to say when I was thinking about it, I had to agree. Although, of course, I'm slightly biased because I'm a rather early-ish product of that education.I do believe that having multiple graduate programs available—regardless of their individual emphases or the varied backgrounds of the students who enter them—provides an essential common ground for the profession. That shared foundation of core knowledge and understanding ultimately strengthens the archival field as a whole. It filled a gap and it gave common language to a lot of new people starting in the profession.

What's significant for me, is that the comfort level with digital technology and digital records has increased dramatically.When I started out, I wrote my thesis on electronic records and there was a wonderful quote from Trudy Huskamp Peterson that I used in my thesis. I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like “many of us would like to perhaps retire before the monster in our midst on machine readable records”. I understood that perspective at the time, but that is no longer the case. Archivists have since reached out and fully embraced technology, using it effectively to gain intellectual and physical control over their holdings.

They are making excellent use of technology to make their records accessible to a wide range of users. The generation of archivists that has followed mine also seems far more willing to invest the necessary time and energy into preserving digital records—with varying degrees of success, and they’re not so worried about getting digital preservation perfect the first time. I find this very encouraging, because my sense is that we spent an enormous amount of time strategizing, discussing, and debating how we were going to approach digital preservation, yet we made comparatively little concrete progress. Perhaps we were worried about making mistakes. I mean, I certainly felt that way for some things, but I think that there has been a fundamental shift. People just get out and deal with it now. This is a game changer.

There is one more significant change I’ve observed over the past 50 years: the growing emphasis on advocacy for archives as a vital societal resource. Increasingly, archivists and archival institutions are asserting the importance of archival records as essential evidence for holding governments and organizations accountable. This is coupled with a drive for deeper community engagement and having archival collections that reflect very diverse groups of people and are built for the communities that have traditionally either been very outside of or very mistrusting of official repositories. And that's really, really come to the forefront, I'd say, in about the last 10 years or so. It’s fascinating to watch how this continues to unfold. I think it’s a very positive trend, and I’m genuinely interested to see where it leads next.

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Shelley Sweeney

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 21:28:04 GMT

In today’s feature, Lily Liu chats with Shelley Sweeney—former Head of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections and an ACA Fellow, among other accomplishments—for an insightful conversation.

What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

I did not have any real understanding of archives when I began. I did a Bachelor of Arts in Latin and was going to go down to the States and continue with classical studies. One of my Latin professors asked what I was interested in and he said they had students who became rare book librarians. So I went to the rare book library and asked the person behind the counter if I could talk to the rare book librarian. She said: “Well, the rare book librarian isn’t here today, but the archivist is; do you want to speak to her instead?” I said, not having any idea what it meant, “Sure, I’ll talk to her.” I talked to Laurenda Daniells, the Archivist for the University of British Columbia, and after I had spoken with her she said: “You don’t want to become a rare book librarian; you want to become an archivist. The first archival studies program in North America is starting this fall and I think you should apply.” So I did apply and I did get into the program and was one of the first ten students enrolled in the Masters of Archival Studies program. That was the first full-time MAS in North America. That was in 1981.

How has your work as an archivist evolved over the course of your career, and what role has the ACA played in that journey?

When I retired from the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, I asked them to not give a traditional party; I gave a talk, and that was kind of my last hurrah. And I remember how shocked people were when I described what the profession was like when I started. I started using a typewriter. We didn’t have computers; we didn’t really deal with copyright; there was no privacy legislation at the provincial level when I started in 1983 at the University of Regina Archives. There wasn’t really any understanding of contracts or contract law.

The profession, for us, was far simpler. I had a chance to get my feet under me without having to deal with critical issues like privacy, oral histories, interviews, copyright. There are so many layers now—electronic records, born-digital records—we didn’t have any of that. So if you talk about the archival field evolving, we did it with the ACA. I went to pretty much every ACA conference and I would hear about what was coming down the pike, and how people were dealing with it. It really kept me in the loop of what I needed to do. And that kind of gets back to the archival studies program—we were given the theoretical basis, and then we were able to use the ACAto augment our basic knowledge by being exposed to what was going on in the archival world. The ACA conferences were integral to my understanding of the archival world. I found it was not just the presentations but meeting other archivists in the same situations that you are. We were able to get together and discuss what the issues were that pertained to our spheres. That made a huge difference in helping me grow as an archivist.

The ACA has long served as a space for dialogue, debate, and collaboration. Are there any discussions or shifts within the Association that you feel have had a lasting impact?

Yes. I think if you’re looking at what the profession is dealing with today, it has continuously changed. The Association has changed. Reconciliation, for example; an emphasis on community archiving; the representation of marginalized groups within the archives; and understanding our role in facilitating the contributions of others so that we’re not gatekeeping but are more facilitators. There were also a lot of viewpoint changes on the need for equity between not just the researchers, but also between donors and archivists, and to be more representational. The education has changed with these priority shifts.

How did you, alongside colleagues, come to write the first Code of Ethics for the Canadian archival profession? What were the contexts and/or reasons that drove its creation?

It was an accidental occurrence. I think it was Debra Barr who was supposed to lead that activity, but she was not able to take it up and I ended up looking after the committee. When I entered the profession there was a lot of competition for archival collections between different institutions in Canada. There were acquisition conflicts, and we didn’t really understand privacy so we weren’t handling privacy properly; there were lots of potential areas for conflicts to arise. The profession was interested in developing ethical guidelines that would help archivists in their daily lives. Hence the section that spoke about individual situations.

Thus, the end result was that we had a preamble which had the ethical principles, followed by the text, which was very much taken from the Society of American Archivists’ Code of Ethics. Now, with Zoom, unlimited calling, emails, the rest of it—it’s so much easier to communicate in a way that we didn’t have. And I think had we been able to get together on a regular basis, the final outcome would have been a better reflection of the community. I think we had one meeting. It was expensive to fly across Canada to get together back then. It was still a worthwhile endeavour, and I think it showed that the profession through the ACA was developing mechanisms and tools that would assist archivists in their daily functions.

Are there any memorable moments of joy and/or purpose you’ve experienced during your career that sustained and/or affirmed your dedication to the archival profession?

I can think of a couple of moving experiences that indicated to me how important it was that we, as archivists, are involved in this profession. The first was a man who came to the University of Regina Archives. He was looking through yearbooks. These were the years where there was no possibility for adoptees to make any contact with their birth parents. He was looking for somebody who looked like him. It was such a powerful memory for me seeing how important it was for people to be able to access information about themselves and the world around them.

The other instance was a young man. He was interested in images of the water tower that used to be on the University of Manitoba campus. Each time we found something, he would want a copy of it. He said that he used to be in a facility for children with developmental disabilities; he was across the river from the University and could see the water tower from his room and this watertower was a source of comfort for him. It was both poignant and yet there was an element of joy, being able to provide something of meaning, something that would provide comfort to someone. So that particular encounter has always stayed with me. But there havebeen many encounters.

Looking ahead, what do you hope the ACA will prioritize or continue to build upon in the next 50 years?

I think the ACA’s role is to prepare its members for new challenges and for what’s coming next and what they should be doing to stay relevant. I mean—this whole thing with AI, authenticity, and what information means when there is so much disinformation and inauthentic or made-up records—so I look to the ACA to be at the forefront of that. And how it does that is not the actual ACA structure or office; it’s the members themselves—it’s the members who write, present papers at the conferences, or publish in Archivaria or Scope and Content, make announcements… it’s keeping everybody apprised of what’s going on and how we should be dealing with this. So that’s where I see the ACA as critical—the ACA will become more relevant over time.

What advice would you offer to early-career archivists or new ACA members who are just starting to engage with the profession?

Volunteer in the profession—it’s the easiest way you can make important connections. It’s the connections that you make with other archivists in Canada that really give you support in your day-to-day work. If you run into a problem, you can phone somebody or put out a question on Arcan-L… a lot of the situations you encounter will not necessarily be encounteredby other archivists in your province. So when you’re able to make contacts across Canada, you might find that one person who’s dealing exactly with what you're going through. You need to get to know other people and those people will put you contact withothers and you will be able to use that network. It’s kind of an obvious thing, and yet, people don’t realize how important it is to have those networks. For new professionals, getting involved in the ACA is a good way to broaden your contacts and help build your professional confidence and you know you’re helping others. You're participating in something worthy.

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Jean Dryden

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 21:58:14 GMT

In today’s feature, Dharani Persaud chats with Jean Dryden—former President of the ACA and Editor of Archivaria—for an insightful conversation.

* Image - ACA Conference in Montreal, 1992. © Shelley Sweeney.

What was the catalyst for you being a founding member of ACA and why did you decide to help start it? 

I began my archival career when I joined what was then the Public Archives of Canada in September 1972 after my master’s degree. I was just a newbie; the only experience I'd had of archives was to do research in archives, because there was no academic training. You learned on the job. At that point, the only association that archivists had was the archives section of the Canadian Historical Association, because at that point, archives were perceived as a profession of and for historians. I attended the archives section meeting in 1973 and discovered there were other people who did what I did, and it was exciting to realize that I was part of a broader community. Around that time, three archivists in Toronto had been thinking about founding an association and they went coast to coast to meet with archivists in various provinces to ask whether they thought this was a good idea. And later it was agreed that, at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association in 1975, we would indeed pass a motion to establish the ACA as a separate association. I’m not sure that it can be said that I had a big role in founding the ACA, but I was fortunate enough to be present at that meeting, and I was supportive of it. I never imagined that someday we’d celebrate the 50th anniversary, so I'm quite thrilled to be part of marking the occasion. 

What are some standout memories or milestones from your involvement with the ACA—whether at conferences, committee work, or advocacy efforts?

There are many things I'm proud of that were done under the auspices of the ACA, but one of the things I'm proudest of is that in 1986, when I was the ACA president, we hired an office manager. Until then, the work of running the organization was done by volunteers on our dining room tables, often on our own time, but we really needed some help. We had no office, but we hired a person. I remember at the annual conference in Winnipeg that year, I skipped the baseball game because I was running over the numbers again wondering if we could really afford this. But it was the right decision and the person we hired was really good and took some of the administrative load off the ACA board members so they could focus on other substantive issues.

For me personally as well, new archivists at the Public Archives had to take an in-house course to learn about archiving, and the requirement for that course was to write a paper on some topic of interest. I picked copyright just because it had a reputation of being very hard and technical and boring, and I thought well, I’ll never look into it on my own, but since I have to write a paper on something, I might as well pick copyright! And I'm pleased to say that my paper was published in the very first issue Archivaria. At that point, I was far more interested in descriptive standards, but over the years I realized I was in fact interested in copyright and so eventually, decades later, I went back to school to get a PhD looking at copyright issues. And now I am a leading educator about copyright among archivists in Canada. I was able to do that within the framework of ACA, and it was that paper that I wrote that opened me to the subject. 

Can you share an archival project or initiative you’ve been involved in that reflects the values or mission of the ACA?

On the topic of copyright, when ACA first started, we didn't have a standing committee on copyright but there were occasions when amendments to the Copyright Act were underway, and an ad hoc copyright committee would be appointed. I was usually on the committee to submit our responses, criticisms, and suggestions for improvement. 

I was also very involved in the first task force funded by SSHRC to actually look into the feasibility and process for developing descriptive standards for Canadian archives. And by golly, we did it! It was recognized that our needs were different from librarians so we couldn't just use library cataloging standards, but there was also no need for archivists to completely reinvent the cataloguing wheel. So that knowledge was really helpful in the adaptation of library standards to archival material.

One last achievement is that I was the editor of Archivaria for five issues. Archivaria is one of the flagship publications of the archival profession worldwide, very well respected globally, and it was an honor to be editor. 

In your view, what have been the most significant changes in the archival profession in Canada over the past 50 years?

I think a significant achievement is the development of descriptive standards, which I mentioned earlier. But I'd say the biggest one is the establishment of graduate programs to train archivists. None of us that were at that founding meeting would be hired today with the qualifications we had then. But now we've got a well-established master’s degree in various forms, depending on the institution, and it's the standard qualification to enter the profession. Underlying that is the clear understanding that archivists are information professionals in their own right, and not just handmaidens to historians, or a subspecies of librarian. When I look back on my career, I just think it is absolutely wonderful that there's now recognized graduate level criteria for entry into the profession.

How would you describe the legacy of the ACA in shaping the archival landscape in Canada—and what does being part of this 50-year history mean to you personally?

I think the ACA has, of course, shaped the archival landscape in Canada, but also internationally, both with the reputation of Archivaria, and with the contribution of Canadian archivists to many international committees. Their work with the ICA has left not just a national legacy, but also a Canadian legacy within the international archival community.

To me, it's provided a community of professional colleagues and dear friends. When you serve on an executive with somebody or on a board, or on a committee – that's a special connection that lasts a lot longer than your tenure on that committee or board. And ACA has enabled me to build and develop the skills to achieve goals, whether they be personal goals or goals on behalf of the profession. It was a practice ground to learn how to chair meetings or build an agenda or how to move things forward on a project. So for me personally ,I'd say those two things -- community and personal development-- have been part of the ACA’s legacy.

Looking ahead, what do you hope the ACA will prioritize or continue to build upon in the next 50 years?

Keeping up with rapidly changing technology is a huge challenge and, tied into that is a need for robust continuing education programs, whether the ACA delivers them or whether it’s the academic institutions that offer graduate archival education. But I see this as really important because technology is moving so fast. It is very hard to catch up to or keep up. 

A second issue, which is one we've never solved properly or effectively, is the need for greater public awareness about what we do. That is, I think, why we all enjoy going to the ACA Conference so much, because everybody understands what we do. You don't have to explain. And it's very nice to be able to talk shop, but we spend too much time talking to ourselves and not enough time on outreach, and I'm probably as bad as anybody, but it's still a problem. So, I would like to see more effort put into that. 

What advice would you offer to early-career archivists or new ACA members who are just starting to engage with the profession?

Get involved! Join an organization like the ACA, or if your province has a provincial archives association, join that as well. And attend conferences or join a committee if there's a topic you're particularly interested in, just to learn more about the topic, contribute something, and add to your professional network. And don't be shy! Don’t be awestruck by the leaders in the profession, people are happy to be recognized. They'd be thrilled that you came up to talk to them! 

Jean Dryden

An information professional with qualifications in archives, librarianship and records management, Jean Dryden has many years of experience as a staff archivist and archival administrator in the public and non-profit sectors. She began her archival career at the Public Archives of Canada (1972-1976), before moving to the Provincial Archives of Alberta (1976-1986). She then moved to Toronto to become the Chief Archivist of the United Church of Canada/Victoria University Archives (now known as the General Council Archives) (1986-1999). In 1999, she established a consulting practice in archives, records management, and copyright, and in 2002 entered the doctoral program at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation (2008) investigated the copyright practices of Canadian archival repositories in making their holdings available online. After completing her doctorate, she taught archives and records management at the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland (2008-2011). She then returned to Toronto to resume her consultancy. She is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. A well-known copyright educator, she has presented scores of workshops on copyright to archivists, librarians and educators in Canada and the U.S. She is a member of the International Council on Archives’ (ICA) Expert Group on Legal Matters, and she represented the ICA at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Copyright Committee from 2015-2024. She was named a Fellow of the ACA in 2013.

Dharani Persaud

Dharani Persaud (they/she) is a writer and PhD student in the School of Information at the University of British Columbia. Their research interests centre on Caribbean indenture diaspora studies, the role of memory work in constructions of community, and the subversion and (re)configuring of colonial archives. Dharani is an uninvited settler on the stolen, traditional, and ancestral lands of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxw.7mesh (Squamish), and lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.

Volunteer Profile: Sam Frederick, Professional Development Committee

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 16:23:29 GMT

Sam Frederick volunteers with the ACA’s Professional Development Committee (PDC) and serves as the PDC Liaison on the Conference Planning Committee. Sam has been on the committee since April 2022.

Q: What made you want to get involved as a volunteer with the ACA?

A: I was involved with the ACA student chapter during my master’s program at the University of Toronto, which was my first introduction to the association. After graduating and settling in a new province, I was interested in further opportunities to network in the field and contribute through the ACA.

Q: What interested you about the Professional Development Committee?

A: I’ve appreciated the opportunities through the ACA to be a lifelong learner, and I wanted to see more of the behind the scenes in how these workshops are developed and contribute to expanding the offerings based on members’ needs and interests.

Q: What has been the most interesting or rewarding aspect of volunteering on the Professional Development Committee?

A: It’s been really interesting to follow the current interests and trends in the field and see how they influence the workshops that are offered and that people request. There have been some common themes throughout the time I’ve been involved with the PDC but some newer topics coming up in recent years.

Q: How has volunteering with the ACA helped you build connections or community?

A: I've met a lot of people through volunteering with the ACA, not only those I’ve worked directly with on committees but also presenters and facilitators from the workshops and conferences I’ve been involved with. It’s been a great way to learn from what others in the field are doing across the country and find unexpected opportunities for collaboration.

Q: Which areas of PDC are you excited to contribute to in the future?

A: We have some fun plans for a celebration of the ACA’s 50th that I’m excited to see come to fruition. It’s also been great to get feedback from folks about the kinds of training and workshops they’re interested in and to seek out new and returning facilitators for those skillsets.

Q: What do you wish more people realized about the Professional Development Committee, or about volunteering for the ACA more broadly?

A: You don’t need to be settled or established in your career or to have loads of experience to serve on a committee. All perspectives are valuable, especially with the PDC where we want to offer learning opportunities that people from all stages in their studies or careers would benefit from, and what better way than having those perspectives directly on the committee. I would love to see more early and emerging professionals involved in the ACA!

* Image credit: Sam Frederick

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Terry Eastwood

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 16:03:19 GMT

In today’s feature, Grace Phippard chats with Terry Eastwood—former President of the ACA and Editor of Archives Bulletin and Archivaria—for an insightful conversation.

* Image - ACA Conference opening reception in Hamilton, Ontario, 1987. Foreground (L-R): Rick Stapleton[?], Gary Mitchell, George Brandak, Anne MacLean, Jim Burrows, Sandra Kiemele, and Vincent Ouellette. © Catherine Bailey.

Can you tell us about your first experience with the ACA? What drew you to become a member?

ACA was formed in Edmonton (my home town) in 1975, when archivists met as the Archives Section of the Canadian Historical Association and determined to form their own professional society to pursue their own mutual development and that of the field and discipline in which they worked. I attended that meeting and came away from it with the appointment as the Editor of the ACA’s newsletter, Archives Bulletin. I was then nearly two years into my archival career, and was one of a host of archivists, many of them also in the early years of their careers, who were drawn into the work of ACA to promote the professional development of its members and improvement of their practice. It was a joy to work with colleagues, to learn from them, and, best of all, to make so many dear friends from across the country.

Over the course of your career, you served as President and Vice President of the ACA, as well as Editor of Archivaria. What accomplishments or contributions to ACA are you most proud of?

In June 1980, a resolution was passed at the annual general meeting of the ACA that the Association establish a task force on standards for the arrangement and description of archival materials. After failing to find funding for such an endeavour, the task was taken up by the Bureau of Canadian Archivists (BCA), the umbrella body at that time representing ACA and l’Association des archivistes du Quebec (AAQ). The Public Archives of Canada then provided funds for Marcel Caya for AAQ and me for ACA to draft a funding proposal to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC), which in November 1983 awarded BCA a grant of $97,250 (the first ever grant by SSHRCC to archival research endeavour) to establish a Working Group on Archival Descriptive Standards, which Marcel Caya for AAQ and I for ACA chaired, and which issued its report entitled Toward Descriptive Standards in December 1985, and which led to the work to develop RAD, in which I was also involved. I feel honoured and, yes, proud of having had the opportunity to take part with many others (and in this regard I must recognize the work of Jean Dryden on the writing the final report and Laura Millar, who helped make sense of all the data we gathered of current descriptive practices) in this important work for the archival field, which began with a resolution at an ACA meeting.

What do you think is unique about archives in Canada? How have the ACA and Canadian archivists influenced the global archival landscape over the past 50 years?

The most usual claim for a distinctive feature of Canadian archival institutions is the so-called total archives concept of its public archives, which preserve both public and private records, a tradition begun by the government of Canada and followed in the provinces and in civic governments, although such is not unknown in the institutional circumstances of archives in other countries, but perhaps not so widely as in Canada.

As for the influence of ACA and Canadian archivists worldwide, I would say that the tenor of presentations at ACA meetings were widely respected by attendees from out of the country, as were the writings of Canadian archivists in Archivaria. Canadian archivists were prominent in many international organizations, at international meetings of archivists, and in efforts to spread knowledge of archival science, and many eloquently voiced their perspective on archival matters, but I would be loath to cite any specifics in the matter.

In your view, what have been the most significant changes in the archival profession over the past 50 years?

At the risk of tooting one’s own horn, I would say that perhaps the most significant change is the advent and growth of pre-appointment education for the profession in our universities. I knew very little when I was hired in 1973, and proved, I suppose, that one could indeed learn on the job, but that is a far cry from having the breadth of the discipline exposed to one before undertaking practice.

The other change I would note, is that 50 years ago the scope of archival institutions and places where archival knowledge was usefully employed were really fairly restricted. Now, the places where people with an archival education are employed has grown and will no doubt continue to grow to the benefit of the Canadian society.

Recently, the news and popular discourse has questioned the importance of archival work. Given that so much of your career has involved advocating for the profession, how do you feel public opinion on archives has evolved? What do you think we can do to combat misinformation regarding the profession and make the public aware of archival work? What do you think is the role of archives in society, especially one where truth is increasingly called into question?

I suspect these important questions cannot be adequately addressed in a few words. And, as preface to the forthcoming, forgive me for feeling I am going out there on very thin ice.

Let’s face it, it is enormously difficult to tease out plausible truth about the past. The records reposing in archival settings tell only part of the story of what happened in the past, and all kinds of things can happen that prevent all the records that could reveal a better picture of what transpired from finding their way to archival care. People who are aggrieved about happenings in the past may well think that archival institutions, which are often an arm of the body at which they aim their grievance, are no place to find the truth, even that archives are somehow complicit in obscuring the truth. Still, the best one can do is expose what one has that reveal matters relative to a person’s quest, and, if relevant, where else the person may go in the pursuit of understanding. Along the way, there may be opportunity to show sympathy for person’s quest and understanding of both the possibilities and constraints it faces. It is all about avoiding becoming embroiled in disputes about truth.

Of course, the real place where the rubber hits the road from the archival perspective in this quest for truth, at least in the sphere of public records, lies in the adequacy of archival institutions to appraise and acquire the breadth of records to support such truth seeking.

What do you think are ACA’s greatest accomplishments?

I think its accomplishments fall into these categories: (1) providing a situation for the expression of ideas about archives and their circumstances, in both senses of the word archives; (2) advocating regarding matters important to the health and welfare of archival institutions and the profession; (3) acting as an agent of continuing education for archivists.

In the first instance, its publications have carried the load, as have the annual conferences. In the second instance, ACA committee and special bodies in which ACA was represented have done important work to formulate an archival perspective on matters important to the field or develop tools for the work, like RAD. In the third instance, workshops, publications, and even informal exchange of ideas have a positive influence on the professional development of its members. I am not sure how much has been done in all those realms lately for I have been for some years not been directly involved in ACA affairs, but do think that those things ought to be the motivating force of our national professional association.

What does being part of ACA’s 50-year history mean to you personally?

In my previous answers, I think I have given some indication of the role ACA played in my professional life. I involved myself in its affairs in many ways, some of which I have revealed here, and I was sometimes even a critic of its shortcomings, in which of course I shared the blame (or ought to have), but ACA meant a great deal to me. It gave me countless opportunities to improve myself; it offered me challenges to meet as I held some or another office in the association; it offered me a circle of colleagues and friends off which to bounce ideas, hit the dance floor with, engage in friendly debate with, learn from, play baseball with in the annual east-west game, and generally be part of my gang going out to try to make things better in the field. It would not be amiss to say it played a huge part in allowing me to do many of the things I came to do in the profession. We all just buoyed each other up to do the things that we thought needed to be done for the profession and in our particular field of work.

What advice would you offer to early career archivists or new ACA members who are just starting to engage with profession?

As one might expect from my answer to the previous question, my advice is simple: get involved. Attend a conference, engage with colleagues to find those with whom you feel you have some connection; join a group doing something for ACA in which you are interested. Do not feel intimidated. It won’t take long for you to find a place where you fit in and people who share your circumstances, interests, or concerns.

Terry Eastwood was an archivist at the Provincial Archives of British Columbia from 1973-81. In 1981, he assumed the position of Chair of the Master of Archival Studies Program in the then School of Librarianship at the University of British Columbia. He served the ACA as newsletter editor, Vice-President. President, and Editor of Archivaria, and spoke many times at ACA conferences. He taught in the MAS Program for 26 years, retiring in 2007. He is currently a volunteer processing records at the City of Richmond Archives.

Grace Phippard is a student in the Master of Archival Studies and Master of Library and Information Studies program at the University of British Columbia. She currently works in the University Archives and Records Management Office at UBC, as well as in the Archives at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and as the Coordinator of ACA@UBC. In 2024, Grace graduated with a BA in History from Smith College, where she also worked for two years as an Assistant Processing Archivist.

Rights & Records: Filipino Community Archives and Activism

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 21:38:02 GMT

In 2022, Canada released its Indo-Pacific Strategy investing in comprehensive Canadian intervention in the Indo-Pacific region. At the 2023 ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited current Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to Canada for a state visit. Canada and the Philippines recently concluded negotiations on a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement and are in exploratory discussions on a Free Trade Agreement. Meanwhile, the Filipino community in Canada remains one of the fastest-growing and largest immigrant populations in the country.

Image: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. shake hands at the ASEAN 2023 conference in Indonesia. Image courtesy of canadianfilipino.net

As archivists have noted for decades—from Duranti’s (1989) explication of the role of archives in government functions, to Zinn’s famous 1977 speech extolling the political role of archivists, to developments in analyses of power and archives (e.g. Schwartz & Cook, 2002)—the world of geopolitics is not so far removed from the archival discipline. As the Canadian and Philippine governments strengthen their military and economic ties, the question of historical records remains a vital one.

From 1965 to 1986, Marcos Jr.’s father, Marcos Sr., was president of the Philippines. Marcos Sr.’s regime was notorious worldwide for the 1972 declaration of martial law leading to hundreds of thousands of human rights violations, ultimately resulting in his 1986 ouster by a mass mobilization of people in Manila. The 2022 election of his son to power rode on the heels of a concerted campaign of disinformation about the Marcos Sr. era and especially the rampant human rights violations during that time (ICHRP, 2022). Recordkeeping by human rights advocates has been a key component in asserting the rights of Filipinos during both regimes.

In the context of the Marcos family’s return to power, Filipinos in Canada today—many of whom are political refugees from the Marcos Sr. regime—have asserted the importance of archival initiatives to preserve and make accessible government and personal records. This blog post will discuss community archives initiatives and perspectives on archives among human rights defenders in the Philippines and in the Filipino-Canadian diaspora.

Community Archives in the Philippines

Filipino archives, like all archives, are necessarily political. Archives of the state facilitate the governance of the Philippines, while personal records evidence the lives and perspectives of everyday people. This political relationship has been recognized by activists in the Philippines and in the diaspora as a reason to participate in archival work. Here in Canada, we can take lessons from the highly politicized work of community archivists in the Philippines to relate our profession to the needs and experiences of marginalized communities.

Memory projects such as the Philippine government-led Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission and the grassroots Bantayog ng mga Bayani (National Heroes Monument) preserve records of human rights violations under martial law (1972-1986). Beyond the history of martial law, new community archives projects have emerged in response to historical revisionism. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) noted during its 2022 international observers' mission that the election of Marcos Jr. into power was facilitated by the rewriting of history. Mass disinformation campaigns aimed to erase, downplay, or justify the rampant human rights violations and corruption under the Marcos Sr. Regime.

The Philippine Labor Movement Archives (PLMA) is one project with the goal of preserving the history of people’s movements in the Philippines. This project aims to combat historical revisionism by shedding light on the milestones of the Filipino working class over the past decades in their struggle for wages, jobs, rights, and genuine social change. Envisioned to be a community archive of workers’ historical narratives of political and economic struggle, the PLMA was established in 2022 shortly after Marcos Jr. assumed presidency.

In their 2023 exhibition entitled ‘Paggawa ng Alaala, Alaala ng Paggawa,’ the PLMA featured reproductions of photographs from the Marcos Sr. and Marcos Jr. regimes to visually draw the parallels between the two administrations, including low wages, high prices, rampant labor and human rights violations. As one archivist from the PLMA explained, “within these two governments, the militant struggle of Filipino workers persists and proves that truly, the masses are the makers of history.”

Other examples include the recordkeeping practices of Indigenous peoples in the Philippines, which are intrinsically linked to anticolonial struggle. In the Cordillera region of the Philippines, Lara Maestro’s 2019 thesis “Alternative becomings, alternative belongings” highlights the role of traditional records in maintaining a history of political struggle to defend ancestral lands.

The explicitly political creation and activation of records is part of the Filipino activist project of asserting historical truth in contrast with the disinformation of the current regime—a deeply grounded and practical objective that differs greatly from the subjectivist trends in Western postmodern archival thinking. In service to the working class, the PLMA broadens the archival concept of “context” to refer to the sociopolitical situation in which records were created. Similarly, Cordillera recordkeeping preserves records in the context of Indigenous struggle—a practice which may also be of special interest to archivists in Canada working with the records of Indigenous peoples here.

Filipino Community Archives in Canada

Many Filipinos in Canada retain records of their experiences in the Philippines, including experiences of political activism and repression. These records remain in houses and garages, on USBs and phones, ranging from newspaper clippings about arrests of activists, to testimonials prepared for class action lawsuits and publications, to photographs of monuments and other more recently created records.

Because of the context of political repression in the Philippines, many survivors of martial law hesitate to donate their records to archival institutions even overseas for fear of censorship. In interviews with Filipino survivors of martial law living in Canada, I learned that survivors generally “want records to be preserved long-term for present-day and future access by activists and the broader public,” but still hesitate to donate records because “the state’s custody over records gave it power over the historical narrative” (Carlin, 2023, pp. 62-63). Some have experienced the use of old records by the current regime to facilitate contemporary state harassment—for example, one interview participant noted that records from his Marcos Sr.-era arrest in the Philippines were used in the 2020s by state agents to find and intimidate him in Canada.

Image: Different books entitled Political Economy from the personal collection of interview participant and martial law survivor Ed. Image courtesy of Ed, used with permission.

Several local efforts have been made to preserve this community history. Grassroots organizations across Canada have activated records of martial law to build intergenerational connection within the Filipino diaspora, including through interviews and panel discussions with survivors.

Other examples include the 2019 photo exhibit “K wento’t Litrato – Stories of Filipino Migrant Life in Alberta” launched in Calgary and Edmonton to share oral stories and photographs of migrant workers in the province. In Montréal, Migrante Quebec and Anakbayan Montreal held the “Gintong Batas” (Golden Rule) exhibit in 2022 to share the experiences of martial law survivors living in Québec. In 2023, Kamalayan Konsciousness and Myseum of Toronto held an exhibit titled “Patuloy ang Laban” (The Fight Continues) featuring photographs and other records from martial law survivors.

There is a vast quantity of records in personal custody among the Filipino diaspora in the country, and many efforts to activate and publicize these records. However, there have been few long-term initiatives by the archival community thus far to preserve Filipino activist records with the consent and direction of Filipino activists themselves.

Preserving and Protecting Philippine Democracy

Records play a crucial role in ensuring accountability and good governance. Archives are essential to both the functioning of the state and the participation of the public in political life. Yet for many Filipinos, archival institutions are sites where sensitive political records can be censored or even weaponized for further harassment.

In light of Canada’s growing political, economic, and military involvement in the Philippines through its Indo-Pacific Strategy (including billions of dollars set aside for military collaboration and funding, surveillance technologies, expedited visa processing, and Canadian-led agricultural production in the region), Canadian archivists can and should consider the ramifications of our field for the Filipino diaspora. There are many opportunities for archivists to connect with local Filipino diaspora organizations to preserve the rich history of Filipino activism and advocacy in the Philippines and in Canada. Archivists in Canada can build international solidarity with archivists, librarians, records managers, and memory workers in the Philippines through direct organization-to-organization partnerships and participation in Canadian solidarity alliances with Filipino people’s movements.

Image: Toxic Tour poster (April 27, 2024). Courtesy of Canada-Philippine Solidarity for Human Rights.

Our field can also take inspiration from efforts in other academic disciplines to conduct research and professional activities in direct and explicit support of social justice, such as the concept of “people’s research” from the International People’s Research Network. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has facilitated partnerships between Canadian institutions and Filipino organizations devoted to human rights, including exposure trips to learn from Filipino human rights defenders on the ground and observer missions to witness and record the human rights situation. These trips are also opportunities for archivists and archival institutions to build strong political connections with Philippine groups that preserve important human rights records and use archival work to assert human rights in the Philippines. To learn more about ICHRP, plan an exposure trip to the Philippines with your institution, or invite Philippine archival experts and recordkeepers to Canada, email info@ichrpcanada.org. Archivists can also directly contact the Philippine Labor Movement Archives at laborarchive.ph@gmail.com.

As a Filipino archivist in Canada, I hope to see more work in the Canadian archival field to support grassroots people’s movements in Canada, the Philippines, and worldwide. While the Philippines and Canada are far apart, Western intervention in the Philippines is at the heart of our migration from our homeland—and so the experiences of Filipinos in Canada and those in the Philippines are deeply connected. As the Canadian government asserts its influence in the Philippines and other countries in the region, and as more and more international students, temporary foreign workers, and other migrants from the Philippines come to Canada, Canadian archivists can play a crucial role in ensuring that human rights are respected and can even directly support people’s struggles for justice and liberation.

Further reading

Carlin, I. (2023). Archives for a new world : revolutionary personal records in the Filipino-Canadian diaspora [MAS thesis]. University of British Columbia. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83493

Duranti, L. (1989). The Odyssey of Records Managers. ARMA Records Management Quarterly, 23(3-4).

Global Affairs Canada. (2024). Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. Government of Canada. https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/indo-pacific-indo-pacifique/index.aspx?lang=eng

ICHRP. (2022). Final Report of the Philippine Election 2022 International Observers Mission. International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines. https://ichrp.net/final-report-of-the-philippine-election-2022-international-observers-mission/

Maestro, L. (2019). Alternative becomings, alternative belongings : Cordillera case studies of records in context [MAS thesis]. University of British Columbia. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/69906

Schwartz, J. M., & Cook, T. (2002). Archives, records, and power: The making of modern memory. Archival Science, 2(1–2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02435628

Zinn, H. (1977). Secrecy, Archives, and the Public Interest. The Midwestern Archivist, 2(2), 14–26.

Isabel Carlin

Isabel Carlin is a researcher at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia (UBC). They received their Master’s of Library/Information Studies and Archival Studies at UBC in May 2023. Isabel’s MAS thesis explored the personal records of Filipino martial law survivors.

ACA 50th Anniversary Logo

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 20:43:44 GMT

In fall 2024, the Association of Canadian Archivists launched an anniversary logo contest. The purpose of the contest was to kick off the 50th anniversary celebrations with members in a fun and engaging way. Four logos were submitted as part of the contest with 201 members voting for their favourite logo. Olivia White’s logo received the most votes and was declared the winner of the competition. This logo will be used by the ACA during its 50th anniversary celebrations in 2025.

In this blog post, Olivia reflects on their logo submission and the ACA’s anniversary year.

Q: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I've been working in the archival field since 2017, beginning as an Archives Assistant at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections. This experience led me to pursue a Master of Information, specializing in Archives and Records Management, and a Master of Museum Studies at the University of Toronto. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to work at several archives and information institutions around Ontario. I am currently the Digital Preservation Archivist at the Simcoe County Archives. I find managing born-digital records and learning about their quirks to be a fun challenge, particularly as digital records become more prevalent in archives. I enjoy volunteering in the archival community, both with the Association of Canadian Archivists and more recently with the Archives Association of Ontario. Outside of work, I like visiting galleries and museums, playing video games, and baking. I am also a newly initiated dragon boater and enjoy drawing and sewing in my free time.

Q: What inspired you to create your logo?
I thought submitting a design would be a fun way to participate in the ACA’s 50th anniversary celebrations and it also gave me an opportunity to try my hand at digital art. I wanted to create a logo that was associated with the current branding of the ACA, but naturally something that acknowledged the 50-year milestone. Thinking along these lines, I was inspired by the connection between a golden anniversary and a gold medal. From there, the design started to take shape.

Q: What tools did you use to create the logo?
I started by sketching thumbnails using pencil and paper to play around with the ACA letters and the number 50. Once I had some ideas down, I created a few mock-ups using the design software 'Inkscape' and made adjustments until I was happy with a final design.

Q: Are there any design elements in the logo that you would like to highlight?
While I wanted to keep the design fairly simple, I felt that it was important to maintain a connection with the existing ACA branding. I thought a good way to do this was by pulling in the deep red colours from the current ACA logo along with the maple leaf, because of the significance of the ACA as a professional association on a national level. Again, I was attracted to the colour and shape of a gold medal which I felt complemented the 50-year anniversary.

Q: Reflecting on the ACA’s 50th anniversary, what are your hopes for the association over next 50 years?
I hope the Association continues to strive to be a welcoming space for informational professionals, at any stage of their careers, to form important connections and gain valuable experience. I believe the archival community is stronger when we can collaborate and rely upon one another for support, and I think the ACA can be a great way to cultivate these connections on a national level.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share?
I'm very grateful that my design resonated with the ACA membership. Happy 50th Anniversary to the ACA, and here's to 50 more!

Amanda Oliver

Amanda Oliver is a Director at Large for the Association of Canadian Archivists.

Call for Participation

The ACA blog team is launching a special interview series to celebrate the Association of Canadian Archivists' 50th anniversary! Starting in May and running throughout the summer, this series will highlight the voices, experiences, and insights of the Association’s members, past and present. We invite you to take part, either as an interviewee sharing your own reflections or as an interviewer learning about the experiences of more seasoned archivists. If you're interested in participating or have someone in mind, please contact the blog team at blog@archivists.ca. Let’s celebrate this milestone together!

Preserving South Asian Canadian Heritage: The South Asian Canadian Digital Archive

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 21:29:02 GMT

Homepage of South Asian Canadian Digital Archive website. Image credit: South Asian Canadian Digital Archive.

The South Asian Canadian Digital Archive (SACDA) is an initiative of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley. It is a pan-Canadian digital archive that documents the rich and multifaceted history and heritage of the South Asian diaspora in Canada. By collaborating with individuals, families, community organizations, and heritage institutions, SACDA ensures that the stories and legacies of South Asian Canadians are digitized, described, and made accessible to the public with open access. With a vision centered on inclusivity, community engagement, and collaboration, SACDA addresses a pressing gap in the Canadian record by prioritizing the often-overlooked histories of South Asian communities.

The history of South Asians in Canada spans over 120 years, beginning in 1903 when the first immigrants arrived on Canadian shores. These early settlers faced numerous challenges, from systemic racism to discriminatory immigration policies, yet their resilience and determination laid the groundwork for future generations. Today, the South Asian community is Canada’s largest racialized group, with the 2021 Census reporting a population of 2.6 million. South Asian Canadians have played a pivotal role in shaping Canada’s identity and their contributions extend across industries, politics, arts, and social activism. Despite this rich history, archival representation of South Asians in Canada has been sparse. Many stories, histories, and records remain undocumented, inaccessible, or lost to time. SACDA addresses this historical void, ensuring the preservation of the community’s social and cultural heritage.

Central to SACDA’s mission is its commitment to community-driven archival praxis. SACDA emphasizes active collaboration with community members at all stages of archival processing work. This approach allows individuals and families to actively participate in shaping how their histories are preserved and shared. Community involvement extends to identification of materials and collections, creation of descriptive metadata, and curation of exhibits. This participatory model not only democratizes knowledge creation but also ensures that the archive authentically reflects the lived experiences and cultural nuances of South Asian Canadians.

Collection page of South Asian Canadian Digital Archive. Image credit: South Asian Canadian Digital Archive.

SACDA currently holds 75 collections and five online exhibits. These collections span a wide range of topics, from migration and settlement patterns to labor activism, arts, and culture. A hallmark of SACDA’s collections is their multilingual and multimodal nature. Materials are available in languages such as Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, and Persian, reflecting the linguistic diversity of the South Asian diaspora. Formats include letters, manuscripts, ledgers, photographs, videos, oral histories, and ephemera, ensuring comprehensive documentation of the community’s heritage.

SACDA’s work goes beyond preservation—it also seeks to transform the way knowledge about South Asian Canadian communities is created, shared, and understood. One of its key milestones is the development of a custom metadata dictionary and a local authorities database featuring over 10,000 entities, including individuals and organizations. These tools and methods address gaps in existing knowledge systems, ensuring that the archive accurately reflects the complexities of South Asian Canadian histories.

Chandra Bodalia fonds

Vimal Bodalia and Dr. Satwinder Bains going through a box. Image credit: Thamilini Jothilingam

A recent and significant addition to SACDA is the Chandra Bodalia fonds, which comprises over three million photographs documenting the vibrant social, cultural, political, and economic life of South Asian communities in British Columbia. Spanning from the late 1980s to 2017, the fonds represents the largest known private archive of a South Asian Canadian photojournalist.

Born in 1948 in Sisodra, a village in Gujarat, India, Chandravadan "Chandra" Bodalia was a talented artist who pursued higher education in commercial arts and painting at the prestigious Sheth C. N. College of Fine Arts in Ahmedabad. After immigrating to Canada in 1976, Bodalia settled in Vancouver, where he initially worked various jobs, including creating art props and souvenirs for cultural events.

Chandra Bodalia. Image credit: Vimal Bodalia family

In the late 1980s, Bodalia embarked on a career as a photojournalist, documenting the lives of South Asian Canadians with unparalleled dedication. Bodalia photographed important events for the South Asian Canadian community across BC and highlighted the unique stories and experiences of the community. He covered a range of events and various facets of life, from community programs and celebrations to cradle to grave events such as weddings, birthdays, cultural festivals, honoring events, political gatherings, and religious ceremonies. The photographs also reflect the intercultural connections and collaborations within the immigrant communities in Canada as well as transnational ties to the South Asian region. Bodalia’s work appeared in local newspapers such as The Voice and The Link, earning him widespread recognition and over 20 awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Times of Canada.

Business card of Chandra Bodalia. Image credit: South Asian Canadian Digital Archive.

The Bodalia fonds focuses on the rich and diverse history of BC, capturing the experiences of South Asian Canadian communities through the lens of a South Asian photojournalist. The SACDA team plans to digitize, digitally preserve, and provide open access to this unique BC-based content in the coming years, offering invaluable insights into the vibrant cultural heritage of the province's South Asian communities. The fonds will provide a critical ethnographic framework to social sciences and humanities educators, researchers, learners, and policymakers to understand historically marginalized communities of South Asian origin, women, refugees, indentured, colonized and disenfranchised people.

Bodalia’s altruism set him apart—he photographed countless events without seeking compensation, distributing prints freely to community members. His legacy is a testament to his belief in the power of photography to preserve memories and foster connections. He once said in an interview, “I always believed it was important that the work and sacrifices of others be recorded and acknowledged so I decided to use my abilities in photography to contribute to the community.”

After his passing in 2017, Bodalia’s extensive archive, stored in his son’s garage, became a treasure trove of South Asian Canadian history. The SACDA team, in partnership with Royal BC Museum (RBCM)/ BC Archives, Department of Information Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley, University of the Fraser Valley Library, Sikh Heritage Museum, and the Poetic Justice Foundation is now working to digitize, preserve, and make the fonds accessible to the public.

Left: Chandra Bodalia boxes with photographs, right: an envelope with Chandra Bodalia’s handwritten notes. Image credit: Thamilini Jothilingam.

The Chandra Bodaliafonds presents both a challenge and an opportunity due to its vast scope. The SACDA team plans to employ a framework rooted in anti-racist, reparative, and social justice archival practices in the processing of the fonds, from record selection and metadata creation to public access and outreach. The initial phase of the digital preservation work will focus on digitizing 20,000 selected photographs from the fonds, with priority given to materials of high historical and cultural value. The digitization and digital preservation will follow a methodical selection process and consultation with the project partners, community members, and the advisory committee to ensure inclusivity and representational equity. The physical collection, comprising photographic prints and negatives, will be rehoused in a climate-controlled facility managed by RBCM to ensure long-term preservation.

Chandra Bodalia’s planner. Image credit: South Asian Canadian Digital Archive.

The SACDA team is currently in the process of creating a detailed file-level inventory of the fonds for preliminary access. The inventory will be shared on the SACDA website once completed. The digitized records will be preserved in SACDA at the University of the Fraser Valley and at the Royal BC Museum. The photographs will be openly and freely available on the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive (https://sacda.ca).

Thamilini Jothilingam is the Digital Asset Archivist at the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, where she manages the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive. Thamilini’s research and archival interests lie at the confluence of art and anthropology, with a focus on digital memory, social and visual histories, and community-centered heritage work. With over a decade of experience in ethnographic research, documentary and archival work, she has collaborated with academic and community organizations globally, spearheading preservation projects.

A Spotlight on Digital Archives with Siham Alaoui

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 01:36:57 GMT

This month the digital fun doesn’t stop and we're wrapping up our Spotlight series with one last interview on digital archives! We hope the Spotlight series provided a helpful showcase of the rich spectrum of archival work over the last year with our monthly features on different types of archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Siham Alaoui, PhD in archival science and public communication, and a sessional lecturer in archival science at Université Laval, Québec.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

I have an interdisciplinary PhD in archival science and public communication from Université Laval (which I have earned recently, at the end of November). I also hold a master’s degree in information science from the University of Montreal (2015) and a bachelor's degree from the School of Information Sciences (École des sciences de l’information, Rabat, Morocco), which I obtained in 2013. Since Winter 2022, I have been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses related to records management at Université Laval. I am interested in digital transformation and its impact on recorded information management practices. I will use information here as a generic word standing in for documents/records, datasets, and personal data, as in the digital universe, information exists as a whole and, at the same time, consists of fragments that can easily be combined in various ways to conduct several activities.

Before that teaching experience, I worked as an archivist and a librarian in various contexts, chief of which is the Higher Institute of Translation Studies (Rabat, Morocco). Assuming roles as an archivist and a librarian helped me develop an interdisciplinary perspective on how information professionals (archivists, records managers, and librarians) manage information. More precisely, it made me realize those specialists need to collaborate and federate their expertise for better information management.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

I have always been interested in studying something that combines culture, management (business), and technology. In 2009, after gaining my high school diploma, I was looking for an undergraduate program that fit my expectations. I found the interdisciplinary program offered by the School of Information Sciences (École des sciences de l’information) in Rabat (Morocco). I took an array of courses meeting the multidisciplinary nature of information science as a discipline. I had courses related to archival and library sciences, IT, communication, management, marketing, sociology, and history, among others. Hence, after graduating from this School, I had a very diverse background that helped me a lot both as an academic and a practitioner.

Q: What does an average day look like working with digital archives?

As a sectional lecturer, teaching both undergraduate and graduate students is a great opportunity to develop communication skills, especially when it comes to students who are not familiar enough with the foundations of archival science. In the automation paradigm, which stands for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support records and archives management processes, there is an urgent need to update archival curricula to meet the present expectations of the labor market. To this end, undergraduate students need to develop basic skills related to the way AI tools function, as well as the foundations of data science, since in the automation paradigm, archives are viewed as big data, because AI tools extract data from unstructured corpora to identify patterns and generate archival outputs (e.g. metadata, classification codes, etc.). For graduate courses, I always encourage students (who already work as archivists and records managers) to share with me the challenges they encounter in their professional world regarding the integration of AI features into archival processes. I enjoy discussions with them, as most of them come from various contexts (ex. government, universities, firms, etc.) and deal with different types of digital archives and records.

Moreover, I have always advocated for collaboration between archivists, records managers, and professionals of other disciplines that deal with information in their daily practices. In fact, when we speak of information governance, we usually refer to a multidisciplinary framework where information professionals collaborate and establish a dialogue with other disciplines (e.g. library science, computer science, data science, compliance, etc.). Yet, communication experts are often neglected and not identified as stakeholders in this information governance. Let’s not forget that communicators also manage information as a ‘message’. They use templates to formalize documents and apply specific rules to make information (e.g. documents, data) publicly available online. In the context of open governance, advocating for transparency and inclusion of various stakeholders in public decision-making, the availability of information at the right moment to the right person is fundamental. This information should meet archival criteria (e.g. authenticity, accuracy, reliability), as well communication (e.g. relevance, up-to-date, public image management, privacy), and technological criteria (e.g. interoperability). So, I think it is necessary that archivists and records managers collaborate with communication experts to ensure that proactive disclosure of information meets some key principles like transparency by design and privacy by design. That being said, I have based my teaching philosophy on this necessary collaboration between the two specializations to make students aware of the importance of collaboration in the digital universe. I believe it is a good strategy because, at Université Laval, archival curricula now are managed by the Department of Information and Communication, rather than the Department of History.

Q: What is your favorite thing about working with digital archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to digital archives?

Working with digital archives as well as teaching courses about them is quite interesting. As I previously said, recorded information is fragmented in the digital world, where a record exists, and, at the same time, datasets and personal data can be easily extracted from the record as a whole. Considering this aspect, metadata should be captured with these various documentary objects to make sure the links between them are described to make it easier to retrace the activity/process that generated them. However, this measure is not always easy to apply, especially where the same record is ‘owned’ by various administrative units. This is particularly the case of datasets, and more precisely, operational data. In this context, the management of datasets as records raises particular challenges, such as ensuring the archival quality of these objects, and, at the same time, their granularity and intelligibility to allow their reuse in various contexts. If we want to consider datasets as records, they should meet these requirements to enhance their discoverability. They are also to be contextualized with appropriate metadata describing the context and the links between datasets related to the same activity. What is the level of granularity that should be required to make datasets reusable by other users? How can we integrate dataset management into retention schedules? Whose needs should be taken into consideration while defining retention rules associated with datasets as records? In the context of open governance, internal and external users demand fair access to open data, which means that their informational needs should also be taken into consideration. How can archivists collaborate with users to understand their needs in order toopen up datasets that meet their expectations? These are some questions that should be addressed in the current context of open governance.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about digital archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about digital archives?

As an academic, I teach my students to become more aware of the importance of the archival intervention of data as records. To this end, I develop pedagogical content that can help my students realize that data should be included in archival objects, that is, records. This is particularly interesting in the era of automation, and more specifically, generative AI (GenAI), where we address data quality issues and their impact of spreading disinformation. Datasets used for algorithms’ training should be authentic, reliable, accurate, and complete, which clearly justifies the need for archivists to be implicated in the design, implementation and use of AI systems. Moreover, with the evolution of the juridical context regarding AI, some records/archives are to be captured for accountability and transparency purposes. Let’s think about algorithms, reports, assessment results of the inputs generated by AI systems, among others. All those digital records should be managed by archivists and records managers. All in all, archivists and records managers should prove their added value in the management of datasets as records, as well as in helping organizations comply with the legal environment related to the design, implementation, and use of AI systems. They should also collaborate with other experts, like data scientists for the assessment of datasets, and with communicators to ensure algorithms are made publicly accessible online for transparency purposes.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately?

I have published some articles related to automation as the fifth archival paradigm, completing the famous four paradigm shifts illustrated by Terry Cook (2013): Evidence, Memory, Identity, and Community. In my article “Peut-on parler de l’automatisation comme cinquième paradigme archivistique?” (Can we speak of automation as the fifth archival paradigm?), published in the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, I consider that, in the automation paradigm, archivists will have the role of IT experts who need to get involved in the way algorithms are designed, training data are chosen and AI systems are designed and implemented. I show the way automation will complement the four archival paradigms, rather than replace them. This article is based on personal reflection rather than a project per se. I have also recently authored an article entitled “Artificial intelligence and records management in contemporary organisations: what cultural aspects are required? Insights from the Information Culture Framework (ICF)”. The article was published in Records Management Journal.

References

Alaoui, S. (2024a). Peut-on parler de l’automatisationcommecinquièmeparadigmearchivistique?. The Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 47(1), 18-34. https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cjils/2024-v47-n1-cjils09364/1112106ar.pdf

Alaoui, S. (2024b). Artificial intelligence and records management in contemporary organizations: what cultural aspects are required? Insights from the information culture framework (ICF). Records Management Journal (Ahead of print). https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/rmj-08-2023-0041/full/html

Cook, T. (2013). Evidence, memory, identity, and community: four shifting archival paradigms. Archival science, 13, 95-120. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-012-9180-7

Dr. Siham Alaoui. Photo by author.

A Spotlight on Digital Archives with Luke Frolick

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 23:51:32 GMT

From municipal and federal government to universities, from religious congregations to community organizations, archivists work in a variety of settings. This year, the ACA blog, In the Field, is setting out to talk to archivists across Canada about the unique joys and challenges of their work environments. We will feature a different type of archives each month, with the objective of showcasing the rich spectrum of archival work.

This month we are featuring digital archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Luke Frolick, Student Employee at Northern BC Archives, and History Major with a Minor in English at University of Northern British Columbia.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Luke: I thoroughly enjoy working with the Northern BC Archives, which has led me to pursue a Master’s in Archival Sciences degree so that I can continue working in this field. I have a great interest in our past, locally and globally, and an interest in how we communicate those experiences through language.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Luke: A university project that involved transcribing and describing audio cassette recorded interviews from the 1970s piqued my interest in furthering this type of research. The project involved interviews from various people sharing their experiences from the Georgetown Mill and Company Town in Northwestern British Columbia. The Georgetown Mill was one of the first mills in operation in Western Canada and the interviews gave insight into the town and mill’s past operations and its previous owners. Through these recordings, I was able to do further research in archival repositories and use archival material that was essential to understanding the context of the recordings and the people involved and discussed in the interviews.

Another project I had the opportunity to work on required archival access to a document from the late 19th century. The document was a journal from Archdeacon W. H. Collison while he was exploring Haida Gwaii, then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. Collison contacted and preached to many Indigenous tribes and worked to transcribe their language so English speakers could communicate with them in their own language. Describing and summarizing this rare document from c. 1870 concerning the author’s experiences gave me a great appreciation for archival material and the interesting lives of the people who wrote and are described in such documents.

Q: What does an average day look like working with digital archives?

Luke: The work is quite varied, but most days involve digitally scanning or describing the scope and content of different materials. Scanning and digitizing multimedia, from photographs to documents, books, and audio cassettes, requires different approaches. Some days include repairing documents for scanning, such as oversized documents, that need to be fed through a specific scanner. Other days have involved removing photographs that have been adhered to album pages for decades to discover that there is information written on the back, something that would not have been seen for possibly decades. Describing the content can involve “detective” work, such as finding locations, people, or even more specific details, such as the make and model of a tractor or train engine that is photographed.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working with digital archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to digital archives?

Luke: What I enjoy about this job is that the work is quite varied, and I must be versatile in my approach to each project. I’m working with different types of technology, from old tech to cutting-edge, and amalgamating them both. What I enjoy about the work is also the most challenging aspect. Making sure the machines function with each other can sometimes prove difficult, but succeeding in completing a difficult project makes it that much more fulfilling.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about digital archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about digital archives? 

Luke: They are not permanent, like older media. This is just the next step in preserving potentially lost materials due to deterioration of old material. To preserve our past, we need to keep up to date on new ways of sustaining these materials.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately? 

Luke: Lately, I've been working on the project regarding W. H. Collison mentioned above. I have been digitizing glass lantern slides that were created in London between 1852 and 1870. These slides were used in his sermons and depict various pictures from religious iconography, famous architecture, such as the London Bridge, to microscopic bacteria. Some slides are very intricately hand painted to colourize them. They will be posted on the Northern BC Archives website once edited and I highly encourage people to keep a look out for them.

The glass lantern slides in the flatbed scanner ready to be processed. Photo by Luke Frolick.

Digitization Lab workspace. Photo by Luke Frolick.

A Spotlight on Indigenous Archives with Karen Ng

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 00:04:48 GMT

This month we are featuring Indigenous archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Karen Ng, former Archivist & Librarian for the Squamish Nation.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Karen: I double majored in English and Medieval Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and I was particularly interested in histories of the book. I worked a few student jobs at various units at UBC Library, and I was encouraged to apply for the dual Master of Library and Information Studies and Master of Archival Studies at the UBC iSchool. I pursued the First Nations Curriculum Concentration, and throughout my graduate studies I tried to take advantage of as many experiential learning and professional opportunities as possible. I think that was really helpful to me, but it was still really challenging graduating in spring 2020 into the pandemic. I’m grateful for the Young Canada Works program because it allowed me to move to Victoria again where I did my co-op during school, and then eventually I was able to come home to the Lower Mainland when the job with the Squamish Nation opened up.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Karen: Anxiety about what to do with a Bachelor of Arts.

I like being organized, researching, and thinking about how things can be categorized and grouped together—and of course I like books and paper. To be honest, I didn’t really know very much about archival studies at all until graduate school. I was partially aware of what archives were when I took a class about medieval record-keeping and when I worked as a student at UBC Rare Books and Special Collections during my undergrad.

Q: What does an average day look like working with Indigenous archives?

Karen: I was the first full-time Archivist for the Squamish Nation. Every day was different. I spent my first season moving boxes and getting to know the community, and then the next season trying to establish procedures and infrastructure for a functioning archives that worked best for the Nation. There was a summer that I spent writing multiple grants that had nothing to do with archives directly. Some days I would be at community events or out on the water or land if there was a spot for me. Other days I would find office rooms, shipping containers, or dilapidated sheds full of records that I had to figure out how to take care of. There were days when I was invited into community members’ homes to talk about the work they had done for their Nation and how they wanted their records preserved.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working with Indigenous archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to Indigenous archives?

Karen: The people are really special to me. I’ve never experienced such belly-rumbling laughter at work.

Unfortunately, colonial trauma was the most challenging aspect of the work, and it wasn’t surprising, but it was still difficult.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about Indigenous archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about Indigenous archives?

Karen: Relationships take time.

Q: Can you tell us about a project that you worked on?

Karen: I’m proud of the CollectiveAccess database I implemented with the Cultural Collections Manager. I still think it’s a work in progress, but I think it was good enough for where we left off in terms of proceeding to use it to figure out how else it could be improved. I’m excited for more records to be processed and organized into the database.

I’m also proud of the grant the linguist and I worked on for the Language Nest. The Squamish Nation’s Archives is part of the Language and Cultural Affairs Department, which also has a Squamish language immersion program for babies and their caregivers. Somehow I ended up on this project to apply for a grant that would continue to fund the Nest and the teachers. It was an incredible amount of work to understand the functions of the Nest and to translate it into a way that would convince the grant funders that we needed this. Even though it meant I took a big pause on my regular work with the archives, I think it’s still related in many ways to memory-making and memory-keeping.

Paying Our Archival Debt: Envisioning New Relationships for Sustainable Community Archiving

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 16:30:00 GMT

By June Chow, Jennifer Douglas, Rebecka Sheffield

In this post, we report participant contributions to a workshop we led at the 2024 ACA conference. The workshop engaged the conference’s theme of “future-proofing” by focusing on “archival debt,” a term coined to name the “problematic legacy issues” existing in archival institutions due to “past practices, policies, and strategies that prioritized the protection and validation of institutions over democratic access and responsible stewardship” (Cuellar 2023). Archival debt asks us to consider what resources are owed to records and people who have received less attention and care than they are due and how to pay down this debt. Building off Sheffield’s work on different sustainability models for community archives and Chow and Douglas’ research on archival consciousness in Vancouver’s Chinatown, the workshop explored the roles and responsibilities of mainstream archival institutions in the long-term viability of archives they have historically marginalized and neglected.

A significant portion of the workshop engaged participants in a process of envisioning an equitable archival space where mainstream archives not only acknowledge past harms, but also work toward actively benefiting historically marginalized communities and their archives. Participants worked in breakout groups to reflect on a series of prompts and questions we provided with the aim of starting a “future-proofing” conversation about the ways mainstream archives bear responsibility for sustaining community archives and possibilities for providing support in a non-oppressive, non-extractive, and reciprocal manner. The prompts first asked participants to think about “where they are at,” reflecting on the concept of archival debt and how it resonates in relation to their experiences as archivists in and outside of institutions. Next, we engaged participants in a road mapping exercise, asking groups to identify actionable steps toward more equitable relationships and practices that could be taken immediately and in the longer term.

Participants recorded their breakout room discussions in anonymous Google docs; their contributions are collated and summarized here by June Chow. We are grateful to workshop participants for sharing with us and with each other. We hope the ideas expressed below encourage further conversation and deeper reflection across the archival profession and contribute to significant and lasting change in institutional priorities and policies; with this in mind, we particularly hope this post is shared with and read by those in leadership positions and holding institutional and professional power.

Where folks are at

“How do we work toward slow processing when we face neoliberal austerity measures?” (Workshop participant)

How does the concept of “archival debt” resonate with you and your practices?

Workshop participants experience archival debt through lack of documentation in decision-making and in lack of knowledge around holdings of community records through inadequate description work. Short-term and contract-based jobs make it difficult to be embedded in a community and in an institution. Top-down decision-making based on statistics and deliverables is not seen as being conducive to care work. Issues around ownership and access to community records are layered and complex, and require different considerations and processes.

The processing archivist seems to bear the bulk of the burden of archival debt. Few individuals with archival training are hired into institutions; they find themselves unable to keep up with the policy side of archival work within their organizations. Participants want to help others understand and acknowledge archival debt as an active concept in order to effect change, for example, by linking the concept with archival silences/silencing, social responsibility, stewardship, accountability, and even litigation.

What do equitable, non-extractive models/practices of community engagement and support (debt repayment) look like? What should they look like?

Repayment of archival debt involves slowing down, planning and building for the longer-term, and being supported to spend time with/in community to build ongoing relationships. In such relationships, we explore people’s comfort level and openness for discussion, field diverse opinions, and enter into discussions with an open mindset, recognizing that there is no single solution to the problem, and instead commit to ongoing discussion. We ask appropriate questions of people who are historically under-represented or maliciously represented; we are open to participatory description, and report back to the community when their records are processed and made available. Smaller, community-based archives are recognized as having expertise and better-established relationships, but few resources to support others. Fair compensation can take the form of honoraria, payment (including for records instead of expecting donation of records from communities), and employment to ensure the representation and power of the community of interest within an institution and its staff.

Debt repayment can also involve resource sharing; resources that institutions can share with communities include database access, interlibrary loans, copies of records acquired without consent, digitization and digital preservation, and access to records while returning originals. Institutions are encouraged to dissolve institutional barriers and to learn from those outside archives who are doing things well. Ultimately, debt repayment must be part of the ethos of the institution and not just paid occasionally.

What stops archivists/institutions from doing better?

Archivists are being asked to take on more than is possible for a profession to do. Care work in the archives involves emotional labour and a high level of responsibility. In addition to resource limitations in funding, staff, and time, archivists also lack training. They are unsure of where to start, worry about not doing it right, and are overwhelmed by trying to do it all (or to do it at all). They are not sure how to balance care work against so many different areas of their work, which can quickly make for an unmanageable workload if room isn’t made by taking some things away.

Conversations are happening between peers, but it’s not where decisions are made. Within big institutions, individuals find it hard to have a say or to make things actionable. Institutions are governed by mandates, set priorities based on research and reference requests, and give buy-in to tangible projects and deliverables over processes that may have longer or undefined timelines. The ability to do better is limited by the lack of will on the part of the institution, political issues/barriers, neoliberalism, and access restrictions.

While both individuals and institutions are limited by capacity, it is cautioned that capacity is sometimes a valid concern, but sometimes used as an excuse to cover over things that can actually be done. Capacity can be created to fix errors/issues, for example, by taking capacity away from mundane or unimportant tasks.

Roadmap

“How can professionals with more/the most privilege/institutional power be encouraged to take on this work?” (Workshop participant)

Responsibilities

Institutions have a responsibility to recognize that this work is important and connected to institutional EDI mandates. This helps institutions hold themselves publicly accountable, and accountable to community records. There must be buy-in from senior management but also managers at various levels to grant staff the liberties to do this work. Transparent decision-making processes and inclusion of this work in overarching, long-term plans are needed.

Shared goals for addressing archival debt, increasing access, and fostering inclusivity will look different in one another’s work and approaches––from records management in local government to public archives and working with the public––given different responsibilities, tasks and priorities. Different institutions may be better at different things; your archive isn’t necessarily the right one to jump into a space to meet a community’s needs. We may be calling for the dissolution of “total archives” and the redrawing of lines of responsibility.

Everyone has a responsibility to bring awareness to some of the issues that need addressing. Archivists are responsible for advocating for budget and support for current and future archivists. There is always some social capital or institutional influence that can be leveraged. For example, pilot projects and their impacts can be leveraged to advocate for larger budget allocation. Every interaction in the reading room is about relationship building.

As professionals and as human beings, we work in front-facing roles with substantial power, and have access to valuable professional networks. An acquisition declined at your institution does not preclude you from using your networks to re-direct it to another home so that it gets preserved. We are responsible for engaging critically with our own work and processes, being invested on a personal/community level, and educating and advocating with our supervisors so that they can bring the issues forward to their supervisors.

Resources

Institutional resources require reprioritizing and reallocating. Long-term, stable funding beyond pilot projects is needed: for example, allocating funding from operating budgets within higher education. Redistribution of wealth and skills towards community archives is needed overall, with learning from other sectors and their funding models. Even with budgetary constraints, very small actions with communities can have potentially big ROI.

Among archivists as information professionals, information was identified as the easiest resource to share. There is value in demystifying archives for communities by going into communities and also inviting them into the archives. This includes articulating the value and benefits of archives, and ensuring a welcoming and accessible space through our word choices (e.g. “researcher”, “research facilities”) as well as architecture.

Small community archives often don’t have the means to be part of professional associations to gain access to their networks and to be included in conversations. Sharing resource lists, tips, and success stories can offer a starting point. In particular, institutions have infrastructure to offer in support of digital preservation and access. Regardless of the type of resource, however, both institutions and individuals need to be comfortable in providing work and support to the community without receiving or claiming credit. Both pros and cons were seen in a workplace's offering of professional credits for community archives work.

People

Community archives must be included as active participants in larger conversations that involve them. Different relationships with communities beyond collecting must be explored, pursued and codified within trust agreements. In particular, communities want to be empowered and have the agency to “build their own tables” by defining success on their own terms and creating their own opportunities. It is, however, difficult to know how to avoid overuse and over-reliance on consultation with communities, particularly Indigenous communities. The time it takes to build relationships and to step outside of the archives to do this work is challenging to carve out, quantify in year-end reports, and justify to a manager. However, this may be the only way an archives is accessible to remote communities. Employees who are part of the community must be part of the work, to make sure that the community in question is getting just as much if not more than the archives out of the interaction.

Many community records are being processed by contract workers, often with skill and cultural gaps, with little effort to recruit from the community. Contract, temporary, project-based, student and volunteer positions are the norm in the profession which undermines the sustainability required in care work. Relationships are personal; the burden of rebuilding relationships when staff move on falls disproportionately on communities. Possible solutions involve leaning more on paraprofessionals as colleagues versus assistants. Better off-boarding procedures for contractors can help with staff transitions, particularly through documentation as procedures vary across archival institutions. If we don’t document what we’re doing, it can be challenging to advocate for more resources and to bridge the work.

Hiring practices are a huge issue in archival institutions in Canada, and symptoms of larger systemic problems of investment in the archives sector. Hiring equitably to create a diverse, representative staff in the archival field must move beyond tokenism to support and give voice to marginalized employees.

Paying (y)our debt

“GLAM can be a monster that yum-yum-yum will eat up all your joy and enthusiasm for the work and call it ‘good for you.’ So boundaries, boundaries, boundaries will ensure we can keep doing good work.” (Workshop participant)

Tomorrow:

Do some documentation, examine our daily procedures for what we are doing already that is working and has values alignment, and make the case for additional resources by aligning with emerging frameworks.

Start using and give credit to the “archival debt” term, and talk about and share this bundle of issues. Recognize that we have this debt and have done harm. Admit past mistakes. Be more transparent about the work we do and don’t do, and the communities we haven’t documented. Fill descriptive gaps; add a title note to provide context to a user.

Share and discuss with colleagues, share skills in the workplace, and identify potential community partners to begin relationship building. There may be value in looking back to see what relationships have been lost due to funding/staffing gaps.

Mid-/Long-term:

Start a network of like-minded archivists to provide support and share skills. Identify pilot projects. Start making community connections, spending time to support people where they’re at, and respect what they want and need instead of what we want and need.

Build out a plan for how to engage and work with identified communities over time, including defining what engagement means and how you’ll measure success.

Share skills back with communities through volunteering, talking about the work you do as an archivist. If you have job security, ask if you can use work hours to do work that benefits the community and aligns with the institution’s strategic plan.

Call to action

The concept of archival debt provides a useful lens for reflecting on the responsibilities mainstream archival institutions and the profession have toward individuals and communities they have historically ignored and/or excluded. The discussions we had during the ACA workshop suggest possibilities for providing support in a non-oppressive, non-extractive, and reciprocal manner, but only through further conversation and deeper reflection across the archival profession can we contribute to significant and lasting change in institutional priorities and policies. As these conversations and reflections take place, it is especially important to remember the role that institutional and professional power plays in the archival debt economy. Power is unevenly held, and for too long the field has relied on those with little professional or institutional power to bring change. It’s time now for those in leadership positions, with the influence that is needed to effect long-term change, to join in these conversations––to look at the debt our institutions and profession hold and begin the work to pay it down.

Citation: Cuellar, Jillian; Eagle Yun, Audra; Meehan, Jennifer; and Tai, Jessica (2023) “Defining Archival Debt: Building New Futures for Archives,” Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: Vol. 10, Article 8. Available at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol10/iss1/8

Author bios

June Chow is an archivist (Vancouver/Toronto) with an award-winning practice in Chinese Canadian heritage.

Jennifer Douglas is associate professor at the School of Information at the University of British Columbia, on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people.

Rebecka Sheffield is the Head of Special Collections & Archives at the University of Waterloo Library.

A Spotlight on Government Archives with Ariane Gauthier

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 20:57:50 GMT

This month we are featuring government and provincial archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Ariane Gauthier, Reference Archivist at Library and Archives Canada.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Ariane: I signed up for a master’s program in history with the University of Ottawa in 2019 and simultaneously began working as a hostess for the Canadian History Museum and the Canadian War Museum. I had the opportunity to present my major research paper on Canadian nurses during the First World War at the Wilfrid Laurier Military History Colloquium. During the pandemic, I began work with the City of Ottawa on a municipal commemoration policy project that was recently adopted by the city council and permitted to enter its implementation phase. I also had the opportunity to work with the Juno Beach Centre in France for about 6 months during which time I served as a historical interpreter of Canadian military history.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Ariane: Down the line, my academic and professional paths repeatedly led me to Library and Archives Canada. With my main field of interest relating to the First and Second World Wars, I found myself consulting archival documents. While other smaller archival and heritage institutions had relevant material as part of their collection, the bulk of it was located at Library and Archives Canada.

Q: What does an average day look like in government archives?

Ariane: The average day is more exciting than it might seem at first glance, though this is entirely conditional on how interested you might be in research. As someone who is invigorated by this work, my days are comprised of exciting rabbit holes seeking questions to answers I might never have thought to have on my own. I scour our vast collection for information that might support researchers who come to our institution, and on select days I have the opportunity to flip through hundred-year-old documents that may be of use to them.

[Kapuskasing internment camp photograph] Original Title: Detention Camps, Guards and Prisoners

Reference: Library and Archives Canada, e011196906

Q: What is your favourite thing about working at Library and Archives Canada? What are some of the challenges that are unique to federal archives?

Ariane: As a historian by trade, my favourite thing is the opportunity to directly interact with historical documents. It’s one thing to read about or to see in documentaries or historical dramas an event that was pivotal; it’s another entirely to touch and see with your own eyes the correspondence, photos, or whatever else that recorded the moment as it happened. Unfortunately, these documents are not as easy to find as one may think and so the opportunity of working with history comes with the caveat of first having to locate a particular record. Additionally, the sorting system used by one institution is not necessarily the same as the one used by another, nor are the naming conventions of records.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about federal archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about federal archives?

Ariane: An important thing for the public to keep in mind is how recent, all things considered, archival ethics actually are. A standardization of best practices in the maintenance of archival documents can be traced back to the last 20 or 30 years. However, the documents most people are interested in are much older. This inevitably means that they existed, for a time, in a sort of Wild West period that impacted not only the way they were catalogued, but also whether they were ever deemed worth preserving. More records than we would like to imagine were thrown away under the erroneous assumption that no one would ever find them useful. As an unfortunate result, not all of our questions will be given satisfactory or direct answers.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately?

Ariane: I have had the pleasure of working on a research guide that will help to shed light on the internment camps (for prisoners of war and civilians) that existed in Canada during the periods of the First and Second World Wars. Few people are aware that this ever happened in Canada and fewer still have any idea where to begin such research. The guide will serve as a starting point for what Library and Archives Canada has as part of its collection and will be available on our website soon.

[Fort Henry being used as an internment camp]

Reference: Library and Archives Canada/PA-046178

AI in Ontario Archives

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 12:41:22 GMT

by Scott Jones

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming an integral part of the archival field, offering new and different ways to manage, preserve, and provide access to historical documents. In Ontario, the crossroads of AI and archives is being explored through various initiatives and frameworks aimed at employing the potential of AI while ensuring ethical use and trustworthiness.

An Introduction to AI in Ontario Archives

The Ontario government has been working on creating an AI Framework to guide the safe and responsible use of AI across its various services. This framework is designed to be transparent, responsible, and accountable, aligning with democratic principles and rights. It emphasizes the importance of AI being used transparently, ensuring that AI serves all people in Ontario, and maintaining trust in AI applications.

Consultations have been held to collect public input on the development of this framework, showing the government's commitment to an open and inclusive process. These consultations have highlighted the public's concerns about privacy, the desire for transparency in AI, and the need for definitions and plain language explanations. In the context of archives, AI can be a significant factor in enhancing the accuracy and accessibility of archival materials. The Archives of Ontario maintains an extensive collection of government and private documents, photographs, maps, and other historical records that could benefit from AI technologies for better management and user access. The Archives of Ontario, as part of the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, provides leadership in recordkeeping, access, and privacy, which are areas where AI can contribute significantly to efficiency and effectiveness.

The integration of AI into archival practices in Ontario is not only about improving archival management, but also about fostering a digital economy powered by trustworthy AI. This involves balancing the innovative potential of AI with ethical considerations and the protection of individual rights.

As AI continues to evolve, it will be essential for archival institutions like the Archives of Ontario to stay abreast of technological advancements, ensuring that they leverage AI in ways that enhance their services while upholding ethical standards and public trust. The ongoing development of Ontario's Trustworthy AI Framework and the active engagement with experts and the public are positive steps toward achieving these goals.

AI in Academic Archives in Ontario

In Ontario, academic institutions are exploring the use of AI to process and interpret large volumes of archival data. For instance, the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, an independent, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to advancing AI through research and applications, is a key player in Ontario's AI ecosystem. The institute focuses on deep learning and machine learning, crucial technologies for analyzing complex archival data.

Moreover, the Association of Canadian Archivists has spotlighted the work of archivists like Siham Alaoui, who are at the forefront of integrating digital technologies into archival practices. Alaoui's work at Université Laval in Québec, which includes updating archival teaching programs to incorporate digital transformation, reflects a broader trend in academic archives across Canada, including Ontario (Alaoui, 2024).

Digital archives in Ontario are also becoming more accessible thanks to AI. The Archives of Ontario, for example, offers a searchable database of government and private documents, photographs, and other materials, which can be enhanced by AI to provide more precise search results and content analysis (Archives of Ontario).

Furthermore, the application of AI in archives raises important considerations regarding trust and collaboration. As AI technologies evolve, they offer the potential to make archives more accessible, but they also require careful management to ensure the integrity and authenticity of archival materials (Colavizza, 2022). At Conestoga College, AI in the archives has yet to be explored; Conestoga College is offering a program in Applied Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning starting September 2024. This program is designed to equip students with the skills needed to design technology stacks for emerging industry challenges, and could be useful to archival students and those interested in applying AI to their archival institution.

AI in Local Archives in Ontario

Local archives in Ontario, such as those accessible through the Archives of Ontario, provide a wealth of resources including government and private documents, photographs, maps, and more. These collections are invaluable for research, education, and preserving the cultural heritage of Ontario. Digital Archive Ontario also offers an advanced search for various collections, highlighting the integration of digital technologies in archiving practices.

AI in Corporate Archives in Ontario

For corporate archives, AI can offer advanced methods for managing and analyzing large volumes of data. AI technologies like machine learning and natural language processing can help in organizing, categorizing, and retrieving archival materials more efficiently. This not only enhances the accessibility of historical records but also supports better decision-making by providing insights derived from archival data.

Conclusion

AI is playing a huge role in the archival landscape of Ontario, enhancing the management and accessibility of historical records. The province's commitment to ethical AI use and the ongoing growth of AI in academia and the AI ecosystem position Ontario as a leader in the intersection of technology and heritage preservation. Archives, supported by digital advancements and AI applications, continue to safeguard culturally significant records about Ontario for future generations.

Works Cited

Alaoui, S. (2024). L’intelligence artificielle et la gestion documentaire : quels apports ? Quels enjeux ? Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 46(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5206/cjils-rcsib.v46i2.16695

Archives of Ontario. Index. Retrieved July 25, 2024, from https://aims.archives.gov.on.ca/

Colavizza, G., Blanke, T., Jeurgens, C., & Noordegraaf, J. (2022). Archives and AI: An Overview of Current Debates and Future Perspectives. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 15(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3479010

Conestoga College. Applied Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning | Description. (n.d.). https://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/applied-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning

Mooradian, N. (2019, November 12). AI, Records, and Accountability. ARMA Magazine. https://magazine.arma.org/2019/11/ai-records-and-accountability/

Ontario. Ontario’s Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) Framework (2023, September 14). https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontarios-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence-ai-framework

Author bio: Scott Jones

I am currently working at Conestoga College – Doon campus in Kitchener, ON. I work as a Library services technician, and work the information desk as well as in the archives on various projects. A secondary portfolio I hold is with Academic Integrity at Conestoga as part of the takedown team. In the past I have worked as a Library CEO/Chief librarian at a small public library in Laurentian Hills. I helped develop programing and worked to build a community driven library by making connections with local schools, archives, museums, and genealogical groups. I have worked in school libraries as well as university libraries. For a term during my graduate program, I worked at the Map and Data Centre and Pride Library at Western University. I hold a master’s degree from Western University in Library and Information Sciences. I am also a graduate of Kings University College in London, Ontario with a Bachelor, honours specialization, in History. I have a deep appreciation for libraries and their role in the community, having worked in various related positions from bookstore clerk to library CEO.

A Spotlight on Museum Archives with Ashlynn Prasad

Thu, 30 May 2024 20:30:00 GMT

This month we are featuring museum archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Ashlynn Prasad, the former Librarian & Archivist at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path? What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Ashlynn: I actually started my archival career as an undergraduate student working in the Special Collections & Archives department of my university, the University of California, Santa Cruz. I worked there for all four years of my undergrad and I had really excellent mentors and supervisors who encouraged me to take on as much responsibility as I had an appetite for, which ended up being quite a lot. They gave me a thorough grounding in all aspects of archival work, and from there I was building on a really solid foundation. At first I was on the fence about pursuing archives as a career because I wasn’t sure I wanted to complete another degree, but by the time I was nearing the end of my bachelor’s degrees, I knew I wanted to keep doing this work and keep advancing in the field. I was also double majoring in History and Literature, which tied in perfectly with the start of my career; I like to say I was the last person to know I was going to become an archivist. I went almost directly into graduate school at the University of British Columbia, where I completed the Master’s of Archival Studies and the Master’s of Library and Information Studies, at the same time working the entire time almost entirely in academic archives. It wasn’t until after graduate school that I pivoted to museum archives, and by that time I had seven years of experience behind me.

Q: What does an average day look like in museum archives?

Ashlynn: When I worked at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, I was the only full-time permanent employee in the Archives department, so there was a lot to do and I’m not sure any two days were ever the same! For the most part, the work was similar to archival work in any context: reference requests, running the reading room, donor relations, appraisal and acquisition, arrangement and description whenever I had time for it, managing small teams of graduate students, and anything else I could do to try to increase the efficiency of my department, since there was so much to do with such limited resources. The day-to-day aspects that were specific to a museum archives included meeting regularly with the curators to discuss long-term preservation and storage plans for all our collections, as well as finding ways in which archival materials could best be represented in exhibitions and programs.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working in a museum archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to museum archives?

Ashlynn: It was a relatively small organization, and because of that, everything was usually an all-hands-on-deck situation (pun absolutely intended). For me, part of the joy of working in a museum archives was that I got to be involved in museum goings-on beyond the archives department, including working very closely with all the other department heads to organize events, work on grants, support marketing, help out with exhibitions, and plan the future of the museum as a whole. It was exciting to be involved in the life of the museum on a larger scale, and to advocate for the archives within that. Having come to the museum from a background of mostly academic archives, I really enjoyed working in an archives that in many ways felt like it was closer to a broader swath of the community.

Advocating for the archives within the institution presented a unique challenge as well. As we all know, archival work can be expensive, and it was often a struggle to get non-archives peoples in an organization that wasn’t archives-centric to see why something like an expensive storage solution should be prioritized above, for example, something that would get more visitors through the doors. A related challenge was learning how to talk about archives and archival work as the only person in the building who was an archives professional. There’s a certain degree of translation involved: finding ways to limit jargon and say things differently than I would around archival colleagues was necessary to represent the archives well and help everyone see why they should care about them.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about museum archives?

Ashlynn: One thing that I didn’t realize before I worked in museum archives was that the collections are split between archives and objects: while I managed the archives, the curatorial department managed the object collections. That was actually a relief to me when I first started, because I had never really worked with objects before, and obviously they have their own needs in terms of preservation, description, and access. It was great to work alongside professionals who had the skills and knowledge to handle these objects in their own separate cataloguing system. That was something that I wished was more broadly known, because I was constantly getting donation offers and reference requests for the object collections and the curators were constantly getting the same for archival collections. In an environment where time was such a limited resource that every moment counted, it felt like we were spending too much time forwarding emails back and forth to each other.

Another thing that I wish the public understood better is that museums have collecting mandates, donation procedures, and limited space—sometimes extremely limited—so we’re not necessarily interested in every donation offer. I think people tend to imagine the warehouse scene from Indiana Jones when they think of museum archives in particular, and the reality was often more like one or two open shelves in my unprocessed area and a nonexistent quarantine area. We often had people offering donations or sometimes just dropping things off at the front door overnight, who were then confused and even offended when we followed up to let them know their donation didn’t fall within our collecting mandate (Pacific and Arctic, but not Atlantic) or we needed them to sign our donor paperwork.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you worked on during your time in museum archives?

Ashlynn: The projects I was most excited about were the ones that opened up access to communities, especially marginalized communities. Because the museum’s collecting mandate included the Arctic, Inuit materials were one of the focuses of our collections. One project I worked on at the beginning of my tenure there was the creation of an Oral History Program, which included a step-by-step manual, resources, checklists, and more. I incorporated a flexible release form designed specifically for oral history interviews with Indigenous individuals: this basically stated that the museum would conduct the interview, but any and all rights to the story and the interview would remain with the interviewee and their kin, and the museum had to seek their permission any time they wanted to use the oral history. I designed the terms of the form to be flexible on a case-by-case basis; interviewees could choose to adjust the release form so that the museum could have usage rights to the audio, but it wasn’t something that we wanted to lobby for or even suggest. I didn’t want it to feel like there were conditions to participating in the interview; I wanted it to feel more like a free service that the museum offered to anyone who wanted to tell their story. Before I left, I was able to oversee the interview of an Inuit elder, who lived in the Arctic and was interviewed in Inuktitut by his great-niece, who sat on our Board of Trustees. Their story was closely connected to the museum because his brother and mother had helped the St. Roch navigate through the Northwest Passage in the early 20^th century; the St. Roch is the ship that the museum is essentially built around, and the primary exhibition. They chose to allow the museum to use the interview, and by the time I left, we were working on getting it translated into English so that we could use the audio with subtitles in exhibitions.

Analyzing Artificial Intelligence Methods in Digital Preservation Workflow

Thu, 16 May 2024 22:09:05 GMT

by Jill K. Sadler

Digital technology has greatly changed preservation management in the archival field, presenting both opportunities and challenges. There has been a significant amount of research in the last five years investigating how artificial intelligence (AI) and its sub-fields, machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), can assist archivists in their workflow by addressing privacy concerns and improving access. This article is not about ChatGPT—that’s another conversation for another (very imminent) time—but it is about examining how archivists can ethically steward records using emerging technologies. Ultimately, AI methods are helpful, but archivists are necessary to help provide context and supervision.

Discussions of efficient and meaningful archival processing have been ongoing for decades. The discussions of archival backlog continue, especially as technology progresses and digitized and born-digital records are amassed, surpassing what human archivists are capable of addressing. Digital records don’t need a warehouse for storage. Millions of email records can be stored on a USB flash drive or on cloud servers distal from a physical archival institution. The vulnerability of this unprocessed data is compounded by technology obsolescence. Without ethical stewardship of these records, there are privacy and access concerns and there is substantial risk to records’ creators, records’ subjects, and institutional trust.

AI methods such as machine learning and natural language processing can be used to process records and text at a scale that surpasses human capability and can potentially address the archival backlog. A machine learning algorithm builds a model based on training data, not based on direct programming by a human. Natural language processing describes a computer’s ability to process text and speech similar to the way humans can. Both of these methods, in combination with ever-increasing computing power, can help archivists analyze and describe records; however, there is still the matter of a computer’s ability to infer context. When considering AI solutions, one should continually ask the question, Can a computer understand contextual nuance and value as well as a human can? It is important to critically assess how AI tools work and the opportunities and challenges these new tools present to the archival field. One way to do this is to examine AI tools against the archival framework of radical empathy. Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor’s “Human Rights to Feminist Empathy: Radical Empathy in the Archives” examines archivists’ responsibilities in their relationships with records’ creators, records’ subjects, records’ users, and larger communities. A radical empathy approach considers positions of power and, more specifically, notes how the archival tradition of preserving records for legal reasons ignores oppression and is not a radical empathy approach to recordkeeping.

In “Balancing Care and Authenticity in Digital Collections: A Radical Empathy Approach to Working with Disk Images,” Monique Lassere and Jess M. Whyte provide a balanced perspective on archival processing with AI tools. They specifically place disk image preservation issues within a radical empathy framework, outlining how preserving disk images may harm records’ subjects, donors, and other stakeholders due to privacy concerns. Preserving disk images provides an authentic record with clear provenance and authority; however, this approach considers the disk image from a sociolegal viewpoint. There is also institutional risk associated with preserving a disk image containing sensitive data that may or may not be processed in a timely fashion and with not treating the data with care. The question is one of balancing privacy with access and assessing the risk of jeopardizing one or both. AI tools can help redact sensitive data on disk images, thus protecting the records’ subjects and lowering institutional risk. Once sensitive data has been redacted, the records can potentially be made available to the public per the archival institution’s mission.

Lassere and Whyte make a number of recommendations for archivists who want to use AI tools in their workflow. From a technical standpoint, these tools need to showcase transparency in how they work: there needs to be clear documentation and reporting of the tools’ functionality and usage, clear evidence of content deletion, and ease of adoption and use. However, the authors clearly underscore that radical empathy doesn’t mesh well with automation. Tools can help archivists, but archivists still need training and time to perform acceptable acquisition and oversee the use of these tools. In other words, in a radical empathy framework, archival processes need humans to work alongside technology to ensure decisions can be made slowly given their subjective, contextual, and shifting nature. Most importantly, archivists need to collaborate with IT departments, the institution’s administration, records’ subjects, donors, and researchers with the primary goal of mitigating risk for all parties. Perhaps archivists need to acknowledge their acceptable risk and collect less: if you can’t ethically steward without risk, don’t acquire it.

In “After the Digital Revolution: Working With Emails and Born-digital Records in Literary and Publishers’ Archives,” Lise Jaillant draws similar conclusions when considering dark digital archives that are intended to be public but are locked away due to their sensitive nature. Regarding access, Jaillant recommends collaborating with donors, advocating for open data and improved text mining tools, and improving graduate student training in digital curation and AI. Engaging donors fits into a radical empathy approach: not only is this collaborative and builds relationships with archivists and records creators/subjects, but it also gives the donor agency in determining their own balance between privacy and risk. Jaillant also advocates for involving researchers to work with archivists instead of waiting for archivists to process records and make them available. This requires a code of ethics on the part of the researcher and requires that the researcher understands the research context.

In “Unlocking Digital Archives: Cross‐disciplinary Perspectives on AI and Born‐digital Data,” Lise Jaillant and Annalina Caputo continue to explore how archival institutions prioritize closed archives over access because of a risk-averse perspective and wanting to avoid legal challenges. This approach of limiting access to archives, especially using a rights-based argument, doesn’t easily align with a radical empathy framework as it potentially obscures the oppressed and marginalized voices that may be present in the archives. It potentially limits the power of voices in the archives, limits the experiences of the archival user, and may negatively impact the larger community. The authors advocate for working alongside AI tools as “human scrutiny is not replaced by their algorithmic counterpart, but boosted… [there is] value of digital assisted sensitivity review on both speed and quantity” (2022). Jaillant and Caputo underscore that “archivists do not have to be proficient in technical aspects of AI… but they need to actively participate in this process of ‘assisted review’ of archival documents” (2022). They call for close examination of AI and machine learning tools because the exact ways in which these tools and their respective algorithms are created and function are typically obscured.

Jaillant and Caputo’s analysis segues nicely into an analysis made by Stephanie Decker et al. in “Finding Light in Dark Archives: Using AI to Connect Context and Content in Email.” Having humans work alongside machines to help provide context is key, especially with complex email archives, which seem to be particularly troublesome due to their inherently risky privacy issues, networked nature, the ease at which information can be decontextualized, and the volume of data.

Decker et al. provide a comprehensive, technical description of how AI methods can be applied to email archives to aid in searching, contextualization, and, ultimately, access but note that their success depends on how the archives have been rendered so that they are machine-readable. Lassere and Whyte also emphasize how important it is to use knowledge domain-specific AI tools, especially ones designed for archives, as the tool may be less effective if it cannot properly contextualize or assist with the data it is meant to be analyzing. Decker et al. emphasize the need for researchers to help provide access to records, and for cross-disciplinary collaboration to improve or provide meaningful access. This is yet another reason why interdisciplinary collaboration between archivists and AI scientists is so crucial. Already, just in this article, one can see that scholars who are interested in this intersection of AI and archives come from varied backgrounds: Caputo is a computer scientist, Decker is a business scholar, Jaillant is a digital humanist, Lassere is a digital archivist, and Whyte is a digital assets librarian. Given the multidisciplinary nature of the AI field, one can expect to see more collaborations from experts in the fields of history, anthropology, linguistics, business, computer science, archives, and more.

Recent scholarship shows how artificial intelligence methods can be applied in digital preservation workflow and provides a perspective on ethical stewardship of records while using emerging technologies. Jaillant and Caputo expertly summarize what a radical empathy approach to using AI tools in archives looks like: “a framework of AI governance informed by well-developed language and procedures of consent, power, inclusivity, transparency… cross-disciplinary collaborations, [and] close attention to ethical principles” (2022). With intentional and patient management and supervision, implementing AI methods in digital preservation workflows can help connect archivists with records’ creators, subjects, and users, as well as larger communities, in a responsible manner.

References

Caswell, M. & Cifor, M. (2016) From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives. Archivaria 81, 23-43. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/687705

Decker, S., Kirsch, D.A., Kuppili Venkata, S. et al. (2022). Finding Light inDark Archives: Using AI to Connect Context and Content in Email. AI & Soc 37, 859–872. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01369-9

Jaillant L. (2019). After the Digital Revolution: Working with Emails and Born-digital Records in Literary and Publishers’ Archives. Archives & Manuscripts, 47(3), 285–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/01576895.2019.1640555

Jaillant, L. & Caputo, A. (2022). Unlocking Digital Archives: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on AI and Born-digital Data. AI & Soc 37, 823–835. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01367-x

Lassere, M. & Whyte, J. M. (2021). Balancing Care and Authenticity in Digital Collections: A Radical Empathy Approach to Working with Disk Images. Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies 3, 1-25.

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with Siham Alaoui

Thu, 02 May 2024 14:25:19 GMT

This month we are featuring university archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Siham Alaoui, a PhD candidate in archival and communication studies and a sessional lecturer in records management programs (undergraduate and graduate) at Université Laval, Québec.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Siham: I hold a master’s degree in information science obtained in 2015 from the École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information (EBSI) at the Université de Montréal. I also have a bachelor’s degree in information science from the School of Information Sciences (Rabat, Morocco) in 2013. Before starting a PhD in archival science and public communication in 2018 at Université Laval, I worked as head of the library and archives department of a higher institute in translation studies in Rabat, Morocco. I also accumulated professional experience through internships during my undergraduate and graduate studies. This experience helped me specialize in records management, particularly in the current context of digital transformation of higher education institutions.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Siham: I’ve always wanted to pursue an educational program that combines management, culture, and technology. This ambition naturally led me to choose the Bachelor of Information Sciences, with a specialization in archival science, asa major during my undergraduate studies. My final year project focused on the implementation of a workflow management technology to stimulate collaboration between organizational actors to manage their business records. Since then, my interest in collaboration and horizontality has grown. It developed further during my graduate studies, as well as my work experience in both a library and archives environment. This enabled me to project a cross-sectional view of the two professions, which manage the information object indifferent ways. Actually, this is the subject of my doctoral research thesis.

Q: Can you explain how digital technologies have changed your teaching experience in recent years?

Siham: In recent years, particularly with the changes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become essential to review the archival teaching programs at Université Laval. As a specialist, a researcher and a lecturer in records management, I thought it was necessary to update my courses to incorporate the remote workaspect and all the emerging information management practices associated with it. Also, with the craze for artificial intelligence and its link to the phenomenon of information datafication, it was necessary to make students aware of the need to review their practices to take full advantage of the potential of automation, while respecting the ethical and professional standards recognized by the archival community.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working as a lecturer of archival science curricula?

Siham: First and foremost, it is the ongoing dialogue between theory and practice. This enables me to update the content of the undergraduate and graduate courses I teach. There is also the flexibility to adapt to students’ needs. This is particularly the case for graduate students who come with their own professional experiences. The interactions are very interesting because they enable us to reflect on certain things that are still little explored in practice, or aspects that emerge from practice but remain scientifically under-explored.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about university archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about university archives?

Siham: University records and archives are diverse, because in the university’s environment, there is more than one activity: teaching, research, community service, administration, and community involvement. All these aspects are reflected in the records and archives acquired by university archivists. Some are described as institutional, others as non-institutional or private. To ensure a better representation of the university, its achievements, its influence, and its history, the archivist needs to get involved with an array of university actors (e.g. professors, lecturers, students, administrative staff, etc.) to build up the archival memory.

Furthermore, in the age of information datafication and the development of open research data disclosure, which can be considered as records of the research activities of professors, students, postdoctoral fellows and research professionals, it is necessary to develop activities on the part of archivists. This seems challenging, since the latter's interventions are often limited to long-term preservation and archiving, whereas their expertise could very well be put to good use in contextualizing these data. To this end, a dialogue should be established between archivists and researchers to improve open research data governance.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately? 

Siham: In fact, it is not a project per se. It is a research interest that my teaching experience has enabled me to explore. It is about research into the intersections between artificial intelligence (AI) and records management. Everyone is talking about AI these days. The results of my implication in various projects related to AI and my experience as a doctoral researcher have been an inspiration to publish my article entitled “Artificial intelligence and records management: What gains? What stakes?” in the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science in 2023. In this theoretical article, my aim was to explore the benefits and the challenges of integrating AI into records management practices. I also wanted to highlight the new roles that records managers would play in the automation era.

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with John Moran

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 22:00:00 GMT

This month we are featuringuniversity archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with John Moran, Digital Archivist at the University of British Columbia.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

John: I studied History back home at the University of Galway, Ireland and spent some time as an intern in the James Hardiman Library. When the archivists in James Hardiman heard that I was going to work in Canada they told me to consider studying archives there, as Canadian archivists have a world-wide reputation. I was fortunate to be accepted into the iSchool at UBC.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

John: When I was an intern, I worked specifically on a Library project. Still, I became fascinated with what the archivists did with their boxes and how they arranged the textual records. They put such time and thought into the process. It was something that grabbed my interest, and I couldn’t let it go until I learned what, at that time, were these strange archival rituals.

John Moran, University Archives. Photo by Phoebe Chan of UBC Library Communications.

Q: What does an average day look like in university archives?

John: Busy! In my current position, I am a Digital Archivist. I report to the University Archivist. I also work with colleagues in the Records Management Office, Rare Books and Special Collections, and with Digital Programs and Services within UBC Library. I am lucky to have so many great colleagues to learn from and to work with. My average day combines meetings, working on backlogs, working with students on projects, meeting with donors, and assisting researchers.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working in university archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to university archives?

John: One of my favourite aspects is the opportunity to engage with donors and listen to their stories. Whether they're sharing tales from their own lives or recounting the legacies of their loved ones, being a part of these conversations is truly meaningful. It connects you directly with the human behind the records.

University libraries across Canada are facing significant budget challenges. I think that one of the most commendable characteristics of our profession is that we do so much with so little, however, the current situation raises concerns about sustainability. With our broadening responsibilities at the university, we face an ever-challenging workload.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about university archives?  What do you wish other archivists understood about university archives? 

I think that the potential for research in university archives is sometimes underestimated. When you are looking at the records of a department you are getting an up-close look at not just a university unit’s struggles and triumphs within a larger institution but you get to know about all the people that passed through, the personalities, the dramas, the intrigues, their successes that shaped the unit over time. One university unit can be so different from the other. They are like family members, all differentin their own right, sometimes engaged in conflicts, but ultimately part of a larger academic family. I think other archivists might be surprised how many amazing stories are buried within university archives.

Department of Athletics and Recreation fonds, Glenn Bailey UBC Gymnastics, 1982-83 – UBC 4.1/451. Photo by Phoebe Chan, UBC Library Communications.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately? 

I am sure many people reading will be aware of the InterPARESresearch project on the preservation of electronic records which began in 1999 at what was then the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at UBC. It is still led by Professor Luciana Duranti and in its current iteration is InterPares Trust AI. We are excited to be acquiring InterPares’ records from the last 25 years and looking forward to making them available to researchers from around the world.

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with Curtis Frederick

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 23:25:17 GMT

This month we are featuring university archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Curtis Frederick, University Records Archivist at the University of Calgary.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Curtis: I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with majors in history and religious studies from the University of British Columbia. I then enrolled at the University of Toronto and completed both a Master of Information and a Master of Museum Studies in 2017. After graduating, I worked a number of small contracts in Toronto and also had the opportunity to do an internship with Salzburg Global Seminar in Salzburg, Austria. I then worked for nearly two years as a project archivist at the corporate archives of CIBC in Toronto. I started my current position at the University of Calgary in March 2020. I was in the office for less than a week before we were sent home due to the pandemic, which was an interesting way to start a new job!

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Curtis: As a kid I always had a strong interest in history and in museums. During my undergrad, I worked at a couple of museums during the summers as a tour guide. This also introduced me to the world of archives. I was drawn to the University of Toronto by the opportunity to complete a degree in both museums and archives.

Glenbow Western Research Centre – the reading room at the University of Calgary Archives. CU12240905. By Brown, David H. Courtesy of University Archives Collection, Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary.

Q: What does an average day look like in university archives?

Curtis: There really isn’t a typical average day, but more a variety of tasks that can happen on any given day. A lot of the work I do involves cultivating donor relations, both with external donors, but also with the various faculties, departments, and operating units within the university. I also do a lot of reference work, which can take the form of classroom teaching, individual consultations with researchers, staffing the reference desk in the reading room, or answering questions via phone and email. I am also in charge of the records management and shredding programs, which involves a lot of day-to-day work in advising on retention periods, scheduling destruction of records, and providing advice on records management practices. A day may also involve arrangement and description work, working on policies, planning for large projects and sitting on a variety of library or university committees amongst many others.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working in university archives?  What are some of the challenges that are unique to university archives?

Curtis: My favourite thing about working in university archives is that no day is ever the same. I enjoy the variety of the tasks I do and responding to changing needs and priorities as they arise. I also really enjoy being able to work with a wide range of researchers from students to faculty and to community members. Each researcher brings a different project and a different perspective to the records.

University archives face many of the same challenges that other archives face in terms of promoting our collections and services and raising awareness of the need for strong records management practices. One thing that can be particularly challenging is ensuring the relevancy of collections for students and classes. We can’t simply go out and acquire a collection based on every interest. This means we must get creativetomake sure we highlight our relevant collections, and we need to work with students and professors to demonstrate how our collections can be used in ways they may not have thought of before.

High bay archival storage at the High Density Library. CU2125214. By Brown, David H. Courtesy of University Archives Collection, Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about university archives?  What do you wish other archivists understood about university archives? 

Curtis: The public often has a misunderstanding that university archives are for students and staff only. We are open to all researchers and enjoy helping all researchers in any way we can.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately? 

Curtis: We are always working on several projects. In 2019 the University of Calgary acquired the library and archives of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. This added more than 5kms of material to our holdings in a very quick period. We continue to work on integrating this material into our databases and in making more of the material accessible digitally. We continue to work on prioritizing records for digitization and creating an overarching digitization plan. A couple of recent projects include the complete digitization of our legacy theses collection, the digitization of parts of our oral history collection,the digitization of the complete Winnifred Eaton Reeve fonds, and our recently launched H. G. Wells exhibit.

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with Sarah Lake

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 19:46:27 GMT

This month we are featuring academic archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Sarah Lake, Digital Preservation Librarian at Concordia University Library.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Sarah: For my undergraduate studies, I did a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in film production at Concordia University. When I graduated, I wasn’t interested in working in the film industry and was looking for a new direction. It was around that time that I heard about library school and thought it aligned with a lot of my interests. I completed a Master of Information Studies at McGill University in 2019, and then I did a couple of short-term grant-funded contracts as a processing archivist and junior digital archivist at Concordia’s Records Management and Archives. I then got a one-year contract as special collections archivist at Concordia Library before transitioning into my current tenure-track role.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Sarah: I have always been fascinated by memory, and it’s a theme that has been central to my artistic practice. When I was studying filmmaking, I chose the documentary stream and became really interested in found footage and archival materials. When I realized that I could make a career out of preservation, it seemed like the perfect path for me.

Q: What does an average day look like in university archives?

Sarah: Since I’m not an archivist, my role doesn’t really involve typical activities like processing or reference. My day to day is more about project management, workflow and policy development, technical administration, and providing support to special collections and repository staff who are processing materials. Since my role is also more tech-focused, my average day also usually includes some kind of troubleshooting/problem-solving.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working in universityarchives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to university archives?

Sarah: Universities are in a position of privilege: we often have more resources than the individuals and organizations who are donating their archives to us. As such, we have a responsibility to build trust and keep active ties with the communities who are entrusting us with their memory. My colleague Alex Mills co-authored a great article about the archives as a community-engaged classroom and the importance of the ongoing relationship between communities and the archives that they produce.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about university archives?  What do you wish other archivists understood about university archives? 

Sarah: I think the use of new technology in academia, especially in digital humanities, is currently outpacing archivists’ ability to develop and implement standards, tools and procedures to preserve scholarly research. With new and emerging forms of scholarship, preserving scholarly output is becoming increasingly complex: it’s currently a lot easier to preserve and provide access to a thesis in PDF form than an interactive VR installation. I wish that more researchers and funding agencies were conscious of the importance of embedding preservability into research from the start, and perhaps even inviting archivists to participate in the planning stages of large research projects, rather than preservation being an afterthought.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately? 

Sarah: Recently I’ve been working with a few colleagues on a project to preserve web-based student journals using web archiving tools like Archive-It. These publications are so ephemeral that we have already seen quite a few of them disappear from the web in just the short amount of time that we’ve been doing this. When these websites vanish, a record of student life and scholarship at the university is lost forever, so we feel that it’s important to preserve them while we can. It’s still a work in progress, but we hope to keep building the collection and to find new ways to collaborate with students on this project.

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with Sarah Glassford

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 19:30:00 GMT

This month we are featuring academic archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Sarah Glassford, an Archivist at the Leddy Library Archives & Special Collections, University of Windsor.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Sarah: I initially pursued a traditional path to a career as an academic historian: BA, MA, PhD, postdoctoral fellowship, tenure-track job market. It was a great first career, and I loved it—but it did not lead to the geographic or financial stability I wanted. So, I went back to school to earn my MLIS, did some more contract work, and then was hired in a permanence-track position here at the University of Windsor’s Leddy Library. Although I knew I wanted to be an archivist, I chose to do an MLIS degree for pragmatic reasons: I believed it would give me more employment options, and that was important after I had already spent a decade struggling to gain a foothold in the academic job market. I therefore gained most of my archival training not in a degree program, but by pursuing every hands-on training opportunity I could find. That turned out to be a co-op placement, a practicum, volunteer work, and a lot of professional workshops offered by ACA, AAO, NEDCC, and NAAB.

I sometimes regret not having been trained in the theory and literature of archival studies, but my MLIS training helped me get current my job, because Leddy is a mid-size university library and everyone has to wear more than one hat (meaning that I do both archival and library work). It also helps me communicate more effectively with my librarian colleagues—I know their lingo and core practices, even if they don’t know mine. Elements of my first career have also been useful: a background in History makes archival arrangement and description faster and easier, and having a PhD generally earns the respect of the faculty members I interact with. My university teaching experience has been an asset in the instructional portion of my archivist and librarian roles.

Sarah Glassford in the vault. Credit: Marcie Demmans, Leddy Library, August 2019. Check out this UWindsor DailyNews article featuring Sarah.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Sarah: As a historian I spent a lot of time doing archival research, and always enjoyed the environment of archives. I first got a taste of what archivists do when I helped a voluntary organization organize their historical materials, butI was still committed to my teaching career at the time. I remembered that experience years later, when I was considering a career change, and wondered if it might be a viable option. So, I talked to people I knew with History degrees who were working in either libraries or archives and they were very encouraging. Once I got into it, I realized that archival work suited my natural inclination to enjoy organizing things, and allowed me to make a meaningful contribution to whose histories are told and how—questions I was already interested in from my teaching and research career.

Q: What does an average day look like in university archives?

Every day is different. Sometimes I am 100% archives-focused; other times I am up to 50% library focused. Some days I work quietly alone in my office doing arrangement and description; other days I attend library committee meetings, give tours to community groups, teach classes primary source literacy skills, or communicate with potential donors. Some days I train or mentor students intraditional archival practice; other days I work closely with staff, librarians, or faculty members on digital projects and outreach initiatives. Some days I work with new acquisitions or do monetary appraisals; other days I wrestle with legacy issues in our archives and try to improve the descriptions of collections we’ve had for decades. Most days it’s some combination of three or four of the above.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working in university archives?  What are some of the challenges that are unique to university archives?

Sarah: Since I work in a small archives, being a jack-of-all-trades is the name of the game. Paradoxically, this is both my favourite thing and the most challenging part. It can be overwhelming and disheartening to be pulled in so many directions all the time,but it also means I am rarely bored. I have an intimate familiarity with all aspects of our work, collections, patrons, donors, and purpose, and I like that.

Specific to being a university archives, I think, is the challenge of being a small sub-unit of a much larger entity (the academic library) that recognizes and values the archives as a close cousin but very rarely understands it. I do a lot of what you might call ongoing low-key advocacy work when interacting with my librarian colleagues, around the differences between the two worlds. It’s important and necessary, but can be a bit wearying.

A real benefit of working in a university archives is the opportunity to interact with young adults who are energetic, idealistic, and enthusiastic about making the world a better place. I love getting to know a student’s interests and being able to direct their placement work around a collection or project that will be meaningful to them while also improving how our community is reflected in our collections. I’ve supervised student work highlighting women’s history, 2SLGBTQIA+ history, and Black history in our region, and it’s win-win when the students’ efforts not only benefit the archives and its future patrons, but also their own education and personal growth.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about university archives?  What do you wish other archivists understood about university archives? 

Sarah: Having the words “University of Windsor” in our name sometimes leads people to assume that all we collect are university records, or that the only people who can access our collections are university-affiliated faculty and students. In truth, our archives was created specifically for community collections, and only later in its evolution added university records to its mandate. Windsor is predominantly a blue-collar city, so there is sometimes a tension between town and gown, in terms of whether ordinary citizens feel that anything to do with the university is “for them” or not. About 75% of our archival patrons come from outside the university, but there is still a lot of work to do in terms of building our profile in the community as a trusted partner in regional history preservation and dissemination.

Collage of Great Lakes items held in Leddy Library Archives & Special Collections. Credit: Sarah Glassford, Leddy Library, April 2024.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately? 

Sarah: Right now my archives is part of a larger library-wide effort to support an upcoming international conference hosted by the University of Windsor’s Great Lakes Institute of Environmental Research (GLIER). The attractive and interesting historical materials in our Archives and Special Collections (ASC)—old maps, historical images of Great Lakes birds, fish, landscapes, etc.—will be used to draw conference-goers’ attention to a display highlighting the research potential of our library’s Great Lakes collection (of which ASC materials form a small part). It’s a good example of an archives-library collaboration within a university context, and alsoa microcosm of the way thatthe rare and unique items in the archives’ care are increasingly deployed to help academic libraries define themselves and defend their value in the digital age. In other words: we have cool old stuff you can’t find anywhere else!

A Spotlight on Religious Archives with Rhiannon Allen-Roberts

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 19:17:16 GMT

This month we are featuring religious archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Rhiannon Allen-Roberts, Associate Archivist at Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada Consolidated Archives.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Rhiannon: I completed my Bachelor of Arts with a major in art history at Queen’s University where I had the chance to complete an internship with the National Gallery of Canada at the Canadian Pavilion of the 58^th Venice Biennale. I then went on to complete my Master of Library and Information Science degree at Western University where I did an eight-month co-op at Western University’s Archives and Special Collections. While there, my amazing supervisors encouraged me to join professional associations. I joined the Archives Association of Ontario and became Chair of the Student and New Professional Outreach Committee. After I graduated in 2023, I began working with the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada Archives as Associate Archivist on a year-long contract, which turned into a permanent position. I have since joined the Society for American Archivists, where I am part of the Archivists of Religious Collections Section Steering Committee, and the Association of Canadian Archivists, where I am part of the Special Interest Section for Archives of Religious Organizations. I am also part of the AtoM New Users Group and the Archives Canada Working Group.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Rhiannon: I’ve always been passionate about the human side of history, which is why I studied art history. I loved learning about how entwined in daily life art can be and how every aspect of culture can impact art, especially when given the chance to work with some illuminated manuscripts at W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections for one of my courses. It was from there that I learned about archives and the history within them. I also worked as a historical interpreter at Fort Henry during my time at Queen’s and I really enjoyed being able to connect people with history. Archival studies are the perfect mesh of these interests. I love working with the everyday by-products of life which make up our history and being able to participate in connecting people with said history.

Rhiannon Allen-Roberts

Q: What does an average day look like in religious archives?

Rhiannon: Every day is different! I don’t think there is a single archivist who could say that there are average days. Some days are spent doing arrangement and description, some answering reference inquiries and poring over orphanage registers for genealogists, some digitizing photographs, some going over supplies, some doing training, and some are spent doing all the above! I’ve learned that you need to be flexible as an archivist in your routine and that time management is a critical skill.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working in religious archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to religious archives?

Rhiannon: One of my favourite things about working in a religious archives is the broad scope of the material. We have such a diverse collection of records: corporate, personal, and everything in-between, as well as artifacts and textiles. The Sisters did a variety of work: they were care workers, nurses, administrators, advocates, homemakers, artists, teachers, authors, academics, and so much more. I also enjoy getting to work directly with the religious community who created the records as it’s such a unique opportunity to gain in-depth understanding of their history. It is a real perk to get the chance to work so closely with the creators of the records.

I think one of the biggest challenges revolves around privacy. We are making every effort to make our records accessible but have to balance that with protecting the privacy of the Sisters (both living and deceased) and those they’ve worked with. It can a bit of a tightrope to navigate, but having clear policies in place makes it easier.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately?

Rhiannon: Our archives is a consolidation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Diocese of London, Hamilton, Pembroke, and Peterborough who amalgamated to form the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada in 2012. Right now, I am arranging and describing a collection of material related to the receptions and professions of Sisters from the London congregation. It is fascinating to learn about the process for becoming a Sister and the deep devotion of these women through their firsthand accounts.

A Spotlight on Religious Archives with François Dansereau

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 16:33:21 GMT

This month we are featuring religious archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with François Dansereau, Director at The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada in Montreal, QC.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

François: I completed a Master’s degree in U.S. History at Université de Montréal. My initial research topic was exploring the concept of Manifest Destiny and settler-colonial philosophical conceptions. I realized that it required too much examination of religious scriptures, and I finally wrote a thesis on gender representations, especially masculinity, around the time of the U.S. Civil War. I knew I was not going to do a PhD, so I ended up inquiring about library school, without really knowing what it was. But I knew someone who had finished the program and she encouraged me to pursue it.

I completed a MLIS degree at McGill University and started to work at the McGill University Archives. I then did other contracts and worked a few years at the Archives of the McGill University Health Centre. I’ve now been at The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada (AJC), in Montreal, since 2020. I’m also a Course Lecturer at the McGill University School of Information Studies, teaching the Preservation Management course. And this Winter, I am teaching an online seminar at Université Laval called “Les enjeux éthiques, juridiques et politiques en archivistique.”

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

François: After my MA in History, I sought to use the skills and competencies I acquired to work in heritage/history/cultural institutions. Library school seemed to make that connection, at least theoretically. My first real glimpse into archival work was when I was doing research for my MA degree, and encountered a database called Documenting the South. This was 2005-2006 so the database was pretty impressive at the time. I was fascinated and intrigued by the potential associated with the digitization of archival records, and with online access to unique resources.

Q: What does an average day look like in religious archives?

François: An average day in religious archives is quite similar to any other archival organization. We receive requests from researchers, we process archival fonds and collections, we digitize materials, etc. Since I was named the director of The AJC, in the Fall of 2022, my responsibilities are more associated with project management, grant writing, supporting my colleagues in their activities, having meetings with supervisors and collaborators, etc. We are a small team, but we are trying to develop all the different aspects of collections management.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working in religious archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to religious archives?

François: I am fortunate to work in an organization with a rich—and complex—history, spanning across four centuries. We hold some records from the 17th and 18th centuries, which is not that common in Canada. The Jesuit community was—and is—an organization very much active in society in general. The result is a very diverse history, which transpires in the content emerging from the archival collection.

Besides the obvious challenge of resources, understanding Catholic terminology and attempting to connect the meanings of certain religious contexts in archival description can sometimes be challenging.

In addition, offering a comprehensive account of settler colonialism and colonial archives, and reflecting about the way we contextualize these through archival interventions, is not easy. For instance, developing anti-colonial archival practices in a context of very concrete encounters between missionaries and Indigenous peoples, across centuries, is not straightforward and requires a lot of profound thinking to develop meaningful actions. There are the connections that we can forge and maintain through archival contact and collaboration with Indigenous groups—which we wish to develop further—, but there are also encounters that of course go beyond the archival questions, and involve active relationships between a religious organization and Indigenous nations. This is pretty challenging, on many levels, but in terms of our archival power and limits, we need more academic research on these issues, more extensive and dynamic interrogations of archival practices, and more collaboration with Indigenous communities that are concerned by and represented in the records.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about religious archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about religious archives?

François: Religious archives contain a vast array of subjects. In our case, several Jesuits hold PhDs in a diversity of disciplines, from History to Chemistry to Ecology, and, not surprisingly, Theology. The religious component emerges in the fonds and collections, but it is so much richer than that. We are putting that forward in an exhibit we created about Jesuit scientific observatories. Especially in Quebec, until the Quiet Revolution, the Catholic Church was present in all facets of society, including health sciences, education, the arts, and beyond. Religious organizations’ impact on the development of Quebec and Canadian society is broad. The archival records testify to the social, cultural, economic, and political changes of Quebec and Canadian societies.

Image 1: Aquarelle du Collège Sainte-Marie / Watercolor of Collège Sainte-Marie. Félix Martin, s.j. [185-?]. GLC BO-47.3.5. Archives des jésuites au Canada / The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately?

François: We are working on a collaborative project with Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) and Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf on Jesuit rhetoric. We are creating an exhibit that sheds light on the pedagogical dimensions and the importance of rhetoric in Jesuit classical colleges’ curricula, and its reach into Montreal society, particularly through theatre. The exhibit will take place at The AJC headquarters, located at the main administration office of the Jesuits of Canada in Montreal. There will also be an online component to the exhibit. Besides our own project, there will be a symposium, a play, and other activities at UQÀM and Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf on that same theme.

Image 2: Classe de rhétorique, Collège Sainte-Marie / Rhetoric class, Collège Sainte-Marie. [1888 or 1889]. GLC C-1.S6.SS3.D8.13. Archives des jésuites au Canada / The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada.

From a collections management perspective, we are pursuing collaboration with Indigenous research groups, and we continue to develop reparative description initiatives. That means processing and re-processing particular fonds and collections and digitizing pertinent records. This represents the main priority at The AJC. On that note, specifically about these issues, we are waiting for a few responses on grant proposals that we wrote alongside academic researchers, and other museums, libraries, and archival organizations.

A Spotlight on Religious Archives with Mary Flynn

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:28:05 GMT

This month we are featuring religious archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Mary Flynn, Congregational Archivist for the Sisters of Charity – Halifax in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path? What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Mary: I grew up in a small historic village in New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. I’m the descendant of Irish, Swedish, and English settlers to New Jersey and New York. From an early age, I’ve always been drawn to women’s histories and stories, and I count myself lucky that I’ve so far spent my career working with and for women.

I completed my undergraduate studies at Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where I majored in French. I worked at the circulation desk of the university library for several years and loved it, so I decided to pursue a career as a librarian. I applied and was accepted to McGill University’s MLIS program. In my senior year of college, I had a practicum at the Moravian Church Archives, and I found the work so fascinating that on my first day of school at McGill, I switched from the library science stream to archival studies. Though it wasn’t my intention when I first moved to Quebec for graduate school, I ended up immigrating and staying in Canada.

Since that first practicum experience at the Moravian Church Archives 19 years ago, I’ve spent most of my career in religious archives. I started in my role as the Congregational Archivist for the Sisters of Charity – Halifax in January, 2014. The Sisters of Charity – Halifax is a community of Catholic women religious, commonly referred to as “Sisters.” Our administrative offices are in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but there are Sisters of Charity across Canada, the east coast of the United States, Peru, and Belize. In 2024, we are celebrating 175 years since the first Sisters of Charity of New York arrived in Halifax, which planted the seed for the present day Sisters of Charity – Halifax.

Mary Flynn, Congregational Archivist, in the archives reading room, March 8, 2024.

Q: What does an average day look like in religious archives?

Mary: There is no average day! I’m a solo archivist so I handle everything that comes my way. Lately the bulk of my time has been dedicated to a few ongoing special projects, including our 175^th Anniversary celebrations and writing a regular column in our newsletter, Charity Alive. I also answer research requests, primarily from our Congregational Leadership Team, Sisters, and staff, but also from outside researchers. The external requests are generally of a genealogical nature or are from former students looking for their old teachers.

Before our 175^th Anniversary projects started last year, I was focusing on processing our backlog, especially our collection of photographs with no identification. Our audiovisual collection has been the most used record group in the archives over the past few years.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working in religious archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to religious archives?

Mary: Even after a decade in my position, I still find the work rewarding and engaging. The congregation is very invested in their history and value the archives. The Sisters’ Motherhouse in Halifax burned down in 1951, completely destroying their archives, and it took decades to rebuild what they could of their records. If I had more free time, I’d research how this event has shaped the record keeping practices and relationship to history and collective memory in the congregation.

Because of the Motherhouse fire, our archives isn’t as large as it should be, but our holdings include records from Canada, the United States, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Bermuda. The main ministries that the Sisters were engaged in were teaching, health care, and social services, but starting in the 1960s, the Sisters had more opportunities to expand their work into different fields. I’ve expanded my knowledge of Canada and the United States, social justice causes, and residential schools and truth and reconciliation through my work.

We face the same challenges as many archives. Our Archives and Heritage Department has dwindled to one full time staff member (myself), and one part time Sister volunteer. The Congregation peaked in the 1960s with over 1600 Sisters. Now there are 180 left, with an average age of 83 years old. There’s no longer a focus on attracting new members but rather on creating plans to “come to completion” in the next 25 years. I feel the pressure to capture the stories of the elderly Sisters and their ministries before it’s too late.

On a personal level, the deaths of the Sisters can be very difficult to deal with. The Congregation has decreased by half since I started in my position. Over the past decade, I’ve formed many personal and work relationships with the Sisters and it can be emotional to deal with losses while still having to be professional and process their personal papers. The grief has been profound at times but it brings me comfort to know that their lives are documented in our archives.

The Sisters of Charity – Halifax Congregational Archives and Heritage Department, 2017. Standing (left to right): Mary Flynn, Congregational Archivist and Sister Mary Palardy, Heritage Coordinator (RIP). Seated (left to right): Sister Christine MacDonald, Archives Volunteer and Sister Joan DeGrace, Archives Volunteer (RIP).

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about religious archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about religious archives?

Mary: I wish everyone understood better that religious archives are a rich source of history, and contain records not just about the denomination or faith community that they serve. We have records about the 1917 flu epidemic, Acadians in Nova Scotia, rural hospitals in Alberta, safe housing for women survivors of human trafficking in Boston and New York City, and projects to provide clean water to communities in Peru and El Salvador, to name a few things. Having said that, religious archives do not have the same mandate as a public institution. Our archives exists to serve the congregation and can accommodate research requests from the public as I have time.

Religious archives are not in the spotlight as often as university, government, or municipal archives, so I appreciate the opportunity to share my work in an In The Field blog post.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately?

For the past year, I’ve been heavily involved in the congregation’s 175^th Anniversary projects. Every week for 175 weeks, we highlight a photograph from the archives on our Facebook page. A committee has created a list of 175 Sisters and ministries to highlight and I’ve been researching, fact checking, and providing photographs for the profiles: https://schalifax.ca/175years/

It’s been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate not only the influential Sisters that led the congregation and its high profile ministries such as the Halifax Infirmary or Mount Saint Vincent University, but also the “unsung heroes”—the housekeepers, seamstresses, cooks, and cleaners that kept the congregation running behind the scenes.

A Spotlight on Community Archives with Melissa J. Nelson

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 21:10:00 GMT

This month we are featuring community archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Melissa J. Nelson, Founder and Creative Director of the Black Memory Collective.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Melissa: If you want to know my path, I have to take you back to my childhood. My parents are from Jamaica. My mother, in particular, instilled a deep love for history. She used to share folklore, oral traditions, stories, photographs. My mother was the family keeper of records. She passed that on to me. My love for history led me to pursue a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in History, with a minor in Sociology at Carleton University. I then graduated from McGill University with a Master of Information Studies. Understanding the past allows me to make sense of the present.

In 2020, I published my blog post “Archiving Hate: Racist Materials in Archives.” This was cited by several institutions in their statements of commitment to equity practices, including the Baker Library of Harvard Business School. This blog post led to a series of opportunities that inspired me to start a consulting business. I offer a range of consultation services on inclusive archival practices including research, writing, policy review, and training. I lecture and facilitate workshops on the intersections of race, racism, and the archives.

After I graduated from my Master’s program, I felt compelled to seek community. I was often the only Black student in my archives classes. So, I became intentional about connecting with other Black archivists. In 2022, I launched the podcast, Archives & Things, to make these conversations accessible to a wider audience. I discovered a vibrant and diverse community, but I often found my interviewees were unaware of each other’s work. I felt a deep need to bring people together. This past November, I founded the Black Memory Collective to create a network and build a community of practice around Black archiving in Canada. The founding members were brought together through my work on Archives & Things. This collective is part of a larger movement to reclaim, recognize, and celebrate Black memory and imagine Black futurities.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Melissa: Well, I didn’t know archival studies was an option. I didn’t know what was possible as an archivist. I met someone who was studying information studies and she encouraged me to look into it. I am so glad she did! I love being an archivist. For me, this work extends beyond the processing area. It’s about inspiring and generating change. It’s a liberatory practice. My work centers Black being and belonging in the archives to support collective healing and liberation movements. Black archival practices and memory work can transform our future.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about Black archivists? What do you wish other archivists understood about Black archivists?

Melissa: I want people to understand that, for many of us, archival work is liberatory work. It’s memory work. It's our way of understanding ourselves and keeping the memories of Black people alive. It’s our way of challenging pervasive racism and bias in this country. We are not keepers of dead records. Our work is about Black life. We come to memory work in different ways. Those who joined the Black Memory Collective are artists, urban planners, architects, game developers, curators, journalists, museum professionals, and so much more.

Q: Can you tell us about your plans for the collective?

Melissa: Right now, the Black Memory Collective consists of a private Slack group and virtual chats. I intend to have in-person meetings as well. These spaces will allow us to connect, socialize, and exchange ideas. We believe it is important to create safe and affirming spaces for Black people to just be. The dream is to have this work reach communities. We can have newsletters, partner with graduate programs, partner with archives associations, and have events for Black youth to inspire the next generation. I will continue to dream.

Reflections on the ACA Conference from a Student Perspective

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 13:07:06 GMT

by Michael Carelse and Sophie Penniman

Michael:

My name is Michael, and I am in my second year of the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Dual Master of Archival Studies and Library and Information Studies. I recently had the pleasure of attending the 2023 annual conference of the ACA as part of the Emerging Voices student session, where I presented a paper on the relationship between records management and social justice, using RCMP records retention and disposition as a case study.

Michael presenting at the Emerging Voices session. Photo by Sophie Penniman.

ACA 2023 was a really great experience. I went into the conference grateful to have been accepted to present in the student panel and to have received funding from ACA to attend, but not exactly sure what the student panel would entail, or what it would feel like to be “sectioned off” with other students rather than to present as part of the general conference program. It ended up being the perfect conference experience, and I’m so happy to have been part of the student panel. I was surprised at how well attended the panel was, and how interested people were in hearing “what the students are thinking about.” I was also really interested in what my two co-panelists were presenting on, and it ended up being a really cool panel featuring three different perspectives on documentation, equity, and justice in the contemporary world. Al Cunningham Rogers proposed an archival approach to the appraisal and the preservation of graffiti in Toronto, and Adam Williamson explored issues related to the loss of cultural heritage objects in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both presentations offered new and generative frameworks for thinking expansively about different types of records, archives, and memory institutions.

Overall, I found the conference program fascinating, with presentations ranging from new ideas and theories, to reports on current initiatives in the field. I was particularly interested in one panel that gathered representatives from Library and Archives Canada, the National Archives of the US, and the National Archives of the UK, all presenting on current initiatives to engage critically with archives, to improve archival services and harness the affordances of new technologies, and to engage teachers in promoting archival education in schools.

In between sessions, the breaks and dinners were also a great opportunity to meet people, and I had the pleasure of spending time with fellow students, as well as professionals at every career stage, including some very friendly people from the ACA executive. My fond final memory of the conference is of my dinner table getting up to join the dance floor on the last evening of the conference, and I look forward to seeing many of those faces again over the years.

Sophie:

My name is Sophie, and I graduated from the dual Master of Archival Studies and Library and Information Studies program at UBC this past May. Like Michael, I had the opportunity to both attend and present at the ACA conference in Charlottetown; I spoke in a session on accessibility for people with disabilities about my experiences as a neurodivergent archival student and the importance of widening conceptions of provenance to accommodate neurodiverse perspectives in records.

Sophie posing before their presentation at the session on Accessibility and Representation in Archives for People With Disabilities. Photo by Lisa Snider.

One thing that struck me while attending the conference was the myriad ways that archivists conceptualize archival work to ensure it is relevant to all. As someone whose archival experience has largely come from a classroom context, I was very keen to hear more about how conceptions of archives are applied in real-world settings. From an archival outreach initiative at the University of Saskatchewan (presented by Ann Liang and Lindsay Stokalko) that creatively used a Gay Bob doll from their archives to promote user engagement with the Neil Richards Collection, to a presentation in the student session by Al Cunningham Rogers on the considerations around preserving graffiti in an archives, I was inspired by the wide range of ways archives can and do meet societal needs.

Something that also surprised me was how much I benefitted from the social aspects of the conference beyond the presentations and plenaries. While as an introvert I did find myself having to step back occasionally, I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to connect with archivists across North America and beyond, working in a variety of contexts. I expected to network and have fun at the social events, but I found a lot of value in connecting with archivists from different generations, backgrounds, and employment settings.

From formal to informal settings, the ACA Conference resonated with me as a way to imagine and reimagine archival work with other people who share this passion. In all, being able to attend and present at ACA 2023: Belonging in Charlottetown was a wonderful opportunity as a recent archival graduate, and I’m looking forward to coming back in the future.

Michael and Sophie at a picnic at Beaconsfield Historic House in Charlottetown during the conference. Photo by Isabel Carlin.

Michael Carelse is in his second year of UBC’s Dual Master of Archival Studies and Library and Information Studies. He has worked as a Collections Assistant at the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, and as a Graduate Academic Assistant for InterPARES Trust AI.

Sophie Penniman is a recent graduate of the Dual Master of Archival Studies and Library and Information Studies program at the University of British Columbia, which is located on the traditional lands of the Musqueam people. They currently work as a Graduate Academic Assistant on the InterPARES Trust AI project, which studies the use of AI in archives, and their interests include personal archives, constructions of identity through records, and storytelling.

ACA 2023 Belonging: An Interview with Madelynn Dickerson and Christine Kim

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 14:00:00 GMT

The ACA 2023 Annual Conference is fast approaching! The ACA blog, In the Field, is featuring the profile of a few members who will be presenting at the 2023 conference. Today we are featuring the profile of Madelynn Dickerson, Head of Digital Scholarship Services at the University of California, Irvine and Christine Kim, OAC/Calisphere Service & Outreach Manager at the California Digital Library.

Q: What is the title of your conference presentation? Tell us about it in 1 or 2 sentences.

Madelynn & Christine: Our presentation is called “Aggregation and Curation in Digital Collections: Identifying Inclusive Practices and Partnerships with Community-Based Archives.” We will be sharing information about a research assessment project that we are doing as part of “Community-Centered Archives Practice: Transforming Education, Archives, and Community History” (C-CAP TEACH), a Mellon-funded initiative at the University of California. The assessment project aims to identify and describe best practices for the development of ethical and inclusive digital collections and exhibitions, while understanding barriers that community organizations may face in contributing collections to aggregators.

Q: Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Christine: Since starting my archival journey, I’ve been lucky enough to explore the many moving components in the ecosystem of library services. My prior experiences include processing (and digitizing) archival collections and leading student engagement activities at the University of California, Irvine, as well as coordinating community engagement for ArchivesSpace, an open source application used to manage and describe archival collection material. Since 2019, I have been at the California Digital Library supporting the Online Archive of California and Calisphere – two services that provide broad, public access to digital collections contributed by libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations throughout California.

Madelynn: I have an academic background in literature and art history, and transitioned from full time contract teaching to librarianship about ten years ago. My first full time job was as evening circulation supervisor in a small academic library and from there I was pretty ambitious about gaining as much experience as I could across different areas of librarianship while simultaneously enrolled in an online MLIS program. I have been at the University of California, Irvine since 2018, where I started as the Research Librarian for Digital Humanities and History. I have been the Head of Digital Scholarship Services since 2020.

A snapshot of the Calisphere website, the statewide aggregation of digital collections contributed by libraries, archives, and museums throughout California. Calisphere provides free access to unique and historically important artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Christine: As an undergraduate, I was a student in both film & media studies and history programs, with my interests intersecting at the representation of historical narratives in the media. So when I started my first internship at an archives, it was as if my interests glass slipper-ed into an actual tangible career path, but now adapted to explore how archival practices – and the visibility of firsthand accounts – influence the historical record.

Madelynn: Archival studies was always something that was interesting to me, and I managed to pursue professional development and projects related to archives early in my career even though it wasn’t always directly related to my job at the time. For example, when I was working the night shift in circulation about 10 years ago, I wrote a CLIR Hidden Collections grant proposal after finding some materials stored in an old chicken coop on campus. The proposal made it to the final stages and ultimately wasn’t funded, but it was a great learning experience. Now as a Head of Digital Scholarship Services, I have formal responsibilities around digital stewardship in many areas, including digital collections.

Q: What does the theme of the ACA 2023 conference, “Belonging: Considering archival bonds and disconnects,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

Madelynn & Christine: The conference theme speaks to the importance of representation, particularly narratives that are often misrepresented or excluded in the mainstream historical record. Aggregation aims to increase discoverability of historical resources, and web usage analytics demonstrate that digital collection aggregation can amplify the visibility of records; however, whose stories do aggregation service models privilege, and whose stories are absent? How do we ensure aggregated materials maintain appropriate cultural context? Our assessment project and research are centred in identifying strategies to mitigate the disconnect, particularly with a focus on surfacing and shifting change to address the priorities expressed by community-based archives in an effort towards representative and inclusive aggregation and exhibition practices.

Q: Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

Madelynn & Christine: Our assessment project is rooted in identifying pathways to support a representative aggregation of digital collections, surfacing the barriers to participation, and defining actionable strategies to responsibly surface historically excluded narratives. By extension, we are concerned with sustainable and inclusive approaches to digital exhibitions. We are working with a consultant to conduct this assessment and develop a guide for effective and meaningful collaboration with community-centred archives. Our approach involves data analysis of current participation in aggregation services, website analysis of aggregation service scope and policies, environmental scans, and interviews and surveys with community-based archives.

Q: What are you most looking forward to at this year’s conference?

Madelynn & Christine: We look forward to learning from colleagues about initiatives they are embarking on to facilitate belonging and inclusion in their archival practices! We are grateful for the opportunity to share a progress update on our research assessments and welcome ideas and feedback.

ACA 2023 Belonging : Un entretien avec Simon-Olivier Gagnon

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 15:00:00 GMT

L’édition 2023 de la conférence annuelle de l’ACA approche à grands pas! En prévision, le blogue de l’ACA, In the Field, publie des entretiens avec quelques conférenciers au programme cette année. Aujourd’hui nous vous présentons Simon-Olivier Gagnon, doctorant en archivistique au département des sciences historiques de l’Université Laval.

Q: Quel est le titre de votre présentation? Parlez-nous de votre sujet en une ou deux phrases.

Simon-Olivier: Les archives d'en bas en France et au Québec, du singulier au(x) collectif(s), de l'individuel au(x) commun(s).

Avec les collègues du projet de recherche Autres archives, autres histoires : les archives d’en bas en France et au Québec mené conjointement entre le Québec (Université Laval) et la France (Université d’Angers), nous discuterons des relations entre archives et pouvoir ainsi que des modalités d’émergence, d’affirmation et d’animation de projets d’archivage alternatifs.

Q: Pouvez-vous nous présenter votre parcours académique et professionnel?

Simon-Olivier: Pendant mon parcours en sociologie qui s’est terminé avec une maîtrise portant sur Michel Foucault et le souci de soi, j’ai travaillé dans diverses radios communautaires au Québec, dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest, en France et en Écosse. Mon expérience au sein de ces radios m’a amené à m’intéresser à leurs archives, et ce, dans le contexte particulier d’anniversaires commémoratifs. La thèse que je réalise actuellement s’intitule « Archives et radios communautaires : concevoir une archivistique communautaire ». Il est possible de suivre le cours de mes recherches et mes publications via mon carnet de recherche.

Q: Qu’est-ce qui vous a amené.e à vous intéresser au domaine de la théorie et de la pratique archivistiques?

Simon-Olivier: Je crois que tout a commencé avec ma pratique de l’échantillonnage musical (sampling) et de la réalisation de musique instrumentale de hip-hop (beatmaking). Pendant des heures, à la fin de mon adolescence, j’écoutais des vinyles pour repérer des extraits de mélodies à découper et à actualiser dans un montage sonore. Après mes études en sociologie, j’ai voulu revenir à ce type de rapport aux documents sonores et à leur interprétation. J’aurais pu me diriger en recherche-création, mais j’ai voulu me former à la discipline archivistique avec tous les enjeux sociaux, culturels et éthiques qui s’ensuivent.

Q: Le thème de la conférence 2023 est Belonging: Considering archival bonds and disconnects. Qu’est-ce que ce thème signifie pour vous en lien avec la pratique et les axes de recherche en archivistique?

Simon-Olivier: Les liens archivistiques ne sont pas visibles à l’œil nu, ils méritent d’être révélés, exposés, mis en scène. C’est ce que nous avons réalisé dans le projet 2012 : Mémoires à faire, un projet portant sur les archives du Printemps québécois. Dans le cadre de ce projet collectif, nous avons, à notre manière, contribué à restituer au public certaines archives (radiophoniques, sonores, textuelles, etc.) de ce mouvement étudiant. C’est ainsi par notre intervention archivistique que des liens archivistiques se sont révélés entre une communauté de documents et des producteurs.

Les cinq épisodes du balado 2012 : Mémoires à faire sont disponibles sur différentes plateformes d’écoute et sur Internet Archives. Les archives pertinentes au projet, comme des tracts, des affiches, des photographies, ont par la suite été disposées dans deux vitrines, dans les locaux de L’Orchestre d’Hommes-Orchestres ainsi que dans celles de notre diffuseur CKIA-FM Radio Basse-Ville.

Photos prises à l’occasion de la marche d’écoute collective, le 24 septembre 2022. Crédit photo: Débora Flor.

Q: Pouvez-vous nous parler de vos approches et de vos perspectives de recherche?

Simon-Olivier: Mon rapport aux archives vient de gens qui sont animés par une passion : ce sont des amateur·trice·s, des non-professionnel·le·s, des chercheur·e·s indépendant·e·s, des dilettantes qui manipulent des documents et qui finissent, somme toute, par sauver des pans entiers de l’histoire. Ces gens-là, qui demeurent trop longtemps et trop souvent dans l’ombre, jouent un rôle quant à la mémoire de la société civile, des organismes communautaires et, plus largement, des mouvements culturels contestataires et de la contre-culture. Je m’intéresse à la figure que j’associe à « l’archiviste ad hoc », aux gestes de cette figure, au sein des radios communautaires et universitaires.

Pour plus d'informations au sujet du projet : 2012: Mémoires à faire | Facebook

ACA 2023 Belonging: An Interview with Shadreck Bayane

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 14:25:53 GMT

The ACA 2023 Annual conference is fast approaching! The ACA blog, In the Field, is featuring the profile of a few members who will be presenting at the 2023 conference. Today we are featuring the profile of Shadreck Bayane, Records Specialist at the Botswana Investment & Trade Centre.

Q: What is the title of your conference presentation? Tell us about it in 1 or 2 sentences.

Shadreck: Titled “Access to information for visually impaired people: Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist the cause?” my paper will be delivered through a panel discussion. It examines key issues of accessibility to records and information for people with disabilities (visually impaired) when or if AI is deployed as a possible assistive technology.

Q: Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Shadreck: My professional journey dates back to two decades ago when I joined the Botswana National Archives & Records Services as an Assistant Records Officer in the Attorney General Chambers and Office of the President, respectively, after graduating from the University of Botswana with a diploma in archives and records management. I worked with revered technocrats (high ranking government officials) whose wisdom and sense of duty rubbed off on me and sharpened my intellectual pedigree from that early stage of my career.

I have since spent the better part of my career in the corporate sector with an archival science degree, after working for the Government for a year. I am a certified records analyst and currently work for the Botswana Investment & Trade Centre (BITC) in Gaborone, Botswana as a Records Specialist – having previously worked for the Botswana Public Officers’ Pension Fund (BPOPF), Public Procurement & Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) and Botswana Savings Bank (BSB) in the same capacity.

I also serve as an International Correspondent for the Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM)’s Newsletter, covering areas outside USA and Canada.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Shadreck: Prior to my dive into archival studies, I had a short stint in the law enforcement field – working with legal documents. When I was contemplating what to study at the university, a friend suggested the records management course, which struck a chord with my records experience. The rest, as they say, is history.

Q: What does the theme of the ACA 2023 conference, “Belonging: Considering archival bonds and disconnects,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

Shadreck: As part of my preparations for presenting at the conference, I recently attended a PWD (people with disabilities) function whereat a question was asked as to how the rest of us can contribute to economic empowerment of people with disabilities. In the instance of archival practice, I understand this question, as read with the ACA conference theme, to be calling upon us in the profession to perform our functions and research in a manner that promotes inclusivity, diversity, and connectivity of the people we serve.

So, the ACA’s view of belonging as a fundamental human need is apt, and relatable.

Q: Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

Shadreck: My research is currently focused on archives, digitization, and artificial intelligence, and the interest is bolstered by my current participation in the international scholarly project InterPARES Trust AI where the resources and expertise are world-class. I am a strong proponent of impactful research which contributes to both the academic body of knowledge, and the practical advancement of society – with a particular concentration on our marginalized communities.

Q: What are you mostly looking forward to at this year’s conference?

Shadreck: No doubt it is going to be an interesting and successful conference. Take a look at the credentials of speakers, venue, activities, the messaging around the event, and the vibe. Alluring! I look forward to joining a diversity of archivists and other allied stakeholders from all corners of the universe as we feast on the archival discourse.

ACA 2023 Belonging: An Interview with Adam Williamson

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 14:30:00 GMT

The ACA 2023 Annual conference is fast approaching! The ACA blog, In the Field, is featuring the profile of a few members who will be presenting at the 2023 conference. Today we are featuring the profile of Adam Williamson, a 2^nd year master’s candidate at the University of Toronto’s iSchool.

Q: What is the title of your conference presentation? Tell us about it in 1 or 2 sentences.

Adam: The title of my presentation is “Empty Buildings and Burnt Records: Cultural Destruction and the Threat to Ukrainian Identity during the Russo-Ukrainian War.” The somber title reflects my exploration of the Russo-Ukrainian War’s impact on Ukraine’s cultural sector and what that means for Ukrainian identity. I make comparisons with the former Finnish province of Karelia during the Winter War (1939-1940) to draw parallels to better understand the impacts on Ukrainian identity.

Q: Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Adam: I am currently going into my second year as a Master of Information candidate at the University of Toronto. Prior to my master’s, I studied history at Brock University, which influences my research interests concerning archives. Professionally, my career has taken me in many interesting directions ranging from Parks Canada and the CRA to a research assistant at Brock University for a digital oral history archive. Currently, I am back at the federal government working for the National Research Council as an Information Management Policy Advisor.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Adam: For me, it was my exposure to oral history and digital archives as a research assistant that pulled me into the archival world. Listening to people’s stories, helping preserve them, and understanding their importance for the community’s identity connected with me. The role of identity in archives stuck with me as I continued to explore research about it. Without that first experience, I wouldn’t have found myself in the archival field.

Q: What does the theme of the ACA 2023 conference, “Belonging: Considering archival bonds and disconnects,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

Adam: In my mind, it raises the important questions of how archives should serve their society, who they represent, and who falls through the gaps. This can be seen in discourses on community archives, both in terms of where they fit in the archival community and as a response to historical and current archival gaps. Archives help build community bonds through a sense of self, and this raises the question of what is the best way that archives can help build these bonds based on the communities they serve. I don’t have any answers, but I believe attempts to answer these questions are central to shaping and improving archival best practices.

Q: Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

Adam: Two major challenges shaped my research approach: my inability to read Ukrainian and the length limitation on the paper. To overcome this, I opted to select three case studies that had English-language articles written about them and used them as snapshots for the larger picture I was exploring concerning the Ukrainian cultural sector. I also decided to make comparisons to Finland during the Winter War to draw parallels and contextualize what is happening to Ukrainian identity in the short term. Underlying all of this was my use of archival theory, including the concept that archives, and other cultural institutions, are a powerful force in helping a society anchor its sense of self through the memories they hold. One perspective I brought, likely due to my history background, is that while the conflict is the result of modern politics, the question of Ukrainian identity has roots that run centuries deep.

Q: What are you most looking forward to at this year’s conference?

Adam: Just attending is exciting, as this is the first academic conference I will be attending, let alone presenting at. The great thing about this conference’s theme is how it allows archivists to have different interpretations of what exactly is meant by belonging in an archival context. This is what I am looking forward to: seeing how emerging and professional archivists approach this theme and taking their perspectives with me as I continue developing as an archivist.

IAW2023: Association des archivistes du Québec – Où en sommes-nous? Orientations stratégiques 2021-2023

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 14:00:00 GMT

In celebration of the International Archives Week theme “#ArchivesUnited,” the ACA Public Awareness and Advocacy Committee has coordinated with Canadian professional archival associations to present a special series of blog posts. This series will run on the ACA blog, In the Field, from June 5-9 and aims to uplift the work of our colleagues across Canada by showcasing new initiatives, providing transparent solutions to key issues, and identifying exciting opportunities for collaboration.

C’est avec plaisir que l’Association des archivistes du Québec contribue à l’initiative de notre partenaire, l’Association canadienne des archivistes, à l’occasion de la semaine internationale des archives 2023. Nous vous partageons un résumé des activités de l’Association de la dernière année, plus particulièrement l’avancement de nos orientations stratégiques 2021-2023.

Donc, les orientations stratégiques 2021-2023 de l’Association ont été adoptées à l’automne 2019. Elles se découpent en cinq grands axes stratégiques, soit :

La promotion et la communication
Le membrariat
Le développement professionnel
Les partenariats et la collaboration
La gouvernance

En premier lieu, l’axe Promotion et communication vise à faire connaître l’archiviste comme un expert de sa discipline engagé dans sa société.

Pour favoriser l’échange et le partage d’information auprès de nos membres, nous avons adopté une politique et un plan de communication ainsi que mis en valeur la réussite professionnelle de nos membres sur nos plateformes de communications (Maude Charest pour sa collaboration à la mise en scène de la pièce de théâtre Grosse-Île, 1847; Normand Charbonneau, fait Officier des arts et des lettres et récipiendaire du prix Jacques-Ducharme; Cédric Champagne, pour son élection à la présidence du Forum des Associations professionnelles de l’ICA, etc.). De plus, un souci particulier a été investi concernant nos interventions publiques et de lobbyisme sur les sujets d’actualité touchant la discipline archivistique, par exemple en réagissant à différents dossiers (la participation au comité consultatif sur la modernisation de la Loi sur les archives et de ses documents afférents ou à la publication d’un dossier sur la gestion de l’information dans une revue destinée à des gestionnaires municipaux).

En second lieu, l’axe Membrariat vise à dynamiser, soutenir et valoriser notre communauté archivistique.

Afin d’améliorer l’attractivité du membrariat, le sentiment d’appartenance et la fierté des membres, des capsules vidéos promotionnelles sur les avantages d’être membre de l’AAQ ont été produites, le tirage d’un abonnement aux membres présents aux assemblées régionales annuelles a été fait et des actions de sollicitation auprès des étudiant.e.s et nouveaux.elles diplômé.e.s ont été multipliées. Également, la trousse d’accueil destinée aux nouveaux membres fut renouvelée ainsi que la diffusion en exclusivité d’enregistrements d’évènements virtuels (conférence, table ronde). Aussi, lors du congrès annuel de l’Association, nous avons reconnu la solidarité des membres ayant renouvelé leur cotisation depuis plus de 10 ans.

En troisième lieu, l’axe Développement professionnel vise à assurer le développement des compétences et l’accompagnement des membres et des gens intéressés à la pratique archivistique.

Ainsi, une plateforme de formation à distance, Azimut, fut lancée en septembre 2022, permettant la tenue de formations se déroulant sur plusieurs semaines, complémentaire aux activités de formation existantes. Une veille des formations disponibles a été effectuée tout en continuant de sonder nos membres et non-membres afin de connaître leurs besoins en formation. Également, notre programme de mentorat, soutenant l’intégration au marché du travail de nos membres, se poursuit.

En quatrième lieu, l’axe Partenariats et collaboration vise à maximiser les partenariats et la collaboration dans le respect de nos valeurs et au bénéfice de l’AAQ et de nos membres.

L’association a veillé à consolider ses partenariats associatifs et institutionnels tant au Québec par des échanges avec le Regroupement des archivistes religieux (RAR), le Réseau des services d’archives du Québec (RAQ), qu’au niveau international en signant des ententes et réalisant des activités avec l’Association des archivistes français, l’Association des archivistes franco-belges, l’Association des archivistes suisses et le Conseil international des archives. De plus, l’Association a également lancé son programme de bénévolat AGIR (volet supervision de stage et volet accompagnement professionnel auprès d’organismes à but non lucratif – à venir).

En dernier lieu, l’axe Gouvernance vise à moderniser la structure de l’AAQ en adéquation avec les autres orientations.

Ainsi, nous avons procédé à une analyse SWOT de l’Association afin de cerner notre champ d’action et de démarrer les réflexions sur nos valeurs. L’Association a aussi veillé à réviser et actualiser ses guides administratifs.

En résumé, bien que la pandémie de COVID ait ralenti la mise en œuvre de certaines activités, elle a également amené de nouvelles opportunités touchant nos cinq axes stratégiques. Nous remercions nos membres pour leur soutien et nos bénévoles pour leur temps et leur énergie.

En terminant, nous espérons que vous avez passé une bonne semaine internationale des archives!

IAW2023: Community Outreach of the Saskatchewan Council for Archives & Archivists in 2022-23

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 16:00:00 GMT

by Cameron Hart

In 2022-23, despite continuing challenges, SCAA continued to show our commitment to refining and improving our services for all our members, which include individuals and institutions from across the heritage field. The inclusion of several Working Groups to the Boards this past year reflects this commitment.

The Indigenous Working Group replaced the Diversity Working Group, which involves Indigenous members to steer the group, and the chair acts more as a support role in providing resources. A mandate for the working group is still being worked on. Initiatives are in place to encourage new First Nations/Metis organizations to join SCAA, including the continuation of the waiver of institutional membership fees. Future initiatives around examining archival practices, particularly those regarding outdated language used in archival description, are another of their priorities, along with connecting with the Council of Nova Scotia Archives to discuss their Reconciliation framework, particularly their environmental scan of membership. An SCAA Board Member is a co-chair of the “Response to the Report of the TRC Commission Taskforce” of the Steering Committee on Canada's Archives in response to Call to Action #70. The framework document was released in 2022.

The Revenue Working Group was part of SCAA’s 2020-24 Strategic Plan. A group was formed to investigate other forms of self-generated revenue, so as not to wholly rely on the generous funding of the SaskLotteries/SaskCulture, which is approved through the 2023-24 fiscal year. The group is reviewing membership dues and will look to include a variable institutional scale as well as introduce a retired/student/non-salaried category. Another potential source is the publication of one of SCAA’s public awareness projects, the Unforgettable: Extraordinary Items from Saskatchewan’s Archival Collections book project. This coffee-table book includes articles by archivists and researchers along with photographs of items found in Saskatchewan’s archival collections.

As work continues with the MemorySask database, a MemorySask Working Group is being established and they will review and refine policies and procedures to make MemorySask a more powerful tool to research portions of the Saskatchewan history and culture.

Our Archives Advisor has been limited in site visits due to the pandemic, but the Advisor has begun to travel again, and the addition of Zoom videoconferencing has enabled them to hold many of these meetings virtually. Their activities go beyond site visits, though, and the following is a sample.

Archives Week is an annual event held by SCAA. Activities in February 2023 saw the return of in-person events for many members, and so saw the return of the Archives Week grant program. Institutions holding Open Houses, exhibits, workshops, etc. could again get small grants from SCAA to promote and support their events. SCAA continued to help create YouTube videos to help institutions promote themselves.

The administration of our Institutional Grants Program saw 18 applications submitted from SCAA member institutions this year. These included requests for preservation, digitization, and general archival work, but also support for projects to help make archival collections more accessible to the public. After adjudications a total of just over $38,000 was distributed to institutions.

SCAA’s Professional Development and Travel Subsidies saw individual members supported to attend virtual workshops, conferences, webinars, or other educational offerings.

The SCAA facilitates and encourages learning in the archival field by offering Educational Workshops and presentations throughout the year. In addition to basic archival practice presentations by our Advisor, additional subjects of interest were presented by experts in the field. The workshops and presentations this past year included:

A presentation about “Reconciliation through the Treaty Relationship” by Annie Battiste of the Office of the Treaty Commissioner.
A webinar was led by Lisa Snider (consultant) for institutions contributing to the MemorySask database.
A multiday workshop on preservation of physical material was presented by Iona McCraith, former AAO Preservation Consultant.

The SCAA Board of Directors in 2022-23 is:

President: Mark Vajčner, retired University of Regina, Archive & Special Collections

Vice-President: Donald Johnson, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan
Treasurer: Jeremy Mohr, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan
Directors: William Shepherd, Swift Current Museum
Stevie Horn, Saskatoon Public Library History Room
Erin Grant, Métis Nation Registry of Saskatchewan
Sheldon Krasowski, Office of the Treaty Commissioner
Crista Bradley, University of Regina, Archive & Special Collections

SCAA is a proud member of SaskCulture, and gratefully acknowledges funding from Sask Lotteries. SaskCulture and SCAA’s support reaches lands covered by Treaties 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10; traditional lands of the Cree, Dakota, Dene, Lakota, Nakota and Saulteaux peoples, as well as the homeland of the Métis.

About Cameron Hart: After graduating in history and political science from D'Youville College, in the US, in 1996, he attended UBC's SLAIS (now iSchool) in 1997-99. In 1999 he moved to Saskatchewan on contract, and in 2009 became the full-time Archives Advisor for the SCAA, a position he continues to hold.

IAW2023: The New Brunswick Newspaper Project

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 16:00:00 GMT

by Katrina Swift, Archives Advisor for the Council of Archives New Brunswick

With rapidly changing formats and the widening distribution of news media, tracking the history of provincial news publications has reached a critical juncture.

On October 18^th, 2021, with this pressing issue in mind, the Council of Archives New Brunswick (CANB) hosted a New Brunswick Newspaper Forum with collecting institutions (museums, libraries, and archives) from across New Brunswick to discuss current collecting and preservation practices and challenges. The meeting also looked at ways to move forward in a coordinated manner in the area of newspaper collection and preservation in the province.

Institutions in attendance highlighted the need to have information from New Brunswick newspapers accessible in one place. The closest thing the province had was the New Brunswick Newspaper Directory, which was originally a 1996 book/directory created by Helen Craig but had subsequently been built into an online database hosted by the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB). However, the directory had fallen into disuse and was in desperate need of revision.

The solution decided upon at the meeting was to update the New Brunswick Newspaper Directory and improve the online database so that it was more easily searchable and accessible. Thus began the New Brunswick Historical Newspapers Project. The goal of this project is to centralize all known information and holdings of newspapers published in New Brunswick from the earliest publication (the Royal St. John’s Gazette and Nova Scotia Intelligencer in 1783) to the present day. It is a collaboration between CANB, PANB, and the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Libraries, with the support of many libraries and archives across the province, country, and continent. The data collected on newspaper holdings will be of all formats – hard copy/print, microform, and digital – and will be collected and staged on the New Brunswick Historical Newspapers Project website, hosted by UNB Libraries.

Over the past several months, the team working behind this project has been reaching out to institutions across the continent who had previously been known to hold historical New Brunswick newspapers, from small museums to the Library of Congress, to verify data to accurately reflect which institutions still hold what papers. Along with this work, institutions are being asked to add any of their additional newspaper holdings. The next phase of the project will involve doing a call-out to institutions province-wide. This way, all holdings not previously captured in the New Brunswick Newspaper Directory will be represented.

This project will be of key use to libraries, archives, museums, and researchers working in the field of New Brunswick studies. It will also identify and flag provincial newspapers worthy of digitization to improve access to these amazingly rich sources.

IAW2023: Advocacy Work at the Archives Society of Alberta

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 14:00:00 GMT

Submitted by ASA’s Advocacy and Outreach committee

The Archives Society of Alberta (ASA) faced significant funding cuts from the provincial government in the past few years. Our funding cut from Alberta Culture impacted our operating budget and our capacity to support our members. Not only did this impact our staff and direct operations, but we were forced to eliminate project grants to our member institutions, which has a cascading impact on our member’s ability to continue their work.

Prior to this funding cut, the Advocacy and Outreach committee, then called Communications committee, wanted to change its focus. The committee was producing calendars and other activities which did not have the best impact for advocacy and outreach work. We recognized that in order to ensure the long-term stability of the ASA, and to restore our funding, we would need to make sure the public, and even more crucially funders, understood the importance of archives and the services we provided. The committee was unsure of where to start to improve its efforts so sought board approval to seek out an advocacy consultant to help shape our work.

The first step the consultant took was to fully understand the work we do, and what communications strategies we have used previously, to identify the strongest advocacy messaging going forward. They conducted a series of interviews with a sample of our members as well as our funders to learn their perspectives and where they thought improvements could be made. The consultants also looked at the work of other related professional associations, in order to get an environmental scan.

Based on this information, the consultant developed a “Communications and Advocacy Strategy,” a road map, and suggested key messages for the ASA and its members. One of the key components of that plan was to activate and empower all of our member institutions to advocate for archival work in our province, which are the first steps the committee has been taking.

We are working on an advocacy toolkit that will include general information on archives and archivists, information about our association, information for institutions to use, a media pitch and an elevator pitch – elements that members can utilize quickly and easily. We will continue to work ourselves, and with our members, to advocate for the ASA.

For the ASA, we had to start considering advocacy as a solution to the financial cuts we were facing. We know going forward that we need to fight for our organization and profession, and to make the importance of the ASA clear to our communities and our funders. It was an intimidating process to set out on, as in the busy work of archives, communications so often end up being run off the side of someone’s desk rather than being a focus. But for archives to stay relevant and remain a priority in policy and in funding decisions, we will need to start advocating for ourselves, and ensuring that our value is recognized.

IAW2023: Updates from the Archives Association of British Columbia

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 16:00:00 GMT

This past year has been a challenging and exciting time for the AABC. From managing MemoryBC to developing Disaster Response Kits and conducting site visits for archives across the province, the AABC continued its key initiatives and developed new ones. Reflecting on this year’s International Archives Awareness Week theme #ArchivesUnited, collaborating with those within and outside of the archival profession has been essential to the ongoing work of the AABC.

At the end of April, the AABC hosted a hybrid conference in collaboration with ARMA VI on the topic of "Access Ability: Exploring Themes of Access in Archives and Information Management." It was exciting having an opportunity to gather virtually and in-person for a full day of wonderful presentations. For more information on the conference, including links to presentation slides, see the AABC website.

Throughout the year, a core piece of the AABC’s advocacy and outreach efforts is educational programming. In the past year, the AABC ran three distance education courses: Introduction to Archival Practice, Managing Archival Photographs, and Managing Plans and Drawings. Over the past year the AABC also offered courses by outside experts on copyright and describing electronic records. In addition, the AABC continued hosting online webinars on a variety of topics meant to help support daily work in archival settings, including: “Archives 101 for Summer Students,” “Creating Archival Exhibits,” and “A+ Teaching with Primary Sources from the Archives.”

Thanks to grant funding from the BC Arts Council, the AABC was also able to teach two offerings of the “Archives 101: Archival Practice for Indigenous Organizations” workshop. This workshop was attended by 61 participants representing 28 different Indigenous communities and organizations throughout BC and from across Canada. This workshop has an organic foundation and is continually being updated and revised each time it is offered as workshop content is developed based on discussions with community knowledge keepers and pre/post-workshop surveys that identify training priorities, questions, and issues that participants are managing.

The AABC also continued hosting “Roundteas,” free online gatherings to talk about emerging archival issues and learn about different types of archival collections that are managed by Archivists throughout the province. The informal roundtable format is a participatory discussion meant to mimic getting a tea or other beverage with colleagues. Recordings of some Roundteas are available on the AABC website. Recent topics include: “Artist Archives From A to Z” and “Nursing Archives in BC.”

In British Columbia, the provincial Archives Awareness Week (AAW) runs the third week of November. Last year, the AABC offered a week of virtual programming, including a collaborative film screening and Q&A with the filmmakers and film participants of Unarchived with the ACA’s Public Advocacy and Awareness Committee. Additional AAW events included an Indigenous Archives Forum and a student networking session.

Archives Awareness Week was also an opportunity to bring together archivists from across the province to an engagement session with the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation (MIRR) and the UBC Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC). MIRR, the IRSHDC, and the BC Archives are supporting Indigenous communities across the province as they lead the way to locate, document, and protect burial sites associated with former Indian Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals in BC. With the goal of supporting connections between communities and local archives, this session included a discussion of potential research barriers and challenges, as well as considerations of how archives in BC and Indigenous communities can work collaboratively to locate, access and transfer Residential School records. The IRSHDC is working with MIRR, to create lists of repositories (archives, libraries, museums, and other organizations) that hold records related to each school. The IRSHDC is looking to collaborate with archives, libraries, museums and other repositories to enhance these lists. More information about contributing to this important work and a recording of the engagement session is available here.

None of this would have been possible without the AABC’s British Columbia Archival Education and Advisory Service Coordinator, Lisa Glandt; British Columbia Archival Network Service Coordinator, Lisa Snider; Financial Manager, Angela Brain; and the amazing network of AABC volunteers. As we’re sure many can relate to, the AABC is navigating the constraints of limited resources and capacity, but through it all we are bolstered by the dedication of our tireless contractors and volunteers. Moving forward, the AABC looks forward to continuing our programming and outreach efforts and welcomes the opportunity to partner with archival workers and organizations from across the country.

ACA 2023 Belonging: An Interview with Sarah Hanahem

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 14:00:00 GMT

Q: What is the title of your conference presentation?

Sarah: The title of my presentation is “How Donor-Archivist Relationships Helped Shape the Foundation of the McGill University Archives.” Through accession files, I tried to analyze the relationships between the first university archivist at McGill University and donors.

Q: Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Sarah: I first completed a bachelor's degree in communication at Université de Montréal (U de M) with a minor in comparative literature. Only in my last year of university did I come across the archival profession. I started with a year-long certificate in Archival Studies also at U de M. In 2021, I started the Master of Information Studies at McGill University, and I graduated in June 2023. I was lucky enough to work for McGill University Archives, the Quebec Lesbian Archives, and Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, where I still work.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Sarah: During the last year of my bachelor's degree, I read Archive Fever by Jacques Derrida for a class. I think this was the first time I was confronted with the meaning of archive and how it can shape memory. I registered for the Archival Studies certificate at the Université de Montréal the following year!

Q: What does the theme of the ACA 2023 conference, “Belonging: Considering archival bonds and disconnects,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

Sarah: The theme “Belonging: Considering archival bonds and disconnects,” for me, refers to this need to feel represented in archives. I think this idea of representation needs to orient our practices as archivists, from the acquisition to the communication and use of archival documents. We should also identify gaps in current collections and find ways to fill them or at least publicly acknowledge them.

Q: Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

Sarah: The research project I completed for my Master’s used a data collection approach. I looked at over 80 accession files and tried to identify trends that could inform the relationships between archivists and donors. I was mostly interested in power imbalances and how these relationships led to gaps and silences in the archives.

Q: What are you most looking forward to at this year's conference?

Sarah: I'm looking forward to seeing live presentations and engaging with my peers in person for the first time in a few years! I'm also looking forward to seeing how people interact with the theme of the 2023 conference through their presentations. Finally, I'm also looking forward to getting feedback on my own presentation.

Welcoming collaboration in the digital universe: How can information professionals unite their efforts to open up culture data?

Fri, 19 May 2023 14:55:06 GMT

by Siham Alaoui

Introduction

In a technological context in constant evolution, heritage institutions such as GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) are nowadays adopting novel approaches to facilitate easy access to cultural information to their users. Whether on digital public platforms, portals, applications or systems, information is used in various contexts, including for leisure, research, or public interest purposes. While some users would consume cultural resources such as online resources (e.g., books, periodicals, manuscripts, etc.), others would prefer to have access to administrative information relating to the operational activities of heritage institutions (e.g., transactional documents, budgets, contracts, annual reports, etc.). Thus, users—notably citizens, researchers, students, journalists, artists, and civil society members—make use of information differently according to their needs.

However, despite the availability of cultural resources online, either on institutional websites or on specific platforms, many challenges arise regarding the discoverability of cultural content, its relevance, and its reusability. To address this, heritage institutions have adopted a new path to tackle those challenges and ensure, by disclosing information in an open, structured and reusable form, to better satisfy users’ informational needs. Releasing open culture data is viewed as an alternative to increase the visibility of these institutions, their activities, and relationships with their users. In that sense, information professionals, namely librarians and archivists, are encouraged to join up their efforts by creating collaborative projects to make culture data open, reusable, and discoverable. This contribution sheds light on the particularities of open culture data and highlights key strategies information professionals should adopt to manage their lifecycle and make them discoverable to users.

1. Open culture data: What is it about?

Open culture data refers to the data that are related to heritage institutions’ activities (Eastermann, 2014; Sennouni, 2017). Culture data is published in an open form, that is, in a structured and reusable form, under a specified licence like Creative Commons, which allows the remixing, reuse, and reappropriation of these data by various users (Open Knowledge Foundation, n.d.). These data can be extracted from information resulting from operational activities, bibliographic and archival description of digital cultural resources, as well as the big data generated from applications and various information systems.

To be considered open, culture data should meet several requirements, chief of which are the following: structure, discoverability, intelligibility, reusability, and availability in a linked form (Open Knowledge Foundation, n.d.). Open culture data should be structured, that is, released in its primary form and in appropriate technological formats (.xls or csv: Comma Separated Values). By publishing data in these technological formats, it is possible to make data more interoperable, which means increasing their compatibility with many technological environments and multiplying their chances to get aggregated to other documentary resources online (e.g., applications, information systems, social media, etc.). The purpose of the multiple aggregations of open culture data is to diversify the perspectives from which it is used, according to users’ informational needs. For that purpose, open culture data should be discoverable, a characteristic that pertains to their relevance to satisfy users’ needs.

Discoverable open culture data means they are relevant enough to meet the users’ respective interests. For instance, journalists’ informational needs are different from artists’ and researchers’ needs. Accordingly, data should be published in an appropriate language to increase their linguistic accessibility. The enriched data description should contain metadata meeting the users’ intellectual and digital abilities. Yet, making data more discoverable is not sufficient to guarantee its usability, since they also need to be intelligible from the user’s perspective.

Open culture data should be intelligible. This means that appropriate metadata should be associated to those data published on public portals. More specifically, metadata should not be only related to the topic covered by those data, but it should provide enough description of several other elements. The institution’s name, the release date and the last modification date, the geographical and chronological coverages, and the conditions of data use are a few examples of metadata that should be added to the description of data to make the latter more intelligible. These metadata make it easier to reuse open culture data, as they provide users with a better understanding of the conditions that justify the creation of data and their release online.

To make open culture data more discoverable, they ought to be released in a linked form. Following the logic of the semantic web, releasing data in an open and linked form allows users to explore possible links between online resources and enrich their experience (St-Germain, 2017). By way of illustration, linked open data can help researchers discover similar scientific reports realized by the same cultural institution they are looking for in their research projects. Similarly, historians can benefit from these data to discover other heritage institutions holding manuscripts or other historical material they are using in their retrospective research.

All the above characteristics make open culture data more reusable. Reusability refers to the faculty of data to be exploitable and consumable by users. By publishing open data in a structured, discoverable, intelligible and linked form, users can benefit from open culture data according to their own preferences. Users should be informed about the types of (re)use they are allowed to make of the released culture data, either for general information needs or for specific purposes, such as leisure, accountability, scientific, or retrospective research.

2. Opening up culture data: Why?

Opening up culture data aims to achieve several goals that support heritage institutions in their respective roles. Of note, releasing culture data in an open form supports transparency, helps generate public value, and reduces expenses relating to GLAM activities (Alaoui, 2020). In terms of transparency, heritage institutions are public entities that must abide by freedom of information access regulations (Alaoui, 2020). By releasing their administrative data in an open and reusable form, they anticipate users’ needs in terms of access to accountability information. For instance, publishing data about financial transactions, users’ information behaviour, collections, and partnerships both at local and international levels would help users, especially journalists and researchers, to support their research with relevant data that holds evidential value.

Releasing culture data in an open form can also help heritage institutions generate public value by fostering collaborations with their users. Publishing data about cultural resources, such as bibliographic and descriptive data relating to books, manuscripts, periodicals and other documentary resources, can help users to identify documentary resources and engage in collaborative projects with heritage institutions (Estermann, 2014). For instance, the latter can organize joint initiatives and invite users to get involved in the collaborative description of resources. By using collective intelligence, users may be engaged in crowdsourcing activities, aiming to stimulate the value of cultural resources by adding appropriate metadata, such as locations, chronological data, and thematic metadata to make resources more discoverable online. In the same vein, citizens can be involved in developing mobile applications; they can help heritage institutions increase the value of cultural content by designing applications for leisure purposes for children and teenagers, for instance, or by developing interactive maps or platforms for retrospective purposes (e.g., historical research).

Open culture data can also be used by heritage institutions to promote their resources (Alaoui, 2020). By adopting several marketing approaches, those institutions can benefit from each other’s published data to identify, using appropriate metrics (e.g., number of downloads per resource, clicks on web pages, users’ login frequency, etc.), the most relevant resources and the less popular ones. The latter can be subject to an appropriate marketing strategy to make them more visible to users.

Last but not least, increasing efficiency is also one of the aims of opening up culture data. Heritage institutions have limited resources, a problem that justifies the need for collaboration initiatives between those institutions and their users. Publishing data about operational activities, such as use of financial resources, can help other institutions and users understand resources management issues and get engaged in various collaborative projects. For instance, realizing financial campaigns, including crowdfunding campaigns, as well as opening calls for donations of materials (e.g., recorders, laptops, storage material, CDs, USBs, etc.) are a few examples of how opening up cultural data can increase the efficiency of heritage institutions.

Releasing culture data in an open form can help heritage institutions increase their visibility and enhance their users’ loyalty. In doing so, many actors are involved and pursue different tasks regarding the creation, management, release, and storage of open culture data.

3. Open culture data: Who is involved and how?

In addition to users who consume data according to their respective interests, information professionals, that is, librarians and archivists, are the experts who ensure the lifecycle management of open culture data. Librarians are engaged in data curation, which means that they ensure the processing of data as a content. Through curation practices using international normative frameworks such as FRBR (Functional requirements of bibliographic description), FRAD (Functional requirements of author description), and FRSAD (Functional requirements of subject author description), they ensure the link between the described resource and its author, as well as its subject. By using these normative frameworks, librarians ensure data are more discoverable and published in an open and linked form.

In order to ensure the quality of open culture data, especially by releasing them in a linked form, archivists can use the RiC (Records in Contexts) normative framework, which is published by the International Council on Archives and is inspired from the other frameworks stated above. Instead of focusing only on content, archivists should ensure the description of the activity that generated culture data. The use of RiC’s framework combines the description of data (datasets) from the perspective of the content, the container, and the context in one place. It describes the conditions of data creation and their properties as archival objects (Alaoui, 2021). Archivists also ensure the adoption of measures regarding the secure preservation of datasets by choosing the appropriate strategies to document the traceability of data and their secure long-term preservation.

Information professionals’ tasks are also supported by IT experts who ensure the technical requirements regarding the structuration of data and their interoperability in various digital environments. They are also involved in designing platforms and portals where data are published and managed. IT specialists have an ergonomic role in the process of open culture data management, since their role is to design platforms that are ergonomic enough for users. They also play a key role in technical security of data management systems by suggesting best practices to protect personal data extracted from online systems.

All these experts have the role of executing commands from top management, who elaborate policies and strategies regarding the disclosure of open culture data. These regulation tools concern the prioritization of data to disclose, according to financial considerations, the relevance of data and users’ needs. Experts can make choices regarding strategic orientations of heritage institutions, based on their annual strategic plan and the needs of their partners (e.g., cultural industries, public officials, etc.). They also set goals in terms of public resources use, such as financial, material, technological, and human resources.

Figure 1 summarizes the different points discussed above on open culture data:

Figure 1: Open culture data : what, who, why and how?

4. Towards a collaborative approach: How can information professionals join their efforts in open culture data lifecycle management?

Open culture data projects require a collaboration between many actors that together form an ecosystem. They interact with each other and co-create initiatives using various technological tools. In order to help heritage institutions achieve their goals in terms of releasing open culture data and generating public value from it, the open culture data ecosystem should be well designed and integrate specific configurations involving many actors. This ecosystem involves three key components: (1) people, (2) technologies, and (3) initiatives.

Figure 2: The open culture data ecosystem

4.1. The open culture data ecosystem: people

Open data release requires the development of collaborative projects between archivists and librarians. Working together, they ensure the extraction, description, preservation, and dissemination of cultural data according to generally accepted standards. While librarians describe data from a subject perspective, archivists do it from a contextual perspective aiming to underline the activities that the data describe. As mentioned earlier, the use of international standards can help these professionals join up their efforts to make a complete curation of culture data in a manner that meets the users’ needs both from an archival and a library science perspective.

While doing so, many strategies should be adopted by information professionals to better understand users’ needs. Librarians can suggest various ways to understand the user’s information behaviour, and how the interaction with open culture data is described, chiefly by answering the following question: “What type of culture data is the most requested and used?” The use of key indicators mainly used by librarians to develop their collections can be beneficial to release more relevant data. Furthermore, the development of a better digital literacy is also an activity where librarians are mostly solicited. Archivists, on the other hand, can collaborate with librarians in providing a more complete description of culture data, since the archival description covers the activity that produced these data, as well as the subject of these data.

4.2. The open culture data ecosystem: technologies

While managing and releasing open culture data, information professionals make use of IT platforms and systems aiming to manage the lifecycle of data. In that sense, they may solicit IT experts to design technological platforms that are not only effective in terms of performance but also user-friendly. In fact, in the aim of making the appropriate use of data released on public portals, those technological means should be easy to use, especially by users who do not have advanced digital skills. Furthermore, they ought to integrate web 2.0 features, such as comments, scales and short surveys, to make it easier for users to share their experience with heritage institutions. Open culture data should also be released in an open and reusable form, in compliance with open technological standards aiming to ensure the interoperability of data with various digital environments.

The design of appropriate technological tools by IT experts in collaboration with archivists and librarians, as well as users, can help institutions integrate lean approaches in their everyday work. It is viewed as a key success factor in the implementation of IT technologies regarding information use and, more specifically, in the context of using open culture data in designing applications and website development.

4.3. The open culture data ecosystem: initiatives

Making open culture data more visible by generating public value from publicly available datasets means using them in innovative projects. It is particularly the case of hackathons, those technology-centered initiatives inviting users, such as developers and web designers, to build design projects on mobile applications that facilitate public life. For instance, open culture data can be used to design applications that identify cultural heritage institutions according to geographical patterns or even according to the cultural resources they offer to users. This helps citizens become more familiar with what their institutions can offer to them, making it easier for those institutions to gain more visibility.

To do so, hackathons are to be supervised by experts, such as IT specialists, archivists, and librarians. IT experts have the role of ensuring the technological quality of web developers’ outputs, especially by assessing the interoperability of data and programs in various digital environments. Librarians and archivists have a semantic role in supervising open culture data initiatives. It is necessary to ensure that users have the correct understanding of the data produced online and to evaluate the extent to which they have made the correct interpretation of it. As metadata specialists, information professionals can join up their efforts to provide a better understanding of data released on public portals.

Open culture data ecosystems involve many actors who interact with each other and make use of their digital abilities while using specific technological resources to generate public value from released data. To ensure a better achievement of open data release objectives, information professionals should collaborate with each other in the lifecycle management of data, as well as in the supervision of its use.

Conclusion

Digital transformation has led heritage institutions to adopt new strategies to make their resources more discoverable and their activities more visible. With the technological developments and the social pressures regarding freedom of information access, these institutions have started to release their data in open and reusable forms. Open culture data allows users to get more familiar with heritage institutions’ activities and their cultural offerings. They can make use of these data in various contexts, according to their interests. However, to ensure a better reuse of these data, information professionals should reduce the gaps between them and build on collaborative initiatives that make it easier to master the data lifecycle management. While archivists are concerned with the contextualisation of data and the description of the activities they are related to, librarians can add more value to this description from a subject point of view. They can also suggest relevant strategies providing a better understanding of users’ needs through the study of their online information behaviour. These two actors can solicit IT experts to assess the technological quality of data and the platforms where they are released. Therefore, openness calls for bridging the gap between information professionals and encourages them to work together to make heritage institutions more visible.

Siham Alaoui is a PhD candidate in archival science and public communication at Université Laval, Québec (Canada). She holds a bachelor's degree in Information Science (obtained in 2013 from the School of Information Science, Morocco) and a master's degree in Information Science (obtained in 2015 from the Université de Montréal). She is interested in digital documentary mediation (information and data management), particularly in the current context of universities’ digital transformation. She is the author of several scientific and professional articles published in specialized journals in information science (e.g., Archives, Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, Documentation et Bibliothèques, Comma). She has also given papers and lectures at conferences and symposiums.

References:

Alaoui, S. (2021). La norme RiC (Records in Contexts) : fondements, applications et enjeux pour la pratique archivistique. Les Cahiers de la documentation(1), 20-31.

Alaoui, S. (2020). La publication des données culturelles ouvertes au Québec : le cas des bibliothèques. Revue Argus 48(1), 12-20.

Estermann, B. (2014). Diffusion of open data and crowdsourcing among heritage institutions: results of a pilot survey in Switzerland. Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research 9(3), 15-31. Available at: www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/9/3/17

International council on Archives (2019). Records in contexts: a conceptual model for archival description. Available at: www.ica.org/sites/default/files/ric-cm-0.2_preview.pdf

International federation of library associations and institutions (2013). Functional requirements for authority data: a conceptual model. Available at: https://cdn.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/files/assets/cataloguing/frad/frad_2013.pdf

International federation of library associations and institutions (2011). Functional requirements for subject authority Data (FRSAD): a conceptual Model. Available at: https://www.ifla.org/functional-requirements-for-subject-authority-data/

International federation of library associations and institutions (2009). Functional requirements for bibliographic records. Available at: https://cdn.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/assets/cataloguing/frbr/frbr_2008.pdf

Open knowledge foundation (n.d.). What is open? Available at: https://www.bing.com/search?FORM=OCWG01&PC=ATCO&PTAG=ATCOS2J3CNA3&q=open%20knowledge%20foundation%20open%20data. (Accessed 2 October 2022)

Sennouni, A. (2017). La Data au service de l’innovation dans les services d’information documentaires (SID) universitaires nationaux. Revue française des sciences de l’information et de la communication(10). Available at: journals.openedition.org/rfsic/2759

St-Germain, M. (2017). Étapes pour le développement d’un projet de données ouvertes et liées en bibliothèque. Documentation et bibliothèques 63(4), 35–45. Available at: doi.org/10.7202/1042309ar

Vigour in the archives: Honouring International Women's Day at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 15:00:00 GMT

by Chase Nelson

What does it mean to be an activist? Is an activist someone who takes to the streets, linking arms with allies to collectively call for what is right? Do they integrate into a community in order to understand the problems that plague it and search for equitable solutions? Do they educate friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances about important causes? The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (Oxford University, 2005) defines activism as “the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about social or political change”—but what does “vigorous campaigning” look like?

International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8th, is a product of the vigorous campaigning of working-class women in the early 20th century. The Socialist Party of America called for the first National Women’s Day in 1909 in honour of widespread demonstrations and organizing around working women’s rights and welfare. Clara Zetkin vigorously campaigned for an International Women’s Day at the 1910 International Conference of Working Women, leading to its first celebration in Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and Austria in 1911. On February 23rd, 1917 (March 8th in the New Style dating system), a Women’s Day demonstration in Russia against food shortages and rights abuses under the autocratic Romanov dynasty grew to such great heights that it led to the Tsar’s abdication from the throne a week later. March 8th was formalized as International Women’s Day by the Soviet Union in 1922 and celebrated as a holiday in communist countries around the world for decades; the United Nations formally recognized the day in 1975 (Haynes, 2019).

[Portrait of Dina Golovanevskaya] (5 Oct. 1942), Dr. Dina Golovanevskaya fonds, https://collections.vhec.org/Detail/objects/11955

Dr. Dina Golovanevskaya, whose records are newly available on the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre’s (VHEC) collections website, was likely one of the millions of women honoured during annual Women's Day celebrations in the Soviet Union. Born in 1919 in Odessa, Ukraine during the height of the Russian Civil War, Dr. Golovan (as she often referred to herself) was a staunch patriot, decorated military veteran, and distinguished medical professional.

As many archivists do, I came to meet Dr. Golovan not face-to-face but through the records and objects she left behind. She was one of the first individuals to donate personal records to the VHEC back when it was the Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society in the early ’90s. She donated copies of photographs, a couple of letters from friends, and a few Russian-language publications from visits to Holocaust memorial sites. Last year, as part of a Library and Archives Canada Documentary Heritage Communities Program (DHCP) grant to digitize our legacy holdings and make them accessible in our collections catalogue, I reached out to Dr. Golovan’s daughter Erika Galinskaya to see if we could swap out some of the copies for originals.

[Photograph of laboratory students in class] (1952), Dr. Dina Golovanevskaya fonds, https://collections.vhec.org/Detail/objects/11972

We received much, much more: military records, speeches, articles, identification documents, certificates, correspondence, medical paraphernalia, the original photos, and then some. From these records and conversations with Erika, we can tell a story of a woman who served in the front lines of some of the fiercest battles against fascism, dedicated her life to the medical profession, and committed to community service and advocacy until the end.

Dr. Golovan served in the Red Army as a captain of medical service alongside other Jewish medical professionals from the Battle of Stalingrad to the fall of Berlin in 1945. After the Second World War she advanced in the medical field; she worked as the Head of Laboratories at a hospital in Odessa for fifteen years, all while raising her daughter Erika as a single mother (her husband Jakob passed away in 1949 from complications from wounds received during the War).

[Photograph at a Remembrance Day event] (11 Nov. 1989), Dr. Dina Golovanevskaya fonds, https://collections.vhec.org/Detail/objects/11984

While Dr. Golovan’s love for her country was great, antisemitic bureaucracy prevented Erika from getting a merited job as a musician. The mother and daughter immigrated and settled in Vancouver in 1976, where Dr. Golovan committed to community work and quickly became a pillar in Jewish and Russian volunteer organizations. She was an active member and elected officer of the Shalom Branch #178 of the Royal Canadian Legion and the Workers for Zion. She frequently sent letters, published articles, and gave speeches on topics she felt were important, from the defunding of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to the beauty of her native Odessa. While many of her medical certifications were not recognized by Canadian institutions, she never failed to address herself as “Doctor,” even inscribing the title in pen on articles where she was featured. She was a staunch advocate against antisemitism and Holocaust denial; she published multiple articles in the Jewish Western Bulletin and frequently corresponded with editors and politicians about egregious cases. Just weeks before she passed away in 1997, Dr. Golovan sent a letter to the Bulletin and the North Shore News condemning the latter for publishing articles by Doug Collins, a noted Holocaust denier; a version of the letter was published in the Bulletin.

I’m unsure if Dr. Dina Golovanevskaya identified as an activist. Based on her records, however, it is quite apparent that she was a campaigner of vigorous extent. Learning from Dr. Golovan's life and the history of International Women’s Day, I am moved to honour this day by going beyond the recognition of a particular gender identity. Rather, we must recognize the continued oppression of the world’s most marginalized classes and celebrate individuals identifying as women around the world who tirelessly advocate for a just and better world for all.

Community Forum Sunday examines seniors survey [select portion]. Dr. Dina Golovanevskaya fonds (RA079). Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Vancouver, BC. https://collections.vhec.org/Detail/objects/12007

Sources:

Haynes, S. (2019, March 7). The radical reason why March 8 is International Women’s Day. Time. https://time.com/5187268/international-womens-day-history/

Oxford University. (2005). Activism. In K. Barber (Ed.), The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195418163.001.0001/m_en_ca0000600?rskey=J5mfD6&result=573

Chase Nelson (he/they) is a recent graduate of the UBC School of Information's Dual MASLIS program. He currently works as a Collections Assistant at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

Archivists Who Write (Part II)

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 19:14:36 GMT

By Denise Dale, Emily Lonie, Sonia Nicholson, and Sylvia Stopforth

In last week’s blog post, we introduced our writing group, Archivists Who Write. Today we want to share a little more about each member of the group and about the why, how, what, and where we write.

Why?

Why do I write? Simply put, I have to. Not because anyone tells me I have to, but because I just have to. I have to chase the feeling. When I put pen to paper (or more accurately fingers to keyboard), there is a feeling of excitement, satisfaction, and purpose that seems to exist only in the formulation of story. When I write, I am seeking a hidden well of ever-shifting creativity, desperately hoping that it hasn’t run dry. When I find it, it is pure joy and excruciating frustration in equal measure – and that’s what’s so beautiful about it.

Writing is bringing life to the characters in your imagination. It is the attempt to convey the disordered chaos in your mind, in some sort of discernible (and enjoyable) order. And what are archivists if not controllers of chaos, order-makers, organizers? But I found, in that ordering of documentary chaos, in the rigid application of theory and practice, there were few moments of pure creativity. For many years, I felt satisfied by those precious few moments. But eventually, the dam burst and a story spilled out. I didn’t know where it came from, but it demanded to exist. I listened and I wrote. And I kept listening. It was short stories at first. One even made it into print. But it wasn’t until my love of film led me to screenwriting that I found my form of choice. I wrote my first feature film in three weeks. I couldn’t stop. There was an urgency to it that was thrilling. And I have been chasing that feeling ever since.

It was during this time that I was welcomed into this incredible writing group, affectionately known as Archivists Who Write. Despite how lonely, how solitary the act can feel, writing is the hope of connection. As much as the characters live in my mind, as much as I feel that I have seen the film I’ve written on the page, there is always a second life to be found in the sharing. Allowing a person to read your words is an act of faith. But, my goodness, it can be rewarding, nourishing, inspiring. When you allow others to embrace your characters, love them as you do, they become truly alive. Being part of this group has given me confidence that when I seek the well once again, it will be full.

– Emily's fiction can be found in the literary magazines Pulp Literature (Issue 21) and Door = Jar (Issue 7), and her thoughts on archives can be found at http://www.thingsimfondsof.com/. As for her screenplays, Hollywood hasn't come knocking ... yet.

How?

“Shut up and write!”

Not my words, of course! But thinking about the “how” of writing, that workshop title seems on point. Because beyond that directive, to stifle your inner critic and just get on with it, “how” is personal. How it starts, how it unfolds, how it evolves. It’s a process that matures with practice and time. One that incorporates genre “rules,” how-to books, podcasts, writing festivals, support groups like “Archivists Who Write,” one-on-one help (dramaturg, anyone?), or discovering how others hone their craft. And if it helps, here is my “how”—at least as far as playwriting goes.

The shift from non-fiction writer to “junior” playwright began after attending a series of important but difficult productions. It started something like this:

DON and DENISE enter the lobby from the theatre.

DON: I mean… what sort of play has counsellors standing by?

DENISE: That one girl was crying.

DON: Did you know it was going to be about … that?

DENISE: (hesitantly) Well, you know, it’s Studio B, not the Mainstage, so …

DON: For once, I’d just like to go to the theatre—

DENISE: (cuts off) and not be traumatized?

DON: —and laugh.

DENISE: Tell you what: I’ll write you a play. Make you laugh. How does that sound?

DON: Traumatic.

DON and DENISE exit.

DENISE figures out how to write a play.

“How” is fuelled by ideas, sparked perhaps by overheard conversations, a nugget in the news, or work in the Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM) sector. My first play Weed’em and Leap (professional reading, Sept. 2021) combined the antics of a library book cart drill team with a collection de-selection project gone awry (spoiler alert: Shakespeare’s First Folio accidentally gets thrown out!).

Before an idea turns into dialogue, it turns into a one sentence premise. Here’s an example from my current play-in-progress: The Trouble with Henry is a comedy about a librarian who champions freedom to read after a banned book, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, is discovered languishing on the library shelves.

Sounds ho-hum? Maybe. But now, premise done, the real fun begins because as Canadian playwright/dramaturg Caroline Russell-King told me during one of our Zoom sessions, “Nobody goes to the theatre to see ordinary.” Let’s get into the fun that didn’t make into that premise ... It’s 1961, librarian Rae is on probation, Henry Miller shows up (in a bathrobe), and so does Rae’s tipsy mom, the RCMP, and Canada Customs. And then there’s Mrs. Marshall who manages to sign out Tropic of Cancer, only to return it at the worst possible moment. All that comes out in the plot details.

For some, plotting involves post-it notes or chapter summaries. For me, a plot chart appeals to my sense of order by funnelling the creative chaos in my head into neat columns and rows, detailing each scene. Charting makes it easy to spot and rectify plot snags. And snags not caught likely won’t get past Archivists Who Write as they diligently follow the plot and can be relied upon to nurture and gently nudge (aka “shut up and write!”) as needed.

Finally, the “actual writing” begins, effortlessly, because most of the hard work has been done. Dialogue flows as characters come to life. Written directives stage a world filling with laughter and fun. As the action ramps up from the inciting incident, pausing briefly for intermission, fingers fly across the keyboard full tilt towards the climax before the curtain falls.

All part of how.

– Denise is co-author of two books on information management with numerous articles published in magazines like MoneySense and Reader’s Digest.

Weed’em and Leap by Denise Dale, professional reading, produced by Dramaturgy On Demand, Sept. 2021.

What?

Like an alchemist, I am preoccupied with the idea of transmutation. But it’s not the glitter of gold that draws me. Rather, it’s the way that stories take true things—things like lived experiences, indefinable yearnings, emotional landscapes—and turn them into a kind of lie in order to tell a deeper truth.

And it doesn’t stop there, because the right story, told in the right way, can root itself in our hearts and forever transform the way we see the world, ourselves, and those around us.

Change upon change.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I first understood that real, flesh-and-blood people created these magical things called “stories.” But that dream felt far too grand for the likes of me.

Determined to work in a writing-adjacent field, I took myself off to school to get the necessary degrees (a BA in English Literature followed by a Master’s in Library and Information Studies) and worked as a research librarian and archivist for more than twenty years. On the whole it was a good fit, this business of preserving and ordering at least a few of the tributaries belonging to the great river of human stories rushing over and around us.

But that wild old wish refused to be channelled. In 2019 I finally gave myself permission to own the dream.

If you’ve made the attempt yourself to capture some quicksilver vision in a net of words, you know how frustrating it can be. There’s always that blasted gap between how you imagined it and what it looks like, lying there on the page, unmoving. But those occasions when you nearly get it right make it all worthwhile. And I’m thankful beyond words (ironically) for the privilege of trying.

To date I’ve written everything from essays and articles to literary shorts and even microfiction, but my heart belongs to novel-length stories—particularly those works of speculative fiction that wade into the realms of fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction. I find that sometimes the greater the distance between reality and the story-world, the sharper the light the writer is able to shine back onto that reality.

As the inimitable Isabel Allende observed, “You can tell the deepest truths with the lies of fiction.”

– Sylvia has had several short pieces published and is currently seeking representation for a young adult trilogy that blends elements of science fiction with the dark, alchemical glitter of fairy tales. Visit her at https://sylviastopforth.com.

Where?

Where you are is who you are. The further inside you the place moves, the more your identity is intertwined with it. Never casual, the choice of place is the choice of something you crave.

Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun

Confession time: I hated history—aka social studies—in school. It was too vague. Distant. Impersonal. I maintain to this day that if the curriculum had focused on local history, I would have found my career much sooner.

As a community archivist, the work I do is directly related to the places where I work, live, and play every day. For example, the house that used to be behind mine was the home of a Saanich resident killed in the First World War. The same house where his widow spent the rest of her many years, never remarrying. Our lot was empty until the late 1950s or early 1960s; I picture her husband cutting across it before he enlisted, on his way to his job as a plasterer. Maybe he brought back flowers for her using the same shortcut.

There’s no way to know all of that for sure. But archives capture more than facts. They hold stories. The rest is left to our imaginations.

My writing regularly explores themes of identity, family, and place; of these three, the latter in particular. It makes sense, really. These are the same themes that cross the desks of archivists daily.

And it’s this intersection of place and people that draws me in. Relationships. Home. How they’re all connected. Every record in our care represents a small piece of someone’s story. Someone who walked the same streets I do. Who loved. Lost. Deserves to be remembered. Becoming obsessed with finding them can be an occupational hazard.

This is the premise—with an added twist—of my debut novel. Aptly titled Provenance Unknown, its two locations (my Saanich, Vancouver Island, neighbourhood and Paris, France) have personal meaning. My experiences influence every page as the main character, an Archives Assistant named Michele, travels these places I know so well. Saanich’s Rutledge Park and Cloverdale corridor. The Pereire neighbourhood of Paris, where my husband and I enjoyed our own adventures in the City of Light. She’s there.

Past and present. In person. On paper. These places move inside me. Define me. At times, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction.

I wouldn’t want to.

– Sonia

If you happen to be in the Victoria, BC, area, join us for the Spring launch of Sonia’s novel! Details forthcoming at www.sonianicholson.com.

Conclusion

We are Archivists Who Write. Four writers, each on a unique literary journey. But it all boils down to an irresistible pull to the work and a desire to let the words out into the world, all with the comfort of knowing that a supportive suggestion, a potential plot point, or a carefully considered comma is but a Zoom call away.

Because, as L.M. Montgomery’s Anne put it, “Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.” Our little writing group encourages the trying and consoles over the (real or perceived) failing, but most importantly, our group inspires the doing!

Archivists Who Write: A Primary Resource (Part I)

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 15:00:00 GMT

By Denise Dale, Emily Lonie, Sonia Nicholson, and Sylvia Stopforth

All archivists write. They compose everything from administrative histories to website content, from online exhibit narratives to academic papers. But some archivists are drawn to create and explore fictional landscapes as well. They may anchor their new worlds in scenes or characters that draw on their professional expertise, or they may go completely off-piste, delving into half-imagined futures or poetic fantasies. But wherever the imagination leads, the business of creativity is fuelled by support groups like ours, “Archivists Who Write.”

In a recent In the Field ACA blog post, Amy Tector, another archivist/author, emphasized the importance of writing groups. We agree and hope that by sharing some of the who, what, where, why, and how of our experience we may inspire others to forge such connections. Here’s our story.

Once upon a time; or, how it all began …

After nearly twenty-five years as an academic archivist and librarian, Sylvia Stopforth decided to take the plunge into writing full-time. At a regional gathering of British Columbia (BC) archivists, she reconnected with Denise Dale, another hybrid archivist-librarian, who works at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. When Sylvia half-reluctantly confessed her foolhardy plan, Denise confided that she was working on a script for a play. Sylvia took note.

A little while later she noticed the name of Emily Lonie on the cover of a literary journal in which Sylvia had previously published a story. It appeared that in addition to serving as Coquitlam City Archivist, Emily also dabbled in writing short stories. And it turned out that was just the half of it!

Sylvia reached out to Denise and Emily and suggested they meet to chat about their various writing goals and interests. They gathered over breakfast on a wintery Richmond morning in late 2019. The connection was effortless and immediate. They agreed to make it a monthly event and started sharing their work with one another, for discussion and feedback.

COVID silver linings

And then … COVID arrived. It would have been easy enough to call a halt. Reconnect after the pandemic. (After all, it would be over in a few weeks. Months, at most. Hah!) But they’d already learned that there’s something addictive about sharing one’s dreams, and they weren’t ready to give it up. So, like the rest of the world, they shifted from in-person to in-pixel meetings.

Then Emily mentioned a community archivist on Vancouver Island who had completed a novel and who might be interested in joining the group. Since they were now meeting online, the lack of proximity was a moot point.

Sonia Nicholson turned out to be the perfect addition.

Clockwise from top left: Sonia Nicholson, Sylvia Stopforth, Emily Lonie, Denise Dale.

The “R” word

Since then, the foursome has met nearly every month, life and schedules permitting, and all agree it’s been terrific. More than terrific. Necessary.

Why? Here’s the thing …

With few exceptions, writing is a solitary endeavour. This makes it ripe picking for that pesky internal critic—the one that keeps telling you that you are an imposter, your work is rubbish, and your most cherished goals are nothing but pipe dreams. A group of trusted colleagues can drown out that critic—or at least transform it into a useful part of a larger chorus.

It’s incredibly encouraging to have friends with whom to share ideas, celebrate successes, and commiserate over rejection.

Oh, the rejection …

There is so much of it, whether you’re submitting poems or short stories to literary journals, entering your play in contests, or querying a novel to find an agent who can connect the dots to a publishing contract.

So having a writing/critique group is not just a nice thing. It’s a necessary thing. A PFD: a Personal Flotation Device for those who’ve decided to push out to sea on a craft made of their own words…

How to connect?

Keep your ears open for prospective contacts. Check out local libraries and independent bookstores for announcements about writing groups, book launches, or featured writer-visits. Seek out writing groups online. (We’ve provided a few links below to get you started.) Sign up for webinars or seminars offered by writers, local community groups, or your school district’s continuing education program.

If the budget permits, attend a writers’ conference or a writing retreat.

While it can be scary to step out of your comfort zone, to own the dream requires a certain willingness to be vulnerable, which helps others to open up as well. And without risk, it’s hard to build trust.

So don’t be afraid to share. It’s amazing how a chance bit of chit-chat can open up possibilities. “Archivists Who Write” is a testament to that, so be brave!

Finding the time

For most of us, finding time is the biggest hurdle.

On occasion, members of our group had no new work to share, because life happened. Family needs escalated. Ribs were broken (true story). Annual reports or grant applications followed someone home from the day job.

Some time ago, a group member (name withheld to protect the slightly embarrassed) took nearly a decade to write an epic fantasy novel, with a sizeable cast of characters. At one point, the gap between opportunities to write was so long, she forgot a main character’s name. She also found it necessary to maintain a spreadsheet of characters she’d killed off in order to avoid any unintentional—and potentially awkward—resurrections.

Sometimes small pockets of time can be sewn together. The average literary novel is 80,000 words in length. If you manage to write just 300 words five days per week, you could have the rough draft of a novel completed in a year!

If writing a book isn’t in the cards—or doesn’t feature on your cherished list of writing goals—there are flash and micro fiction websites that publish stories anywhere from 100 to 1000 words in length. And many literary journals are looking for poetry as well as prose.

The key thing is to begin. Get a few words down and keep going!

Weaving the threads

All four members of this group were drawn to the Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM) sector. And all are serious about wanting to improve their writing craft, about producing work and getting that work out into the world—whatever that looks like. So clearly, there are some common threads. But their differences are equally important and have a way of enriching and broadening one another’s creative horizons.

In terms of their careers, they range from near-retirement to mid-career pinnacles. Some have children and some don’t. Some are fearless plungers, while others (names withheld to protect the cowardly) are reticent toe-dippers. Strong views are favoured by one or two, while others are quite comfortable, thank you very much, perched on the fence, considering issues from every possible angle. Morning meetings are welcomed by some, and taken stoically, with coffee thick enough to support a spoon, by others.

This group provides proof of concept for that well-known saying about shared sorrows being halved and shared joys being doubled.

Each member has benefited from constructive critiques, brainstorming sessions, and offers to make connections. They’ve generously shared ideas, tips, and techniques, so they’re not all constantly reinventing the wheel.

In terms of the writing, some have strung together lopsided, sentimental stories since they could hold a pencil, while others have come to this dream more recently. The projects they are currently working on vary wildly and include a soon-to-be-published novel featuring a protagonist who happens to be an archivist.

But more about those projects and “Archivists Who Write” in our next post to In the Field.

To be continued…

A few writing organizations to get you started:

Denise Dale (MLIS) is the Archives Librarian at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. An avid theatre-goer, Denise aspires to take her writing from the page to the stage. She is a member of Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Emily Lonie (MA – Public History) is the Executive Director of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation and was formerly Coquitlam’s City Archivist. In her spare time (when she can find some), she enjoys inventing characters and crafting scenes for her screenplays.

Sonia Nicholson (BA, French and Spanish) has worked in community and religious archives for fifteen years and is particularly interested in advocacy and outreach. Her writing includes everything from poetry to essays to short stories to novels.

Sylvia Stopforth (MLIS) is a writer and word-obsessive who worked for more than twenty years as an archivist and research librarian in the post-secondary sector. Some of her short stories have been published, and she’s currently working on a novel.

Provenance in Place (Part II): Third World Decolonization & the Vienna Convention

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 17:00:00 GMT

By J.J. Ghaddar (1)

This post (Part II of II) is based on presentations I delivered over the last year virtually, in Rome and in Accra. See Part I for more details.

For over a decade, I have been tracing the roots of archival studies in western imperialism and white supremacy, with a focus on settler colonial and apartheid state formations. I share with you this journey by telling you about my excavations of three histories: that of the modern archival profession; of archiving in settler Canada; and of the Vienna Convention on Property, Archives and Debt (1983). In the process, I outline the importance of thinking about place in relation to the provenance of archives and records in colonial contexts, as part of amplifying the struggles of indigenous peoples to reclaim colonized lands and histories, and to overcome the archival legacies of colonialism.

From Archival Fictions to Repatriation: Third World Decolonization & the Vienna Convention (2)

After tracing the archival fictions we tell ourselves about the history of the modern archival profession in Europe and Canada (see Part I), I shifted my interrogations to the history of the global debate over archival repatriation and displaced archives during the era of Third World decolonization in the 20th century, when newly independent states and anticolonial movements spent decades working to repatriate and protect archives and other material heritage from the First World. These efforts were part of an all-sided offensive to end western imperialism and decolonize the global order, including through diplomatic initiatives like the Vienna Convention. Third World actors from the eminent Algerian jurist and diplomat, Dr. Mohamed Bedjaoui, to formations like the Non-Aligned Movement were at the centre of crafting the Convention in international sites that included the UN, the International Law Commission, UNESCO and the International Council on Archives (ICA). Liberation movements from Algeria to Namibia were also involved. All of them consistently articulated a fundamental connection between archival decolonization, cultural and heritage preservation, communication and information equity, economic sovereignty, and anti-imperialism. It is impossible then to disconnect the Convention from Third World instruments on cultural heritage or from political proposals at the UN like the New International Economic Order and the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). While the latter calls for equity in the global flows of information, the former calls for people-centred development. Hence, the Convention brings togethers archives as well as property and debt into a single framework and instrument. It calls for the repatriation of both property and archives from the colonizing state to the newly decolonized state, as well as for the cancellation of the debts of newly decolonized states from the colonial era.

Image 2: UNESCO headquarters in Paris where I conducted archival research on the Vienna Convention in the summer of 2018. Source: UNESCO/Wikipedia (April 2010).

These efforts and initiatives unfolded at a time when bloody struggles for decolonization and liberation were taking place globally, when the martyrs and prisoners of the Third World Project were counted in the millions, and when liberation movements that were not state actors had special status within the UN system. It was also a time when the Third World Bloc enshrined in international law the right of all peoples to live free from foreign interference and to resist colonialism. The Bloc also lobbied for status and recognition within the UN for national liberation movements that were not state actors, including the African National Congress and South West Africa People’s Organisation (Namibia) then struggling against apartheid South Africa’s bid for regional domination, as well as the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). Significantly, national liberation movements recognized by the Arab League and the Organization of African Unity had status at the 1983 conference where the Convention was adopted, as did the UN Council for Namibia. The accordance of special status to Third World liberation movements is one example amongst many of the tension between the aspirations and visions of decolonization within the Third World Project, and the reality of the western nation state model and global system of nation states that those aspirations and visions would be increasingly constrained by and neutralized through. Ultimately defeated by the neoliberal counterassault, the Third World Project failed to end imperialism, constrain Global South elites, ward off the power of finance capital, or realize the full promise of the national liberation movements and their call for unity. It succeeded, however, in ending direct colonial rule in many countries and territories. It also succeeded in what Angela Davis refers to, when speaking of the civil rights era in the ‘60s and ‘70s, as “chang[ing] the terrain of struggle [… and …] reconfiguring the landscape on which we now try to increase the measure of freedom all communities enjoy.” (3) It succeeded in galvanizing hundreds of millions of people over decades across all the continents of the world to work to different degrees in varied arenas with diverse visions to realize an end to colonial rule and imperial domination. Such visions, as Sajed aptly put its, “function as latent ideals of the unfulfilled potential of Third Worldism, which are still worth keeping in mind and striving towards.” (4)

Image 3: Picture of Mr. Amadou Mahtar M'Bow of Senegal, Director-General of UNESCO from 1974 to 1987. He was the first Black African to head a United Nations agency and remains to this day the only Director-General of UNESCO not representing a Global North state. M’Bow is an important figure of the Third World Bloc at the UN, which supported his election to UNESCO. Source UNESCO/Wikipedia (Nov. 1974).

The Vienna Convention is itself a latent ideal and unfulfilled promise, a legal instrument that has yet to come into force but one that provides what is likely the most radical vision of global archival repatriation ever debated on such a grand scale. It is a vision that is still worth keeping in mind as we continue discussing displaced archives today in the wake of Third World political decolonization. Let us consider the text of the Vienna Convention in more detail to illustrate this point further:

The Convention begins in the preamble with the statement: “Considering the profound transformation of the international community brought about by the decolonization process,” and firmly situates the question of archives in relation to decolonization and self-determination.
Throughout, the Convention also makes distinctions between newly independent states and other instances of state succession, which reflects Third Worldism’s insistence that there are unique needs when western colonialism and occupation have been a factor.
Article 21 states that “The passing of State archives of the predecessor State entails the extinction of the rights of that State and the arising of the rights of the successor State to the State archives which pass to the successor State, subject to the provisions of the articles in the present Part.” (5) This transfer of archives to the successor state is to take place without compensation, as per Articles 22 and 23.
For decolonized states specifically, Article 28.1 stipulates that all archives by or about a territory be transferred to the new state from the preceding state’s national repository, including archives that had once belonged to the territory that were incorporated into the colonial archives and those created within the colonial archives about the territory. Article 28.4 also calls on the former colonizer to assist with the in-gathering of archives that are not in its national repository but were dispersed in the colonial era. Furthermore, the Convention insists in Article 28.7 that with formerly colonized states, agreements on archives “between the predecessor State and the newly independent State […] shall not infringe the right of the peoples of those States to development, to information about their history, and to their cultural heritage.”

Overall, Article 28, which is focused on newly decolonized states, is undergirded by the principle of territoriality, that is of territorial pertinence, provenance or origins. It is also undergirded by the principles of retroactive sovereignty and of functional pertinence. Territorial pertinence is defined by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) as “[t]he practice of placing documents with content relevant to a region in a repository within the region. […] For example, under territorial pertinence, records relating to a newly formed country would be transferred to the new country.” This principle is related to that of retroactive sovereignty, which “means that the archives produced by administrations and institutions in charge of managing the business of the territory that has become a newly independent state are devolved to the new state.” (6) The Society of American Archivists also distinguishes territorial pertinence from that of territorial provenance, whereby “the records would remain with the agency that created them.” In line with territorial pertinence, the Convention calls for records that belonged to the formerly colonized territory to be returned there if they had been incorporated into the colonial state’s archives. This is related to the principle of territorial origin, “according to which the archives produced by the territory before it became dependent, and then incorporated in the archives of the annexing or supervising state, are bound to the successor state.” (7) The Convention also states that whatever records the colonizer had created originally in its national archives should be transferred to the newly independent state when they are vital to its ability to operate. As Kecskeméti explains, “[t]he functional pertinence principle […] means that the transfer of power and responsibilities must be accompanied by the transfer of archives that are necessary for administrative continuity to be ensured.” (8)

At the same time, the Convention does not foreclose the possibility of acknowledging and incorporating into agreements the claims and perspectives of others depicted in the records. For example, Article 28.7 outlines that agreements on archives between the former colonizing state and the newly decolonized state “shall not infringe the right of the peoples of those States to development, to information about their history, and to their cultural heritage.” I read this provision as making room for the needs of people living outside of the decolonized state (e.g. Algeria, Ghana, Benin, Trinidad & Tobago) within the boundaries of the state that colonized it (e.g. France, Britain, Spain). They can serve as the basis for negotiating resolutions that incorporate the needs and perspectives of people residing in the latter, while still facilitating repatriation. When colonialism is involved, joint or shared heritage, or reproduction, are solutions that should be framed in a way that addresses the core of the problem, namely how archival colonial legacies help perpetuate the power imbalance between North and South. A decolonized reframing of joint/shared heritage also has the potential to help work out solutions in cases where there are multiple claims over records, including when there are competing claims by Global South communities, movements and societies.

While I cannot give these principles the extensive treatment they deserve today, I will point out that the Convention centres land and place insofar as archives by or about a colonized territory belong to that territory even when not created in it, even when not in the custody of its governing authority, and even when located elsewhere. It calls for “repatriating the power of the knowledge held in archives” (9) by reconstituting memory, history and collectivity through an in-gathering of records pertaining to a place, as part of de-fragmenting the knowledge, people and sovereignties which were dispersed through many repositories, archives, custodians and states by colonial violence. I term this framework provenance in place, insofar as archives are to be kept together based on the place they pertain to and in that place, rather than solely arranged by creator. The Convention’s call (particularly in Article 28) for global archival decolonization seeks to operationalize the principle of self-determination in archives by connecting archival ownership and custody to the issue of whose land has been or is colonized by whom. These are powerful ideas even if the Vienna Convention never received the requisite 15 state signatories to come into force largely due to the political opposition and machinations of western states and archivists. Due to the global dynamics of power between North and South, the Convention and the Third World voices behind it have been given too little consideration, if not misrepresented and erased, in archival studies. The Convention’s history has generally been written by the white men who opposed it. Nonetheless, the Association of Commonwealth Archivists & Records Managers took a firm position about the return of displaced archives from Britain to Third World decolonized states in part by referencing the Convention, noting that the Convention “has continued to inform thinking about archives within the international archival community.”

A committee of western archival experts called together by the ICA in 1995 criticized the Convention for adopting territorial pertinence because it violates the dominant creator-centric conception of provenance: “The ownership of archives cannot be determined by or on the basis of the information contained in them, but only by their provenance.” (10) This statement evidences the tendency to conflate or collapse ownership and provenance, which is why reconceptualizing provenance is often at the core of arguments for archival repatriation. More recently, Kecskeméti, who opposed the Convention for political reasons, considers the principles of territorial origin, retroactive sovereignty and functional pertinence to be “based on provenance.” (11) Indeed, much has changed between the ICA’s 1995 criticism of the Convention for being in violation of provenance and 2017, when Kecskeméti wrote about the principles undergirding the Convention based on a more expansive understanding of provenance. Since the turn of the last century, a range of archival scholars from Bastian and Nesmith to Hurley and Drake have been thinking more expansively of provenance, about how to locate the pluralistic histories and dynamic relationships of records, or whether to discard the notion altogether, as captured in concepts like societal provenance, parallel provenance and community of records. Nonetheless, the fundamental theoretical validity of the western theory of provenance continues to be accepted almost universally. This more expansive yet still creator-centric understanding of provenance is reflected in major descriptive standards like the ICA’s ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description and the Canadian Rules for Archival Description.

Building on that more expansive thinking about provenance, however, my research into the Vienna Convention invites us to consider the possibility of reconceptualizing provenance partly by centring place as context and origin even when that means de-coupling provenance from respect des fonds. Of course, place is not the only important aspect of the provenance of archives, but it is one that is too often disregarded, minimized or elided altogether. This tendency to elide place is a common colonial move, one that frames place as simply backdrop, or abstractly as timeless and decontextualized space, to divert attention away from the question of who is occupying and controlling whose land. This tendency has led indigenous and anticolonial thinkers around the world to highlight the importance of centring place in challenging and dislodging colonial and imperial projects, all of which require the remaking of political geography. The Vienna Convention reflects this anticolonial ethos albeit within a restrictive statist framework. The extensive archival and documentary trail of the debates and activities associated with its crafting can enrich our thinking about displaced archives and our dominant archival paradigm beyond the horizon of the west and its legal traditions. Given its statist focus, however, it is important to consider how we can bring contemporary theories, frameworks and practices about community archiving, diasporic archives and Indigenous Data Sovereignty to bear on these discussions and our interpretations of the Convention.

Future Directions: Rethinking Provenance in Archivy

This text has traversed vast historical periods, and physical and conceptual terrain, from the archival fictions produced about archives and archivists to forge white nationalist states like France and Canada, to the insurgent histories of the Third World Project and the decolonizing ethos of the Vienna Convention. My singular goal has been to unearth hidden histories and produce critical knowledge that can aid in the project of creating a more liberatory archival landscape and world. My anticolonial rethinking of place and archives, which I gloss under the term provenance in place, asks us to attend to the relationship between records, their place and the people of that place. This intellectual intervention serves as a strategic move whereby an understanding of provenance that takes place as seriously as creator, if not more, supports claims that archives removed from a place by colonizers through colonial violences should be returned to that place (as origin and context). Provenance in place is about creating archival regimes and infrastructures that begin by asking, what land(s) do the archives pertain to? What people and nations are connected to that land historically and today? And among them who, if any, has been or is dispossessed or colonized, and by whom? Most importantly, it is to ask, how can the archives support efforts to end that dispossession and colonization today, and to undo the archival legacies of such colonization in the past?

(1) This text is based on research outlined in the following publications: J.J. Ghaddar (2022) “Provenance in Place: Crafting the Vienna Convention for Global Decolonization and Archival Repatriation,” in James Lowry, ed., Disputed Archival Heritage, Volume II (New York: Routledge); Ghaddar (2021) Provenance in Place: Archives, Settler Colonialism and the Making of a Global Order. Thesis (University of Toronto); and Ghaddar (2020) Total Archives for Land, Law and Sovereignty in Settler Canada. Archival Science 21(1): 59-82.

(2) This section is based on Ghaddar, "Provenance in Place: Crafting the Vienna Convention."

(3) Angela Davis (2008) Angela Davis: How Does Change Happen? University of California Television, around 39 to 44 minutes.

(4) Alina Sajed (2019) Re-remembering Third Worldism: An Affirmative Critique of National Liberation in Algeria. Middle East Critique 28(3): 243–60, 16.

(5) Article 25 provides the caveat that, “Nothing in the present Part shall be considered as prejudging in any respect any question that might arise by reason of the preservation of the integral character of groups of State archives of the predecessor State.”

(6) Charles Kecskeméti (2017) “Archives Seizures: The Evolution of International Law,” in James Lowry, ed., Displaced Archives (London, New York: Routledge), 14. Emphasis in original.

(7) Ibid.

(8) Ibid.

(9) Evelyn Wareham (2001) “Our Own Identity, Our Own Taonga, Our Own Self Coming Back": Indigenous Voices in New Zealand Record-Keeping. Archivaria 52: 26-46, 46.

(10) ICA, Committee on Legal Matters (1995) Reference Dossier on Archival Claims. Compiled by Hervé Bastien, Committee Member, for the Council of Europe, 53.

(11) Kecskeméti, “Archives Seizures”, 14.

Provenance in Place (Part I): Archival Fictions from the French Revolution to Canadian Confederation

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 14:30:00 GMT

By J.J. Ghaddar (1)

This post (Part I of II) is based on presentations I delivered between March and November 2022 at the Provenance in Place: A Symposium co-hosted virtually by CUNY’s Archival Technologies Lab and Dalhousie University’s School of Information Management; at the International Council on Archives 9th Annual Meeting in Rome; and at From Archival Pasts to Archival Futures Interdisciplinary Workshop hosted at the University of Ghana’s African Studies Institute in Accra. Many thanks to Nadia Caidi, Eve Tuck, Raymond Frogner, James Lowry, and Mariam Karim for their encouragement and conversations over the years that helped shape this work. I am also grateful to the feedback of the respondents, panelists and audience members at the various events. Any mistakes or omissions are solely my responsibility.

For over a decade, I have been tracing the roots of archival studies in western imperialism and white supremacy, with a focus on settler colonial and apartheid state formations with their segregationist and annihilative drives. I have also been thinking about whether and how we can disentangle the field from these oppressive systems and structures. Here, I share with you this ten-year journey by telling you about my excavations of three parallel and overlapping histories: One is the history of the modern archival profession, or at least the story we tell ourselves about this history. Another is the history of archiving in settler Canada and the struggle for land at its core. The last is about the Third World Project, insurgent histories, and the struggle for liberatory archives and futures captured to some extent in the United Nation’s Vienna Convention on Property, Archives and Debt (1983). In the process, I outline the importance of thinking about place in relation to the provenance of archives and records in colonial contexts as part of amplifying struggles of indigenous peoples to reclaim colonized lands and histories, and to overcome the archival legacies of colonialism.

Archival fictions from the French Revolution to the Fifth Republic (2)

Image 1: Picture of the Musée des Archives nationales I took during my doctoral fieldwork in Paris. The museum is run by the official state repository, the Archives nationales. It is part of the French state machinery that fabricates an innocent white history for the nation. Source: J.J. Ghaddar (May 2018).

First, I began tracing the history of archival studies and the emergence of our dominant creator-centric understanding of provenance as others have done—from when it is said to originate since the French Revolution and its codification in the Dutch Manual in 1898, to the first International Congress of Archivists & Librarians in Brussels in 1910 and the subsequent globalization of provenance along with the nation state archives model with Third World political decolonization over the last century. The difference is that I brought into the story some of the many racialized and colonized peoples and spaces within and beyond Europe that are usually erased in how we talk about our professional history. This allowed me to demonstrate the crucial role of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and Algerian Revolution (1954-1962) in the creation of archival studies, western modernity and the French Republic from its first to its current fifth iterations. Doing this research made painfully obvious the role of not just western archives but also archivists in the fabrication of archival fictions, that is the creation and mobilization of archives to fabricate innocent histories for white nationalist projects like modern France and, significantly, for archival studies itself. The fabrication of innocent histories for nation, archives and archivist where none exist requires at a fundamental level erasing and remaking the places of colonized and racialized people and collectivities. It also requires the simultaneous erasure of the colonized and racialized from the places and spaces claimed for white nationalism, which entails a disavowal of the history and afterlife of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. By interrogating this history, I learned how white archivists, in privileging creators, facilitated the expansion of western empires along with the establishment of white nationalist state formations in Europe and globally. I also learned that the Eurocentric stories we tell ourselves about this history allows us to whitewash or sanitize the methods and practices of our field, as if it is just technical, natural and right that we do things this way. In fact, the dominant way of doing things was explicitly developed to serve the political projects of white supremacist states. Archival methods and principles like our creator-centric paradigm of provenance have always been pragmatic; the ends, and not the means, are the point.

Archival fictions from Canadian Confederation to total archives (3)

Second, I traced the history of British North America, which becomes Canada in 1867, uncovering the settler colonial structuring of Canada’s state archives, and of the Canadian archival profession and its total archives tradition. From the era of Confederation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to our contemporary period when the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) had to take Canada to court multiple times over records and archives—across this historical trajectory, I demonstrate the archival fictions that facilitated the reconstitution of a colonial frontier (British North America) into a settler nation state (Canada). By archival fictions, I refer to how Canadian archivists fabricated both archives and history at the service of a genocidal white nationalist project. Archival fictions facilitate the erasure of Indigenous nations from their lands so these can be claimed for settlement, as well as the Anglo imperialism and racialism required to make Canada. They also work to remove all those not deemed white from national historiography and consciousness, including people of African descent as part of erasing the history of slavery and whitening, in the national imagination, the labor and population that built the country. Hence, today we still have this myth of the pioneer—hardworking, stalwart, brave and, invariably, white. For whoever works the land, liberal western thinking tells us, can claim the land. It is a lie of course and a very convenient one. Those who have shaped, cared for, and worked the land over the last few centuries, if not millennia, are usually the last to have legal or political claim to it.

Archival fictions also refer to the process of professional mythmaking and history writing that started in the 1970s reframing the varied practices employed over decades at the explicit service of settler colonialism as the foundations of a continuous tradition of Canadian archiving known as total archives. This tradition, it is often said, creates a more inclusive and democratic national documentary heritage. This archival fiction provides a sanitized way of talking about the history of our profession in Canada. Significantly, the fabrication of a national archival heritage and national history where none existed required generations of Canadian archivists to gather records according to subject. Concretely, they copied and gathered in Ottawa any record or document pertaining to the European settlement of what became Canada. Most of these records, notably, were created before Canada or much of its settler population was in existence. So what exactly is national or Canadian about them? The prevalent legislative framework for archives from 1912 to 1987 emphasized the historical rather than administrative value of records, their content over their function. It deemed material as archival by virtue of its acquisition regardless of the nature or method of its creation, whether its creator was a public or private entity, or if it was original or a copy. Generally, records were acquired with little regard for the coherence of collections or the need to maintain the records of a single creator together or in their original order. These ideas were anathema to the emerging consensus in Europe codified in the canonical Dutch Manual of 1898, which required archives of the same creator to be maintained together.Yet long after the International Congress of Archivists & Librarians adopted in 1910 a definition of provenance in line with the Dutch Manual,Canada’s state archivists were reclassifying acquisitions from their original systems within repositories like Britain’s Public Record Office and the Archives nationales de France so that “individual documents and even entire fonds were grouped together in large thematic, alpha-numeric classes.”(4)

Table 1: Summary of key milestones in the development of total archives and the Canadian national archival system.

Tracing this history reinforced the point to me that Canadian archival practices and laws have been driven by the pragmatic imperative to archive in whatever way serves settler colonialism. For the first few generations after Confederation, that meant archiving by subject as territory since there was no such thing as a Canada until then. Hence, an archival heritage had to be retroactively invented alongside a nation and history. Once the Canadian state and its archives had been cohered circa the 1970s and ‘80s, there was a shift to archiving within a creator-centric provenance paradigm as a more effective way of maintaining the state and its functioning. Evidently, then, to forge a new nation and collectivity, it can be helpful to archive by place or territory, rather than creator. I began to think if that is the case when you are making up a country like Canada, then would it not be even more so when you are attempting to recohere long established nations and native collectivities in the wake of colonialism, to revitalize cultures and reaffirm sovereignties? At least in such cases, the population is already established with a long history on the land, usually long before the records are created or gathered. In sum, I began to think of the ethical imperative to decenter creator in provenance and to consider place as crucial when land occupation and colonialism is or has been central to the context of the creation, use, acquisition and displacement of records. To elaborate these ideas, I turn to the Vienna Convention, and the Third World Project from which it emerges, in Part II of this blog post.

(2) This section is based on the introduction of my doctoral thesis, J.J. Ghaddar (2021) Provenance in Place: Archives, Settler Colonialism and the Making of a Global Order. Thesis, University of Toronto; and Ghaddar (2021/2020) Total Archives for Land, Law and Sovereignty in Settler Canada. Archival Science 21(1): 59-82.

(3) This section is based on Ghaddar, Provenance in Place: Archives, Settler Colonialism and the Making of a Global Order; and Ghaddar, Total Archives for Land, Law and Sovereignty.

(4) Danielle Lacasse and Antonio Lechasseur (1997) The National Archives of Canada 1872-1997 (The Canadian Historical Association Historical Booklet No. 58 (Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association), 5.

Trauma-Informed Archives: Preparing the Next Generation of People-Centred Archivists

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 15:00:00 GMT

By Katherine Schlesinger

As guest editors of the special issue of Archivaria on person-centred archival theory and praxis, we, Jennifer Douglas, Jessica Lapp and Mya Ballin, are pleased to share a series of blog posts that reflect on the nature and enactment of person-centred approaches to archival materials and work. These blog posts complement the articles in the special issue, presenting a variety of perspectives on how centring the person in archival processes happens and why it matters. We're grateful to the authors for sharing their research and experiences!

It is fitting that on the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Howard Zinn, the “People’s Historian,” archivists are purposively centring people in their own work, most notably in the service of formerly marginalized and silenced communities. Zinn was a fierce advocate for the oppressed, and an opponent of the notion of “neutrality” in the archives. In a paper presented to the Society of American Archivists in 1970, Zinn characterized the archival profession as an “inevitably political craft” whose biases privileged the records and stories of powerful people and institutions over those of ordinary people and equated archival claims of neutrality with passive complicity (Zinn, 1977). One can draw a line from Zinn’s work to current people-centred, social justice-focused archival projects addressing reconciliation, repatriation, reparations, redescription, and gaps about the lives of those previously misrepresented or excluded from the archives. Moreover, Zinn’s rejection of the notion of archival neutrality opened the door to the recognition of affect and emotion in the archive, which are vital aspects of people-centred archival praxis, in all their wonderful and terrible manifestations.

While most Library Information Science (LIS) students read and discuss the views of Howard Zinn, fewer are advised of the potential connection between social justice archival work and the emotional risks inherent in such endeavors for archivists and users of the archive, including the risk of trauma. This begs the question, is archival education sufficiently preparing the newest generation of archival professionals?

Trauma is medically defined as “an emotional reaction to incidents of death, physical or sexual violence,” or to “extreme or repeated exposure to aversive details of traumatic events which only applies to workers who encounter the consequences of traumatic events as part of their professional responsibilities,” (Pai, North & Suris, 2017, p.3). It is the latter part of this description, a phenomenon also termed secondary or vicarious trauma, that puts archivists at risk while either working directly with aversive materials, or interacting with the people described in the records, or their survivors.

Archives are full of traumatic materials, records describing the ordeals suffered by individuals, families, or communities, at times the direct relatives or ancestors of the very patrons wanting to access these records. What is considered aversive materials is subjective in the context of both cultural and personal terms. However, they are most often associated with collections of documents about police violence, state-sponsored terrorism, or systematic societal abuses of power, such as slavery and forced family separations. As communities begin to demand accountability for such actions, archivists are called upon to engage with these archival documents as evidence of past wrongdoings, for the purposes of reconciliation, reparations, or healing. Repeated engagement with materials that document trauma can elicit a powerful emotional response from the archivist and the user, leading to serious mental stress disorders, including trauma.

In the past, the archival profession suppressed the notion of emotional response, a shadow that still lingers over the profession and is compounded by society’s stigma surrounding mental health disorders or needs. However, archivists can embrace their humanity and acknowledge their emotional response to archival material while balancing the important work of people-centred, social-justice-focused archiving.

To their credit, archivists and archival educators have recently initiated open and supportive discussions about archival trauma and recognize the need to create supportive environments and mindsets to care for those impacted by archival trauma. The profession is in the early stages of developing training and resources, mostly geared towards working professionals. Pilot programs for trauma-informed archival management have met success most notably in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

However, is the archival community overlooking the necessity and the opportunity to educate its newest members? Knowledge about the risk of trauma in the archive and training in trauma-informed archival management should ideally be provided at the LIS graduate student level, to prepare the next generation of people-centered archivists before they encounter traumatic materials in their first internship or job. As new archival literature is published on archival trauma and management, and workshops are more readily available online, it’s time to begin to extend this knowledge and training to LIS students. Newly minted archivists are eager to take up the call for social justice archival work. Trauma-informed training can only enhance their ability to approach such projects in a safe, effective, and truly people-centred manner.

References

Pai, A., North, C. & Suris, A. (2017). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the DSM-5: Controversy, Change, and Conceptual Considerations [Review of the book Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed.; American Psychiatric Association: Arlington, VA, USA, 2013]. Behavioral Sciences 7(1); doi:10.3390/bs7010007. Retrieved from https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/7/1/7/htm

Zinn, H. (1977). Secrecy, Archives, and the Public Interest. The Midwestern Archivist, 2(2), 14-26. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41101382.

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Katherine Schlesinger is a Master of Library Science candidate at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Her academic interest is in emotion and affect in the archive. She is a member of Trauma-Informed Archives: A Community of Practice.

The collective documentation of the COVID-19 pandemic as a person-centred archival praxis

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 13:00:00 GMT

By Siham Alaoui

As guest editors of the special issue of Archivaria on person-centred archival theory and praxis, we, Jennifer Douglas, Jessica Lapp and Mya Balin, are pleased to share a series of blog posts that reflect on the nature and enactment of person-centred approaches to archival materials and work. These blog posts complement the articles in the special issue, presenting a variety of perspectives on how centring the person in archival processes happens and why it matters. We're grateful to the authors for sharing their research and experiences!

Current technological developments have changed the way heritage institutions are conducting their activities. Those institutions are undertaking new strategies to involve citizens in the description and enrichment of cultural heritage. This is particularly the case in archival institutions, where citizens are invited to donate their archival materials such as personal diaries, manuscripts, photographs, and videos, to document the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on social, economic, and cultural levels. This contribution sheds light on the various manifestations of the collective documentation of the COVID-19 pandemic and describes how the archivist’s role is to be reinvented for a better citizen archives management. We also identify and describe the key challenges relating to this person-centred archival praxis, and how archivists can play simultaneous roles as stewards, mediators, and participants in this context.

Collective documentation of the COVID-19 pandemic: an enrichment of common documentary heritage

The collective documentation of the pandemic is viewed as a response to the statements published in April 2020 by UNESCO and the International Council on Archives (ICA), inviting policy makers, health authorities, managers, research institutions, and citizens to transform the COVID-19 threat into an opportunity to enrich the documentary heritage of nations (ICA, 2020; UNESCO, 2020). Since then, many citizens have been involved in those collective initiatives, that is, by sharing their personal archives with heritage institutions in the aim of describing how they are living their quarantine and illustrating their experiences and emotions. Examples of those institutions are several, chief of which are the Civilisation Museum in Quebec (Musée de la civilisation) and the Association of Belgium French-speaking archivists (Association des archivistes francophones de la Belgique), which have established collaborative approaches to collect, manage, and disseminate COVID-19 pandemic citizens’ personal archives. The virtual exhibitions on their respective websites show the diversity of content generated by citizens, including letters, diaries, and photographs. All those archives reflect citizens’ thoughts, emotions, and even memories, describing how the pandemic affected their everyday life. To take part in those initiatives, citizens were invited to log on to the platform and upload their personal archives. The latter should be described using various metadata such as the document type, its topic, and release date. Furthermore, archival material should be accompanied with a relevant description reflecting how the donated objects can help document the social, cultural, and economic impacts of the pandemic on citizens.

Figure 1 Virtual exposition: Quarantine's archives

Figure 2 The Civilisation Museum: collective documentation of the COVID-19 pandemic

The donated archival material contributes to the enrichment of the documentary heritage these institutions are responsible for. To do so, citizens are to be involved in the description of their personal archives, as they are the actors able to enhance their intelligibility and highlight their archival value. In that sense, as creators, citizens are in the best position to describe their own archives and determine their value, whether it is emotional, informational, or evidential. Thus, considering the central role played by citizens in archives description, the collective documentation of the pandemic is viewed as a person-centred archival practice that can also be positioned between participatory archives and community archives. While the first one aims to solicit citizens to describe archives via an online platform (Huvilla, 2008; Theimer, 2011), the second illustrates the autonomous archival practices of sociocultural groups sharing common interests, ideologies, or identity traits (Iacovino, 2015). In both cases, citizens have more autonomy in describing archival materials, as they upload the latter according to their personal perceptions, generating heterogenous archival outcomes. Moreover, these actors have various sociodemographic backgrounds, which may influence their interests, needs, and power relations over personal archives. Henceforth, this collective practice might generate a series of challenges that are to be tackled by archivists to establish a balance between cultural institutions’ strategic objectives and citizens’ needs.

The collective documentation of the COVID-19 pandemic: what roles for the archivist?

The collective documentation of the COVID-19 pandemic raises a series of issues at the ethical, archival, social, and cultural levels. To tackle them, archivists must play several roles qualifying these actors as nomads: they can be viewed as stewards, participants, or mediators. Each role helps address specific challenges and, thus, requires different archival, social, managerial, and digital abilities.

Figure 3 The archivist as a nomad

On the ethical level, some citizens may not agree to get their photographs used by a third party in a different context and may want to claim their exclusive use by archival institutions. It is therefore important to be aware of the ethical aspects related to personal archives use. In this context, archivists play an institutional role as stewards, since they are concerned with regulatory requirements surrounding the dissemination of archives on digital platforms, particularly with respect to existing copyright laws. They ought to increase awareness about the legal considerations regarding personal archives use.

Moreover, from an archival perspective, donated personal archives should be described by citizens, as they are in the best position to express their thoughts and emotions in the most accurate way. Yet, while citizens are given more autonomy to describe their personal archives, it is also important to assess archival outputs’ compliance with recognized best practices. In this context, archivists are viewed as participants, since they are involved in the participatory description of citizens’ personal archives, with the aim of respecting the accurate description of the emotional, affective, historical, and artifactual values those objects may have. Thus, archivists are to engage in a continuous dialogue with citizens to ensure a better archival description of the donated material.

Furthermore, archivists can also play a role of mediators. This is particularly the case when it comes to helping citizens improve their digital and archival skills, as they might not have the same required abilities to use digital platforms to donate their own archives. Archivists should help users identify and describe their personal archives through the establishment of some guidelines regarding, for instance, recommended metadata, file formats and sizes, as well as the required details to be added to archives to enhance their discoverability and intelligibility.

Last but not least, considering the limited financial resources heritage institutions have, archivists are to play a mediation role while selecting archives to publish online. It is vital to establish a balance between both the strategic objectives of those institutions and social expectations regarding the pandemic collective documentation. Archivists should develop opportunities for a better understanding of citizens’ needs regarding the dissemination of pandemic personal archives. They may conduct periodical surveys with users to assess the quality of the donated material made online and adjust, if necessary, the prioritization process after getting the approval of their institution’s top management.

Conclusion

In light of what has been said above, the collective documentation of the COVID-19 pandemic is viewed as a person-centred archival praxis that makes archivists revisit their roles in the digital universe. From stewards to mediators, archivists are to develop multiple collaborative opportunities with citizens, who are nowadays more involved in the enrichment of common documentary heritage, thanks to web 2.0 features. It is legitimate to wonder to what extent archivists will have to control the heterogenous archival outputs generated by citizens, as those actors are getting more involved in heritage institutions’ collaborative projects.

References

Association des archivistes francophones de Belgique (2020). Archives de quarantaine: l’exposition virtuelle. Retrieved from: https://archivesquarantainearchief.be/expoaqa/s/expovirtuelle/page/expovirtuelle

Eveleigh, A. (2017). Participatory archives. In H. McNeil and T. Eastwood (eds.), Currents of archival thinking, (2^nded.). Santa Barbara, CA Libraries Unlimited, 299-325.

Huvila, I. (2008). Participatory archive: Towards decentralised curation, radical user orientation and broader contextualisation of records management. Archival Science, 8(1), 15-36. Retrieved from: link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10502-008-9071-0.pdf

Iacovino, L. (2015). Shaping and reshaping cultural identity and memory: maximising human rights through a participatory archives. Archives and Manuscripts, 43(1), 29-41, DOI: 10.1080/01576895.2014.961491

International Council on Archives (2020). COVID-19: the duty to document does not cease in a crisis, it becomes more essential. Retrieved from: https://www.ica.org/en/covid-19-the-duty-to-document-does-not-cease-in-a-crisis-it-becomes-more-essential

Musée de la civilisation (2020). Documentez la pandémie. Retrieved from: https://uneheureaumusee.ca/documentez-la-pandemie/appel-a-objets/

Theimer, K. (2011). A different kind of Web: new connections between archives and our users. Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists.

United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2020). Turning the threat of COVID-19 into an opportunity for greater support to documentary heritage. Retrieved from: https://www.ica.org/sites/default/files/dhe-covid-19-unesco_statement_en2.pdf

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Siham Alaoui, MLIS, is a PhD candidate in archival science and public communication and a sessional lecturer at Université Laval, Québec, Canada. She is interested in digital documentary mediation and citizen participation in heritage institutions’ projects.

What can archivists learn from person-centred nursing care? A conversation between a nurse and an archivist

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 13:00:00 GMT

By Catherine Barnwell & Jacinthe Pepin

As guest editors of the special issue of Archivaria on person-centred archival theory and praxis, we, Jennifer Douglas, Jessica Lapp and Mya Balin, are pleased to share a series of blog posts that reflect on the nature and enactment of person-centred approaches to archival materials and work. These blog posts complement the articles in the special issue, presenting a variety of perspectives on how centring the person in archival processes happens and why it matters. We're grateful to the authors for sharing their research and experiences!

Catherine: When I attended the Association of Canadian Archivists [ACA] Conference for the first time in 2021, I had been working in the field for about a year and a half. I participated in a panel session focused on “Acknowledging Emotions in Archival Education,” led by Elizabeth Bassett, Ted Lee, Christina Mantey, and Jennifer Douglas. Though I was still unfamiliar with much of archival theory, acknowledging the emotional aspect of archival work seemed like a novel approach that helped me make sense of some of the realities I experienced (and still experience) in my daily work on the reference desk.

It seemed that there were parallels to be drawn between this perspective of archival work and the health field, but more specifically with nursing practice and theory. The concept of care is primordial to the discipline of nursing – and has been used in recent years by some thinkers to describe the affective relationships that are at the heart of archival work (Caswell & Cifor, 2016). This led me to ask what archivists could learn from research in nursing regarding person-centred care. Consulting existing frameworks for person-centred care from the field of nursing, and opening a dialogue with our colleagues in that discipline, could be the firsts steps in identifying the building blocks of a person-centred framework for archivists.

First, Jacinthe, can you tell me a bit about yourself and your field of research?

Jacinthe: Early in my academic career, I was asked to reflect and write on the nature of nursing. With colleagues, we gathered responses given by nurse scholars and theorists in both French and English. A recurrent answer to the question was that nursing is both an art and a science, a relational and scientific practice, and that “le soin” [care] is the main focus of the nursing discipline together with the person and family’s health experiences (Pepin et al., 2017). Person-centred care/nursing and family-centred care/nursing are among the well-known frameworks guiding the clinical nursing practice.

C: How would you define care in the field of nursing? And what is person-centred care?

J: Many definitions of care can be found in the nursing literature but invariably, the patients and families and their health are at the centre of what we mean by care: listening to patients describing their specific health situations and contexts, evaluating patients’ health and their health projects or suggested treatments with them in relation with their values, beliefs, and habits, and joining reflection and knowledge to action in life transitions and life-threatening situations. McCormack and McCance (2006) were among the first authors to propose a person-centred nursing framework, whose processes include “engagement, sharing decision-making, having sympathetic presence, providing for physical needs, and working with the patients’ beliefs and values” (p. 476). What the authors call the care environment includes power-sharing and the potential for innovation and risk-taking.

Further, in their Clinical Best Practice Guidelines, the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario [RNAO] (2015) raised the ethical perspective where health-care providers demonstrate “person-centred-care attitudes and behaviours that are respectful of the whole person and their preferences, are culturally sensitive, and involve the sharing of power within a therapeutic alliance to improve clinical outcomes and satisfaction” (p. 7). With events such as the death of the Atikamekw woman Joyce Echaquan in a health care milieu in Quebec, cultural safety and cultural humility are now at the forefront of what we mean by patient- and family-centred care. How do you envision the place that care occupies in the field of archives?

C: It strikes me that these definitions, though they emerge from an entirely different field of research and practice, resonate with the Reconciliation Framework for Canadian archives in response to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC] (The Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives, 2022). Among the strategies proposed for improving professional archival practice, the framework includes “providing First Nations-, Inuit-, and Métis-led cultural competency training” for archival staff (p. 35) and ensuring that reference archivists are trained to provide trauma-informed services to researchers consulting “emotionally distressing archival material” (p. 38).

When I think of the place that care occupies in archival work, I think first and foremost of my interactions with researchers in my role as a reference archivist at The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada. Of course, care is not limited to the relationship between archivist and researcher: it extends to all types of interpersonal relationships that form the fabric of our work. As Marika Cifor and Michelle Caswell (2016) write, archivists have “affective responsibilities” towards creators and donors of archival material, users of archival material, the people who are documented within the records, as well as broader communities (p. 24-25). For example, at The Archive of the Jesuits, I work with many researchers looking for genealogical information. Notably, The Archive holds material that speaks to encounters between Jesuits and various Indigenous communities across North America since the 17th century, including materials regarding the residential school operated by the Jesuits in Ontario. Ensuring that these archival documents are made accessible to Indigenous researchers and communities, and ensuring that researchers feel safe and welcomed in the reading room, is a priority.

Are culturally competent care and person-centred care currently being integrated into nursing curricula? If so, how are they being taught?

J: In nursing, actions are gradually being implemented throughout Canada to meet health-related recommendations of the TRC: 22 (integration of Indigenous healing practices into nursing care), 23 (recruitment and inclusion of Indigenous professionals and cultural safety education for all health professionals) and 24 (requirement for all to learn about Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples). At the last national day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Faculty of Nursing at Université de Montréal, together with the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux [CIUSSS] Centre-Sud-de-Montréal, held a Cercle de parole with Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants to share health experiences in the hope of regaining trust; this was an event open to our students and to all nurses and health professionals. Our planning committee included Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of the Faculty and the CIUSSS. Only through collaboration and power-sharing can we create authentic learning activities.

In proposing a person-centred care framework for nursing as well as for archives, one key concept would be cultural safety, which includes cultural humility.

C: It’s interesting that the Cercle de parole event brought together students, academic researchers, and nurses who practise in different clinical environments.

In addition to my position at The Archive of the Jesuits, I worked as a research assistant under the supervision of Anne Klein at Université Laval in 2021-2022. This project, focusing on the archives of the Québécoise playwright Pol Pelletier, entailed taking stock of her documents and compiling an inventory, with a view to assembling her fonds and preparing it for donation. Since I was unfamiliar with the history of theatre in Quebec, we decided to survey the documents together so I could better understand their context and meaning. Our method of working evolved as Pol began to understand the how and why of archival practice, and as I began to understand her artistic career and the makeup of her archive. Some days we had the stamina to go through many files; other days, one of us would be tired, or had something else on our mind. Some files also touched upon heavier topics that demanded more mental and emotional energy. The nature of this project required that I be attuned to Pol and to her needs and wants. This experience speaks to Caswell and Cifor’s (2016) proposition to rethink the archivist’s role as that of a caregiver.

J: It seems that the relationship you are developing with Pol is one of true presence, of journeying with her as you go through her files: it reflects engagement from both of you towards the same goal. McCormack and McCance (2006) wrote that engagement is a marker of the quality of the nurse-patient relationship and is one of the patient-centred care processes. Nurses often find it hard to not be able to spend as much time with their patients and families as they see would be required. It could even lead nurses to lose some of the meaning they find in their work, since care is so ingrained in nursing.

C: Engagement could be a second building block for a framework of person-centred archival practice. This would inevitably look different in different working contexts. In the case of the project with Pol Pelletier, we had no hard deadlines. Building upon the work of Christian Hottin (2003), who considers that the acquisition process can be viewed as the establishment of an interpersonal relationship, we were able to first spend time getting to know each other, which then facilitated the process of working through her archives together. However, I am conscious that archivists working within institutional settings would have to balance engagement with donors or researchers with the myriad of other tasks they have to accomplish within their work hours.

Another interesting aspect of the project surrounding Pol Pelletier’s archives has been the possibility of integrating Pol’s own ideas about her archives into my way of working. When I began to compile the inventory, the archival decisions I made were not based on institutional policies, but rather were rooted in my conversations with Pol and reflected the particularities of this work environment. Together, we brainstormed what the “final product” of this project would look like: for instance, where she would like her archives to be kept and what type of researchers would use them – historians, but also artists and the general public. We have not yet arrived at the final stages of transferring the fonds to a repository, but these discussions between Pol and myself have been vital to the development of the project and of my own archival practice.

J: Interesting. In her Strengths-based approach to nursing and health care, in which person-centredness is a pillar, Gottlieb (2013) insists on collaborative partnership where knowledge and decision-making are shared. It requires that partners set goals jointly and work together to determine a course of action that is right for the patient or family. Sharing decision-making almost inevitably leads to patients’ and families’ satisfaction with care, involvement with their own care, feeling of well-being, and feeling culturally secure, all of which are person-centred outcomes (McCormack and McCance, 2006). Equally important is the context in which the nursing practice takes place; a care environment that supports person-centred practice is one that allows for risk-taking and innovation together with patients and families. We mentioned earlier that cultural safety is essential to person-centred nursing as well as archival practice. I would add that by learning cultural safety with Indigenous communities, we are also enriching the person-centred practices that we adopt with all people and with other diverse communities.

C: In addition to cultural safety and engagement, sharing decision-making to work towards person-centred outcomes is a third building block that archivists could borrow from nursing frameworks.

In the ACA 2021 panel session mentioned earlier, one of the key points that emerged was that archivists sometimes feel unprepared to deal with difficult or emotionally charged situations. This aspect of archival work, as Jennifer Douglas and her research team highlighted, is not necessarily approached in archival education, though there are now concerted efforts to integrate trauma-informed practice, for example, into archival work (The Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives, 2022; Wright & Laurent, 2021). As culturally competent care and person-centred care have been integrated into nursing education, the concepts of person-centred archival practice that we have begun to draft here could become part of a more holistic and humanistic archival science curriculum.

Thank you for sharing your theoretical knowledge of person-centred care frameworks, Jacinthe. It seems we have only begun to touch upon the possibilities for dialogue between our two fields of research and practice. As you said earlier about nursing, archival practice is not a “hard science”: it is a relational practice that is inevitably shaped by the people who create, use, and are documented within records, and the relationships among them.

References

Caswell, M. & Cifor, M. (2016). From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives. Archivaria, 81, 23-43.

Gottlieb, L. N. (2013). Strengths-Based Nursing care: Health and healing for person and family. Springer Publishing.

Hottin, C. (2003). Collecte d’archives, histoire de soi et construction de l’identité : autour de deux fonds d’archives de femmes. Histoire et Sociétés, 6, 99-109.

McCormack, B. & McCance, T.V. (2006). Development of a framework for person-centred nursing.

Journal of Advanced Nursing, 56(5), 472–479.

Pepin, J., Ducharme, F., Kérouac, S. (2017). La pensée infirmière (4e édition). Chenelière éducation.

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. (2015). Person- and Family-Centred Care. Toronto, ON: Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.

The Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives. (2022). Reconciliation Framework: The Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Taskforce. https://archives2026.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/reconciliationframeworkreport_en.pdf

Wright, K. & Laurent, N. (2021). Safety, Collaboration, and Empowerment: Trauma-Informed Archival Practice. Archivaria, 91, 38-73.

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Catherine Barnwell is an archivist at The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada. She has also worked as a research assistant with professor Anne Klein at Université Laval, focusing on acquisition and donor-archivist relations through a case study of the archives of Québécoise playwright Pol Pelletier.

Jacinthe Pepin is a professor at Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Nursing who was until recently the scientific leader of an interdisciplinary research team funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec, Société et culture (FRQSC, 2013-2025) that focused on health care professionals’ learning. She also happens to be Catherine’s mother.

Where are the Children? A Question of Care for the International Archival Community

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 13:00:00 GMT

By Itza A. Carbajal

As guest editors of the special issue of Archivaria on person-centred archival theory and praxis, we, Jennifer Douglas, Jessica Lapp and Mya Balin, are pleased to share a series of blog posts that reflect on the nature and enactment of person-centred approaches to archival materials and work. These blog posts complement the articles in the special issue, presenting a variety of perspectives on how centring the person in archival processes happens and why it matters. We're grateful to the authors for sharing their research and experiences!

At first glance the child appears insignificant in archival practice - not yet a finalized preservation-worthy version of itself, full of unknowns and unfulfilled potential. Or the child appears as the part of a whole, with children as study subjects representing bountiful sources of information for research or scholarly advancement. But where is the child as a member of our community, one that contributes their own learned experiences, hurdles, and growth for other children to lean on? For this ACA blog post, I ask the archival community what it would mean to include the child as a person into the archive. To see the child as a person means to view the child not only as a mere subject for analysis, but also as a creator whose work is worth preserving and as a user whose participation merits attention, resources, and inclusion. This inclusion, like many others of underrepresented and neglected populations, asks the archival community to abandon previous principles such as exceptionality, rarity, or order in hopes of centering the needs of the child subject, user, and creator - no matter how messy, incomplete, or insignificant their stories might seem. Like other epistemological shifts where attention moves away from the objects (i.e. records) to the people behind or within the object, this post calls for concern for how and why the archival field should pay attention to its literal future.

I begin with a brief exploratory review of existing archival literature on children available through one of the longer standing American archival academic journals, the American Archivist. Then I will assess the types of records currently found in the country’s prominent archival institution, the National Records and Archives Administration (NARA). The combination of literature and available collections, while limited to only two institutions, helps situate the current conditions of child visibility in the American archival context. For purposes of this post, I define children or the child as a human being under the US legal age of 18 years old. Child then also refers to babies as well as adolescents with the precaution that generalization across ages (and other demographic markers) should be avoided as children exist as a diverse population of people from various backgrounds, abilities, races or ethnicities, and other demographics. The grouping of all these youth categories under the age of 18 as children rests on the assumption that archivists take different classification approaches when describing or discussing a young person or young people. When searching for literature or collections and materials, the following list of terms were used: child, children, kid, kids, youth, adolescent, adolescents, baby, babies, toddler, toddlers, teen, teens, boy, boys, girl, and girls. These terms themselves denote the constantly changing perception of childhood and adolescence as well as the complexities of describing people of multiple ever shifting identities.

The Child as Subject

As an archival subject, the child can be found in family portraits or as part of news stories and artistic sketches. We might find the child frolicking in the background of a home movie or noted as a dependent in some government form. Children might be found in school yearbooks or as study participants mentioned in a published book. In the National Archives and Records Administration catalog, children appeared in roughly 15, 927 photographs or other graphic materials. These ranged from photos of children with animals, children in school, children with adults, or children in promotional materials. Textual materials on the other hand showed children as evidence of atrocities or historical events from Native boarding schools and programs for impoverished children to children’s discussions with President Nixon or efforts to establish child labor laws (McCracken, 2015). Like other objectified people, children can be commonly found as subjects of research, from photographs of deceased children to those with medical conditions serving as at times unwilling participants (Jordan, 1960; Mifflin and Pugh, 2011). Children also show up as members of other marginalized groups such as those of early immigrant communities, incarcerated youth, and survivors of violent acts. (Daniel, 2010; Farley and Willey, 2015; Holden and Roeschley, 2020). These children as subjects remain part of a larger whole of ignored or harmed populations such as women and domestic abuse survivors. Rarely do we see the child expressing their lives, their accomplishments, their valuable memories as simply a child contributing their knowledge rather than as an object in need of study. In most cases, we tend to encounter the child through an adult self, recounting what they now see as memorable through the lens of their adult perspectives.

Figure 1: Letters from Children re: Nuclear Bombs

The Child as Creator

It may then come as little surprise that the child as an archival creator does not get a chance to appear as an active subject when archival institutions still heavily rely on adult donors. Few instances exist where an archival collection boasts of its young creator, with even the most famous of children waiting until adulthood to find merit in sharing their life stories. The instances where the child creator emerges may be part of an art project intentionally using child artists or as unwilling contributors producing objects and records for or with adults. For example, in the NARA catalog, children appeared in materials such as letters detailing their reactions to nuclear bombs or as signatories to a scroll pledging allegiance to George Washington as part of the US Constitution Bicentennial commission (Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, ca. 1987; President Reagan, 1982 – 1983). Given NARA’s focus on government records, many records created by children are those directed towards presidents such as the letters on nuclear bombs to Reagan or the drawings sent to Ford (President Ford, 8/1974 - 1/1977). Few records created by children exist within this archival institution’s collection, likely a result of both children’s resource restrictions such as a lack of owning documentation equipment like cameras and lack of consideration of the child as an active contributing citizen. Luckily, as technological use and access increases, more children now gain access to creating records from photographs to videos and social media posts.

Figure 2: Letters from Children re: Nuclear Bombs

The Child as User

Overall, the child has received a relative amount of attention as a user given the field’s increased concern for diversifying their user base beyond the traditional historical scholar. As an archival user, the child normally exists as a student, part of a larger group of children first corralled by the ever-watchful eye of an educator and then by the archivist. Given the age limitation for children noted in this post, this section did not consider articles primarily focused on college students despite its dominance in discussing the topic of student users. More generally, archival literature looks at student users, specifically those in grades K-12, in relation to increased incorporation of primary sources into educational instruction and teaching standards (Gilliland-Swetland, 1998; Hendry, 2007; Garcia, 2017). Despite the lack of records about children by children, institutions like NARA provide many archival materials that aid in the advancement of the child as a student. For example, by creating supplemental teaching units archival institutions encourage younger users to explore archival materials when needing to accomplish educational goals (Corbett, 1991). Exploration has also extended to children, especially high school students, to explore personal and family history through archival materials (Culbert, 1975). Sadly, unlike libraries, archival spaces do not provide safe kid or teen spaces, oftentimes forcing the child to act more like an adult than is necessary. This has limited the expansion of the archival child user since current expectations of users may require subject expertise, specific cognitive or tactile skills, as well as resources like mobility or technology access, all assumed characteristics of the established adult user.

Figure 3: Letters from Children re: Nuclear Bombs

Ultimately, the child remains to be included fully in archival practices and in archival scholarship as a subject, creator, and user. But a word of caution must be said before we proceed to rush these people into this field. As childhood studies warns us and feminist thought has reminded us, the child cannot be treated as a mere object of passive, patronizing care. Rather the child, in order to avoid ongoing victimization, objectification, and marginalization, must be welcomed as an active agent seen as capable of contributing, critiquing, and questioning the very field that wishes for their participation. Otherwise, the care we claim to afford others remains merely a care for our own image and sake.

Bibliography

Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. (ca. 1987). Scroll. Records Relating to Publications, Reports, and Meetings, 1985 – 1991Record Group 220: Records of Temporary Committees, Commissions, and Boards, 1893 – 2008 (6850912), National Archives and Records Administration, United States.

Corbett, K. (1991). From File Folder to the Classroom: Recent Primary Source Curriculum Projects. The American Archivist, 54(2), 296–300. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.54.2.1657t38867754355

Culbert, D. (1975). Family History Projects: The Scholarly Value of the Informal Sample. The American Archivist, 38(4), 533–541. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.38.4.w20j37111k256780

Daniel, Dominique. 2010. “Documenting the Immigrant and Ethnic Experience in American Archives.” The American Archivist 73 (1): 82–104. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.73.1.k2837h27wv1201hv.

Farley, L., & Willey, E. (2015). Wisconsin School for Girls Inmate Record Books: A Case Study of Redacted Digitization. The American Archivist, 78(2), 452–469. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081.78.2.452

Garcia, P. (2017). Accessing Archives: Teaching with Primary Sources in K–12 Classrooms. The American Archivist, 80(1), 189–212. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081.80.1.189

Gilliland-Swetland, A. (1998). An Exploration of K-12 User Needs for Digital Primary Source Materials. The American Archivist, 61(1), 136–157. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.61.1.w851770151576l03

Hendry, J. (2007). Primary Sources in K-12 Education: Opportunities for Archives. The American Archivist, 70(1), 114–129. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.70.1.v674024627315777

Holden, J., & Roeschley, A. (2020). Privacy and Access in the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Records. The American Archivist, 83(1), 77–90. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081-83.1.77

Jordan, Philip D. 1960. “The Challenge of Medical Records.” The American Archivist, 143–51.

Juliani, R. (1976). The Use of Archives in the Study of Immigration and Ethnicity. The American Archivist, 39(4), 469–477. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.39.4.bv1313755u726704

McCracken, K. (2015). Community Archival Practice: Indigenous Grassroots Collaboration at the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre. The American Archivist, 78(1), 181–191. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081.78.1.181

Mifflin, Jeffrey. 2011. “‘Visible Memory, Visual Method’: Objectivity and the Photographic Archives of Science.” Edited by Mary Pugh. The American Archivist 74 (1): 323–41. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.74.1.e56q052870087625.

President (1974-1977 : Ford). (8/1974 - 1/1977). AR 4: Paintings – Drawings. White House Central Files Subject Files on Arts, 8/1974 - 1/1977Collection: White House Central Files Subject Files (Ford Administration), 8/9/1974 - 1/20/1977 (4504963), National Archives and Records Administration, United States.

President (1981-1989 : Reagan). (1982 – 1983).[Letters from Children re: Nuclear Bombs]. William P. Barr's Office Files, 1982 – 1983Collection: Records of the White House Office of Policy Development (Reagan Administration), 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989 (135838336), National Archives and Records Administration, United States.

Yaco, S. (2010). Balancing Privacy and Access in School Desegregation Collections: A Case Study. The American Archivist, 73(2), 637–668. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.73.2.h1346156546161m8

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Itza A. Carbajal is an American doctoral student at the University of Washington Information School focusing on children and their records. Carbajal’s proposed dissertation analyzes how records embody childhood trauma and whether archival records may provide release or relief from traumatic memories. She is also on the board of the Children’s Photography Archive (https://cpa-staging.childhoodpublics.org/)

What’s (Not) in a Name: The Insufficiency of Standard Biography

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 13:00:00 GMT

By Krista Jamieson

As guest editors of the special issue of Archivaria on person-centred archival theory and praxis, we, Jennifer Douglas, Jessica Lapp and Mya Balin, are pleased to share a series of blog posts that reflect on the nature and enactment of person-centred approaches to archival materials and work. These blog posts complement the articles in the special issue, presenting a variety of perspectives on how centring the person in archival processes happens and why it matters. We're grateful to the authors for sharing their research and experiences!

Let me start with a story. A few years ago, I was doing groceries with my partner. We exchanged a few polite words with the cashier, asking how her day was. When she finished ringing us up, she watched as we exchanged a few words about points cards and our grocery budget. It was probably all a very familiar sight to her, and it was certainly unremarkable from our perspectives. Seeing us act as family in this very mundane way, the cashier asked, “Are you sisters?”

The cashier saw something that seemed familiar (a family grocery trip) and tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Unfortunately (for us), she wildly misinterpreted what was happening. This particular example will likely only be a familiar experience to other queer women (more on the “gal pal” phenomenon in a bit), but most people can relate to what went wrong: a stranger missed a very important contextual clue and as a result made some pretty poor assumptions. Maybe as a kid you wore glasses and people assumed you were a bookworm. Maybe you’ve been misgendered by strangers emailing you. Maybe someone on social media has put words in your mouth because they don’t understand where you’re actually coming from or what you’ve actually experienced in your life.

These moments are unfortunate, but you’re there to correct them. Records in archives are created by, about, and for people during their lives. They are then given to archives for strangers to look at, with no one there to correct the misinterpretations of those strangers. So instead of an awkward laugh and a brief explanation that my partner is, in fact, my partner, this misinterpretation turns into a musing in a book. Or worse, the signal that I am a queer person is completely dismissed, allowing for the assumption that I am straight – a false narrative that all of my records are then contextualized by. And maybe that doesn’t matter in a given context: I’m not sure my being queer is relevant to the work I do on file format characterization for digital preservation. But maybe it is relevant in more subtle ways. Maybe being queer informs how I define the concept of family in metadata standards I write. Maybe being queer informs my response to a pandemic because I relate public health crises to the AIDS crisis. Those things may not be explicit in records because my records are created for my own purposes rather than with a public audience in mind. The friend I’m writing to knows those things about me, so I don’t need to explain them.

The idea that context is important is far from new in archives. In fact, context is king in archives. We know that out of context, some records become meaningless. It is the entire rationale behind the ideas of provenance and original order, two of the fundamental principles of archival arrangement in Canada. We know that the creator is important to understanding a record, and we know that we may only be able to understand a record based on other adjacent records. By keeping records together, maybe we (or someone) can make sense out of nonsense.

At this point I expect more than a few people to be thinking, “Okay, but Krista, we already describe creators! That’s what biographical histories are for!” And you’re not wrong. But I don’t think we always write biographical histories in a way that a) genuinely combats this problem or b) acknowledges the magnitude of how this problem lands differently depending on who people are. Beyond listing a name and some biographical details that a researcher could discover in the records themselves, there aren't very specific details about how a biographical history ought to be written. I would argue that your standard biographical history isn’t particularly useful to understanding the creating context for most records. Unless you have detailed information about how someone’s high school shaped them, knowing what high school they attended doesn’t really help to figure out how the person thought, what influenced them, what they valued, or how they worked. So maybe being able to answer those questions about who someone isis actually what we should focus on in our biographical histories so there is less space for wild misinterpretation at a personal level. One way to write a contextualized description of someone is to provide a social location for them. That is, where does the person sit in society? Where do they fit in with norms and where don’t they? Where can we assume normative things to fill in contextual gaps and where can’t we? What fills in those gaps instead?

Moreover, we name archival fonds for the “creators” of the records, but when we look at the content on the microscale, the supposed creator isn’t the author or the sole author of most of the content (I mean, just look at the copyright clearance necessary if you want to know how many authors the “creator” of a fonds is hiding) and is often not the decision maker for what made it to the archive and what didn’t (Douglas 2018). When we turn to the influences authors have, what they’re writing about, and who they’re writing about, we can also see that no author is an island. No one creates records in a vacuum. Context extends beyond individual authors to the context authors lived and created in. Here is where we get things like Tom Nesmith’s 2006 concept of “societal provenance.” And then we come to a level of complexity around worldview and how that frames the very notion of authorship. Krista McCracken and Skylee-Storm Hogan (2021) trouble the concept of provenance on this ground when they argue for Indigenous communal ownership of information by, for, or about Indigenous peoples, regardless of the supposed provenance of who wrote it down. Archival theory within a Western archival paradigm being what it is (and I am explicitly not making a claim that it is universally appropriate or better than other forms of knowledge and memory keeping), I think one small step we can take to do a little better, to acknowledge the true complexity of provenance and context, to account meaningfully and helpfully for the factors that shape our lives, what we create and what we collect, is to capture some of that complexity in our descriptions.

This lack of real context for who people are also lands differently for some marginalized groups, and I’m going to speak for myself as a queer person and use the "gal-pal" problem to illustrate this, though it applies far beyond this one illustration. I think (hope?) by this point that most people have at least heard of issues where historians, archaeologists, and other researchers have ignored signs of queerness. Sometimes this develops out of a desire to avoid applying modern concepts of identity onto people from different times, places, and cultures (it can be frustrating, but I get it). Sometimes it’s out of a softer homophobia: they don’t want to “offend” the family or their readers (which assumes being queer is inherently offensive). And sometimes it is out of brash homophobic insistence that queer people could not possibly exist, despite all the evidence to the contrary. There are lots of examples of this: Skeletons in burial sites buried as a married couple, called “lovers” until DNA shows they are two men or not a cis man and cis woman. All of a sudden, the "very clear evidence" that this was a couple is rewritten to the pair having been close friends or brothers. Because they’re between people of the same sex, the love letters between historical figures that speak of burning lust and intense emotional attachment take on false interpretation; lust and emotion are treated as a stylistic flourish. There is a history of researchers going out of their way to deny and erase queerness, even when it’s extremely obvious. Coming back to my example, queer women couples have often been referred to as “gal pals” or similar so people can avoid acknowledging that they are in a relationship with one another. It’s a form of intersectional erasure, a kind of invisibility unique to queer women’s relationships (as queer men’s relationships tend to be hyper-visible). And, yes, this continues today when people ask if you are sisters and is something so prevalent that it’s become a bit of a joke among many queer women.

I’m not saying that researchers should label and out every queer person they come across in their research -- that would be taking things too far in the other direction -- but I am saying that getting more personal contextual information from creators themselves while we can (no one is immortal here!) is a good thing to do. It is especially important to get clarity from people who have been historically marginalized and erased so that future researchers don’t repeat the same problematic practices, ultimately to the detriment of their understanding of a person’s life, work, and records.

Specifically, if we want to bring the complicated, messy reality of records creation and knowledge recording to our description, we need to situate the people who contributed to record creation (Haraway 1988). What is the worldview someone is working from? What is the context of their life beyond the superficial? What communities do they belong to? How were they influenced in their life to become the person they were? Where and how can their knowledges be attributed? These things both are and are not individual factors. Some of them are cultural, situational, and demographically systemic. Others are about more personalized family histories and influences such as professional training and mentorship.

This is a very high-level description of something that can be complicated and difficult to conceptualize, let alone implement. But if we really understand that archives are just some of the records left to us by living, breathing, complicated, fallible people and if we care about how those people are represented and that people are not misrepresented or erased by the strangers looking at their records, we have to do more to ensure we’re doing right by them, by all the authors whose works are in the fonds, and the communities and people those records represent.

Citations

Douglas, J. (2018). A call to rethink archival creation: Exploring types of creation in personal archives. Archival Science, 18(1), 29-49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-018-9285-8

Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575-599. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066

McCracken, K. & Hogan, S.S. (2021). Community First: Indigenous Community-Based Archival Provenance. [Special issue on Unsettling the Archives.] Across the Disciplines, 18(1/2), 23-32. https://doi.org/10.37514/ATD-J.2021.18.1-2.03

Nesmith, T. (2006). The concept of societal provenance and records of nineteenth-century Aboriginal-European relations in Western Canada: Implications for archival theory and practice. Archival Science6, 351-360. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-007-9043-9

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Krista Jamieson is a queer archivist living in Hamilton, Ontario. She has an MLIS from McGill University and an MA from the University of Amsterdam in AV archiving. She is currently the Digital Preservation Business Lead for the Bank of Canada and a part-time PhD Candidate in FIMS at Western University.

Adopting person-centred praxis through Developing & Adopting an Inclusive Description Style Guide at Penn State

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 12:00:00 GMT

By Lexy deGraffenreid and Ben Mitchell

As guest editors of the special issue of Archivaria on person-centred archival theory and praxis, we, Jennifer Douglas, Jessica Lapp and Mya Balin, are pleased to share a series of blog posts that reflect on the nature and enactment of person-centred approaches to archival materials and work. These blog posts complement the articles in the special issue, presenting a variety of perspectives on how centring the person in archival processes happens and why it matters. We're grateful to the authors for sharing their research and experiences!

Introduction & Background

Adopting a person-centred archival praxis that privileges the language, culture, and preferences of those represented within collections has been a priority for Special Collections at Penn State since mid-2019. We aim to utilize an ethic of care, in which archivists prioritize the voices of those documented by and within records over traditional practices that prioritize documents themselves as well as the paradigms of predominantly white collectors and institutions. However, developing and implementing a more person-centred praxis is ongoing and has been evolving over a series of years. Due to the COVID-19 shift to remote work, Special Collections undertook a high-level audit of finding aids to evaluate completeness and to assess the presence of offensive language. This audit identified a broad array of obfuscating or offensive descriptive practices, which decreased the discoverability of archival records and perpetuated silences surrounding marginalized communities within our collections. This audit further identified that additional assessment was needed to understand the depth and breadth of these concerns.

Before further assessment, archivists determined that we needed to reconsider legacy archival practices and recentre the practice of archival description onto the perspectives and preferences of marginalized records creators and/or subjects. Our premise was that archival description should be accessible to and discoverable by the people and communities whose experiences are reflected within our collections. Moving towards a person-centred praxis required both self-reflection and adopting external expertise. As we do not have a community advisory group, it was necessary to take the time to research and pull in community-driven expertise and resources to better inform our descriptive practices. In summer 2020, in order to research more inclusive practices, we launched the Inclusive Description Working Group, which ultimately decided to author a style guide and resource guide for inclusive description. During summer and fall 2020, the working group began to compile resources such as community-driven thesauri, toolkits, and current projects to build an in-depth resource guide to ground the intended style guide in existing recommended practices and to be used as a learning resource. At the outset of the project, due to competing priorities and limited staffing, the working group decided to recruit an archival studies graduate student, Ben Mitchell, to conduct research and help draft the guide. In this next section, we will discuss developing and authoring the style guide as a working group after recruiting our graduate student to help develop the guide.

Developing the Guide

The project began with an extensive literature review. The literature review consisted of three major components. First, the working group worked independently to collect resources for review. These resources largely consisted of policy statements and style guides from similarly sized institutions, controlled vocabularies, active communities, and academic articles. These resources were compiled into a spreadsheet and served as the base for the literature review. In the following weeks, Ben reviewed the resource guide, selected a limited number of resources, and began to construct the literature review. The literature review was primarily structured around Archives for Black Lives’ guidelines. The group decided to focus on six general guidelines:

Language, Power, and Politics
Accessibility and Audience
Voice, Tone, and Expertise
Cultural Humility, Identity, and Naming
Violence, Oppression, and Challenging Content
Archival interventions (choosing mediation or not)

These guidelines would go on to form the backbone of the style guide, with additional, more technical categories for punctuation, formatting, etc. The working group examined the selected resources through these six lenses to inform the style guide. Most of the writing was done by Ben, but the group met weekly to make edits and discuss the findings. After final edits were made, the group began drafting the style guide itself. The writing process for the style guide followed the process for the literature review. Again, Ben did the majority of the writing, with continuous feedback and edits from the rest of the group. Each week, Ben drafted one to two guidelines for the style guide from the literature review. This work largely consisted of summarizing and transitioning the academic language of the literature review into the more technical language of the style guide. The style guide was designed to be easily understood, quick to reference, and to have minimal jargon.

In addition to meeting as a group for edits, Ben also met with individual group members to assist with the writing process. The group recognized the individual strengths and competencies of specific members and decided they would lend these skills to the writing process. For example, one member of the group had experience with controlled vocabularies, one member had experience with standardizing grammar, and so on. This way, the perspectives of the whole group could be included while retaining a singular voice for consistency.

After this process was repeated for each section of the style guide, the entire group met one more time for final review and edits. The process was designed to be highly iterative with editing done consistently throughout each stage. Furthermore, the style guide was specifically designed to be updated and edited based on evolving social conditions and changing archival standards.

Adoption & Implementation

The ultimate purpose of both the style guide and resource guide is to embed more inclusive practices programmatically into description workflows. The adoption of the guide’s practices happened alongside its drafting. Several collections requiring reparative redescription were prioritized as a result of the audit and served as useful test cases for researching and adapting people-first description methods. The guides formally launched in summer 2021 when Ben Mitchell presented them to all employees at a Special Collections employee meeting. The Interim Co-Head of Collection Services then implemented the guide across the Collections Services Team (a subset of the overall Special Collections Library charged with overseeing collection ingest, accessioning, description, and management) by introducing it in trainings alongside the local accessioning manual and processing manual. The expectation is set team-wide to consult the guide and implement more person-focused, inclusive practices for any accessioning or processing projects which document a marginalized person or group.

Implementing the guides has had positive impacts across the Collection Services Team’s work. It is employed from the point of accessioning as a way to use more inclusive language in all parts of the collections services workflow to ensure that our minimally processed finding aids are person-centred in the potentially years-long interim between accessioning and processing. This care is especially necessary because our extensible accessioning guidelines indicate that collections under five linear feet are considered completed at the point of accessioning and many of the recently acquired collections documenting Black life or the LGBTQIA+ experience are small collections of less than five feet. For collections documenting marginalized persons or communities, the priority is to centre the voice of that community rather than to accession collections rapidly but insufficiently. This prioritization allows for a fuller, more robust minimal finding aid which is hoped to be more discoverable to researchers. Adopting this people-centred approach to extensible accessioning and processing forces archivists to recentre their praxis onto an ethic of care which prioritizes elevating the voices of marginalized creators and records subjects over traditional archival practices that minimized or excluded them through insufficient or obfuscating description.

Ultimately, the adoption of the style guide will have an impact beyond Special Collections. The University Libraries’ most recent strategic plan includes the charge to “ensure equity of access by evaluating current descriptive access points within library catalog records, digital collections metadata, and archival description; create a plan to perform remediation on legacy descriptive practices; and identify and utilize alternative authority sources and a local style guide/thesaurus.” Members of the Inclusive Description Working Group form part of the action team assigned to this charge and the Guide is being used to inform broader projects around assessment and remediation across the library’s access points to create libraries-wide description that is more responsive and inclusive of marginalized voices. Recentring archival description on the experiences and preferences of people and their communities is not a single project. It requires an ongoing, iterative, and sustained program that is adaptable to the stated needs of the people whose voices we hope to centre. By creating and implementing this Style Guide to Inclusive Description and associated resource guide, and by adopting its recommendations in practice, we hope to build the scaffolding of a more diverse, people-centred repository that represents the diverse experiences of our community.

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Lexy deGraffenreid is the Head of Collection Services at Penn State University’s Eberly Family Special Collections Library. Ben Mitchell is a STEM Librarian at the University of Rochester, but previously served as the Special Collections Discovery Assistant at Penn State.

Archivist Authors: The Sound of Fire by Renée Belliveau

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 12:00:00 GMT

by Rebecca Murray with Renée Belliveau

I’ve had the pleasure of sharing a virtual table with Renée over the past two years on the ACA Communications Committee, but we didn’t start talking about her books and writing until this summer. It’s been a unique pleasure to work with Renée professionally and to read her writing. I had the opportunity to ask her a few questions after reading her most recent novel, The Sound of Fire, this summer.

Rebecca: Your novel, The Sound of Fire, is a beautiful blend of historical fact and creativity. You’ve written a really strong account of the tragic fire that raged on the Mount Allison University campus in December 1941. You show many perspectives including that of the fire (which we’ll get to), but I’m curious what elements or perspectives, if any, were missing from the narratives found in the archival or published record?

Renée: There were many perspectives missing from the archival holdings at Mount Allison University, which were understandably focused on students and faculty. I unfortunately did not have access to accounts by physicians and nurses who attended to the wounded, or by parents and community members. However, I was able to imagine what they might have experienced that harrowing night.

This is one way in which the fictionalization of the story was helpful. Rather than focus solely on the perspectives for which we did have archival records, I was able to include others who were affected by this tragedy. Usually there were records that gave me flashes of inspiration, such as the many telegrams sent by frantic parents eager for news of their sons, or newspaper mentions of the medical professionals who cared for injured students at the Amherst, NS hospital. My job was simply to breathe life into them.

Mount Allison campus, ca. 1904. Mount Allison University Archives -- 2007.07/51

Rebecca: I’ve read a lot of Canadian literature recently and the elements and the landscape really prove themselves to be pivotal characters in our country’s stories, time and again. Sackville, New Brunswick is, in my mind, known for its proximity to the marshlands and of course any story set in the east conjures up some imagery of water or shorelines no matter the setting’s proximity to the coast. Your focus on the fire is of course apt and points to danger (an obvious one in this case) in the otherwise idyllic landscape. How did you go about incorporating this perspective into the story, and what kind of mood or zone did you have to get into to do this? I presume the writing process was different from the other perspectives you wrote.

Renée: The voice of the fire came to me unexpectedly near the end of my first draft. I had not intended to anthropomorphize the fire itself, but as soon as I wrote the words down, I knew I had found the central thread that would allow me to bring so many disparate perspectives together.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I was inspired by novels like Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, which is narrated by Death. I remembered Zusak saying in an interview that he endeavoured not to make Death sound malicious. I had the same intention when writing from the perspective of the fire. I wanted it to be more of an observer than a villain.

While the book is in third-person narration, when the voice of the fire appeared, it was in first-person. It was also much more poetic, so I did have to put myself in a different mindset to expand that perspective (usually by reading poetry). But I had spent the entire novel shifting perspectives and adopting different voices, and Fire was simply an extension of that.

Mount Allison men’s residence fire, 16 December 1941. Mount Allison University Archives – 2007.07/962.

Rebecca: You’ve chosen to highlight so many voices rather than just focus on a select few. You also chose to come back to some voices time and again, whereas others seem to have their moment and we don’t necessarily hear from them again. How did you make these choices? How many narrators or perspectives is too many? I think many readers are used to a duo or perhaps trio of narrators, especially in current historical fiction, but you’ve surpassed that — without causing confusion. How have readers responded to this and is it something you think you could take on again?

Renée: I’m so glad to hear you didn’t find it confusing! Not every reader agrees, but this narrative structure was inspired by the archival records themselves. There were so many voices speaking to me from the archives that I never imagined writing it any other way. The book intentionally lacks in depth in favour of breadth. I wanted to show how many people had been impacted by this fire, and how it had affected them in different ways.

As with all historical research, there were contradictory accounts in the archives, which, to me, is as important as the story itself. By including all these voices, I was able to dive deep into the nature of truth.

I did initially compile a list of all the perspectives I wanted to include in the book, but writing was a much more fluid experience. From one day to the next, I got to choose which voice I wanted to embody. It was a very intuitive process. I didn’t focus on the number, but my editor and I did eventually cut or combine a few of them for the sake of clarity.

There is a long tradition of writers using this interconnected format in short story collections, and I would gladly take up the challenge again in that medium.

Rebecca: As archivists, we know records are not neutral: there’s bias in the historical record, there’s bias in the published record (for example newspapers). And certainly, for the characters in your novel, they have their own personal biases and perspectives as the tragedy unfolds. How did you balance your professional training, your creative spirit and your (presumed) desire to tell an honest account of what transpired during that horrific night?

Renée: Throughout my research I was faced with contradictory accounts of what happened that night, and I also encountered recollections that were refuted by the records themselves. That, I think, was the most interesting part of this project.

There is a slogan pinned to the wall of the Mount Allison University Archives which reads, “The truth is in here somewhere.” It is part of our job as archivists to find the “truth”— but truth is malleable, and memory is fallible. The experience of writing this book really made that clear for me, and fiction enabled me to play on that a bit.

Spoiler alert: I was recently asked why I did not make up a cause for the fire, which was deemed accidental. I was not willing to take so much creative license. There is always room for interpretation, but as an archivist, I wanted to remain faithful to the written record.

Rebecca: Do you think that being an archivist helps or hinders the historical fiction writing process?

Renée: I think it helps, especially with the research process. Not only are our technical and research skills invaluable, but as an archivist, I approach the records with so much respect for the individuals depicted in them.

Archivists are not supposed to interpret records, but I see my writing as an extension of my work as an archivist. By writing about history in an approachable way, I am doing outreach and inviting readers in.

Rebecca: Do you have other projects on the go that you’d like to share?

Renée: My current novel-in-progress was also inspired by voices I encountered in the archives, but I’m approaching it differently. Although I fictionalized the characters in The Sound of Fire, I was surprised by how many readers were able to correctly identify the real individuals who inspired them. This time, I’m writing about a larger historical event and supplementing my archival research with plenty of literature so that I can draw on the experiences of many rather than a few and envision new characters entirely.

I’m also continuing to focus on Canadian history. Archivists throughout the country know how many fascinating stories are hidden in our collections!

Rebecca: Do you have advice for any other aspiring authors in the archival or information science world?

Renée: The magic is in the details, and archival records are full of details that are glossed over in history books. Take note of what sparks and sustains your interest!

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Renée Belliveau is a writer and archivist from Sackville in the Siknikt district of Mi’kma’ki (New Brunswick). She is the author of The Sound of Fire, a novel based on the true story of the devastating 1941 fire at Mount Allison University, and a memoir about her father’s battle with cancer entitled Les étoiles à l’aube. She holds degrees from Mount Allison University, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Toronto. Follow her on Instagram: @reneecbelliveau

Rebecca Murray is a Senior Reference Archivist at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. She is an avid reader and Editor of the In the Field blog.

Archival Research, Indigenous Protocols, and Documentary Filmmaking: A Case Study of British Columbia – An Untold History (Part 2)

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Emma Metcalfe Hurst is in the final year of her MASLIS the UBC iSchool. Her areas of interest include community and artist archives, intellectual property rights, and public programming. She currently works as an archivist at VIVO Media Arts Centre and Karen Jamieson Dance.

Item E-04633 - Alert Bay. BC Archives. [ca. 1917].

This post is a continuation of Archival Research, Indigenous Protocols, and Documentary Filmmaking: A Case Study of British Columbia – An Untold History, a two-part blog post that reflects on my experience as an archival researcher for the documentary TV series, British Columbia – An Untold History, and the three key steps – education, relationship-building, and identification – that led to the creation and implementation of an Indigenous Protocol in the production of the series. This post concludes by sharing some individual observations that point to some challenges, setbacks, and changes that arose in doing this work in hopes of using it as a guide for future consideration and improvement in documentary filmmaking practices.

Read Part 1 here.

EDUCATION

One of our first undertakings as a team was to look for existing literature on using Indigenous archival materials, and more specifically within film and media contexts. The On-Screen Protocols and Pathways: A Media Production Guide to Working with First Nations, Métis and Inuit Communities, Cultures, Concepts and Storiesserved as our foundation, specifically Chapter 5. Working with Archival Materials,which was written by Marcia Nickerson with contributions from Alanis Obomsawin, Loretta Todd, Jesse Wente, Lisa Jackson, Gregory Younging, Hank White, Jean Francois Obomsawin, Stephan Agluvak Puskas, and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (amongst others), as a commission for imagineNATIVE, the world's largest Indigenous Film and Media Arts Festival. The guide is intended to be used by “screen-storytellers and production companies wishing to feature First Nations, Métis or Inuit people, content or concepts (traditional or contemporary cultures, knowledge or intellectual property) in their films, television programs and digital media content” (Nickerson, 2019, p.6) to:

Provide decision-making guidelines for communities, content creators, funding bodies, and industry partners;
Share best practices developed by Indigenous screen storytellers;
Educatescreen content creators, production companies and gatekeepers about Indigenous worldviews, cultural and property rights, and the protection of Indigenous cultural practices; and finally,
Encourage informed, respectful dialogue between communities, content creators, and production companies (Nickerson, 2019, p.6).

Other related resources that were consulted were shared in the course syllabi of FNEL 480A: Endangered Language Documentation and Revitalization with Dr. Candace Kaleimamoowahinekapu Galla and ARST 585: Information Practice and Protocol in Support of Indigenous Initiatives with Dr. Tricia Logan, offered through UBC’s iSchool and First Nations and Endangered Languages (FNEL) Program. These texts include:

Indigenous Repatriation Handbook - Prepared by the Royal BC Museum and the Haida Gwaii Museum at Kay Llnagaay - Jisgang Nika Collison, SdaahlK’awaas Lucy Bell, and Lou-ann Neel. 2019.
Digital Ethics and Reconciliation: Digital Ethics Report - University of Victoria Libraries. March 2019.
Digital Ethics and Reconciliation – Appendix E: Literature Review - Karine St-Onge. March 2019.
Shared Stewardship of Collections - Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. July 2019.
Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action – Museums and Archives - Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 2015.
Final Report: Native American Protocols Forum Working Group. 2012.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information Services. Published by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and endorsed by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library, Information and Resource Network (ATSILIRN). 1995, 2005, 2010.
Aboriginal Archives Guide - Association of Canadian Archivists. 2007.
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - United Nations. 2007.
Protocols for Native American Archival Materials (PNAAM)- Hosted by Northern Arizona University. 2006

The Series Producer, Leena Minifie, also hosted a mandatory Indigenous Protocol training session to review the protocols and procedures laid out by imagineNATIVE’sguide, and expanded on the concepts by educating on local Indigenous cultural protocols, storytelling practices, consent processes, and governing structures. Conversations around anti-discrimination and anti-oppression within archival research were also part of the training. The session was not only attended by the team of archival researchers, but also by the producers and editors to ensure knowledge and resources were being equally distributed to the filmmaking team at large to build awareness, understanding, and compliance across all levels of the production.

RELATIONSHIP-BUILDING

The colossal task of contacting First Nations groups and individual community members in BC was originally initiated by the Series Producer, Leena Minifie, and Lead Researcher, Jennifer Chiu, to begin relationship-building and to determine who (if any one individual person or a group) has the authority within the community to give consent to the use of archival materials that depict members and ancestors of their Nation. This work occurred prior to my arrival as an archival researcher, but my understanding is that once the archival materials had been selected for use in the final cut, a dialogue began again with the Nations / individuals to clear permissions for use if they contained “Indigenous Content” and / or were designated as “Culturally Sensitive Materials,” based on the definitions listed above. Efforts to consult with the Repatriation department at the Royal BC Museum (RBCM) and the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre to discuss protocols for access and dissemination of culturally sensitive archival materials were ongoing at the time of my departure. A consultation meeting with Lou-ann Neel, Acting Head of Indigenous Collections & Repatriation Department and Curator of Indigenous Collections at the RBCM at the time, also took place to discuss, compare, exchange, and identify gaps in our methodologies.

IDENTIFICATION

It was imperative that the archival researchers included descriptive metadata for all of the archival materials entered in the internal database system in order to identify and retrieve all of the Indigenous materials selected for the series. This process followed a high-level to low-level identification strategy. After retrieving all of the Indigenous materials from the database, myself, the licensing and permissions specialists, and the series producer developed and applied a classification system that determined the “cultural sensitivity” of an item based on how much metadata (specifically date, location, and Nation) was available to identify and describe it,³ as well as other visual indicators (to the best of our knowledge) that would fall under the definition of “Culturally Sensitive Materials,” meaning: images that depict Indigenous masks and carvings, traditional regalia, sacred ceremonies (such as potlatch), places (such as gravesites), and the institutionalization of Indigenous peoples including hospitals and Indian Residential Schools and students – with particular attention paid to the date of the creation in respect to survivors. We identified three classifications of images in this process: those that were “complete” and included all of the associated metadata that we needed for context and to seek consent from the Nation or authoritative consenting figure; those that were “incomplete” due to missing some essential information and which required further research and consultation; and those that were “exempt” and completely unusable due to a lack of attainable information (commonly referred to as “orphan images” in the field of archives) and the high cultural sensitivity of the content. This classification system was included in the metadata of each individual item in the database and informed next steps for clearing licensing and permissions, as well as the final selection of archival materials for the series.

CHALLENGES & SETBACKS

Item : CVA 137-2 - [Indigenous fisher]⁴ catching salmon in the Fraser Canyon. City of Vancouver Archives. [ca. 1893].

Typically, resources such as labour and time to take on a project of this scale are often extremely limited. Institutions generally don’t have employees who can devote sustained attention to and assistance with a multi-part project of this size, and most documentary film projects don’t have a whole team of twelve archivists to work with. Imbalances of labour were also present in that BIPOC employees were often tasked with performing extra emotional labour through relationship- and trust-building with Indigenous communities, educating others, imparting information as designated authorities with specialized cultural knowledge, in addition to their regular responsibilities. The fast pace and quick turnover demands of the film industry also felt at odds at times with archival research and consent processes, which asks for sensitivity, self-reflexivity, and meaningful relationship-building; all of which takes (and should take!) time.⁵ More conversations and consideration in the early stages of the project for Indigenizing description, such as incorporating Indigenous languages into descriptive metadata, would have also been welcomed. Indigenizing description would have also provided an opportunity to subvert the racist and bigoted language that we often found used to describe and locate archival materials and documents. Overall, the main hindrance of the project was time (always at a premium) and labour (always restricted by budgets).

While the clearance work was still ongoing when I left the production, I believe the success of the project was in its refusal to accept current industry standards in documentary film production; the efforts made towards rethinking “best practices” in documentary filmmaking which is primarily concerned with intellectual property rights and ownership (copyright and fair use) by instead seeking consent directly from the Nation communities represented in the archival materials; and the implementation of new strategies and educational opportunities with the support of the Director and Producers which sought to remediate harmful practices of the past. By challenging industry standards in documentary film production through the development and implementation of an Indigenous Protocol, this archival research process has laid the foundation for others to reference and to carry on. In the future, I would encourage directors, producers, and archival researchers to consider how this framework of direct community consent and cultural sensitivity may also be applied to other racialized groups (under)represented in archives and historical documentary contexts.⁶Thank you to Hans Ongsansoy and Leena Minifie for the editorial feedback and support on the original paper.

End Notes

3 - After my work with the series was complete, I came across the CFLA-FCAB’s Indigenous Matters Committee’s Red Team-Joint Working Group on Classification and Subject Headings and the National Indigenous Knowledge and Language Alliance (NIKLA)’sFirst Nations, Métis, and Inuit Indigenous Ontology Google Doc Spreadsheet (2020) which would have been a useful resource to consult for this work.

4 - Title changed to address outdated and racist language in the original title.

5 - Kimberly Christen’s article “Towards Slow Archives” (2019) puts forth the idea and practice of “the slow archives” as a decolonizing approach which creates a temporal disruption to make space for listening, critical reflection, relationship-building, and intentional acts.

6 - Over the last decade, archival literature has addressed the concept of permission and consent, specifically in the areas of community archives and Indigenous archives. See for example: “Archival Consent” (2018) by Julie Botnick; “The Role of Participatory Archives in Furthering Human Rights, Reconciliation and Recovery” (2014) by Anne J. Gilliland and Sue McKemmish; and “Come Correct or Don’t Come at All:” Building More Equitable Relationships Between Archival Studies Scholars and Community Archives” (2021) by Michelle Caswell et al.

Sources Cited

Local Contexts. “About.” Last modified 2022.

Local Contexts. “TK Labels – TK Culturally Sensitive.” Last modified 2022.

Museum of Anthropology. “The Collections.” Last modified 2022.

Museum of Anthropology. “Guidelines for the Management of Culturally Sensitive Materials.” 2020.

Nickerson, Maria. ON-SCREEN PROTOCOLS & PATHWAYS: A Media Production Guide to Working with First Nations, Métis and Inuit Communities, Cultures, Concepts and Stories, May 15, 2019.

Archival Research, Indigenous Protocols, and Documentary Filmmaking: A Case Study of British Columbia – An Untold History (Part 1)

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Poster for British Columbia: An Untold History, produced by 1871 Productions Inc. and Screen Siren Pictures for Knowledge Network.

Developing an Indigenous Protocol for a documentary is an ongoing, multi-step process where a one-size-fits-all approach does not apply. Despite the compressed deadlines that are standard in the television and filmmaking industry, as well as the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic during production, telling a collaborative and culturally sensitive story requires the time and care that an Indigenous Protocol mandates. I learned this first-hand while working as an archival researcher for the documentary TV series British Columbia: An Untold History, produced by 1871 Productions Inc., a subsidiary of Screen Siren Pictures, which aired on Knowledge Network. In this role, a pressing set of questions came forward that brought to bear on the project as a whole: How might one undertake ethical research in colonial archives and how can that approach be reflected in the filmmaking and production process? In this two-part blog post, I share how education, relationship-building, and identification became pillars of our project team's approach. In the second part, I provide a framework and suggestions for what can be done better the next time the cameras roll.

From February through October 2020, I worked as one of six archival researcher student interns and one of twelve researchers (in total) in the archives department for British Columbia – An Untold History.¹ The series covers a wide ranging history of the province now known as “British Columbia” through a multi-narrative and story-telling approach. The project also includes an interactive digital media timeline that supports the series by sharing additional stories, personal accounts, archival photos, and documents. Both the TV series and digital media timeline were created and conceived of as online educational tools for secondary and post-secondary schools, memory institutions, and educators throughout the province and beyond.

During my time with the production, I did a significant amount of archival research in online databases of both large institutions, as well as regional and community archives, to source archival materials that supported the stories included in the documentary series and the digital media timeline. I also worked with the personal archives of individuals featured in the series. Communicating and building relationships with individuals, as well as professional archivists and local historians by exchanging stories, archival materials, knowledge, and resources was a meaningful and necessary part of this work.

In this project, archival photographs, moving images, and textual documents are used to tell a history of the emergence of British Columbia, which joined confederation in 1871. Needless to say, it was essential for us – not only as archival researchers, but also as a production team as a whole – to think critically about the ways in which we were sourcing and using archival materials, and the people who are inextricably connected to and represented in them. Because archival records have long been used as tools to uphold power, it was imperative for us to begin by acknowledging that archives are not neutral and neither is the act of working with them – especially for a historical documentary; a filmic genre that typically declares authority and proclaims fact. It was also important for us to recognize that the majority of archival records we gathered either overtly or covertly document and legitimize the creation of the colonial nation state of “Canada” and “British Columbia,”² and that the majority of these records continue to be housed and preserved by state-funded and operated institutions, instead of with the communities who were documented – if they were documented at all. Many of these archival records are also deeply connected to Indigenous nations and peoples who preceded European colonization in the Pacific Northwest of “British Columbia,” who endured and resisted intentional acts of genocide, cultural assimilation, and displacement from their lands by the state and foreign settlers. Additionally, racialized immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers – many of whom experienced government-sanctioned exploitation, discrimination, marginalization, and extradition – also suffered and endured, as evidenced by historical records and personal accounts. With all of this in mind, I sought to approach this work experience by asking: How might one undertake ethical research in colonial archives, and how can that approach be reflected in the filmmaking process?

MAP 537 Lower Mainland, B.C. : land subdivision. [1870?], copied [197-?]. City of Vancouver Archives.

Within the context of documentary filmmaking, my attempt to answer these questions lay in the disruption of industry standards, focusing specifically on the licensing, rights, and clearances department which dictates how archival materials are acquired and used in film. Under the leadership of the Series Producer, Leena Minifie, an Indigenous Protocol initiative was developed and implemented with assistance from myself, the series’ licensing and permissions specialists, and others to function as an internal system for identifying and clearing items-for-use that contained “Indigenous content”which meant: images that depict Indigenous people, ceremonies, sacred places, and traditional practices. In the first episode, about half of the images that were collected for use and identified as “Indigenous” could be categorized as “Culturally Sensitive Materials” today. The Museum of Anthropology’s Management of Culturally Sensitive Material Guidelines define “culturally sensitive materials” as “items that, owing to their power, require special care and handling and/or may only be viewed by certain people” (Museum of Anthropology, 2020). Additionally, MOA acknowledges that culturally sensitive materials “may have a non-material side embodying cultural rights, values, knowledge and ideas which are not owned or possessed by MOA, but are retained by the originating communities” (Museum of Anthropology, n.d.). Local Contexts, an international consortium of information practitioners dedicated to “[supporting] Indigenous communities to manage their intellectual and cultural property, cultural heritage, environmental data and genetic resources within digital environments” (About, 2022) suggests using a “Culturally Sensitive” Traditional Knowledge label on materials to identify “cultural and / or historical sensitivities” (TK Culturally Sensitive, 2022). This can include materials that “[have] only recently been reconnected with the community from which it originates, that the community is currently vetting and spending time with the material, and / or that the material is culturally valued and needs to be kept safe” (TK Culturally Sensitive, 2022). Cultural sensitivities for a material may “...arise from legacies of colonialism [...], the use of derogatory language or descriptive errors within the content and/or content descriptions” (TK Culturally Sensitive, 2022). In consideration of these two definitions, it was important for us to recognize the implications of using such archival materials in the documentary, and to lay out the necessary steps to determine whether or not it would be ethically sound to do so.

Developing the Indigenous Protocol for the series was an ongoing, multi-step process where a one-size-fits-all approach did not apply. In many ways, it was ever-shifting due to the specific informational and cultural needs of each item and subsequently, each individual Nation, Band, or Tribe. The ever-expanding network of professional and personal connections continued to build upon previous work – work that was not always visible or that I was privy to. For these reasons, in the second part of this blog post, I will share three steps – education, relationship-building, and identification – that were undertaken to my knowledge and based on my first-hand experience to help develop the Indigenous Protocol for the series. It is also important to recognize prior thinking and work that influenced the development of this protocol. Lastly, I will conclude with a few individual observations that point to some challenges, setbacks, and changes that arose in doing this work in hopes of using it as a guide for future consideration and improvement in documentary filmmaking practices.

Thank you to Hans Ongsansoy and Leena Minifie for the editorial feedback and support on the original paper.

End Notes

1 - Prior to working on the documentary series as an Archival Research student intern, I assisted with archival research to develop stories to pitch to Knowledge Network, beginning in December 2018.

2 - See for example, Rachel Alpha Johnston Hurst’s article “Colonial Encounters at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: ‘Unsettling’ the Personal Photograph Albums of Andrew Onderdonk and Benjamin Leeson” (2015) which addresses the role of photography as a documentary tool to fictionalize and validate colonial settlement of British Columbia at the turn of the 20^th century.

Sources Cited

Local Contexts. “About.” Last modified 2022.

Local Contexts. “TK Labels – TK Culturally Sensitive.” Last modified 2022.

Museum of Anthropology. “The Collections.” Last modified 2022.

Museum of Anthropology. “Guidelines for the Management of Culturally Sensitive Materials.” 2020.

Nickerson, Maria. ON-SCREEN PROTOCOLS & PATHWAYS: A Media Production Guide to Working with First Nations, Métis and Inuit Communities, Cultures, Concepts and Stories, May 15, 2019.

Archivist Authors: The Foulest Thing by Amy Tector

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Amy Tector works at Library and Archives Canada and is adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa and a sessional instructor at Carleton University. Amy’s debut novel, The Honeybee Emeralds, was published in spring 2022. Her second novel, The Foulest Things, is the first in a loose trilogy centered on murders and mayhem in the archives. Follow her on Instagram @amytectorwrites.

Rebecca Murray is a Senior Reference Archivist at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. She is an avid reader and Editor of the In the Field blog.

On what felt like the hottest day in Ottawa this summer, local author and archivist Amy Tector biked to meet me at a coffee shop just west of downtown. Our sandalled feet bobbed under the tiny table, and our cold drinks perspired in the heat despite the air-conditioned store.

Amy’s most recent novel, The Foulest Things, (to be published September 27th, 2022) is a murder mystery set in Ottawa. The protagonist is Jess Novak, a newly employed archivist at the Dominion Archives. She’s working through a series of farm ledgers that have just been acquired through auction (there’s a great side story about a cardigan mishap), and she stumbles across letters that date from the early days of the First World War, linking the past to the present. I asked Amy about her choice to use letters as the connection to the past and as a way to shed light on a contemporary mystery.

Amy told me that almost everything she’s written has been influenced in some way or another by A. S. Byatt’s Possession (which, no, I haven’t read but have added to my list!). Amy admitted that writing the letters was tricky; she needed to convey information specific to the storyline yet be natural and channel the character. Amy wrote The Foulest Things at the same time as she was completing her PhD in literature with a focus on representations of disability in Canadian novels of the First World War. Immersed in the perspectives of young men from that era, she was able to take what she’d learnt from these works and use that as inspiration in her own writing.

The letters play a key part in the contemporary mystery, and it’s a popular theme in the historical fictionesque genre to use historical letters as a way to dip into a historical perspective or storyline without devoting every second or third chapter to that perspective or narrative. Amy’s done it in a really thoughtful and creative way, giving the protagonist another layer of historical detail to absorb as she balances placating her mother, trying to stay on her boss’s good side, and keeping her snoopy colleague at bay. Not to mention having a social life!

Before I had finished reading The Foulest Things, I already knew that Jess Novak was a great protagonist and that she’d speak to a lot of professionals in the GLAM sector. I noticed a lot of parallels between Jess and magazine intern Alice Ahmadi in Amy’s debut novel, The Honeybee Emeralds. On the surface Alice and Jess are very different, but they both seem to fall into a story they couldn’t have seen coming, each grappling with secret histories while trying to figure out who to trust, how to make it to work on time, and still enjoy life as young women in the bustling metropolises of Ottawa (ahem) and Paris. I think of Alice at the safety deposit box (you’ll need to read to find out more!) and Jess with the file folder of letters and can’t help but feel that they’re living through similar experiences. I asked Amy to tell me a bit about her choice to put young female professionals at the front of these stories.

Amy spoke of drawing inspiration from her students (she teaches at Carleton University) and of enjoying being in the classroom as a way to keep in touch with youth. She told me, though, that the similarities between Jess and Alice were not planned and that hearing my thoughts was one of the lovely things about talking with readers - hearing about their reactions to her book, the things they loved the most, that have stayed with them, has really touched her as a writer.

I think that many archivists could probably relate to Jess or Alice in that we’ve probably all got a special box, collection, or memory that we can recall from those early moments in our career. Something that shaped our work, touched us deeply, and that perhaps has given us that touchstone from which to continue our work over the years. Am I the only one with an email folder or One Note tab of good memories related to my work? It’s not exactly a safety deposit box at a historic bank in Paris. Maybe it’s a little closer to Jess’s file folder? Something that caught our fascination, that puzzled us, that drew us further into the line of work that surely revealed more surprises than we could have anticipated when we started.

I asked Amy about her thoughts on the relationship between being an archivist and a creative writer. She agrees that there’s definitely something there. The potential for storytelling as a result of our work, our interactions with records and researchers, opens the door to something more. She spoke of opening a box and looking at records, such as photographs, and asking herself: What's in here? What can I learn? Archival records are amazing sources for feeding creative and artistic interest, whether it's writing or another medium. Archives are rich repositories of stories, many of them waiting to be told.

I asked Amy if she had any advice or for other aspiring authors, especially those in the GLAM sector. She said, “Believe if you write that you are a writer - no caveats needed.”

Amy really emphasized the importance of finding a group of people to share writing with. She said she’s been with the same group for almost 20 years and has learned from both the critiques she’s been given and that she herself has given to others.

She also recommends The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast, which focuses on the craft of writing and the publishing process with a focus on the Canadian context.

As busy as she’s been writing and editing, Amy’s also been reading a lot! Her favourites this year include Letters to Amelia (Lindsay Zier-Vogel), which is chock full of archives content (including historic love letters!); The Final Look (Dianne Scott), a novel set on Toronto Island in the 1960s, which Amy found fascinating; and Dark August (Katie Tallo), a murder mystery set in Hintonburg.

Amy has three forthcoming titles (Keylight Books): The Foulest Things, Speak for the Dead, and Honor the Dead.

TAATU 2022

Tue, 02 Aug 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Olivia White is a Digital Preservation Archivist at Simcoe County Archives. Olivia completed her Master of Information and Master of Museum Studies at the University of Toronto. She is passionate about ensuring the stories within archival records can be preserved and shared far into the future.

The 15th annual Archives and Technology Unconference (TAATU) occurred via Zoom on June 14, co-chaired by Allie Querengesser and Andréa Tarnawsky. The event encourages anyone interested in IT and digital culture to contribute, as there is no minimum IT experience required. This was my second time attending the Unconference as a new professional, and I appreciated the breadth of resources shared during the conversations.

With about 45 people in attendance, the session began with an icebreaker on Slido, which asked “What are you looking forward to the most about this year’s ACA Conference?” The most common replies related to connecting with others, particularly in person, and learning and listening to the discussions.

Figure 1: Screenshot of Icebreaker #1 on Slido, depicting a word cloud with participants’ responses

A second icebreaker on Slido occurred later in the event, asking participants “Which tech skill or knowledge would you most like to have or improve on?” Coding in scripting languages, such as Python, was the most selected answer.

Figure 2: Screenshot of Icebreaker #2, depicting a ranking of participants' responses

Lightning Talks

There were 9 five-minute lightning talks on a variety of topics.

Peter Van Garderen: “Yes, #web3 stinks but hear me out…”

Peter began by acknowledging the known concerns about Web3, particularly regarding the volatility of cryptocurrency and the common criticisms of NFTs. Peter discussed the potential of applying the functionalities of Web3 towards alternative uses. For example, Peter stated that the concept of registering unique documents to create NFTs could be used for representing assets such as land records.

Kelsey Poloney: AtoM Import Tool for Formatting Bulk Descriptions at Simon Fraser University Archives

Kelsey discussed the app they created that enables users to convert legacy CSV files into the Access to Memory (AtoM) template for ingest. Kelsey also provided links to additional apps they created: an image scanning resolution calculator, and an extent calculator using measurements of box sizes used at SFU.

John Richan and Sarah Lake: Bitcurator at Concordia University Archives and Special Collections

John outlined the process of establishing an internship to introduce and explore the application of the Bitcurator software at Concordia University Archives to improve upon workflow gaps. Sarah detailed their experience using digital preservation tools, designing workflows, and creating documentation while participating in the internship.

Rebecca Dickson: “What’s up with COPPUL’s WestVault?”

Rebecca talked about the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries’ WestVault, which is a “distributed digital preservation storage service that uses the LOCKSS platform” (Slide 3). Rebecca also discussed infrastructural challenges, and the current activities of the Preservation Infrastructure Working Group.

Paul Hebbard and Andréa Tarnawsky: Crossing Fonds: Pollinating Access and Interpretation research project

Paul and Andrea outlined the project’s goal to design a “replicable, open-source digital archive ecosystem that allows generous interaction, study, and exhibition” (“Project Goals,” Hebbart and Tarnawsky’s slides). Paul and Andrea also highlighted Wikidata and IIIF, and provided spreadsheets containing a growing list of open-source tools and platforms.

Elizabeth-Anne Johnson: DANNNG (Digital Archival traNsfer, iNgest, and packagiNg Group)’s resources

Elizabeth-Anne presented on the history of DANNNG and its resources, such as their Disk Imaging Decision Factors document, and Digital Archives Technical Glossary. Elizabeth-Anne also discussed DANNNG’s forthcoming Tool guide for those with all levels of experience performing digital forensics.

Kelly Stewart: Industrializing Digital Preservation: Artefactual introduces Enduro™

Kelly introduced Enduro as a tool designed by Artefactual “to aid automation of Archivematica and surrounding workflows” (Artefactual Labs). Enduro performs metadata verification, monitors the ingest project, logs AIP storage, and other automated functions (Enduroproject).

Corinne Rogers: “Using Diplomatics for… Machine Learning? Applying AI to Archival Problems”

Corinne presented upon the InterPARES Trust AI research project aimed to “generate new knowledge on the uses of [Artificial Intelligence]” (“About the Research”). Corinne discussed how diplomatics and deep learning are being applied to digitized notarial parchments from the Middle Ages in Milan to generate a list of the surviving documents of Milanese notaries from the 12^th and 13^th centuries.

Anna Dysert and Kelli Babcock: Updates from the AtoM Foundation

Anna provided an AtoM Foundation update, detailing the sustainability of AtoM and community involvement as its overarching goals. Kelli provided an update for AtoM 3 by outlining the activities of the AtoM Foundation Roadmap Committee and the proposed design principles of AtoM 3, such as using archival terminology and its suitability for Linked Open Usable Data (LOUD).

Group Brainstorming Sessions

Email appraisal

Several tools and resources were provided by participants in the discussion surrounding email appraisal, including:

Emailchemy for mbox conversion
Aid4Mail for legacy .pst files
Stanford’s email archiving interest group (email_archiving_interest_group@lists.stanford.edu)
The Capstone email appraisal approach developed by the US National Archives and Records Administration
Mailbag for email preservation
RATOM for email description and appraisal

Finally, the complexities surrounding archiving MS Team messages was discussed, as they are stored in a strange location in Online Outlook. It was proposed that the decisions made in MS Teams would likely be documented elsewhere, and thus their preservation may be rendered redundant.

Conciliation of Record and Data Lifecycles

The difficulties of coping with different lifecycles for records was discussed, as well as the need for digital preservation management to begin early in the records management lifecycle. The Relational DataBase Archiving Interest Group Mailing List was presented as a potential resource.

In conclusion, the Unconference provided an excellent virtual collaboration space to share ideas and keep updated about current activities and research projects related to IT and digital culture.

ACA Conference 2022: Conference Report

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Faythe Lou is a settler on Katzie, Semiahmoo, and Kwantlen lands. She holds a Master of Archival Studies from the University of British Columbia and works for the City of Richmond. She is passionate about local history and currently volunteers as a member of the Surrey Heritage Advisory Commission.

From June 15 through 18th, I attended my first Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) conference. This year, it was hosted at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in a hybrid format. I attended primarily in-person. UBC is on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nation, and I felt privileged to be welcomed into the space by the Musqueam people who generously shared their elements of their culture with us to open and close the conference. For those who haven’t attended an ACA conference, I highly recommend it! I graduated in the spring of 2020, and as you can imagine, my first two years in the field have been non-traditional, unprecedented, even. While my coworkers have been extremely welcoming and supportive, to be honest, working in half-empty offices and from home, alone, has been a bit isolating. Being immersed in the theory and surrounded by other archivists again brought me back to being in grad school in the best way. Now, with a couple of years of experience under my belt, I also felt like I could engage more deeply with the material and think more fully about the practical applications to my work.

Attending the ACA Conference, I really felt like a professional archivist! However, being a professional is strange. It comes with connotations of snobbery, gatekeeping, racism, and classism. In a way, feeling like a professional means that I’ve absorbed all the theory, complete with the colonial, racist, sexist, and heteronormative assumptions that come with it. Maybe being a professional archivist also means being a little bit of a know-it-all.

A couple of presenters with backgrounds in history remarked off-handedly in the beginning of their presentations that they felt intimidated to present at an archivists’ conference - after all, what could they tell archivists about archives? The theme of this year’s conference, Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power challenged us to be unsettled: to transform the way we view ourselves as professionals and our role in our community. Dominique Luster’s invitation to squeeze our top and bottom lips together and listen was a call that hit the room hard. She further advised to be more “interested than interesting.” To unsettle ourselves, we may need to get comfortable with not being the experts in the room. In fitting with the theme, various presentations discussed how traditional archival theory and practices have been actively harmful to people, communities, and records. Francis Garaba, in his presentation about decolonizing archives, called for a new start. He noted that decolonizing is really the act of re-humanizing the world. It is now widely accepted that archives reflect the inequitable power structures that existed and persist to today, which shapes which people and communities can access their past.

For many historically marginalized people, especially non-English speaking women, and other historically marginalized people, this means invisibility in the archives. In Laura Ishiguro’s animated and enthralling plenary, she discussed her own research journeys - adventures in finding and often not finding things while doing archival research. She took us through her research into the 1868 Barkerville fire, noting what records were in the archives but also all the evidence that was absent. She discussed how she’s coming to reconceptualize those absences as abundance. Archives are often the archives of those in power. Therefore, to analyze what isn’t there can tell stories about the lives of these marginalized people as they navigated the complex power structures of their times. During the session’s question period, one participant bemoaned the push towards digitization, often encouraged and demanded by historians, as causing archivists to focus their output on creating more content - sometimes at the expense of context. Ishiguro pointed out that academic historians too are pressured to produce more and more, forcing historians into a structure of work that punishes browsing, which can often lead to deeper understandings of the records.

For other historically marginalized communities, they are over-documented in government archives. One of the sessions I found the most interesting was “Lost and Found: Reconsidering Chinese Immigration records at 100 years since the Chinese Exclusion Act.” The speakers, June Chow, Catherine Clement, Henry Yu, and Emilie Létourneau discussed the types of records that document this history of Chinese immigration to Canada and the challenges with accessing and preserving them. I enjoyed how the speakers discussed how they’ve grappled with key archival concepts, like the significance of the creation of the records. Through decades of the Head Tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1923, Chinese Canadians were over-documented by the government. Government officials insisted on documenting heights, weights, and even moles of each person. Clement discussed the Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act Project, which seeks to identify these records and build a digital collection. Most of these records are still in private family records, not in governmental repositories. June Chow discussed how the digital archive will use reparative description for the project. For example, the records will be arranged and described in one big series, rather than using the arbitrary division and numbering used by the government when issuing certificates, which traditionally would have resulted in multiple series. In this way, June explained, families which were separated by unjust policies will be reunited in this archival setting. The way the speakers grappled with archival theory in their work and adapted practices to do right by the people in their records is a great example of how archival practices can be used to uphold unjust power structures, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

In Ted Lee’s presentation, he discussed a series of articles and letters published in Archivaria in the 1980s, triggered by George Bolotenko’s 1984 article “Of Ends and Means: In Defence of the Archival Ideal.” Lee pointed out that within the many heated exchanges, the only person who wrote in to Archivaria to denounce the whole exchange was not a seasoned professional, but a student. When you’re a student or a recent graduate, you often feel like your main purpose in the workplace is to absorb and learn. While that’s true, you often lose sight of what you can offer - new insights and perspectives. As a UBC grad, an added bonus of an in-town conference was the opportunity to connect with classmates that I hadn’t seen since we all went home and stayed home in March 2020. During the breaks, it was great to discuss our journeys since graduating. We talked about the stress associated with precarious employment. Of course, the personal implications of precarity include financial instability, the inability to make big life decisions, and the lack of mental and physical health support. However, we also discussed the professional repercussions for the field as a whole. In a conversation with another new grad who found a permanent position around the same time as me, they confessed that it feels like they can engage in the ideas at the conference more fully now. You hold your breath when you’re precarious - you’re afraid to admit you’ve ever made a mistake at work - even if it’s just that you would maybe describe an item differently if you did it now. The conference theme called for us to be unsettled, but when you are precarious, your whole life is unsettled. We have to push for our field to support stable positions that enable archivists to engage in this challenging work.

There were many other projects that I found very interesting. In the Poster Lightning Round, Kim Stathers and David Pettitt from the University of Northern British Columbia shared their Rules of Archival Description (RAD) Physical Description Builder tool - a public and open-source tool that allows those who aren’t familiar with the descriptive standard to answer a series of questions in order to build a RAD compliant physical description. It’s public - I highly recommend checking it out! I also enjoyed hearing about Concordia University’s work to establish an Acquisitions Advisory Committee, first internally, and now beginning to branch out to the external community as well. Alexandra Mills talked about how acquisition is often an opaque and mysterious process to those outside the institution. By seeking out sustained external engagement, Concordia will be able to better reflect and serve its community. Alexandra noted that depositing records in an archival repository can cause a psychological distance between the community and its records. By involving the community in all aspects of archival functions, from acquisition to arrangement and description, Alexandra noted this distance could be bridged. I look forward to following the progress of Concordia’s Acquisitions Advisory Committee, as this could be a model that other institutional archives can look to implement. These are both examples of practicing archivists daring to imagine doing things differently. By sharing these projects with the conference attendees, their ingenuity will reach out further in the archival realm.

Overall, I had a great experience at my first ACA conference. I was lucky that it took place so close to home for me, as I could attend in-person, but the hybrid format allowed participants to attend from anywhere in the world. Additionally, many sessions were recorded and will be available to attendees for three months following the conference. As there were so many interesting concurrent sessions, it’s a huge benefit to be able to view the recordings afterwards. After a long day at the conference, when I couldn’t find anything to watch on Netflix, I even thought, “Maybe I should watch one of those sessions I missed..?” I didn’t, but I look forward to doing so over the next few months.

ACA@UBC’s 13th Annual Seminar and Symposium

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 12:00:00 GMT

By Kailey Fukushima, Jordan Kerr, and Emma Moros

Kailey Fukushima is a dual master’s student in Archival Studies and Library and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. She earned her Master’s of Arts in English from the University of Victoria in 2020. Kailey is currently the ACA@UBC webmaster and communications executive.

Jordan Kerr is a dual master’s student in Archival Studies and Library and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. She earned her BA (honours) in history and sociology from the University of Victoria in 2021. Jordan is the former events coordinator and current publicity executive for the ACA@UBC.

Emma Moros is a former communications professional and current student at UBC, pursuing a dual Masters of Archival Studies and Library and Information Studies. They were the communications executive for the ACA@UBC from 2021-2022 and are now a co-coordinator.

Overview

The student-run University of British Columbia Chapter of the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA@UBC) hosted its 13th annual Symposium and Seminar in an all virtual format on April 28-29, 2022. ACA@UBC welcomed twenty-seven dynamic speakers from around the world to discuss our central theme, “Transforming Archival Education.” This year’s conference theme asked archival communities to challenge and broaden their understanding of who archival education can serve and how, asking how does someone learn to be a good archivist, and what does being a “good archivist” mean? Seminar and Symposium topics ranged from decolonizing archival education, to working with non-archivists in archives, to teaching technology in archives.

Of particular note in this year’s event was the inclusion of student lightning talks as well as the flexible virtual format. During the student talks, four archival students spoke about their ongoing projects and explained how their work could support or expand archival education. Even though the virtual format had some limitations, it allowed us to include speakers and attendees who may have been unable to join an in-person event due to reasons such as distance, cost, travel, time, and conflicts with care responsibilities. Informal community-building was still possible in a new format via our dedicated conference Padlet, and some attendees even hosted their own small in-person listening parties!

Seminar

The ACA@UBC Seminar took place during the first day of the two-day event, and attendees heard from Jessica Bushey, Lisa Darms, Karen Suurtamm, and Ashlynn Prasad about their experiences working with non-archivists in the archives, and best practices they have identified for doing so. The role of emotional connection of donors and archival users to archives was a prominent point of discussion in this panel, which Jennifer Douglas, Anna St. Onge, Nicola Laurent, and Emily Larson expanded on during the “Preparing for Emotional Archives'' session. They spoke about emotional labour in the archival profession and the importance of community support and trauma-informed education and training for archivists. In the “Decolonization of Archival Practices and Education” panel, Tamara Rayan, Elizabeth Shaffer, Jesse Boiteau, and Danielle Robichaud came together to discuss decolonizing approaches to archival work and education. This included the colonial history of archives in Canada, the need for archival students to learn about decolonial theory and practice throughout their coursework, and examples of decolonizing work in Canada and Palestine. Krista McCracken, Moska Rokay, Marika Cifor, and Tomoko Shida concluded the day by speaking about “Unlearning Archival Education” and discussing how their work and academic experiences in other disciplines expanded and shaped their archival work.

Symposium

After a full day of interactive panel discussions, we returned on April 29 with a more familiar conference-style presentation format for the ACA@UBC Symposium.

Graduate students Whitney Thompson, Nigel Town, Josh Wilson, and Charlotte Leonard kicked off the Symposium with 10-minute lightning talks in the “Student Voices” panel. Whitney Thompson presented her creative class project, Provenance--a Twine-based interactive fiction game that teaches players about fundamental archival concepts. Next, Nigel Town discussed their co-op at the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, focusing on their contributions to the Women of Change exhibit. Josh Wilson then discussed his research on how critical theory could help build capacity for liberatory archival futures based on structured interviews he conducted with practicing archivists. Charlotte Leonard wrapped up the panel with a presentation on her work as an archivist for the Karen Jamieson Dance Company, with a special focus on the Coming Out of Chaos: A Vancouver Dance Story project. Attendees gave us positive feedback about this year’s inclusion of students’ voices and experiences, and we hope to feature similar opportunities in next year’s conference!

After “Student Voices,” we launched into two panels of traditional 20-minute conference-style presentations. First, Elaine Goh and Mpho Ngoepe presented on “Teaching non-Western Archives.” Elaine gave a critical review of Singapore’s archival histories, traditions, and systems of education. Mpho explained some disconnects among traditional archival concepts and South African modes of cultural documentation (e.g., showcasing African rock art archives) and then reflected on contemporary attempts to decolonize and Africanize archival curricula. The next panel, “Teaching Tech in Archives,” featured Richard Arias-Hernández and Walker Sampson. Richard discussed his pedagogical approach to teaching technology in archives, emphasizing community-engaged practices and experiential learning. Walker followed by reflecting on the challenges that video game archives pose to conventional archival practices and how the process of play can be preserved in video game archives. These two panels sparked lots of thought and discussion among our virtual audiences.

Our final panel of the day featured Rebecka Taves Sheffield and Sam Winn on “Teaching Community and Personal Archives.” After giving brief 10-minute introductions, the speakers opened the floor up for an interactive Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. Audience members asked questions about the role of community ownership of oral histories, death positivity in personal memory work, and self-care when engaging with emotionally-charged community and personal records, ending with a reflection on the values that community and personal archival practices might bring to traditional archives and recordkeeping.

After another full day of thought-provoking presentations, we wrapped up the Seminar and Symposium with closing remarks from our co-coordinator Kisun Kim and our faculty advisor, Professor Luciana Duranti. Luciana tied together many strands of thought from both days of the Seminar and Symposium, relating them to the broader history of recordkeeping and gesturing towards hopeful possibilities for the transformative futures of archival practice.

Key Takeaways

As we reflect on the many insightful discussions and presentations given by our twenty-seven speakers in the wake of our thirteenth annual ACA@UBC Seminar and Symposium, we wish to refer back to our guiding questions: how does someone learn to be a good archivist, and what does being a “good archivist” mean? The events of this year’s Seminar and Symposium offer an answer to this broad question. Learning to be (and being) a good archivist requires flexibility in our ever-shifting professional and academic positions. It is essential to facilitate discussions between students, professionals, and academics because we are forever switching between these roles and learning from one another. In closing, if our Seminar and Symposium is any indication, the archival discipline is heading towards an exciting transformation– one we as students are thrilled to be a part of.

On behalf of the ACA@UBC Executive Team of 2021-2022, we want to conclude by thanking everyone who helped make the ACA@UBC Seminar and Symposium a success. To all of the speakers, thank you for the generous gift of your time and for spurring so many thought-provoking discussions. Thank you to all of our student volunteers for moderating the panel discussions, presentations, and the chats, and to Dr. Luciana Duranti, our faculty advisor, for her supportive guidance during the planning of the event and for providing closing remarks. Thank you as well to the live captioning team who helped us with virtual conference accessibility. We are also deeply grateful for the generous support of the Association of Canadian Archivists, ARMA Vancouver, the Archives Association of British Columbia, and the Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia, which made this event possible.

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with R.L. Gabrielle Nishiguchi

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The ACA 2022 Annual Conference is approaching fast! The ACA blog, In the Field, is featuring the profiles of a few conference presenters. This post features R.L. Gabrielle Nishiguchi, Archivist at Library and Archives Canada.

Q: What is the title of your conference presentation?

Gabrielle: Decolonizing an Archives: The Japanese Canadian Internment Photographs

Q: Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Gabrielle: I am a government records archivist in the Society, Immigration, Employment, Indigenous and Government Affairs Section, Archives Branch, Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Before coming to LAC, I worked as a historical research consultant at the CBC, Parks Canada, and the Department of National Defence. My MA is from the School of Canadian Studies at Carleton University. I also have a Hon. BA in English Literature and a BSc (Cell Biology) from the University of British Columbia.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Gabrielle: From 1941-1949, the Government of Canada took unprecedented actions taken against Japanese Canadians, including forced removal, internment, confiscation and sale of property and post-war deportations.Archival government and private records from the 1940s preserved by the then National Archives of Canada and used by community citizen activists were critical in building the Japanese Canadian case for Redress.By preserving the records that hold our government accountable in the face of injustice, I viewed our national archives to be one of Canada’s key fundamental democratic institutions and I wanted to work there.

Q: What does the theme of the ACA 2022 conference, “Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

Gabrielle: With respect to my own institution, redefining archival power means that Government of Canada (GC) archivists cannot remain neutral when describing records because neutrality re-enforces the prevailing dominant narrative. To my way of thinking, GC archivists must actively facilitate the creation of space for the emergence of minority narratives and voices that need our assistance to be recognized. This is not remaining neutral. This is choosing sides.And all power shifts are unsettling.

Q: What are you most looking forward to at this year’s conference?

Gabrielle: Learning how colleagues in other archives and memory institutions are having the hard and complex discussions about decolonization and how they are effecting change.

Caption: A group of Japanese Canadian deportees, who had been interned during the Second World War, waiting for a train to take them to a ship bound for Japan. Slocan City, British Columbia, 1946. Credit: Tak Toyota (c047398), Library and Archives Canada.

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with June Chow

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The ACA 2022 Annual Conference is approaching fast! The ACA blog, In the Field, is featuring the profiles of a few conference presenters. This post features June Chow, Master of Archival Studies candidate at the University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Information.

Q: What is the title of your conference presentation?

June: Our panel will speak on Lost and Found: Reconsidering Chinese Immigration records at 100 years since the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act. It’s timely to discuss these records created through the discriminatory immigration legislation, and to share work to address the traumas embedded within them.

Q: Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

June: I’m local to Vancouver; I did my Bachelors at Simon Fraser University and had a first career in major gifts fundraising at UBC. Over my time at UBC Library, I helped steward Dr. Wally Chung and his monumental gift of the Chung Collection benefiting academia and the Chinese Canadian community at large. It brings valuable donor relations and person-centered perspectives to my work and research on community archives.

Q: What does the theme of the ACA 2022 conference, “UnSettled: Redefining Archival Power,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

June: Working in community archives and challenging how things are normally done, one can feel simultaneously powerful and powerless which is very unsettling. I’m not sure if it’s a symptom of pursuing graduate studies in a pandemic, but there seems to be a certain ‘TBD’ orientation tied to many issues across the archival field. I don’t yet know if it’s a characteristic of the profession, but maybe it should be to ensure adaptability.

Q: Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

June: I study and practice community archives within Chinatown contexts, in complement to existing heritage and activism work. There’s not a lot of scholarship on Chinese Canadian archives, and very few Chinese Canadian archivists, speaking from here in Vancouver. Our panel is a small step towards addressing this gap. It’s a chance to examine the institutional and community roles and responsibilities that are being redefined together in the pursuit of archival access, accountability and equity. Maybe we’ll be able to build a better model for doing this work moving forward.

Q: What are you most looking forward to at this year’s conference?

June: I’m looking forward to the networking and social events! After attending school in a pandemic, it will be nice to get some face time.

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with Daochun Li

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The ACA 2022 Annual Conference is approaching fast! The ACA blog, In the Field, is featuring the profiles of a few conference presenters. This post features Daochun Li, a master’s student at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information.

Q: What is the title of your conference presentation?

Daochun: The title of my conference presentation is “Personal Archiving and Identity Formation in the Context of Social Media.”

Q: Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Daochun: I'm in the dual Master of Information and Master of Museum Studies (MI/MMst) program at the University of Toronto’s iSchool. I completed my undergraduate degree in Languages, Literature and Culture Studies, and Film and Media Studies at Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario). I am also working at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) as an Information Management Student this summer.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Daochun: I have always been passionate about arts, human memories, and storytelling. In the meanwhile, I am also looking to learn more about how and why human memories can be preserved for future generations. My undergraduate experience was eye-opening for me when I encountered a course about oral cultural traditions and a course in semiotic studies. They both influenced me a lot in understanding how information is highly associated with human memories that have the cultural significance of telling the truth and preserving traditions. My experience in media studies further encourages me to explore a pathway that not only involves my passion for information and human memories, but also offers me a chance to critically challenge the current reality of the archival field, and to understand how technology can be better adapted to social needs for meaningful memory-keeping practices.

Q: What does the theme of the ACA 2022 conference, “Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

Daochun: In my opinion, redefining archival power means rethinking what archival practices have been done and what could be done in the future. The power of archives reveals an ability to change, to allow voices to be heard, but it also empowers silences and erasure with the contested interests. Archivists are constantly confronted with choices about what to include and what to exclude. I think that it is good if the questioning process is ongoing, so we are trained to ask ourselves, “why it is important to keep one thing instead of the other?” More importantly, I think questioning must involve pushing oneself one step forward to ask: “Why should it be excluded?” In this way, the status quo of the power of archives can be continuously questioned and redefined by finding voices through silences.

Q: Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

Daochun: I love to start my research with something that I have a connection with. While thinking about the information density of my personal life, I realize that using social media has become one of the major gateways for me to understand my surroundings and become a reflective tool for the curation of self. My personal life and identity have been heavily impacted using social media, and sometimes, it is a bit “spooky” to see how my interpretation of the world and myself could simply be shaped through a platform. My research draws upon the embedded power dynamics within social media platforms by looking at, for instance, the entity of user’s profiles, information policy, and the external flow of social media posts, to explore where and how an individual’s identity is shaped using social media and its potential impact on making personal archiving decisions.

Q: What are you most looking forward to at this year’s conference?

Daochun: I am looking forward to visiting the conference in person this year, and most importantly, spending a few days staying in Vancouver and exploring the city a bit. I’m especially excited about the session of “Lost and Found: Reconsidering Chinese Immigration records at 100 years since the Chinese Exclusion Act” and the session “Technology and Archives” on Friday. I am also looking forward to meeting new people at the ACA conference!

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with Michael Marlatt (he/him)

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The ACA 2022 Annual Conference is approaching fast! The ACA blog, In the Field, is featuring the profiles of a few conference presenters. This post features Michael Marlatt, Film Archivist and current PhD candidate in the Communication and Culture program at York University.

Q: What is the title of your conference presentation?

Michael: I am hosting the Accessibility Forum.

Q: Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Michael: I am a trained film archivist who graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management MA program five years ago. I am currently working on my dissertation, which looks at the lived experience of students/alumni of moving image archival education programs in North America who identify as having a disability or chronic illness, or are neurodivergent. I’ve worked on preservation projects in the past with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Canadian Filmmaker’s Distribution Centre (CFMDC), Archive/Counter-Archive, and other organizations. I also serve on various committees for the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) and the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA).

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Michael: The interest came from my previous experience working for arts organizations, particularly film festivals. I have been a fan of film history for as long as I can remember and was curious about how film materials were preserved. I have since become just as interested in the experiences of the archivists who care for that film material.

Q: What does the theme of the ACA 2022 conference, “Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

Michael: The theme of this year’s conference makes me think about the role that identity can play in working within an archival institution. I’m of the mindset that diverse representation is needed not only in community archives but institutional ones as well. This extends to upper-level management positions. Hopefully, the conference can be a place for such discussion.

Q: Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

Michael: The work I often do involves interviewing people about their experiences in archival education and their careers post-graduation. My role at this year’s conference is less of a formal presentation and more so hosting a safe space for conference attendees who identify as having a disability, chronic illness, or who are neurodivergent to share thoughts and experiences in the field. I try to bring themes related to disability studies to the moving image archive.

Q: What are you most looking forward to at this year’s conference?

Michael: As someone with epilepsy and a history of working with film, I’m interested in hearing other archivists’ experiences. I’m excited to get a chance to support others who may have always wanted to share these experiences but never knew how. These conversations have the opportunity to examine our profession, perhaps even leading to a reflection of the resources and support that ACA currently provides.

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with Csaba Szilagyi

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The ACA 2022 Annual Conference is approaching fast! The ACA blog, In the Field, is featuring the profiles of a few conference presenters. This post features Csaba Szilagyi, Chief Archivist/Head of Human Rights Program at Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (Blinken OSA) at Central European University (CEU), Budapest/Vienna.

Q: What is the title of your conference presentation?

Csaba: Taming the ghosts: Uncovering ‘tacit narratives’ by rethinking power relations in archives of violent past(s)

Q: Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Csaba: For over 25 years, I have worked in human rights archiving and archival activism in various institutional environments, including the Blinken OSA, Columbia University, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Foundations. Since 2019, I have been an archival consultant with the Srebrenica Memorial Center Archive in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). As an educator, I have co-taught an archival course and a specialization for students in law, history, and cultural heritage studies. I have an MA in American Studies and am currently a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture at the University of Amsterdam.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Csaba: As an advanced graduate student, I got involved with archives by coincidence. Because of my relevant language skills and knowledge of contemporary history, I was hired as a part-time archives assistant to physically process records related to one of the harshest Communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe. In just a few months, working with records on violations of fundamental rights, censorship, and state sponsored terror, as well as curating the microhistories of the oppressed ordinary people inscribed in them, became a lifetime commitment.

Q: What does the theme of the ACA 2022 conference, “Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

Csaba: In the past years, I have been exploring ways of making record keeping more hospitable to voices that had been traditionally ignored, misrepresented, obliterated, or entirely excluded from the archives by rethinking archival standards and practices and the agency of the archivist within. The current theme of the ACA 2022 conference underscores the importance and timeliness of these inquiries and promotes inclusion and power relations in the forefront of archival thinking and practice.

Q: Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

Csaba: My current research project focuses on the roles, responsibilities, and limitations of archives/archiving in creating knowledge on violent past(s)and transforming memory politics relating to violent past(s), based on the documentary heritage of the 1992-1995 wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I am critically examining existing archival standards and curatorial practices and proposing necessary changes to transform knowledge production on and creation of collective memory of political violence in the archives. Finally, I am looking at how bottom-up archiving can contribute to postwar mnemonic practices outside the frames of archives and transitional justice.

Q: What are you most looking forward to at this year’s conference?

Csaba: Although I will not be physically present at the conference, I hope that I will have the chance to meet colleagues and peers working on related topics online. Case studies on reinstating groups and individuals at the margins of our society in the archives from other parts of the world have always been inspirational for my work. And, hopefully, there will also be something for others to take home from our work at Blinken OSA.

Vancouver Recommendations - Part 1: UBC

Tue, 31 May 2022 12:00:00 GMT

These recommendations were put together by the ACA 2022 Host Team.

Food

Rain or Shine Homemade Ice Cream - 6001 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC V6T 0C5
A locally-owned ice cream shop with fun flavours, perfect for summer. Host Team member Emily loves trying out the new seasonal flavours, but will always recommend a scoop of Malted Milk Chocolate Honeycomb. Host Team member Maria recommends trying the Blueberry Balsamic for an unusual but delightful flavour combination!

Loafe - 6163 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
Located in the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre, Loafe boasts some of the best coffee on campus, as well as great outdoor and indoor seating spaces steps away from the Nest. Don’t miss out on their fresh-baked pastries and handcrafted sandwiches!

Nest - 6133 University Blvd 4th floor, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
Find a wide variety of healthy and delicious food options in the Nest, right alongside the rooms where you’ll be attending conference sessions!
Some of our favourite spots are Porch, Honour Roll, and The Delly.

Coffee

Great Dane Coffee - 6011 Walter Gage Rd, Vancouver, BC V6T 0B4
Enjoy some of the best coffee and pastries on campus while taking advantage of the Great Dane’s large, shaded outdoor seating area.

Boulevard - 5970 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3
Conveniently located right at the entrance to campus, this is a lovely (and cozy!) little coffee shop with ample indoor and outdoor seating, and great coffee and sandwiches.

Blue Chip - 6133 University Blvd #1302, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
A UBC institution centrally located in the Nest, Blue Chip has it all: delicious breakfast and lunch options, high-quality coffee and tea, space to sit – and of course, their famous cookies!

Attractions

Beaty Biodiversity Museum – 2212 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Vancouver’s premier natural history museum. The Beaty features over 500 exhibits, a theatre where you can watch a documentary, and a 26-metre-long blue whale skeleton suspended in the atrium.

Museum of Anthropology - 6393 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Widely regarded as one of Vancouver’s premier museums, the MOA is a place of world arts and cultures with a special emphasis on the First Nations peoples and other cultural communities of British Columbia.

UBC Botanical Garden - 6804 SW Marine DriveVancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Conferences can be stressful, and what better way to unwind than a long, quiet walk in nature? Thanks to the UBC Botanical Garden, you won’t have to venture far to find this space of quiet solace! (The garden is even home to a small library and archives!)

Nitobe Memorial Garden - 1895 Lower Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Considered one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan, the Nitobe is a traditional Japanese stroll garden and authentic tea house located just a 10-minute walk away from where you’ll be attending conference sessions.

Wreck Beach - 6572 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BCV6T 1A7
It’s a bit of a workout getting down to Vancouver’s legendary clothing-optional beach – look for the steep staircases of Trail 6 at the west end of University Boulevard to find your way to beautiful Wreck Beach. Once you’re there, you can probably even find vendors selling snacks and drinks!

Aquatic Centre - 272 - 6081 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1
Looking to do some laps, take a soak in a hot tub, or just have a personal spa day in a sauna? The UBC Aquatic Centre is a state-of-the-art facility that serves athletic training, competition, and neighbourhood leisure needs. It could be your ideal place to wind down after a full day of conference sessions!

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery - 1825 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
if you're in the mood for contemporary art and contemporary issues visit the Belkin Art Gallery. The Belkin’s collection contains more than 5000 artworks, making it one of the largest public art collections in the province, as well as over 20,000 archival items relating to the post-war history of art in Vancouver and the avant-garde narratives of the 1960s to 1970s.

Pacific Spirit Park - 4915 W 16th Ave, Vancouver, BCV6R 3E9
A paradise for nature lovers of all ages and abilities, Pacific Spirit Regional Park rings UBC’s Vancouver campus with lush rainforest trails. The 90-hectare park has almost 75 kilometres of walking and hiking paths — 50 kilometres of which are designated multi-use.If you’re taking part in the ACA 2022 Conference Run and Walk Challenge, this could be the perfect place to participate from!

Don't forget to check out Part 2!

To see where in Vancouver all of these recommended spots are located check out this map!

Vancouver Recommendations - Part 2: Vancouver

Tue, 31 May 2022 12:00:00 GMT

These recommendations were put together by the ACA 2022 Host Team.

Food

Green Leaf Sushi - 3416 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6R 2B3
No trip to Vancouver is complete without some sushi! Located in Kitsilano, Green Leaf is a quick bus ride away from UBC and offers a good assortment of options, including some delicious aburi nigiri.

Salmon n’ Bannock - 1128 W Broadway #7, Vancouver, BC V6H 1G5
Salmon n’ Bannock is Vancouver’s only Indigenous owned and operated restaurant. Come for the amazing food made with traditional ingredients, stay for the best service in the city. Host Team member Emily highly recommends the mushrooms on toasted bannock and pemmican mousse.

Tacofino - 1909 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6J 3L9
Vancouver is not normally known for its Central and South American food, but Tacofino might just change your mind about that! Originally a food truck, Tacofino has enjoyed such success in recent years that they’ve been able to open locations all across the city. Make sure you try the fish tacos, and don’t miss out on happy hour either!

Chickpea Restaurant - 4298 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5V 3P9
Hummus-lovers rejoice! Chickpea serves Mediterranean-inspired vegetarian and vegan cuisine that feels equal parts hearty and healthy. Hip atmosphere, large portions, and their signature chickpea fries, which are a must. They've also got a great list of signature cocktails if you're in the mood for a drink.

Anh and Chi - 3388 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5V 3M7
Consistently ranked as one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the city! There may be a line, but it's always worth the wait.

Fassil Ethiopian - 736 E Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5T 1X9
Fassil was Host Team member James’ introduction to Ethiopian food over 13 years ago and he’s loved it ever since. The atmosphere is upbeat, the injera perfectly soft and spongy, and the proprietors always welcoming to first-time eaters. For some of you, Fassil will taste like home; for others, who may be new to Ethiopian cuisine, there’s no better place to try it for the first time.

The Pokéman: Kakigori Café and Poké Shop- 3742 W 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6R 2G4
Not only is The Pokéman conveniently located just one bus stop away from campus on the 99 route, it also boasts some of the best poké in the city! Host Team member Ashlynn refuses to eat poké anywhere else.

Sombreros Tacos – 1290 Howe St., Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1R5
Authentic Mexican taqueria in the heart of downtown Vancouver that also offers other Mexican specialties and snacks. Pick up any of their specialty combinations and enjoy an evening al fresco at nearby David Lam Park.

Breka Bakery & Cafe – 3750 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6R 1P3
Although Breka has various locations all around the city, this location is great because of its proximity not only to UBC, but also to Hastings Mill Park, which is just a few blocks north and right on the water. Stop by Breka for a sandwich and some coffee, then head up for some sunshine and some of the best views of the North Shore mountains and downtown skyline!

Parthenon Market - 3089 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6K 2G9
A pillar of Vancouver’s Greektown, Parthenon Market offers freshly prepared options in their deli, as well as a variety of Greek and Mediterranean specialty products. Stop in for a spanakopita or tiropita (Host Team member Maria’s favourite on-the-go snack!) while exploring the West Broadway neighbourhood.

Puerto Mexico - 2710 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6K 3W2
This newcomer to Kitsilano is one of Host Team member Emily’s new favourites. It’s asmall shop with a lot of heart and a great place to stop for a to-go street taco on your wayto the beach.

Au Comptoir - 2278 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6K 1N8
Located in Kitsilano, Au Comptoir is a classic casual French restaurant. Host Team member Ashlynn thinks it’s some of the best authentic French food and service she’s had outside of France.

Trafiq Café and Bakery - 4216 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5V 3P9
If you ask Host Team member Emily, Trafiq has the best cakes in the city. Spend some time exploring Main Street and then stop in for a reviving sweet or savoury treat.

Coffee

Platform 7 Coffee - 2300 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6K 2E5
Designed to resemble a Belle-Époque Parisian train station, Platform 7 offers a cozy, quaint experience in Vancouver’s trendy Kitsilano neighbourhood. Experience beautiful hand-crafted espresso drinks from the Espresso Bar, exquisitely brewed single origin coffees on the Brew Bar, or refreshing cold brews from the Cold Bar.

Aperture – 243 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5Y 1P5 – Cambie and Broadway; 4124 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5V 3P7 – Main and King Edward
Both of Aperture’s locations are favourites among locals and feature cozy, quiet study spaces in addition to expertly crafted coffee. Host Team member Ashlynn is a fan of the Main St. location in particular, which boasts a not-so-secret back room full of plush armchairs and couches – and did we mention a full bar? Kick back with an espresso and breakfast sandwich in the morning, or a glass of beer with a plate of nachos in the evening. If you’re lucky, you might even catch some live jazz.

Our Town Café (Main and Broadway) - 255 E Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5T 1W4
Conveniently located a stone’s throw from the Main and Broadway bus stop in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant area, Our Town features a bright, open space full of cozy tables and corner nooks where you can unwind with a coffee and some food. This would be the perfect place to have a moment to yourself before joining us for the Vancouver Mural Fest walk!

Milano Coffee Roasters (8^th between Cambie and Main) - 156 W 8th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5Y 1N2
While centrally located and easy to access via public transport, Milano also benefits from the peace and quiet of being a couple of steps removed from the hustle and bustle of Broadway. Here, you can samplefood and some of the best traditional Italian coffee in the city while enjoying the view of an open field across the street and beautiful sunsets over downtown in the distance. Plenty of indoor seating as well as a shady outdoor patio.

Café Cittadella (near Cambie and Broadway) - 2310 Ash St, Vancouver, BC V5Z 3C2
Discover this hidden gem inside a heritage building, serving up elevated café eats. The house was built in 1894 and has since been transformed into an espresso bar and bistro. It boasts spacious seating upstairs and downstairs, and a beautiful garden patio with plenty of shaded outdoor seating – just you and the trees.

Grounds for Coffee (Alma and 10^th) - 2565 Alma St, Vancouver, BC V6R 3R8
Who doesn’t love a cinnamon bun? Conveniently located just one bus stop away from UBC on the 99 route, Grounds for Coffee has delicious coffee, a cozy and quiet atmosphere, and some of the best cinnamon buns in the city, including seasonal favourites.

Arbutus Coffee (near Arbutus and Broadway) - 2200 Arbutus St, Vancouver, BC V6J 3Y1
Tucked away a few blocks from the busy city thoroughfares, Arbutus Coffee is a lovely little neighbourhood coffeehouse located in a Class A Heritage Building. A casual place with great coffee, great baked goods and most importantly, an ambient atmosphere to tie it all together.

Café Lokal (4^th and Macdonald) - 2610 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6K 1P8
Conveniently located just a 20-minute bus ride from UBC, Café Lokal is a bright, spacious spot where you can grab almost anything you’re craving – lunch, dinner, coffee, or drinks. From Wednesday to Friday, they’re open late, and you may even catch some live music during your visit.

49^th Parallel and Lucky’s Doughnuts – 2198 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6K 1N7
49^th Parallel boasts some of the best locally-roasted coffee in the city, and the location closest to UBC boasts a large outdoor covered patio in addition to a cozy and vibrant indoor seating space, all in Vancouver’s trendy Kitsilano neighbourhood. Did we mention 49^th Parallel offers Lucky’s Doughnuts fresh in-house?

Pubs & Breweries

Long Table Gin Distillery - 1451 Hornby St, Vancouver BC, V6Z 1W8
If beer isn’t your thing, check out this intimate craft gin distillery tucked away in Vancouver’s North Yaletown neighbourhood. Stop in for a delicious cocktail made with their small-batch gins and botanical-infused mixers, or take a bottle home with you as a souvenir.

33 Acres Brewing Company - 15 W 8th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5Y 1M8
Minimalist-style craft beers that pack a punch. Stop in for a beer and some snacks in the evening, or visit them on the weekend for brunch. Host Team member Mariarecommends trying their Mezcal Gose.

Andina Brewing Company - 1507 Powell St, Vancouver, BC V5L 5C3
If you're exploring the breweries of East Van, you don’t want to miss Andina. (With its bright yellow exterior, how could you?) Andina is particularly known for crisp, fruity sours and unparalleled IPAs. Plus, a menu of Colombian snacks and shareables you won’t find anywhere else. I recommend the “platachos” — nachos made with plantain chips.

Superflux Beer Company - 505 Clark Dr, Vancouver, BC V5L 3H6
Creative craft beers and fancy hotdogs – the perfect pairing! Host Team member Maria is particularly fond of their Fountainbier Orange Cream, which tastes exactly like an orange creamsicle. Perfect for sipping on their patio on a warm summer evening.

Odd Society Spirits - 1725 Powell St, Vancouver, BC V5L 1H6
Host Team member Melanie loves the funky atmosphere and the unique small-batch craft spirits distilled onsite. Try a flight or make a selectionfrom the ever-changing cocktail list. Current personal favorite: Cream Soda Sour.

Brassneck - 2148 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5T 3C5
Visit Brassneck at both the beginning and the end of ACA 2022, and there might very well be new beers added to their menu in those intervening days. That’s how often they’re coming up with unique craft brews in addition to their delicious staples. Brassneck is where Host Team member James most often grabs an after-work drink with his best friend and where he brings beer-loving guests who are visiting Vancouver for the first time.

Attractions

Stanley Park Explore the 400-hectare natural West Coast rainforest and enjoy scenic views of water, mountains, sky, and majestic trees along Stanley Park's famous Seawall. Discover kilometres of trails, beautiful beaches, local wildlife, great eats, natural, cultural and historical landmarks, along with many other adventures. The park offers a wide range of unforgettable experiences for all ages and interests, including Canada’s largest aquarium.

Granville Island Tucked below the Granville Street bridge, this Vancouver institution is home to shops, boutiques, arts and culture opportunities, breweries, and of course the famous Granville Island Market, where you can try almost any kind of food – just make sure you keep it away from the seagulls! This would be a great place to stop by for a bite or just a nice walk along the water, especially after you join us for our Vanier Park museum tours just a few steps away.

VanDusen Botanical Garden - 5251 Oak St, Vancouver, BC V6M 4H1
VanDusen Botanical Garden is a 55-acre oasis in the heart of Vancouver with over 7,500 plant species and varieties from around the world! Spot and photograph local wildlife, find your way through an Elizabethan hedge maze, unwind in a serene setting, dine on the patios of Truffles Cafe or Shaughnessy Restaurant, or browse the garden-themed gift shop. VanDusen has something for everyone to enjoy!

Queen Elizabeth Park and Bloedel Conservatory - 4600 Cambie St, Vancouver, BC V5Z 2Z1
QE Park is Vancouver’s horticultural jewel and a major draw for floral display enthusiasts and view-seekers. At 125 m above sea level, it’s the highest point in Vancouver and makes for spectacular views of the park, city, and mountains on the North Shore. It is also home to Bloedel Conservatory, which is a domed lush paradise which is home to more than 100 exotic birds, and 500 exotic plants and flowers. Host Team member Ashlynn recommends pairing a visit to this park with lunch at nearby Aperture café.

The Cinematheque - 1131 Howe St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2K8
The Cinematheque is the home of art house cinema in Vancouver. It exhibits the kinds of films you don’t normally get to see on a big screen, movies that challenge you or blow your mind or mesmerize you visually. I also recommend The Cinematheque because it curates films from around the world, highlights under-represented voices, and often features artist retrospectives and Q&A’s with creators.

The Rio Theatre - 1660 E Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5N 1W1
The Rio reminds Host Team member James of the single-screen cinema he grew up with in his hometown. Going to the Rio fills him with nostalgia in a way the big chains just don’t. (It helps that the Rio frequently shows 70s, 80s, and 90s cult classics.) The concession stand has a great beer selection, there’s balcony seating, and — something that was not on offer at James’ hometown cinema — live events like burlesque shows or stand-up comedy.

Bookstores

Pulpfiction Books - 2422 Main Street; 2754 W Broadway; 1830 Commercial Drive
Pulpfiction describes itself as one of Canada’s largest and busiest bookstores, and I believe it! Their flagship location on Main Street has a huge selection of paperbacks and comics, with particularly impressive sci-fi and fantasy sections. Don’t make the mistake of coming back later for whatever caught your eye — their shelves have a high turnover and so that book may be gone by the time you return!

Canterbury Tales Bookstore - 2010 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC V5N 4A9
In Canterbury Tales’ tightly packed shop on Commercial Drive, you can’t turn around without spotting something you’d like to take home with you. They have a diverse selection, including a mix of used and new books, and a particularly strong selection of children's and YA titles.

Spartacus Books - 1983 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC V5N 4A8
Spartacus Books is a non-profit, volunteer-run bookstore and resource centre specializing in “anti-capitalist, political books not found in big-box bookstores.” Its books, zines, comics, magazines, and other materials are related to such fields as Indigenous fiction/non-fiction, race and society, queer studies, feminism, environmentalism, and radical theory. Spartacus has been around for more than 40 years and is like no other bookstore in Vancouver!

First Used Books - 69 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC V5T 3J1
I like my used bookstores unassuming and full of surprises, which is what you’ll get from First Used Books. This shop has a little bit of everything, with an emphasis on Canadiana, and is perfect for browsing. The proprietor — giving off some amazing Gandalf/Merlin vibes — will point you in the right direction if you're having trouble finding something.

Lucky’s Books and Comics - 3972 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5V 3P2
There are plenty of great comics stores in the city, but Lucky’s stands out for its dedication to independent comics and zines, especially by local artists. Lucky’s is an important part of the Vancouver comics community, hosting launches, readings, workshops, and even live music. The store offers plenty of niche publications, manga titles, and work by BIPOC/LGBTQ+ creators.

MacLeod’s Books - 455 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC V6B 2Z3
MacLeod’s is the quintessential second-hand bookstore, with nary a spare inch of shelf space or even floor space. There are books stacked or piled everywhere, making this the perfect place for bibliophiles and readers who relish the thrill of the hunt.

The Paper Hound - 344 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC V6B 2V6
Just a few blocks down from MacLeod’s, the Paper Hound is a smaller space with a more boutique-y feel and a more curated selection of titles. In their words: The Paper Hound doesn’t specialize in any one genre, instead favouring “the classic, curious, odd, beautiful, visually arresting, scholarly, bizarre, and whimsical.”

Massey Books - 229 E Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z6
100% Indigenous owned and operated. 1,500 square feet of books plus an art gallery showcasing emerging community artists.

Don't forget to check out Part 1 for UBC recommendations!

To see where in Vancouver all of these recommended spots are located check out this map!

My Encounter with Digital Records at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections

Thu, 05 May 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Sundus Saba is working towards completing a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing from York University. She has undertaken roles in libraries, archives, and heritage organizations. She is passionate about ensuring the histories of different communities are visible within archival records so they can be preserved for future generations.

Who knew taking a Public History course in my fourth year of undergraduate studies would change the trajectory of my career? As a marketing major, I was on a very linear business career pathway, but I always had a passion for history. I had previous experience working with archival material, in the heritage sector and libraries, and took an Islamic Civilization history course as an elective. Somewhere along the way, the stars aligned and here I am completing a Public History course placement at the York University Libraries (YUL) Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections (CTASC) as a digital records assistant working on the Mariposa Folk Foundation fonds. This placement provided me with insights into the importance of diversity in the archival profession and an appreciation for the labour involved in archival description.

Mariposa Folk Festival 2012 programme booklet.

The Mariposa Folk Foundation’s mandate is “the promotion and preservation of folk art in Canada through song, story, dance, and craft.” The Mariposa Folk Foundation fulfils its mandate through its annual Mariposa Folk Festival (MFF); it is one of the longest running folk festivals in North America. The festival has hosted notable artists including Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. It has also fostered the developing talents of many of Canada’s up-and-coming artists, as well as the vibrant folk and Indigenous performers of North America. In 2007, the Mariposa Folk Foundation donated approximately 300 boxes of historical records which document their annual folk music festival to the CTASC. The “Mariposa: celebrating Canadian folk music” exhibit at the CTASC tells the story of the festival’s first two decades and, by extension, the folk music movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In the years since that initial donation, MFF has regularly donated additional material in both analog and born-digital formats including over 500 GB of live performance recordings from 2010 to 2019.

While working ten hours each week at the CTASC, I processed approximately 100 digital records from the 2012 festival using Excel formulas and functions to reconcile technical and descriptive metadata. In the words of my supervisor, I was living and breathing spreadsheets. My weekly tasks involved reviewing resources, researching MFF performers to create name authority records, and capturing information about the live performances from the 2012 festival program booklet to create archival descriptions in an Excel spreadsheet. An interesting moment during this process was discovering that the renowned Gordon Lightfoot put ona surprise performance which wasn’t scheduled in the program and, as a result, was not in the program booklet. I conducted thorough research using different websites and news articles to verify and describe this surprise performance. Although at times these tasks seemed tedious and repetitive, they were crucial for archival description. Archival descriptions are valuable because they help future archives in explaining the context around a specific record.

Name Authorities Excel spreadsheet of Mariposa Folk Festival. Photo credit: Sundus Saba.

Of the many tasks that I undertook during my placement, I found working with OpenRefine the most rewarding. Dealing with messy and non-standard data in archival description, file lists, and other metadata operations can be a massive headache. Manually adjusting lines of data can take hours of time. However, thanks to OpenRefine (an open-source desktop application for data cleanup and transformation to other formats) I was able to code formulas into GREL (General Refine Expression Language) to expedite data transformation, cleanup, and cross referencing. The image below is a screen shot of approximately 5 pages worth of text to format a column of dates. If I did that manually it could have taken me hours (in fact, this was the case during the first half of my placement) but with OpenRefine, I am able to do it in a minute. With this information, the CTASC provides greater access to the MFF fonds and enables these records to be more easily discovered through online databases.

The mariposaAtoM project in the OpenRefine software database. Photo Credit: Sundus Saba.

My supervisor, archivist Katrina Cohen-Palacios, was an influential figure during my placement. By genuinely caring about my experience and excitement about my work, she encouraged me to explore different aspects of archives, which I found very valuable in the early stages of my career exploration. She also introduced me to the Archives Association Ontario’s (AAO) “Safe Spaces for BIPOC Archivists” session. These virtual sessions are safe spaces set aside and reserved for archives workers and records managers, including students, emerging, and established professionals, from historically excluded groups in the profession to connect with one another in an informal, participant-driven environment. As someone who identifies as a Muslim woman, I immediately felt connected with the group and gained appreciation for the work these individuals are doing to advance diversity in the archival profession. Katrina really took the time to answer my questions and offered advice about graduate school, careers, and my research paper. She encouraged my professional development by suggesting articles to read and different webinars to watch that supported my academic interests.

One of the highlights of my placement was the many networking opportunities. In one such opportunity, I met with archivist Moska Rokay from the Muslims in Canada Archives (MiCA). As a Muslim, it was encouraging and insightful knowing that there is a platform for the missing Muslim voices in Canada’s historical narrative. MiCA is doing great work to preserve the history and document the heritage of Muslims in Canada. I also met with Marcia Salmon, YUL digital scholarship metadata librarian, who collaborates with CTASC to mint name authorities in the NACO funnel. Coincidentally, I met with her during the time when I was working with name authorities for the Mariposa Folk Festival. She helped me understand the purpose of name authorities, which is to facilitate searching and browsing, and to establish a unique identifier for an entity name record. Lastly, I met with senior archivist Sean Smith from the Archives of Ontario. He spoke to me about the importance of outreach and making the histories of different communities visible. What piqued my interest was the alignment of archival advocacy and outreach with marketing. Sean emphasized that archivists must redefine their professional roles in society to meet the community’s needs. Just as in marketing we are building brand awareness and providing information to the target audience about products through various media channels, archives are shifting to raise public awareness of their special collections, records, and exhibits.

Despite this being a completely remote placement, I found the experience to be very hands on as I had to primarily rely on the Internet and digital files to complete my work. A big advantage of working remotely was the flexibility to create my own work schedule. As most of my classes were in the evening, I often worked early in the morning and met regularly with Katrina to update her on my progress. Because of the pandemic restrictions, many webinars and training sessions were offered online such as the Black History Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon. I was fortunate to have been able to participate in these unique opportunities from the comfort of my home. My placement experience broadened my understanding of the practice of public history in archives and provided me with opportunities that I will treasure moving forward in my career.

A Preliminary Analysis of Authorship in Archivaria (2011-2021)

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Rodney Carter (RHSJ St. Joseph Region Archives, Kingston, ON) on behalf of the Archivaria Editorial Board

In order to better understand who is being published in Archivaria, the Editorial Board began to compile statistics on the authors who appear in the journal. The aim of this work was to identify any trends in authorship and to attempt to discern areas of concern or groups that may be underrepresented.

A preliminary analysis of 21 issues, from Archivaria72 (Fall 2011) to Archivaria92 (Fall 2021),was prepared and presented at the Editorial Board’s meeting held in February 2022. It was felt that this information may of be interest to the wider archival community so we are sharing some of our initial findings.

Based on the information on authors available, we examined language of submission, gender of the authors, location of the authors, type of institutions authors are affiliated with, and began some analysis across categories. It is apparent that there are limitations in the available information as certain identity categories we might wish to examine - such as whether authors identify as Indigenous, Black and/or as a Person of Colour - are not captured in the current metadata. As a result, the Editorial Board is planning on expanding information collected at the time articles are submitted in order to be able to fill this gap in our knowledge going forward.

Submissions and Authors

In the 21 issues reviewed, there were a total of 265 submissions. This includes every item published in the journal, including articles, reviews, studies in documents, counterpoints, letters to the editor, obituaries, etc. There were 96 articles, nine studies in documents, six counterpoints, seven Dodds Prize-winning articles, 109 reviews, and 38 other submissions.

Thirty-seven submissions were co-authored leading to a total of 325 authors for all submissions. While the majority of authors (202) were published once, several authors had published multiple works over the period - including one author who contributed a remarkable eight submissions - so there were 249 unique authors identified. Of these, seven authors wrote in French in six separate submissions.

Number of Submissions per Unique Author	Number of Authors
1	202
2	31
3	11
4	1
5	2
6	1
8	1
Total Unique Authors	249

Gender & Institutional Affiliation

In order to better understand the identities of Archivaria’s authors, we began our analysis by looking at gender and institutional affiliations of the authors of each submission. Of the 325 authors, the majority (203) identified as female with 115 male-identified authors, and seven authors who identified as nonbinary.

This breakdown was generally reflected across submission types.

When the gender was examined in relation to the institutional affiliation of the author, the female/male ratio seen overall was reflected in academic faculty. Gender parity was met or approached in authors working in governmental archives (national, provincial/state, and municipal), and a few other categories. Twice as many submissions were published by authors identifying as female in the university/college archives category and the difference was even greater in the PhD and Independent archivist/researcher categories.

In examining types of institutional affiliations, the Editorial Board was interested in comparing the number of submissions of authors primarily identified as academics to the number of submissions by archival practitioners. For the purpose of this analysis, authors who identified as faculty at a college or university (regardless of department) and graduate students at the PhD and Master’s levels were considered “academics” and all others were classified as “practitioners”, although it is fully acknowledged that these professional identities are fluid and not necessarily exclusive, and that there is plenty of room for refinement in these categories. While lacking nuance, this comparison is offered to provide a broad-strokes glimpse at authorship categories.

Across all submissions, a majority of items published were from academic authors. Given the richness of research coming out of archival studies programmes recently this is not a surprise but, still, nearly 40% of items were authored by practitioners. The same ratio is reflected if just the articles are examined.

In an attempt to identify if there were any trends discernable over time, the number of submissions was looked at from 2011 to 2021. Depending on the issue, however, the number of submissions from academics vs practitioners varied and no specific trend can be identified, although, generally, there has been a decline in submissions in recent years which has impacted the last three issues (Archivaria 90-92). This may be related to the impact of COVID-19 on the ability to produce intellectual work and we believe we will see the number of submissions begin to rise again.When the analysis expands to include authors dating back to Archivaria 1 it is expected that the lines will reflect the impact of the development and expansion of university-based archival studies.

Location

Finally, we looked where the authors were publishing from across Canada and around the world. Given that Archivaria is the journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists, the majority (71%) of submissions were from authors based in Canada, as expected. The journal has become a desirable venue for international authors, however, with 18% of published submissions coming from the United States and significant numbers of articles from the UK and Australia, and Archivaria has also published submissions of authors from New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and Denmark.

Of submissions from Canadian-based authors, the largest number came from the provinces with the greatest populations and the largest archival studies programmes: Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec. During the period under review, submissions were received from every province and territory with the exceptions of Prince Edward Island and Nunavut.

Next Steps

This initial review was undertaken to see if we could identify some general characteristics about Archivaria authors given the available information. Using the past ten years as a starting point, we have been able to test some assumptions held about authorship and now have a clearer understanding of the authors published to date in the journal. Moving forward, we plan on compiling statistics back to the first issue in order to look at trends over the full scope of its publication.

The Editorial Board will use the information gained from these statistics as part of a larger strategy to attempt to identify whose voices have been underrepresented or have not been included in the journal so that we can better solicit submissions to better reflect the wider community.

The Editorial Board will be seeking more detailed information from those who submit writings to Archivaria so that, going forward, we are able to gain an increasingly accurate picture of journal contributors.

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives Blog Post #5 - with Professor Karen Herland - Queer Theory and Archives: An exploration of opportunities for archives and archivists in undergraduate education with Professor Karen Herland

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The ACA McGill University Student Chapter invites you to join us for an immersive series of blog posts titled PeepShow and Tell: Sex in Archives. Through interviews with researchers and professionals working firsthand with explicit materials, we hope to illuminate the intrinsic value of sex and sexuality within the field of archiving and why these materials deserve to be preserved.

Jay Bossé, the co-author for this piece, is a graduate student with the School of Information Studies at McGill University and Co-Coordinator of the ACA McGill University Student Chapter Blog Series Peepshow & Tell: Sex in Archives.

For this post, we spoke with Karen Herland, a part-time faculty member in Concordia University’s Major in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality (offered across the Arts and Science and Fine Arts Faculties). Herland is currently teaching an undergraduate course in Queer Theory.

Jay: In her article “Working as an Embedded Archivist in an Undergraduate Course”, Fic presents how her work as an embedded archivist in an undergraduate history course taught students the foundation of archival research. In collaboration with the course professor and their lectures, she conducted a workshop series over the first half of the semester. She states that by the end of the semester, "Students demonstrated their ability to conduct archival and primary source research, analyze secondary literature, and conduct original research projects on their own”(Fic, 2018, p. 299).While she notes that being an embedded archivist is a very time-intensive project and would not be sustainable to take part in every undergraduate history course, it is clear that her role in this course was extremely beneficial for students”(Fic, 2018, p. 299).

Through correspondence with Professor Herland about her undergraduate Queer theory course, I investigate other potential ways to include archives and archivists in undergraduate courses other than embedded archivists. More specifically, I reflect on how Herland’s undergraduate Queer Theory course presents the ways archives as institutions can greatly benefit undergraduate learning and further develop critical thinking skills.

In her semester-long course, Herland works collaboratively with her students to define, understand, and apply "Queer" as a theoretical concept, methodology, and approach to activism and organizing. Through reading, discussion and assignments, they become familiar with the interdisciplinary field of queer theory, focusing on its emergence through poststructuralist, critical race, lesbian, gay, cultural and feminist studies to its current articulations (Herland, 2022). The course looks to archives to reflect on concepts of authority, preservation, and erasure within the broader theme of Queer theory. The course's final project is broken down into three parts: an analysis of a text about Queer Archival practice, a proposal for a research project (either analyzing an existing collection or considering the creation of your own), and finally, a research paper, digital archive, or another project on queer archival practices (Herland, 2022). The final project asks students to reflect on practical matters like what should be part of a queer archive, who would have access, and who the intended users are (Herland, 2022). It also challenges students to think more broadly about the role of queer archives, their relation to community and their place as intergenerational projects (Herland, 2022).

Jay: Could you tell me a little more about the development of this course? 

Herland: I have long wanted to teach Queer Theory and was thrilled when the opportunity arose. Through teaching a different course on HIV/AIDS, I am very familiar with translating key moments, events, elements of my own experience into terms that students who grew up in a very different context can relate to (teaching about HIV in the time of COVID has markedly changed that, though that’s a story for another time). I wanted to approach Queer Theory in the same spirit.

Jay: For you, what did the focus on archives bring to the course that a simple introduction to Queer theory could not? 

Herland: For me, archives speak to memory, history, community-building and connection. The very act of archiving renders something ephemeral important – it is named, catalogued and retrievable. As a field/concept, Queer Theory is a bridge between activism and thought. So as the students are learning about Queer Theory, archives demonstrate a tangible example of the actualization of thought and action.

How do you create/transmit knowledge? Who is/isn’t included in knowledge production? Are there ways to acknowledge changes in perception, terminology, tone, parameters? How do you balance access, resources and autonomy? How can you account for what has been left out, and how do you transmit that forward?None of these questions are unique to the archive, but the archive provides a crucible for considering these questions.

Jay: How is the course going, and do students seem excited by the course content and archival focus of the course and final project? 

Herland: I feel really lucky to be working with such a smart, engaged, cooperative group of students. They have taken this challenge/opportunity up in ways I could not have imagined. From the micro of exploring a specific interaction or relationship and the meanings layered into it initially and overtime to the broader role of clothing, place and memory in the building of community and connection. The range of ways they have developed this basic idea of an archive in/of/for community is extraordinary.

Jay: You mentioned in our earlier correspondence that COVID kept the course from fully engaging with archival materials and archivists. If you had the opportunity to teach this course without the restraints of COVID (or even budget, time *perfect world scenario*), how would you like to incorporate archives and archivists more into the course?

Herland: We haven’t been able to visit or work with archives directly – COVID, staffing, resources, etc., make that almost impossible. But I have had people involved in archival creation talk to the students through Zoom. As well, Lucas LaRochelle was able to present not just their Queering the Map project but the decision-making on the back end that allowed the project to be queered in form as well as function. Those exchanges inspired the students to think about how they approach the question and what could/should be preserved for the future.

Jay: This course is a great example of when students might not gain the most from an embedded archivist in a course focussing on archives. As mentioned by Fic, embedded archivists is a time-consuming role (Fic, 2018, p. 299).It is not realistic or sustainable for university archivists to continuously take on co-teaching positions alongside their other duties. Moreover, as demonstrated through the development of this course and its critical engagement with archives, it might not be beneficial necessarily for students to only work with one archive or a single archivist. As this course demonstrates, students’ ability to find, research, investigate and critique the conceptual elements of archives as they relate to queer theory is more relevant than learning traditional research skills. Thus, this course comes to be a great example of how non-university archives and archivists might have an opportunity to add to undergraduate student learning. It demonstrates why projects and initiatives such as tours, guest lecturing, or even digital exhibitions coming from archives can be essential teaching tools and great outreach opportunities.

Bibliography

Fic, C. (2018). Working as an Embedded Archivist in an Undergraduate Course: Transforming Students into Scholars through an Archival Workshop Series. The American Archivist, 81(2), 290–309. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081-81.2.290

Herland, K. (2022). FASS 392 Queer Theory [Syllabus]. Location: Major in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality Concordia University.

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives - Blog Post #4 - Steven Frost – Artist and Avid Archive Researcher

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The ACA McGill University Student Chapter invites you to join us for an immersive series of blog posts titled PeepShow and Tell: Sex in Archives. Through interviews with researchers and professionals working firsthand with explicit materials, we hope to illuminate the intrinsic value of sex and sexuality within the field of archiving and why these materials deserve to be preserved.

Ezell Carter, co-editor for this piece, is a graduate student with the School of Information Studies at McGill University and the Co-Coordinator of the ACA McGill University Student Chapter.

For this post in our PeepShow & Tell Series, we got the chance to work with Steven Frost, a prominent mixed media artist and Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the College of Media Communication + Information, University of Colorado Boulder. In our discussion, we dive into how Steven’s research with sexually explicit archives influences their work and how preserving and providing access to these materials gives researchers an intimate glance into the lives of others.

What are some of the unique opportunities researching sexually explicit content provides you with? How does the material, specifically historical, archived pieces, affect your work?

Sexually explicit archives are fascinating because in my experience you get to see people’s private fantasies in a way that is uncommon in popular culture. Historically, as well as today, people often hide their fetishes from the public out of fear that they may lose their home, job, or damage their reputation. Sexual archives become a place where the ephemera of people’s private lives are collected with the intention of being discovered by other like-minded people.

At the Leather Archives and Museum (LA&M) in Chicago, I was particularly drawn to clothing, DIY sex toys, hand-drawn pornographic comics, and personal correspondence between play partners. The archived correspondence gave context to a lot of the unusual toys I was finding and allowed me to experience the stories of queer spaces that have long since been replaced by mixed-use high rises and micro-breweries.

As a queer person who came of age in a period of increased cultural acceptance, I often compared my own experiences to an inaccurate image of older queer people living quietly in the shadows, but the archive gave me an opportunity to understand queer joy as it was experienced before queer rights were nationalized and queer culture was consumed as pop. Objects, letters, and images in an archive can give voice to the lives and desires of a generation of people that we will never have the chance to know.

Digging through archives inspired me to create what I call "ghost collaborations." My "ghost collaborators" are people I would have loved to have known and worked with as an artist but because of their passing, only artifacts of their lives and desires remain. I try to get a sense of these folx through the materials in their archives and create “ghost collaborations” inspired by them. This way of manifesting people in my practice started when looking at the Jim Kane collection in the LA&M but has since transformed into collaborations inspired by the archives of long-departed family members like my Great-Aunt Helen and sometimes celebrities like Liberace. (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Jim Kane Papers PERS 0003, Jim Kane Collection, Box 5 of 9, Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M), Chicago, Illinois, United States (Photograph provided by Steven Frost)

What is your favourite part of working with these sorts of materials? 

Jim Kane’s personal correspondence provided me with a picture of an individual who was not just a practitioner of BDSM but part of a larger international queer culture when many were localized by geographical limitations. Among his archive are thank you letters from Étienne/Stephen (Dom), Robert Mapplethorpe, and Tom of Finland. One such undated letter recalls Jim’s first of many encounters with artist Tom of Finland.

Dear Jim,
Many thanks for the dinner party which you gave me when I was in San Francisco. It was a pleasure meeting you and exciting to see your special room downstairs, which gave me lots of ideas for future drawings.
 You looked great in your leathers, high boots and breeches are to be the best I know and so I repeat them also in my drawings again and again. As you see in the enclosed prints. Thanks for the inspiration and my best regards.
Tom [of Finland]

Kane’s “Special room” was his dungeon, which was the topic of much of his correspondence.From Finland’s letter, it seems he presented it to invited guests, not unlike a suburban homeowner showing off their romper-room. There are no pictures of his dungeon but there are many fictional and non-fictional accounts of the activities that took place there. Kane outfitted the space himself with pulleys, tables, cages, and various other stages for his practice. 

Kane was constantly reconfiguring the room and outfitting it with new or improved equipment after feedback from friends and sexual partners. An anonymous letter from one of Kane’s guests asked that he put more padding on a table so that he could keep his “mind in the act” and not on the pain in his shins. 

The “special room” was for Kane's extra-domestic space not unlike the proverbial “workshop” which was popular in the years following World War II. In that time the workshop was reintroduced to domestic spaces. Some historians site the shift in labor from the home/farm to the workplace/office as the impetus for its rise in popularity. Hobbyist culture sprung up not because of the need for homemade coffee tables but because of a desire to introduce the handmade back into the home. Kane’s dungeons and others like it created a space that was surrounded by a new self-determined sense of place. A dungeon was not a bedroom where heterosexuals made children. It was also unlike the backroom of a bar or a cruising spot in a public park where gay men metfor anonymous sex. Kane’s private dungeon was a space one had to be invited into. It functioned as a domestic and public setting where all participants were consenting and taking pleasure in the sexual acts. (Figure 2)

Figure 2. Artist – Steven Frost, Headmaster No. 2

What inspired you to look to archives for your research?

I have always been interested in the power and history of personal items like clothing and small collections. It was because of this that I was asked by the editors of Headmaster magazine in 2011 to create a sculpture based on something in the archives at the Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago. Queer history was already part of my studio practice, but this assignment gave me an opportunity to formalize my experience. I have since visited the One Archives in LA, corresponded with archivists at the Smithsonian, designed a graduate course around oral history archives, and made library funding/advocacy a focus of my personal time.

What is uniquely interesting to you about this research and these materials?

Eleven Pink Alley in San Francisco was the home of Jim Kane until 2004 when he passed away at age 75. It was the private center of the San Francisco leather scene for much of the nineteen-seventies and eighties. He was friends with Tom of Finland, Chuck Renslow, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Sam Steward (aka Phil Andros whom I have a portrait of on my right thigh). Although Kane passed away years ago, I got to know him through his archive. A collection of his writings, letters, leather devices, and artwork are stored in the LA&M.There is also a collection of his letters at the University of Michigan. Kane’s collection has fascinated me and found its way into my studio practice. The act of digging through the six boxes was not unlike the act of sorting through boxes of family portraits in my basement. He in many ways is a lost relative in a broader queer lineage.

Figure 3. Artist – Steven Frost, Headmaster No. 2

The first box I looked through in Kane’s Archive was his straps and belts.(Figure 3). There were two large file boxes full of these. Through my preliminary research, I knew only that Jim was a pillar of the San Francisco leather community. I had no idea how much of a leather celebrity he was. The director of the LA&M gave me a pair of white gloves. I had sorted through archives before and thought these were to protect the objects from the oils on my hands. The gloves in this case were for my protection. The buckles in the collection had become patinated. They looked forgotten. I laid them out on the pristine table in the LA&M’s reading room. There was a collection of belts, crops, cat-of-nine-tails, and dog collars both homemade and manufactured. These were all the trappings of a leather practitioner. Among these objects were two belts with carpet tacks laid in two planter’s rows along with them. The tacks, now rusted, were encrusted with a dark gloss I assumed was dried blood. I couldn’t imagine how a practitioner wore these objects on their body. In a separate box, I found a folded note.

Joseph = JK used the belt blanks to make when he called “tack straps.” He would measure the distance between nipples first – then punch holes, then add tacks. He made one and used it on me in 1973. All these tack straps are used and bloody. He typically gave them to those on whom they were used.

Why is archived material, specifically that of a sexual nature, so important in your opinion? Do you feel it actively influences culture, politics, and community identity?

Sites like the Leather Archive and Museum present a truly queer history. Individual stories, experiences, and expressions are valued over grand narratives. In their mission, the Leather Archives and Museum states:

The compilation, preservation, and maintenance of leather lifestyle and related lifestyles [including but not limited to the Gay and Lesbian communities], history, archives, and memorabilia for historical, educational, and research purposes.

Outside of the LA&M’s association with the gay and lesbian communities, it distinguishes itself as a place of queer context. It creates a space for individuals who may not have biological offspring to pass on narratives that are not part of a heteronormative model. These narratives are often related to sexual practices, but they tell a larger story of people creating communities based on the sharing of knowledge and the creation of safe spaces for their practice.

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You can find more information about artist Steven Frost and their work here:

www.stevenfrost.com

Images courtesy of Steven Frost

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives - Blog Post #3 - Dr. Mary Hague-Yearl and the Osler Library

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 12:00:00 GMT

For the next few weeks, we at the ACA McGill University Student Chapter invite you to join us for an immersive series of blog posts titled PeepShow and Tell: Sex in Archives. Through interviews with researchers and professionals working firsthand with explicit materials, we hope to illuminate the intrinsic value of sex and sexuality within the field of archiving and why these materials deserve to be preserved.

Ezell Carter, co-editor of this piece, is a graduate student with the School of Information Studies at McGill University and the Co-Coordinator of the ACA McGill University Student Chapter. 

Mary Hague-Yearl is a published writer, speaker, curator, and instructor working within the history of medicine; she is also the Head Librarian of McGill University’s Osler Library of the History of Medicine. We recently discussed why sexuality and its presence in archives is vital, and how the lack of knowledge and resources, particularly in regard to female anatomy, have very real consequences for our health.

Can you tell me more about these pieces and how they add to the Osler collection? Did you acquire any of these items yourself?

The portable kit of obstetrical tools has been in the library for a few decades. They belonged to Dr. William Wright (Class of 1848), Canada’s first medical graduate of colour, who practised medicine locally and taught materia medica at McGill from 1854-1883. In terms of reproductive health, they are important for a few reasons: one is that they are very much male tools and reflect a history of medical professionalization, which marginalized female practitioners. At the same time, they are a reminder of the lack of attention given to women’s health. These tools are from about a century and a half ago, yet the speculum is clearly a speculum; forceps have barely changed since modern ones were popularized in the 18^th century. (Figure 1)

Figure 1: Portable kit of obstetrical instruments. 19^th-century. From the estate of William Wright, Prof. of Materia Medica at McGill, 1854-1883 and also Canada’s first Black medical graduate, McGill, 1848.

As for the Predictor home pregnancy test kit and the 3D printed clitorises, those are recent additions to the library’s holdings. In a way, they are connected to the Birth Control Handbook (not shown here), published under the auspices of the McGill Students’ Society in 1968. This publication proved to be so popular in Canada as well as the US, that it ran into several editions (including in French). Montreal has been an important location in the recent history of reproductive health and sexual education. The Predictor, which was the first effective commercially-available home pregnancy test kit, was invented by graphic designer Margaret Crane in New York, but it was test-marketed in Montreal in the early 1970s. (Figure 2)

Figure 2: Predictor home pregnancy test kit. Designed by Margaret Crane. 1971. https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1112495610

Today, important initiatives continue locally, such as SEX-ED+, which aims to make anatomically-realistic models of genital anatomies available for sexual education; being realistic means having a variety of shapes and sizes. We don’t yet have their models in our artifacts collection, but the 3D printed clitorises reflect the emphasis upon knowing what one’s anatomy looks like. (Figure 3) In some ways, the Predictor and the 3D printed clitorises are both about demystification, or providing women with direct access to knowledge that is important for their own health.

Figure 3: 3D printed clitorises. 2021. Printed at UVic for the Perfecta Colloquium (organized by Prof. Hélène Cazes, May-June 2021), under the direction of Dr. J. Matt Huculak. Design is available on Thingyverse thanks to Odile Fillod and Melissa Richard. 

Do you find the sexually explicit nature of these pieces create unique archival difficulties compared to less erotically charged records (in terms of cataloging, exhibiting, and context)?

I don’t consider any of these objects to be sexually explicit. We do have a (modern) sexually explicit bookplate in our copy of Vénus la Populaire (1727) and there is some other content that is clearly playing with ideas of arousal, but I don’t see the items featured here in that light. They provide information or are associated either with a service or with basic anatomical knowledge. 

Given that each of these items is a tool I don’t see them as posing a challenge for cataloguing. One can treat them in a matter-of-fact way, stating what they are, their provenance, their intended use, etc.

What do you think the collection is missing? Is there a perspective, group, or type of record underrepresented, or something you wish the collection had more of?

The items chosen here are mainly artifacts. It would be useful to have a better record of how, why, by whom they were created – documentation of the process that resulted in their appearance. What is harder for us to get at is work that is being done beyond the confines of the medical establishment (whatever “establishment” means). This means that we don’t have much reflecting underrepresented individuals or groups; since we are speaking of sexual health, we must acknowledge that the voices in our library are overwhelmingly white and cishet. What are communities producing and publishing for themselves? We would like to include those voices.

What are your thoughts on the preservation and presentation of sexually explicit items in archives? Do you feel they have a part to play in the shaping of culture, politics, and memory?

Of course, sexuality is a central part of the human experience for many people so it should be included. Some items truly are sexually explicit, and if they are telling a story that is important for history, there is really no difference in bringing in that material and bringing in something else. If such stories are part of the experience of someone whose papers we are acquiring, then to omit material simply on the basis of its being sexual in nature, would be to edit the record in a way that would go against supposed archival objectivity.

And lastly, what about these materials is unique/interesting to you?

In terms of items here, I’d have to go with the 3D printed clitorises. My answer here is far from objective. I am glad our colleagues at UVic sent us the clitorises because they should be ordinary and mainstream, but as a society we’re not there yet. They are a reminder that basic anatomy can be deemed “inappropriate”. How many individuals can properly label female external genitalia? How many women (self-defined) would be able to identify those as clitorises? Knowing the proper anatomical terminology shouldn’t be embarrassing. The scale of ignorance around female bodies has very real health consequences. The clitoris may play a role in sex, but that doesn’t mean that identifying it or seeing a model representing the clitoris, reflects anything other than providing basic anatomical information. The 3D printed models are a reminder of important work that is being done to normalize female anatomy; one hopes that such work will help to break down the stigma that too often has a negative impact on health.  

You can learn more about Dr. Hague-Yearl and the Osler Library of the History of Medicine here:

https://www.mcgill.ca/library/librarians/mary-yearl

https://www.mcgill.ca/library/branches/osler

Images courtesy of Dr. Hague-Yearl and the Osler Library of the History of Medicine .

BIPOC Forum turns 3: where we've come in two years

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The ACA BIPOC Forum is an annual informal networking event hosted during the ACA annual meeting. This space facilitates connections between BIPOC archivists, students, and other memory workers. The ACA 2021 BIPOC Forum planning committee included Moska Rokay, Tamara Rayan, Laura Hernandez, Melissa Adams, Erin Brown, Lara Maestro, and Lisa Uyeda.

The first Forum for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour Archivists (BIPOC Forum) was created by members of the student and alumni-led Diversity Working Group (DWG) at the University of Toronto Faculty of Information (iSchool). The intentions for this first BIPOC Forum were to create a space for BIPOCs in the Canadian archival field to connect with one another to discuss issues of race, diversity, and strategies to navigate the field. Moreover, as a result of the facilitators all being students and alumni of the University of Toronto, a secondary purpose for this first BIPOC Forum was to inspire the creation of other diversity working groups within Faculties of Information across Canada, but the content of the Forum was primarily focused on Toronto. Recognizing the need for racial justice in the profession, in October 2019 the DWG applied to the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) 2020 conference. However, by the time the conference rolled around in June 2020, George Floyd had just been murdered. The rest of the archival profession had sobered up to the reality of racial inequality in the field and BIPOC archivists needed a means to come together to feel solidarity during a traumatic time. The BIPOC Forum became timelier than ever. Due to a boost in promotion by the ACA and opening up of subsidized spots for BIPOC archivists to attend the Forum for free, 60 participants from across Canada and the United States came forth to share this one-hour of space together, the first of its kind.[1]

Following the ACA's Equity Commitments Report on October 6, 2020, the ACA made a commitment to "provide meeting spaces and networking opportunities for BIPOC professionals to connect and meet (virtually and in-person at the annual conference).” In line with the report, the ACA 2021 conference Programme Committee reached out to potential moderators for the 2021 BIPOC Forum, a clear deviation from the year before. Many of the moderators of the first Forum were happy to return. With a total of six moderators, up from the previous year’s three, and considering the moderators were no longer solely students and alumni of the University of Toronto, this year’s Forum was uniquely positioned to address BIPOC experiences in Faculties of Information and the profession across Canada. Unfortunately, just as the year before, the months leading up to the conference were mired by difficult times for BIPOC communities as a result of multiple traumatic events: the horrific discovery of 215 unmarked Indigenous graves at a Kamloops residential school, the deadly attack on a Muslim Canadian family in London, Ontario, the senseless bombing of Gaza, and rampant Asian hate crimes instigated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet again, the 2021 BIPOC Forum became a critical space for BIPOC communities to come together in solidarity and healing, and brought increased awareness to the larger archival profession of the pains felt by their BIPOC colleagues." This time around, the Forum was 2 hours long and consisted of multiple Zoom breakout rooms of small group-led discussions on racial equity, diversity, and inclusion in archival education and the profession as a whole led by one of the six moderators.

As part of the 2021 Forum, the BIPOC Forum planning committee created the BIPOC Forum Participant Survey for those expressing interest in being involved in the creation and management of a network or community of BIPOC Archivists and Memory Workers in Canada. Below are highlights from the survey.

24 participants responded. Most were new professionals, followed by seasoned archival professionals, and those somewhere in between. A few respondents were students and others were looking for work.

We asked participants what type of institution they worked with and the top 2 responses with 4 respondents each were government archives and libraries. Others indicated they work with university archives, community archives, non profits, and corporate archives. The comments indicated that others worked in records management, special collections, museums, library and information studies programs, and for First Nations. Overall, 11 individuals indicated they work with a large institution, 6 a medium sized institution, and 3 a small institution.

Our first question asked, “How would you like to create a network or community of BIPOC Archivists and Memory Workers in Canada?” The top two responses show that folks would like to see the annual BIPOC Forum at the ACA conference continue and are interested in the development of an ACA BIPOC Special Interest Group. The other responses indicate that folks would like to stay connected more frequently and informally through communication channels such as a listserv, Slack, Discord, or Facebook. A few folks also suggested collaborating with other BIPOC-specific associations in or related to the profession, including those in the USA.

Our most important question asked, “Why do you want to join this community? What would you like to see come out of its activities?” The open-ended responses were detailed and meaningful. Most BIPOC respondents expressed the importance of staying connected and supporting one another in a profession where many feel alone because we are under-represented. Folks would like to see the continuation of a safe-space for BIPOC professionals to come together to listen and learn from one another, discuss their work, work environments, and experiences in the profession, work through issues together, and mentor new professionals. Many expressed the importance of building a community, both within the BIPOC community and the profession as a whole, that will encourage and foster new BIPOC professionals. The responses acknowledge that institutions, including Faculties of Information across Canada, need to begin meaningful and actionable EDI work. This includes keeping the concerns of BIPOC folks top of mind across the profession, in schools, and addressing representation in archives and beyond. Lastly, respondents would like to see a strong, collaborative community in all areas of the profession that actively fosters and supports BIPOC professionals and those interested in entering the profession.

To conclude the survey, participants provided feedback on the BIPOC Forum in general. We greatly appreciate everyone’s kind words of thanks and feel so honoured to have helped provide a safe-space that brings our community together. We recognize that the sessions are never long enough, that meeting once a year is too infrequent, and continuing the forum is really important and necessary. We thank the participants for providing comments that will help guide the next session, including: most folks enjoyed the small breakout room discussions and noted the benefits of connecting with one another; the facilitators were great; the polls were good additions; the information shared was valuable and insightful; a student focused group could be valuable with working professionals to be involved as mentors; folks hope to meet in person next time or in the future; and a recommendation to host a second session at the end of the conference.

As for next steps, we aim to continue this important work by planning a third installment of the BIPOC Forum at ACA 2022. As the first two BIPOC Forums have shown, there is a continual need for BIPOCs in our field to meet and hold space for one another. To ensure that we are fully representing our growing and changing community, we are seeking new voices for next year’s planning committee. If you are interested in being an organizer or moderator, please send an email to bipocarchivists@gmail.com. Moreover, we understand that hosting these spaces once a year is far too infrequent for our community’s needs, so we are planning to host more regular community check-ins on a smaller and more informal scale. Additionally, we recognize the need for BIPOC students to have leadership and guidance from members in the field who represent and understand their own lived experiences. For this reason, we are exploring mentorship options with the ACA Mentorship Program to match BIPOC students and early career archivists with BIPOC professionals. Finally, we are also exploring the option to create a Special Interest Section with the ACA so that we can continue the work that the DWG started, but on a national level, and continue to enact racial justice in the field.

[1] For further information about the impact of the first BIPOC Forum, please see this piece the facilitators authored in Off the Record: Martin, Stefanie, Tamara Rayan and Moska Rokay. “45 Years Later: The First BIPOC Forum at ACA.” Off the Record, v.36, no. 3 (Summer 2020): 16-18.

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives Blog Post # 2 - Academic Value of Archiving Sexuality: Discussion of University of Toronto's Sexual Representation Collection with Archives Director Patrick Keilty

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 12:00:00 GMT

For the next few weeks, we at the ACA McGill University Student Chapter invite you to join us for an immersive series of blog posts titled PeepShow and Tell: Sex in Archives. Through interviews with researchers and professionals working firsthand with explicit materials, we hope to illuminate the intrinsic value of sex and sexuality within the field of archiving and why these materials deserve to be preserved.

Jay Bossé, the co-author for this piece, is a graduate student with the School of Information Studies at McGill University and Co-Coordinator of the ACA McGill University Student Chapter Blog Series PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives.

For this post, we spoke with Patrick Keilty, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto. He is also the Archives Director of the Sexual Representation Collection (SRC), administered by the Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. Professor Keilty's research pertains primarily to the politics of digital infrastructures in the sex industries and the materiality of media in erotohistoriography (Patrick Keilty, n.d.).

To read the full post please visit our website.

Planning Virtual Events: Organizing the Human Library

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 14:00:00 GMT

Olivia White is an emerging archival professional working towards a Master of Information and a Master of Museum Studies from the University of Toronto. She has undertaken roles in archives and heritage organizations, and is passionate about ensuring the stories within archival records can be preserved and shared far into the future.

The University of Toronto (U of T) student chapters of the Association of Canadian Archivists and Librarians Without Borders (LWB) worked diligently to produce the 7th Annual Human Library to great success! With about 15 participants and nine professionals in attendance, the event provided an excellent opportunity for students to have small-group discussions about the day-in-the-life of an information professional.

With a tradition towards an in-person event, the Human Library has pivoted to an online setting for the past two years. The virtual environment notably expands the scope of professionals and participants beyond the Greater Toronto Area, permitting a geographically diverse group of attendees. As a student in my final year at the University of Toronto’s iSchool, I have attended the Human Library annually for three years. This marks my first year attending as an Executive Member of the ACA UofT Student Chapter, and I enjoyed seeing behind the curtain as to how the event is produced.

Events Coordinator Sophia Dodic spearheaded the event, aptly coordinating timelines and preparing documentation to keep the event planning on schedule. ACA Student Executives Camille McDayter, Steve Kim, and Ursula Carmichael, as well as LWB Student Executive Allison Kaefring were integral during the event planning sessions in which we devised communication strategies and divided the work for reaching out to professionals.

As Communications Coordinator, I promoted the event on our social media sites, the iSchool’s discord server, through iSchool newsletters, and in-class announcements. We also posted information on dedicated Facebook groups, listservs, and Slack channels, and had support from Professor Karen Suurtamm to spread the word. With the ever-presence of Zoom fatigue, our early registration numbers were lower than average, but more participants signed up closer to the event date.

During the event, we paired professionals to “host” a breakout room based on their professional experiences, which established a meaningful dialogue between attendees. Participants could jump around to different breakout rooms, but many chose to stay within one group to gain a comprehensive understanding of an information professional’s duties. Students received a Human Library handbook with biographies provided by the professionals to determine which rooms to join and guide their conversations.

One component of the Human Library that I have always enjoyed is hearing about the everyday rewards and challenges of the information professions. Many professionals also provide resources to learn more about topics of interest – I always come away with a few websites to bookmark for future research. It is also interesting to hear about the journey of iSchool alumni into their current positions.

After the event, we circulated a feedback form for attendees to describe their experience to improve upon the delivery of the next Human Library. Finally, we were also pleased to offer two complimentary student member registrations for the upcoming ACA Conference through a raffle for student attendees. With another year of the Human Library completed, it is my hope that this long-running networking event can continue in the future, allowing emerging information professionals to discover the inner workings of archives, records management and library environments.

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives Blog Post #1: Matthew Lawrence – Headmaster magazine

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 12:00:00 GMT

For the next few weeks, we at the ACA McGill University Student Chapter invite you to join us for an immersive series of blog posts titled PeepShow and Tell: Sex in Archives. Through interviews with researchers and professionals working firsthand with explicit materials, we hope to illuminate the intrinsic value of sex and sexuality within the field of archiving and why these materials deserve to be preserved.

Ezell Carter, co-author of this piece, is a graduate student with the School of Information Studies at McGill University and the Co-Coordinator of the ACA McGill University Student Chapter.

For our first post, we spoke with Matthew Lawrence, a graduate student with the School of Information Studies at McGill University and the co-founder of Headmaster magazine, “The Art Magazine for Man-Lovers,” alongside his partner Jason Tranchida. We asked Matthew to tell us more about Headmaster, their engagement with archives, and how sexually explicit collections have shaped culture overall.

Can you tell us about your magazine, Headmaster, and what inspired you to start it?

The art journal Headmaster launched in 2010 as “the biannual art magazine for man-lovers.” The first issue was 88 pages, perfect bound, and printed on 70lb paper in an edition of 1000, a format we left virtually untouched for six years. We spent weeks agonizing over paper selection and then finding a printer that would let us do press proofs. Even now we drive to the printer so we can check each page as it comes off the offset printer, saying things like “can we bump up the magenta here?” or “this needs five percent less yellow.”. Many people would not find this rewarding, but we do.

For the past decade, I have edited the art magazine Headmaster with my partner Jason Tranchida. Each issue of Headmaster features nine or ten original projects, based on assignments written specifically for each artist. Released occasionally—issues are numbered, not dated, and the “biannual” idea did not last very long—Headmaster is intended to be sexy and smart, topical without dating itself too quickly.

What can I find in an issue of Headmaster?

We have given assignments about an array of subjects: the planet Neptune, the lax public nudity laws in Seattle, the titling of porn videos, the architecture of discotheques. But we always keep returning to specific moments in queer (primarily gay male) histories, and that can lead to some fun archival research work. Once an artist is interested, we develop their assignment for a week or two and then give them roughly 6-8 weeks to complete their project, whether that is a comic style photo novel project about dithyrambs or a cut paper tug of war (to name two recent examples). We work with photographers and writers, but also with artists working in fiber, video, music, and other genres that are not traditional two-dimensional paper works. The most recent issue features an astrology project by House of Rice, Vancouver’s only all-Asian drag family.

What is one of your favourite projects from Headmaster?

There were originally three Headmaster editors. The third, Matthew Underwood, stepped back after the first few issues but remained close to the project, creating his own project for Headmaster No. 7. At some of our launch events, he live mixed pornographic VHS tapes under the pseudonym VJ DILF.

Headmaster No. 7 was field trip themed, and we sent our former co-editor Matthew Underwood to investigate the records of the Gaylactic Network, “a national organization for gay people and their friends, who are interested in science fiction, fantasy, horror and gaming.” In the early 1990s, the group’s geographically disparate members waged a letter-writing campaign to demand queer representation on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Underwood’s project includes a reproduction of a thoughtful but cagey letter from staff research consultant Richard Arnold explaining why gay and lesbian identities would not be an issue by the 24^th century. (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Artist – Matthew Underwood, Headmaster No. 7

How does the world of archives enter into your work with Headmaster?

Brown University holds the administrative records, newsletters, correspondence, and promotional material for the Gaylactic Network’s first three decades, and we were fortunate enough to visit the collection with Underwood, who was so charmed by the fan-made comics, memorabilia, and newsletters that he decided to present the materials essentially as is, arranged neatly atop the visually disorienting grid of a transparent Photoshop layer.

The sexual content of Headmaster varies from issue to issue, though generally the most explicit projects tend to be illustrated and not photographed. I enjoy the discovery process, and personally get excited when uncovering historical and creative moments that I did not know about previously. For instance, we gave the homoerotic writer Michael Wynne an assignment inspired by calling cards produced for Paresis Hall, an all-male brothel that existed on New York’s Bowery at the beginning of the twentieth century. We found a collector and reprinted some of his postcards for the issue, even though Wynne’s story was completely contemporary. Artist Dean Sameshima used vintage magazine imagery to advertise his own version of utopia. (Figure 2) In a more startling use of appropriation, artist Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangax̂) blended colonial imagery of Indigenous destruction with clueless white sports fans wearing feathers and headdresses.

Figure 2. Artist – Dean Sameshima, Headmaster No. 5

We began Headmaster at a time when many mainstream periodicals were dying out, but when a wave of underground queer periodicals was beginning to crest: titles like Christopher Schulz’s bear-focused photo project Pinups (which could be disassembled and turned into an almost life-sized poster), Darren Ankenbauer’s raunchier Handbook, or Jessica Gysel’s lesbian-centered Girls Like Us. That wave has largely subsided, partly due to the shuttering (at least in North America) of independent bookstores and other outlets that sold erotic niche zines and magazines.

What strikes you the most about this work and how it is received?

Well, as one example, our debut issue features a painting project by Sholem Krishtalka, an artist now based in Berlin who at the time managed Toronto’s Glad Day Bookshop. With the 2009 closing of New York’s Oscar Wilde Bookshop, Glad Day had recently taken the title of North America’s oldest gay bookstore. We learned about the store and about Krishtalka and thought we could maybe interview him, completely unaware that he was primarily a visual artist. After sending a cold email and getting a positive response, we asked him to paint some of his favorite images from vintage periodicals sold in the store. One of the most striking is a white page that simply says “’Homosexuals are child molesters.’ That’s what they’ll be saying.” (Figure 3)

Figure 3. Artist – Sholem Krishtalka, Headmaster No. 1

I visited New England last week and, scanning through radio stations, listened to a few minutes of a call-in show on one of the area’s many conservative talk radio networks. (This is one of the bluest parts of the country, mind you.) A caller used the words “grooming” and “indoctrination” to describe an interaction between a child and a hair stylist who asked for clarification when asked for “a girl’s haircut.”

Headmaster remains a labor of love for us. I am studying at McGill University in the Master of Information Studies program with a focus in archiving. I want to move into the archival field and realize that my dream job would be one where I could incorporate my experience in publishing, art, and queer histories. That’s where I hope to go. That’s where my journey with Headmaster has led me.

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You can find more information about Matthew Lawrence and Headmaster magazine here: matthewrobertlawrence.com and here: https://www.headmastermagazine.com

Images courtesy of Matthew Lawrence and Headmaster Magazine

Matthew Lawrence is a graduate student with the School of Information Studies at McGill University and the co-founder of Headmaster magazine alongside his partner Jason Tranchida.

Meet NoRA: A Network for Canadian Lone Arrangers

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Andrew Chernevych is Head Archivist at the Galt Museum & Archives, Lethbridge, Alberta. He also serves as a Director-at-Large at the ACA and as a board member of the ICA's Section of Local, Municipal and Territorial Archives (SLMT).

The social isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic was the last straw. Being an archivist in a small urban centre, a town or a municipality means you’re on your own—professionally speaking. Chances to talk to a fellow archivist are precious and rare. It’s a difficult situation to be in, especially for a young professional. The pandemic made things worse as conferences and workshops got cancelled. How does one hope to challenge oneself and grow professionally under these conditions?

The pandemic upheaval, however, has brought to life developments that can remedy the problem. One of them is the rapid proliferation of virtual meeting platforms, particularly Zoom. Almost overnight, virtual meetings have become a new normal, upending the culture of professional communication. And this has opened new doors for connecting—notably for archivists in small communities.

The first virtual meeting of local archivists took place in June 2021. Fourteen participants from Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia joined a Zoom event to get to know each other and share experiences. Each participant had the chance to introduce themselves, their institution, and share their interests and challenges. It was novel, exciting and perhaps a bit overwhelming. For me, it was quite eye-opening to see so much diversity—in institutional settings, in roles and backgrounds, and in perspectives on archival work. The hour flew by fast.

The consensus was that such meetings are useful and that participants would like to make them regular. It was agreed to keep it informal and to have the chair position rotated among the members. It was also suggested to have themes for future meetings —with a focus on a particular subject such as volunteers, grants, digital records, etc. A volunteer facilitator was to take care of scheduling, meeting hosting and note-taking. The group was to be called the Network of Regional Archives or NoRA for short.

Since the summer of 2021, we have had two more NoRA meetings. In the fall, we discussed archival databases and most recently in January we delved into a discussion about volunteer programs. Both meetings featured brief presentations by members, Q&A periods and informal discussions. Big thanks to Philip Pype of the Esplanade for chairing both sessions. Personally, I learned a lot. For example, Tara Hurley of Kelowna Museums offered cautionary tales of unethical behaviour of volunteers, while Corine Price of Lloydminster Museum outlined limitations of work-from-home volunteering.

The purpose of the group is to provide networking opportunities and a forum to exchange ideas and experiences. Unlike the Society of American Archivist’s Lone Arrangers Section, the NoRA has no formal affiliation or organizational structure. A participant doesn’t have to become a member or take on any commitments. Anyone is free to attend as many meetings as one wishes. It’s open to everyone—one doesn’t have to have “archivist” in their title or have an archival education. In fact, many Canadian lone arrangers have neither. The NoRA collective currently includes a librarian, a museum CEO, a collections technician and an archives manager. We are open to all “small-place” heritage professionals who work with archival records.

If you would like to participate in future meetings, please contact Andrew Chernevych (andriyc@ualberta.ca) to be added to the NoRA email list. The next meeting will take place in late March or early April; the theme will be announced soon.

Exploring Currency and Empire through Archive Mapping

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 15:00:00 GMT

Josephine Baker is MA Student in Economics, a Heilbroner Fellow, and a Sawyer Seminar Research Assistant at the New School for Social Research.

[Assortment of Colonial Banknotes]

The Project

Beginning in fall 2021, faculty at The New School launched a Mellon-funded Sawyer Seminar titled Currency and Empire: Monetary Policy, Race, and Power. The goal of the project was to interrogate the connections between monetary systems and (neo)imperial power through deep interdisciplinary engagement. Housed at the Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies, and with generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Currency and Empire has rolled out a suite of initiatives and programming. Through seminars, reading groups, and our online archive mapping project, faculty members and graduate students involved with the work of Currency and Empire explore the relationship between monetary systems, the production and consolidation of racial difference, and imperial power.

The seminar series, which began in fall 2021 and will continue through spring 2022, has organized meetings around a variety of topics, such as Categorizing Currencies, Colonial Genealogies of Political Economy, Hierarchical Systems of Currency, and the Technopolitics of Money Management. In addition to the seminars, the project hosts informal reading groups every other week. The aim of the reading groups is for participants to build a common language through discussion. Reading group topics have included Theories of Money, Neoliberalism and Monetary (Dis)orders, and Monetary Futures - A Vernacular Archive. The reading group has been a great way to build scholarly community as all attendants are encouraged to participate and play a role in deciding future topics and readings.

The seminars and reading groups both take place via Zoom and are open to anyone interested in the topic. To register for events or join our mailing list you can visit our website at:currencyandempire.org. To follow our ongoing work please join us on Twitter @EmpireCurrency and on Facebook @EmpireCurrency.

The Archive Mapping

Overview

As part of the Currency and Empire project, I have had the pleasure of building an interactive data visualization for mapping archival resources related to the topic of Currency and Empire. The goal of the archive mapping is to create a collective open-source resource to help those interested in the topic explore relevant collections. The archives included span from the more formal – the archives of national banks – to the informal or “vernacular”. The map works by displaying the archives and their themes both by network and geographically. Users of the mapping can apply filters to visualize connections and find specific resources. When scrolling over an archive marker, users see a brief description of the archive and its contents as well as a link to the archive’s website. Thus, the mapping is not simply a list of archives, but a central location for the exploration of archives related to currency and empire.

[Currency and Empire Archive Mapping Network Visualization]

Visualizing the Data

The data visualization is built using a combination of programming in R and visualizing in Tableau. The visualization helps understand archives through their connections to categories of imperial powers, currency types, general themes, and other archives. One dashboard maps the archives by location and allows users to filter by these categorical variables. The other dashboard illustrates the connections between these archives and their themes via network mapping. Lines connect archives such as the Egyptian National Library’s Car al-Kutub collection or the Banco De Mexico’s numismatics collection to themes like numismatics and counterfeiting, currencies like shells, bonds, and virtual currency, and related imperial powers.

Contributing to the Project

One aim of this archive mapping project is to create a collective aggregation of resources. For this reason, the archive mapping is an open-source resource. Information about relevant collections or archives can be submitted via a brief submission form on our website. From here, I integrate the suggested archive into the database for the visualization and update the visualization to include it. By engaging in this type of interaction with participants and archival communities, we can expand the scope of the mapping beyond the knowledge of our team. We encourage those submitting to contribute not only by directing us to new archives, but also by suggesting additional themes or currencies related to their submission. Part of our motivation in contributing this blog post is to encourage ACA community members who are aware of interesting resources related to the topic of currency and empire to consider submitting them so we can continue to expand our database and create a more comprehensive mapping. Expanding our database means that seminar participants and site visitors will be able to explore a more diverse and extensive set of resources in their consideration of the topic.

Some of the wonderful submissions we have received include:

The Baroda State Archive which was described by Shweta Banerjee in her submission as “both formal and vernacular. This is the archive of the Baroda State which was indirectly ruled by Britain. Finance and currency was a site of contestation between the Baroda State, the Colonial state, and merchant-bankers.”
The Tunisian Museum of Currency and Money which is held by the Tunisian Central Bank and includes a collection of banknotes and coins as well as tools used to create and destroy currency.

Conclusion

My participation in Currency and Empire has allowed me to grow as an economist. The interdisciplinary approach to the study of money’s connection to imperialism is a crucial perspective for all scholars, but particularly economists, to consider. Furthermore, work on the archival project has allowed me to advance my personal awareness of the scope of collections relevant to the study of monetary orders. Archives are critical to the study of currency and empire and are essential to understanding the historical context of monetary regimes and imperial power. My hope is that the archive mapping project will help others to expand their knowledge of the collections and records available.

Remote Mentorship: Experiences with the ACA Mentorship Program in 2021

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 14:00:00 GMT

About the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) Mentorship Program

The Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) offers a Mentorship Program that connects emerging archivists with working archivists to help “advise and guide them on career and professional development.” It provides mentees with a mentor to whom they may ask questions about the archival profession. It begins in January and lasts for one year, unless the mentor and mentee both decide to continue. For more information about eligibility and the ACA Mentorship Program in general, please visit the ACA's Mentorship Program's web page.

Experiences Within the ACA Mentorship Program: A Mentee’s Perspective (Alesha Grummett-Roesch)

I heard about the ACA Mentorship Program from a friend of mine who had participated in the program the year before and enjoyed her experiences, which made me eager to have the opportunity to participate. I decided to apply because I thought that it would be a great chance to network, that it would provide a one-on-one opportunity to speak with a working archivist, and that it would allow me to learn more about the archival community in general.

The ACA paired me with Rebecca Murray, a Senior Archivist in Reference Services at Library and Archives Canada (LAC). This was the first time that I had participated in a mentorship program, so I was not entirely certain about what to expect. One of the first topics that Rebecca and I discussed was how we wanted to communicate and how often. We decided to have monthly meetings and communicate via email in between the meetings, if needed. Before the meetings, we would plan a few topics that we wanted to discuss, such as her work experiences within LAC, interview tips, the ACA conference, and courses that I took as a graduate student at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto.

I enjoy meeting with Rebecca each month to talk about archives. I feel that I learn something new each time. One of the things that surprised me most is the great network that Rebecca has. For example, a few times she invited some of her friends and former colleagues to join our meetings, so that I had a chance to learn more about other archivists’ experiences and get advice from them. I also attended a Reference Archivist team meeting, which was a wonderful opportunity. I was able to learn more about what it is like doing reference work, something that I did not learn much about during my graduate studies. Overall, I have really enjoyed being a part of the mentorship program. It has been an extremely well-supported environment and my mentor has gone far above what I expected. I look forward to seeing what the remainder of the year within the ACA Mentorship Program brings.

Experiences Within the ACA Mentorship Program: A Mentor’s Perspective (Rebecca Murray )

I applied for the ACA Mentorship Program without any prior knowledge of what it might entail. It’s been my first opportunity to be part of a formal mentorship program. I have to admit there was a bit of imposter syndrome at the start – surely I’m not old enough or experienced enough to be a mentor, I thought.

My experience with the program has shown me that I do have something to share, even with less than ten years of formal work experience in an archive. I also hadn’t anticipated how much I would learn too. I don’t have formal education in archives or information studies, so being paired with Alesha has been a great opportunity to learn about her education and what she’s learned about the archival profession in a Master of Information program. This was only further cemented during the ACA conference when I had the chance to listen to students and new grads speak about the gaps in archival education and how they view the profession.

In inviting other archivists and historians in my network to join us during our monthly chats, I also learned about different types of archives and gained perspective on differences between the private and public sectors. Although we’ve been meeting once a month through any number of online platforms, Alesha and I have also become regular correspondents on any number of topics (mostly) related to archival work.

A really interesting and unique thing about this year is that we attended a virtual meet up for all mentees and mentors. Although not all attended, it was a great chance to “meet” archivists from across the country doing all sorts of different work and to hear about their experiences within the program.

Conclusion

The program is not only a one-year opportunity to get advice on a myriad of topics from an archivist, it’s also an opportunity to network and to gain perspective on the range of archival work and institutions in Canada. It’s a great opportunity for experienced archivists to give back to the community and to (hopefully!) help inspire and encourage the next generation of information professionals.

About the 2021 Mentorship Program

The 2021 ACA Mentorship Program saw a record number of participants. According to Jamie Sanford, the Mentorship Coordinator, there were “36 mentors and 46 mentees,” as some mentors agreed to mentor two mentees. All mentees were matched with a mentor. If you are interested in becoming a mentor or mentee, please fill out the mentor or mentee application by November 15, 2021.

Alesha Grummett-Roesch and Rebecca Murray

Alesha Grummett-Roesch is a recent graduate of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. She completed her Master of Information, focusing on Archives and Records Management, in June of 2021.

Rebecca Murray is a Senior Archivist in the Reference Services Division at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. She is also a member of the ACA’s Communications Committee.

Open Questions: Reflections on the University of Toronto Archives' Oral History Collection on Student Activism

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 14:00:00 GMT

This past March, the University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services (UTARMS) launched our Oral History Collection on Student Activism. Having worked on the project over the previous 18 months, to tweak the final lines of code and publish it was exciting, a relief, and a chance to reflect on the long series of questions and discoveries that developed throughout. For myself, the process helped to draw out ideas around transparency, responsibility, and context. It was also a reminder of the creative joy of bringing an initial idea to fruition.

The project was conceived as a component of UTARMS’ documentation strategy, in particular to respond to the limited record of student voice within our holdings. This was driven by a recognition, by both archivists and researchers, that the fundamental role the social, administrative, and intellectual life of the institution has been shaped by students. Creating this collection carried multiple goals: to provide distinct entry points and perspectives for researchers, as well as to develop a deeper understanding of the barriers in documenting these critical aspects of the University’s history.

The first step in the project involved the hiring of a student with a background in oral history to conduct research, interview participants, and help further develop the scope of the project. Through her oral history experience, research interests, and attention to issues on campus and beyond, Ruth Belay brought incredible vision to the project overall. Additional goals then emerged through our discussions together, with current student groups, participants, oral historians and others.

[Screenshot of Interview with Norman Kwan conducted by Ruth Belay and Daniela Ansovini on the website of the University of Toronto Archives Online]

One key question highlighted by student groups centered on how such a collection could serve current students and their organizations, with particular attention to the specifics of knowledge transfer in an environment heavily affected by the turnover of each cohort. As Ruth guided the interviews, different aspects of this surfaced, from intentional succession planning to the nitty gritty of navigating the University’s resources and structures.

Ensuring continued connections to student groups beyond the interviews’ content emphasized the need to consider how we approached these relationships more generally. It became an opportunity to not only uncover concerns, but to build a more critical understanding of both the limitations of and the possibilities created by our position as an institutional repository. One result of this has been to more fully adopt approaches responsive to specific interests, for example, implementing methods to support recordkeeping and preservation of student group records outside of the archive. Another has been to challenge how UTARMS might activate the interviews and engage future students for whom the content might directly address. What connections can be made through the interviews’ content to continuing and relevant conversations through time? How are we gathering feedback and direction from student groups themselves?

Another aspect of the project which grew from a theoretical understanding to practical application surrounded the ethical principles that guide oral history’s attention to transparency. Expectedly, we began with our consent form, ensuring participants were continuously able to direct the interview, dictate access and use, and were well informed of the intent of the project and the eventual context in which the interviews would exist.

However, like all else, this expanded as we dug into the specifics. For example, were there differing understandings of archives by participants that obscured an understanding of how the material might be used? Ruth and I became more conscious of how we described the archival research environment and the extent to which we control how information is used in this way. In holding copyright to the interviews, what might use by the University itself look like, and how could we confirm clear consent regarding this? We added a specific clause to the consent form for participants to opt in to any promotional uses of the content by the University.

Working with participants, each with specific concerns, we adjusted the consent form, adapted aspects of the project and confirmed with interviewees when these represented marked shifts in the process. This process also highlighted the degree to which we wanted to open our method and the context of the project to researchers by outlining our methodology and inviting questions, concerns, and reflections.

The level of consultation and flexibility that the project demanded has encouraged my own willingness to embrace the evolving and individualized nature of archival work overall (in particular, my own focus and work with private donors). Oral history’s prioritization of the narrator and their experiences extends beyond what is recorded to a commitment to protect their continued autonomy through the process itself. Far from throwing standards, policy, or requirements out the window, for me, it has served as a model to ask better and deeper questions.

I have drawn a lot of satisfaction from the lessons learned through managing this project, sometimes tough or unexpected, but fruitful. That said, what was immediately fulfilling was to hear the richness of the interviews themselves. Our questions centred on activism and participants generously seized on this theme, weaving in the personal, pragmatic, and reflective. Mentorship, the role of educational institutions and the responsibility they hold, as well as the many facets of equity surfaced as underlying ties between the interviews. In both listening to these interviews and connecting with all of those who were a part, it has been a motivating project that highlighted the expansive nature of our relationships and the value of questions asked.

Daniela Ansovini

Daniela Ansovini is an Archivist with the University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services (UTARMS) where she is responsible for the private records of individuals and organizations affiliated with the University of Toronto. An aspect of her current role is dedicated to re-visioning UTARMS' collections strategy for private records.

Mapping transnational activism: challenges of historical research and archives on Timor-Leste

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 14:00:00 GMT

In 1975, Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of Timor-Leste (East Timor). Its armed forces continued to occupy the territory until 1999, when a United Nations-sponsored referendum saw the country set off on the path to regaining its independence.

How did Timor-Leste (East Timor) win its independence from Indonesia, the regional power, after 24 years of occupation? The Timor International Solidarity Archive aims to help answer that question by locating, digitizing and disseminating archival records on Timor-Leste and the international solidarity movement that campaigned for its right to self-determination during the period of military occupation and crimes against humanity (1975-1999).

Screenshot of home page of the AtoM platform of the Timor International Solidarity Archive. timorarchive.com

This project presents numerous challenges in moving past open sources into finding and making available the files of solidarity movement activists. In this blog post, we explore the challenges and two successful efforts to disseminate solidarity movement records, undertaken in Brazil and the United States.

We started our research by gaining a greater understanding of the multiplicity of actors involved in the historical circumstance we were examining. The more we deeply understood the history of East Timor and its particularities, the more we discerned that different stakeholders (solidarity groups) played key functions in the independence process. To map the transnational solidarity movements was crucial for the understanding of the blind spots of East Timor history, and the archives were our primary source to achieve this goal.

Mapping the Movement : map of the world with member groups of the International Federation for East Timor identified with red dots, 1999

One of our first challenges was to start extracting important information from the large number of documents on location at Bishop’s and to deeply understand the linear nature of the historical process. In terms of examining the historical archives, we reviewed documents from different contexts and backgrounds, including in the first stage East Timor; Indonesia; Portugal; Canada; United States and United Nations; in different languages (initially English, French, and Portuguese), and from different perspectives (institutional; individual; collective). All these documents provided different lenses to analyze how the transnational solidarity movement was structured and its basis for supporting the independence process of East Timor.

To critically engage with the literature and the documents regarding events in East Timor was also an important part of the research process. Archival records themselves don’t give all the answers, of course. Thus, it was necessary to contrast the primary sources with other research in the field. Most important was to understand how to read archival “silences” and to position the documents within larger perspectives. Here we draw on the challenges identified in such collections as Basements and Attics, Closets and Cyberspace: Explorations in Canadian Women’s Archives, edited by Linda Morra and Jessica Schagerl.

After establishing a method to compile the essential documents, we were confronted with our next challenge: to use this research as a knowledge-sharing platform that allows other researchers to use this data in their fieldwork. Discussions of digitization practices and the impact of IT resonated in our research as we progressed. Thus, our next step was to direct our efforts to the creation of a solid archival database, entirely online, and to simplify the access of these documents for researchers from all over the world who want to critically engage with the historical perspective of East Timor and the transnational movements that support the country.

In 2018, Juliana Brito Santos Leal began working with David Webster as a Research Assistant for this archival project. Juliana was tasked with describing and uploading various documents created by solidarity activists from around the world that were active during Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor. Juliana worked on multiple collections: Canada Asia Working Group, East Timor Alert Network, etc.

Another challenge was to have access to new material in São Paulo (Brazil) regarding Clamor por Timor. As a Brazilian, Juliana consulted the archivist responsible in Portuguese by email and asked about the possibility of getting access to the digitized material. This claim was denied because the material wasn’t digitalized yet. Juliana asked if it was possible to go in person to collect the material in the period of one week. Juliana was going to spend in Brazil. The response was negative until Juliana had the permission of the archive's supervisor, who usually goes there once a week. After several calls and e-mail, while Juliana was already in Brazil, the archivists indicated that they do have the files of Clamor por Timor, but they didn’t know exactly how many and where they were in between the 32 boxes of Grupo São Domingo. Juliana then came back to Canada without having accessed the records.

After watching our effort, the archive’s director suggested that we ask for a research assistant that works there to find all the documents regarding Clamor por Timor and organize them in one single place. After that, the research assistant could ask for the digitization of the records and for the transfer of the digital files to us. This kind of service, however, was not “institutionalized.” They were only offering it because we couldn’t be there in person to separate and make copies of the documents. Thus, the archival institution charged us for this service. There was a risk: pay and then discover we only have a few pages of the relevant document. We decided to take the risk, and received 1649 pages of documents.

These files have now been summarized in English by Katrina Kramer, another project participant at Bishop’s University. At the same time, we selected the Access to Memory platform (AtoM) originally developed with the advice of the International Council of Archives, and began to digitize and describe materials. This began with solidarity group newsletters and has continued with an extensive digitization and description process beginning with the files of the East Timor Alert Network of Canada. For instance, it is now easy to search ETAN records on the web site by keyword, to narrow down by leaflets, or to track the story in other ways.

Screenshot of the Timor International Solidarity Archive AtoM platform

Parallel to Juliana’s work in obtaining Brazilian records, David worked to obtain an important activist collection then stored in a basement in unorganized form, boxing and carrying out an initial categorization along with Arnold Kohen, the activist whose records these were. We then organized the shipment of the records.

The following year, Émilie worked closely with the Arnold Kohen collection. Kohen worked as a reporter and activist for East Timor for over 20 years. He was one of the most connected Timor advocates. His collection ranges from 1975 to 2007 which covers the complete occupation of East Timor by Indonesia and the years after.

His materials consisted of fifteen banker’s boxes. During 2018, Émilie went through twenty-five years of documents varying from letters to the U.S. Congress, support from various Catholic and Protestant bishops and clergymen from around the world and many newspaper articles bringing awareness to Timor. It was a true education in understanding how a prominent activist worked and what he believed in.

It took time to get used to the Access to Memory archival platform, but it is now functioning well. It allows for multiple collections to be displayed at once. For Kohen’s collection, we were able to break everything down by year which kept all of the documents together using the same structure selected by Kohen. For example, a letter written in 1982 would be found in the Humanitarian Project collection, under the 1982 file, classified under documents.

For many of the solidarity groups, their documentation is sorted in the same way which makes the platform perfect for sharing and learning about activism throughout the years.

Working with the files of activists who you have never met is a valuable way to understand historical processes. Emilie feels as if she now knows Arnold Kohen. We have all found similar experiences in digitizing, describing and disseminating these new archival records. It is our hope that this documentation provides information and access for people to learn through an online archival platform.

Juliana Brito Santos Leal, Émilie Labbé and David Webster

Juliana Brito Santos Leal holds a MA in International Relations at Universidade de Brasília (UnB), in Brazil, and is an MA Candidate in Applied Human Rights at the University of York (UoY), United Kingdom.

Émilie Labbé is a recent history graduate from Bishop’s University about to begin her Master’s degree at Concordia University who has worked on the Timor International Solidarity Archive for the last two years.

David Webster is a History professor at Bishop’s University and coordinator of the Timor International Solidarity Archive. His most recent book is Challenge the Strong Wind: Canada and East Timor 1975-99.

Working from Home at the Fisher Library: Improving Accessibility and Discoverability

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 14:00:00 GMT

With another wave of COVID-19 gripping provinces across Canada, and additional restrictions being implemented to blunt its devastating effects, archives – like many institutions – remain closed to researchers for the foreseeable future. In some cases, archivists themselves have limited access to their holdings, and are required to work predominately (if not exclusively) from home.

Without the ability to process new collections and with many research requests on hold, the archival staff at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library have taken this opportunity to work on several projects meant to increase the accessibility and discoverability of online holdings. Often left on the backburner as reference services and collections processing take precedence, projects such as revising finding aids and tidying metadata can all be undertaken safely from home, yet can enhance users’ experiences when interacting with online archival interfaces.

With the closure of the Fisher Library in March of 2020, one of the first tasks undertaken was evaluating our online finding aids and determining which ones required substantial revision. In most cases, old typescript finding aids, often with handwritten annotations, were scanned and uploaded online so users did not have to wait for them to be retyped and uploaded (especially since some finding aids can be over 100 pages). However, optical character recognition (OCR) is severely limited when reading handwriting, which hinders discoverability. Likewise, scanned typescript finding aids pose accessibility challenges for those using screen readers or those who have other vision impairments. Since many of our users have commented on the benefits of keyword searching our collections, especially when looking for a specific name or title, it was particularly advantageous to identify the dozens of finding aids in need of attention, and revising them to allow for Ctrl-F/Command-F searching. Additionally, LinkedIn’s online course for creating accessible finding aids provided basic training to ensure that those with screen readers or other assistive technologies could navigate our finding aids more effectively. While not all our finding aids have been revised, more and more are being reworked as this pandemic drags on. For institutions with much older finding aids, this is also an opportunity to revise any outdated and offensive terminology in archival descriptions – especially those that have been created by the archives. Finding aids pertaining to Indigenous Peoples, the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized groups should be examined more critically, and revised in a manner which fosters an atmosphere of inclusivity and reduces the risk of making people from these groups feel unwelcomed or attacked.

During the closure, we have also been taking time to enhance the metadata for our online holdings, in hopes that it will improve discoverability. The Fisher Library is fortunate to have a number of its holdings digitized and available through the Internet Archive. The collection of famed art historian Otto Schneid, whose work on Jewish artists was confiscated by the Nazis in 1939, recently had its call numbers and file titles updated so that researchers can more easily map the digital copy to the exact box and folder contained in the library. Additionally, the metadata for of collections on Access to Memory (AtoM) is currently being tidied and standardized to ensure greater consistency across our own records, which will better reflect both the hierarchical structure of the records as well as their provenance.

While neither of these projects are likely to be seen as more pressing than clearing a backlog of accessions and making them available to researchers, the closures make it difficult for archivists to physically access the archives, and researchers will not be entering our reading rooms in the foreseeable future. Instead, we have been afforded an opportunity to work on projects that are often neglected, but that can significantly improve our online presence. The librarians, archivists, and staff at Fisher are all engaged in countless other projects as we continue to work from home; hopefully this project report can offer ideas to other archival institutions who continue to work from home. post may give other archives project ideas.

Kyle Pugh

Kyle Pugh is an Archivist Assistant at the Wellington County Museum and Archives, and an Academic Library Intern in the Archival Unit at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Kyle recently completed his Master of Information at the University of Toronto. He presented at the 2020 ACA Conference on the student panel, looking at archival collections from hate groups.

ACA 2021 Conference: An Interview with Sofie Tsatas

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 14:00:00 GMT

ACA 2021 Virtual Conference - June 7-11, 2021

[Dark blue and red banner of the ACA Virtual Conference 2021 - Home Improvement. Featuring drawings of a house, a hammer, a nail, a construction barrier, and a ruler]

The ACA 2021 Annual conference is right around the corner! In the Field: The ACA blog is featuring the profile of a few members who will be presenting at the conference, June 7-11, 2021. Today we are featuring the profile of Sofie Tsatas, MA student in Information Studies at McGill University.

Can you tell us your school and program of study?

I am currently pursuing my Master’s degree in Information Studies at McGill University.

What is your presentation about?

My presentation, which is titled “Decolonized Listening in the Archive: a Study of how a Reconstruction of Archival Spaces and Processes can Contribute to Decolonizing Narratives and Listening,” looks at ways in which we can decolonize archival practices and spaces, and how that would impact musical records created by Indigenous artists. My research draws upon the book Hungry Listening by Dylan Robinson, as well as the art and musical exhibit Soundings (2019-2021), curated by both Robinson and Candice Hopkins, which focuses on the question “how can a score be a call and tool for decolonization?” From 2018-2020 I did a Master’s degree in Musicology at the University of British Columbia and I wrote my thesis on the music of Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Cree musician. Writing this thesis resulted in a lot of much needed reflection regarding my role as a settler and uninvited guest residing on Turtle Island (North America) and I realized that I wanted to continue working towards decolonizing efforts in my current degree, particularly regarding musical records. While there is still much for me to learn, this research has been very rewarding!

What brought you to the field of archival studies and/or practice?

I’ve always loved information, and while my music history degree seemed like a good fit at the time to satisfy my need for musical research and analysis, I realized that working more closely with particular historical records and documents was much more suited for me. I remember once reading personal letters from the composer Clara Schumann (1819-1896) addressed to her husband Robert for a school project a few years ago, and how amazing it felt to sit with these records and read something so intimate of someone I never knew. As an archivist, I can do this every day!

What kinds of archival futures are you invested in? Where do you see change happening? What changes are needed? Where do you hope the profession will be in 10 years?

I’m interested in continuing work and research in decolonizing archival practices and spaces. I would love to work in community and participatory-based archives with Indigenous Nations, focusing on musical records. Through this research I’ve learnt that there are some amazing platforms out there that are Indigenous-led and based in Indigenous notions of stewardship and record-keeping that are still not yet implemented in many archives. I want to help implement these systems and I think that in doing so, the role of the archivist will change in some ways.

Are there any other sessions at the conference that you’re excited to attend?

I am especially interested in the “Creating Trust and Transparency: Building Trauma-Informed Archives” Forum and the “Stories We Tell: Narratives of Inclusion” Session! Everything looks so amazing and I’m excited to hear some of my friends and professors speak as well! Like Isabel, I am new to the field so I am also looking forward to the virtual meetup.

Is there anything else you want to tell us?

Fun fact about me: I manage a Bookstagram account (Instagram for books!) called @readingwithsof because I love to read! It is also the most welcoming online community I’ve ever been a part of and I am so happy to be able to share and talk about books in a safe space!

ACA 2021 Conference: An Interview with Kelsey Beauvais and Laura Hernandez

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 14:00:00 GMT

ACA 2021 Virtual Conference - June 7-11, 2021

[Dark blue and red banner of the ACA Virtual Conference 2021 - Home Improvement. Featuring drawings of a house, a hammer, a nail, a construction barrier, and a ruler]

The ACA 2021 Annual conference is approaching fast! In the Field: The ACA blog is featuring the profile of a few members who will be presenting at the conference, June 7-11, 2021. Today we are featuring the profiles of Kelsey Beauvais and Laura Hernandez, Archivists at Library and Archives Canada.

Title of your presentation to the ACA 2021 conference?

An exercise in digital curation: Enhancing archival description and digital processing for the Prime Minister Papers Project.

Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Kelsey Beauvais: I went to Laurentian University following my passion in history and completed an Honours Bachelor's degree. I already knew by this point that I didn't want to be a teacher - which seemed to be the only profession and career advertised at the time. My love for historical research and passion in exploring oodles of primary sources lead me to continue my education with a Master's degree at Université de Rennes 2(Year 1)/University of Ottawa (Year 2).

[Portrait of Kelsey Beauvais, wearing dark-rimmed glasses, a salmon-pink scarf and a black t-shirt]

Laura Hernandez: I completed an Honours History and Anthropology Bachelor's degree at Western University. I wanted to either become a museum curator or continue my academic path towards a PHD. I decided to continue at Western's Public History Master's Program at Western in the end as it was best suited for me.

[Portrait of Laura Hernandez, wearing black-rimmed glasses, and a grey and light green shawl]

What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

We both have what is perhaps considered non-traditional paths to archival practice and we often joke about being "accidental archivists".

Kelsey: It's been an up and down journey in the search for a career. I've worked with heritage organizations and mainly supporting GLAMs, but it became clearer to me that I was searching for a niche where I could work more closely with historical sources. This really stood out for me while I was working at CCUNESCO as a Program Officer and coordinating the Canada Memory of the World Register; where my values, interests, knowledge and skills came together at a crux in archival practice. Enter the most amazing opportunity as an Archivist with LAC on the PM project!

Laura: I had multiple jobs in museums since I was a teen, but I always found myself enjoying the research side of things. A big recession hit right after finishing my Masters but I was lucky to get a job with a private firm in Ottawa as a historical research analyst. I worked there for nearly a decade on historical litigation research projects including co-managing TRC research work. That helped me get a foot in the door at LAC, first as an archival assistant in Government Records, then as an archivist for this project!

What do the theme of the ACA 2021 conference, “Home Improvement: Building Archives Through Change,” means to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

There is a delicate balance in respecting and understanding what's been done in the past and why, versus understanding and accepting that practices and even archival concepts need to evolve over time. They call it archival science for a reason, there are trial and errors, we come up with solutions and innovations that work for a particular record, project or situation that may not be feasible in the future. Best practices, methods, and concepts will always be a work in progress as society changes and evolves. In order to move Archives forward, we must root ourselves in principles, but be open to change and most importantly, to sharing our lessons learned and solutions.

Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

 The idea behind this presentation arose from informal conversations and brainstorming on how to process databases/data sets. While the records were suitable for preservation, we felt these were too valuable and complex to leave in their current state. This meant we needed to explore ways to create additional access points for these while maintaining their integrity. Our overall approach has been a practical and agile one particularly when it comes to description: maximizing what is already available (metadata), using this to supplement contextual information, and adhering to best practices to ensure the authenticity/integrity and long term preservation of the records. The bulk of the research came afterwards as we sought to validate our belief that archivists can have a greater role in digital curation allowing us to collaborate with other areas and to innovate in order to enrich descriptions of records when feasible.

ACA 2021 Conference: An Interview with Michelle Phan

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 14:00:00 GMT

ACA 2021 Virtual Conference - June 7-11, 2021

[Dark blue and red banner of the ACA Virtual Conference 2021 - Home Improvement. Featuring drawings of a house, a hammer, a nail, a construction barrier, and a ruler]

The ACA 2021 Annual conference is approaching fast! In the Field: The ACA blog is featuring the profile of a few members who will be presenting at the conference, June 7-11, 2021. Today we are featuring the profile of Michelle Phan, recent graduate at the University of Toronto iSchool.

Can you tell us your school and program of study?

I am a recent graduate from the Master of Information program at the University of Toronto’s iSchool, where I specialized in dual streams of Critical Information Policy Studies and Archives and Records Management.

What is your presentation about?

My presentation, titled ‘Towards the Rebel Archive: Seeing Prison Abolition through embodiment, ‘value’, and process is based on approaching social justice based archival literature from the perspective of prison and police abolition. In my research, I seek to disseminate the impacts of prison abolition as praxis in the archives and observe the participatory model from the abolitionist perspective.

My presentation will be an amalgamation of a series of research projects conducted based on sex worker advocacy networks such as Butterfly Network here in Toronto, as well as an annotation project conducted by Nigel Poor and the incarcerated men of San Quentin State Prison in California.

What brought you to the field of archival studies and/or practice?

I was hesitant to return to academia and archival studies for a long time because of the very visible gaps between theory and practice, particularly in the use of the term ‘decolonization’. Meanwhile, I began to engage more in critical race theory, particularly the works of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Angela Davis, Katherine McKittrick, and Kelly Lytle Hernandez. Hernandez highlights the rebel archive in her work and this concept is what drew me to the broader frameworks of archival theory.

What kinds of archival futures are you invested in? Where do you see change happening? What changes are needed? Where do you hope the profession will be in 10 years?

Archives should be ultimately interested in Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty. Reciprocal and relational praxis is imperative to the way communities want to be represented.

I continue to think to Jenn Cole’s words on relinquishing knowledge by “knowing that sometimes waiting is the work” (2019, p. 71) in changing what is valued in archival practice. I hope that a shift towards practice as process/progress encourages archivists to take time to think through decision making processes.

Are there any other sessions at the conference that you’re excited to attend?

I’m looking forward to so many panels! Black Archives Matter, At Home in the Community Archives: How the ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives Has Evolved in Collaboration with Their Volunteers, Towards Acknowledging Emotions in Archival Education, and Dionne Brand reads from The Blue Clerk.

ACA 2021 Conference: An Interview with Isabel Carlin

Thu, 27 May 2021 14:00:00 GMT

ACA 2021 Virtual Conference - June 7-11, 2021

[Dark blue and red banner of the ACA Virtual Conference 2021 - Home Improvement. Featuring drawings of a house, a hammer, a nail, a construction barrier, and a ruler]

The ACA 2021 Annual conference is approaching fast! In the Field: The ACA blog is featuring the profile of a few members who will be presenting at the conference, June 7-11, 2021. Today we are featuring the profile of Isabel Carlin, Master student at the University of British Columbia iSchool.

Can you tell us your school and program of study?

I'm in the dual Master of Archival Studies and Master of Library and Information Studies (MAS/LIS) program at the University of British Columbia iSchool.

What is your presentation about?

My presentation, "Home Archives: Online Political Record-keeping in the Diaspora" is about digital recordkeeping practices at Sulong, which is a Filipinx-Canadian student organization at UBC. I've been a member of Sulong since January, 2020, and since the COVID-19 pandemic we've had a huge increase in membership and, consequently, a proliferation of new electronic records within the organization. This presentation is an opportunity for us as an organization to think through the material and political implications of our digital technology usage, and a way for me to learn about how archival theory applies to real-world communities and situations.

I've been particularly intrigued by the general theoretical trend towards immateriality in discussions of electronic archives — what 'is' a digital record, how are archival bonds made 'real' in a virtual environment, what is originality, etc. It's true that digital records are different from physical records for many reasons, and those reasons are deserving of study. At the same time, I want to explicitly situate workers and infrastructures in our discussions of digital technology, in alignment with the leftist analysis that Sulong brings to its work.

What brought you to the field of archival studies and/or practice?

My undergraduate degree at University of Toronto was in Indigenous Studies, History, and French Studies, which ended up creating a pretty cool intersection of post-/anticolonial studies situated across the globe (here on Turtle Island, in Southeast and East Asia, and in former French colonies in North Africa and the Antilles). Discussions of colonial and imperialist power, particularly in the context of research ethics, led me to think about the ethics of data storage and collection and, more broadly, knowledge systems. I applied to the UBC iSchool thinking about how hegemonic archives have been used as tools of imperialist power, and I'm currently grappling with what I feel is a lack of leftist, materialist archival theory, which I hope to contribute to in my future work.

What kinds of archival futures are you invested in? Where do you see change happening? What changes are needed? Where do you hope the profession will be in 10 years?

I'm interested in anti-imperialist and revolutionary archival futures. As a member of a movement for liberation in the Philippines, I know that archives will continue to be useful as we carry our ancestral stories of resistance; today, for example, I still know the name of Gabriela Silang, an Ilocana revolutionary hero who led uprisings against Spanish colonialism in the 1700s, because the Filipino people continue to remember our struggles of resistance. I'd love to see a greater recognition of non-Western ontologies in archival theory, and to see how archives embedded in activist communities (like Sulong!) can leverage the tools of Eurocentric theory and practice for revolutionary aims.

Are there any other sessions at the conference that you’re excited to attend?

I have to say, all of the sessions look incredible. I wish I could attend all of them!! I'm especially excited to attend the BIPOC Archivists Forum, and the Stream A sessions on Wednesday (The Home in Transition, Under Construction, and the workshop on Incorporating Indigenous Ways in Archival Policy and Procedure Development). I also can't wait to attend the virtual meetup on Tuesday, since I'm so new to the field — really looking forward to meeting other archivists.

ACA 2021 Conference: An Interview with Greg Bak

Tue, 25 May 2021 14:00:00 GMT

ACA 2021 Virtual Conference - June 7-11, 2021

[Dark blue and red banner of the ACA Virtual Conference 2021 - Home Improvement. Featuring drawings of a house, a hammer, a nail, a construction barrier, and a ruler]

The ACA 2021 Annual conference is approaching fast! In the Field: The ACA blog is featuring the profile of a few members who will be presenting at the conference, June 7-11, 2021. Today we are featuring the profile of Greg Bak, Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba.

[Portrait of Greg Bak, smiling, in front of a light blue and light green wall]

Title of your presentation to the ACA 2021 conference?

I am part of two ACA presentations. The first is “Reflecting and Imagining Visions for Archival Education”, which is a roundtable discussion among students, recent graduates and archival educators from several archival Master’s programs across Canada. The second is a traditional paper given as part of the panel “We Sing the Archive Electric: A/accessible and Open Source Digital Archives on Indigenous Lands.” My paper will address the colonialism inherent in Manitoba’s generation of hydrocelectricity within the context of the wastefulness of current digital preservation techniques and infrastructures.

Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

My path was neither straight nor narrow! In 2001 I left Dalhousie University with a PhD in History that examined sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English ideas about Islam, as well as an MLIS. Over the course of a decade I worked in various library, digital information management and digital archiving positions, before landing at Library and Archives Canada, where I worked as a Senior Digital Archivist and Acting Manager for the Government Records Digital Office. In 2011 I was hired by the University of Manitoba to teach and research digital archives in the Joint Master’s Program of the Department of History. At UManitoba I’ve mostly taught archival studies, although I also offer the occasional undergraduate course in history of digital cutlure.

What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

This one is easy: my love of history and information management. I fondly remember working as a digital information manager at a health agency in Ottawa and dipping into Archivaria as I was prepping for my interview at LAC. I don’t know how or why I turned to this article in particular, but I recall reading Rick Brown’s “Records Acquisition Strategy and Its Theoretical Foundation: The Case for a Concept of Archival Hermaneutics” and feeling like I’d found my home. I love archival studies for its deep engagement with theory, anchored by the specific needs of archival practice.

What does the theme of the ACA 2021 conference, “Home Improvement: Building Archives Through Change,” mean to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

Such a timely conference theme! So many changes. For my paper on the colonialism inherent in the hydroelectricity used in digital preservation, I hope that the changes include an increasing awareness of the environmental and other impacts of current digital preservation practices. For my contribution to the roundtable on archival education, I hope that the change that we are building is one of increasing diversity in the archival workforce, and in archival theory. The latter is just as important as the former.

Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

Since I don’t work in an archives at the moment, and haven’t for a while, my research involves thinking through archival theory and practice as historically and culturally contingent. I enjoy collaborating with others and have often contributed to group-authored publications. I firmly believe that collaboration allows us to see multiple perspectives and makes us all smarter. Or at least me!

ACA 2021 Conference: An Interview with Annaëlle Winand

Thu, 20 May 2021 14:00:00 GMT

ACA 2021 Virtual Conference - June 7-11, 2021

[Dark blue and red banner of the ACA Virtual Conference 2021 - Home Improvement. Featuring drawings of a house, a hammer, a nail, a construction barrier, and a ruler]

The ACA 2021 Annual conference is approaching fast! In the Field: The ACA blog is featuring the profile of a few members who will be presenting at the conference, June 7-11, 2021. Today we are featuring the profile of Annaëlle Winand, PhD candidate at the École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information de l’Université de Montréal.

[Black and white portrait of Annaëlle Winand in front of a "Creature from the Black Lagoon" poster]

Title of your presentation to the ACA 2021 conference?

What’s in Between? Archive(s) and the Unarchived and Unarchivable Space of Found Footage Cinema

Can you walk us through your academic and professional path?

Back in Belgium, where I am from, I studied history. After I graduated, I taught for a very short time in secondary school before deciding to go back to university to specialize in archival science. I was then hired by the Archives of the University of Louvain-la-Neuve where I worked as an archivist for a little more than two years.

What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

I always tell the same (true!) story: at some point in my life, I declared that I wanted to work with “dead things”… How wrong was I? More seriously, while studying history, I was always working in and with archives. When I decided to re-orient my career it felt quite natural to study the very material I have been involved with for so long. The Archives were also a place I liked, and I was curious about what felt like “behind the scenes” of such institutions.

What do the theme of the ACA 2021 conference, “Home Improvement: Building Archives Through Change,” means to you in terms of overall archival orientations and practice?

The theme clearly resonates with archivists trying to be more introspective, asking what we should do about the power dynamics that exists at the core of our work. But it also asks the question: what is home? What archives have we been building so far? Does it need improvement, renovation or, more radically, foundational work? I am truly looking forward to discussing these important questions during the conferences.

Can you tell us about your research approach and perspectives?

My work emerges from the “exploitation” framework studied by Yvon Lemay and Anne Klein, which places the uses of archives as an integral part of their trajectory. What especially interests me is the non-traditional uses of archives (or material that is called archives) and how they reveal blind spots in archival science. My dissertation, for example, explores the notions of the unarchived and the unarchivable through absence, invisible, forbidden, and unthinkable.

Planning an Online Archives Launch: The S. J. V. Chelvanayakam Fonds

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 14:00:00 GMT

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenging time for all, archives notwithstanding. A large part of outreach and access to archives involves physical appointments to view archives and collections. Like many other archives, I had in-person archival launches planned for the spring of 2020 that were postponed indefinitely due to the global pandemic. The launch of the S. J. V. Chelvanayakam Fonds, organized by a faculty member, the donor, and myself, was planned to have several multidisciplinary international scholars and community members who would interact with the archive and plan a talk around their findings. Through grants, we intended to fund the speakers’ travel and accommodation. Several months after our library shut down in-person services in March 2020, it was apparent that we needed to adapt our planning to fit around the long-term restrictions that many countries were facing.

The S. J. V. Chelvanayakam Fonds is a personal and professional collection that was created in Sri Lanka. The archive was safeguarded and brought with the family when they immigrated to Canada. It was apparent that this fonds would attract many scholars from around the world, and not just Toronto.

The event, held in February 2021, served a dual purpose: announcing the acquisition of the archive and opening the digitized portion of the collection. Four months prior to the event, we selected which digitized files were relatively low risk to release online to the public. This was done in consultation with members of the community and our international Tamil Advisory Group. Three months prior, the faculty member selected our potential speakers and researchers. The finding aid was released online as well as the approved digital professional files. In the final two months prior to the event began the logistics and promotional planning which entailed a great deal of work. For the logistics planning, I found planning a clear timeline, schedule, tasks, and roles of participants, using a tool like Excel or other planning tool, was immensely helpful to track all of the details.

Statistics:

Pre-registered: 287

Attended: 196 

Number of attendees who registered in advance and attended: 122

Number of attendees who registered day-of and attended: 74

Countries attended: 8 (Canada, France, India, Netherlands, Norway, Sri Lanka, UK, USA)

Total time of event: 183 minutes

Average attendee time: 105 minutes

We expected that this launch would garner international interest and planned accordingly. We chose to plan the webinar launch at 9am EST, a time at which we hoped that many people from Sri Lanka could join, which is 10.5 hours ahead of EST. Luckily, our institution has access to the Zoom webinar feature which allows for an unlimited number of people and we also used the Interpretation feature so we could make the event bilingual in Tamil, the other language of the fonds. Of course, this launch was not planned in a silo. We had the benefit of working with our Informational and Technology Services department, who helped us set up the Zoom webinar registration according to our preferences, as well as hosting a trial webinar one day prior to the event that proved to be essential with the organizers, speakers, and interpreter. We had a number of staff on hand to assist day-of, with such tasks as fielding questions in the Zoom Q & A box, and also switching the cameras between speakers. After creating promotional posters and emails, our communications team and alumni relations helped spread the word of the event through social media and listservs.

There were both advantages and disadvantages in having an online archival launch. A clear advantage is that the budget was significantly less than what would have been necessary for an in-person event. As we wanted to invite several international scholars and speakers, there was no need to pay for flight and hotel costs. One of the greatest obstacles overcome by an online launch is breaking the barrier of access: we had a significant number of 196 attendees who attended from eight countries. One of the disadvantages is not being able to provide technical support to attendees, or the event not reaching possible attendees due to lack of technical knowledge or access to Zoom. We tried to overcome this by making registration information very clear. We sent out many reminders to pre-registrants, which included the Zoom link to the webinar, including one final reminder the morning of the event. As you can see from the statistics, however, 74 people still registered the day of the event, which proves that day-of mass communication of the event is essential. To overcome any technical obstacles for attendees, we had slides during the first five minutes of the webinar demonstrating how to turn on the Interpretation feature and how to ask a question. Every five to ten minutes, these instructions were repeated in the chat to new participants and for reminders.

We did not know what to expect for an online archive launch but the feedback we received greatly exceeded our expectations, most likely thanks to our speakers who used the archive creatively and thoughtfully in their presentations. Our attendees were engaged all throughout, seeing as how many attendees stayed throughout most of the 183 minutes of the webinar. The attendees also asked thought-provoking questions during the Q & A period. Based on my experience organizing this online archive launch, online events can be as engaging as in-person events. In this scenario, we reached a wider audience than would have been possible at a physical archive launch. If you are curious about hosting an online archives event, please take a look at our webinar recording for the S. J. V. Chelvanayakam Fonds.

Tanis Franco

Tanis Franco is the Archivist at the University of Toronto Scarborough where they acquire, process, and facilitate access to archives and digital collections in the Archives and Special Collections unit. Franco has over 9 years of experience working with archives in university and cultural heritage settings and holds a Master of Information Studies from McGill University and a Master of English Literature from Concordia University.

Interview with Paulette Dozois

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 14:00:00 GMT

As any young professional will know, having the support and guidance of senior staff can be the biggest blessing and privilege. Their words of wisdom and wealth of experience are invaluable and can make the difference in a young professional’s career. For me, one of those people is Paulette Dozois (PD), now retired Senior Lead Archivist at Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Paulette spoke to me in early February about her career, a phone call that lasted only an hour but that could have continued for days.

Without mentioning any dates (!!) Paulette told me about the beginning of her career working at LAC as an Assistant Archivist in Private Records (or the Manuscript Division) and then as an Archivist (HR-02), where she worked on the MacKenzie King diaries, the Robert Borden fonds, the “four unknowns” — John Abbott, John Thompson, Mackenzie Bowell and Charles Tupper — then the Richard B. Bennett fonds. Following her time here she transferred to Public Records (also known as Government Records) where she had many different responsibilities but settled with the Department of External Affairs fonds (Foreign Affairs) for twenty years. Her final ten years at LAC were spent working on the Block Review project with the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) group.

In addition to her time in the Archives Division at LAC, Paulette also spent a year in Policy, a year at the Directorate of History and Heritage at the Department of National Defense, and spent some time working on a contract with the Yukon Archives in Private Records.

Paulette was awarded the Archives Association of Ontario’s JJ Talman award in 2020 — a testament to her dedication and leadership in the archival profession. Heralded as a champion of researcher’s rights, Paulette received the award for “her innovative approach to access” through the “identification and examination of representative parts of the archival record and opening the records based on the findings.” The full text of the award citation is available online and includes a very funny anecdote about white gloves!

Caption: Image of Paulette Dozois, courtesy of Rodney Carter.

Alt-text: A photograph of Paulette Dozois wearing a red scarf.

RM: What did you study? Did you choose your degree based on a desire to work in archives?

PD: "There was none of that back in the dark ages!"

Paulette holds a Master of Arts in Canadian History from Carleton University. While completing her work for this degree she did research at the then Public Archives of Canada and was inspired by the work she saw being done there. She said that she’s an "unedumacated archivist"!

This led to an interesting discussion about the formal education of archivists in Canada. Paulette told me about the aptly-named “Archives course” that new archivists took within about the first five years of being hired. It was a 6-week course delivered by the Public Archives of Canada to archivists across the country with upwards of 50 students at a time.

Through the course she learned the “basics of archives.” During that era, PAC had three types of archivists: special media, private and government. There were no reference or access archivists then as each group of archivists did their own reference work. But with the advent of Access to Information and Privacy legislation, government records were being transferred to LAC “in tsunamis [and] Reference Services came into being as a point of necessity because of the volume of requests.”

Paulette told me that “when she started, the [Prime Minister] records up to St. Laurent were all right there on the 3rd floor of [395 Welllington]! You could just walk down the hall and get a box and bring it down to your desk. The government archivists were up on the 7th floor with the tiny windows! Users were sent right upstairs to see archivists; the building was much more open in that way.”

Caption: Photograph of Library and Archives Canada Ottawa research facility at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa, Ontario. Photograph by Sophie Tellier (LAC).

Alt text: Image of large building flanked by banners that read “Library and Archives Canada - Bibliothèque et Archives Canada.”

RM: What were your impressions of the field, or of the work, when you "joined"?

PD: The field was "predominantly, overwhelmingly male and now it's mostly female I think. When I was in the manuscript division first, there were a few women who'd been there a while, the government archives division, when I put my name on the transfer list, the equal opportunities for women had cited the division because there were no female [archivists], just one female [senior archivist] Barbara Wilson.” Paulette did emphasize that she “never had any trouble, [her colleagues were] very respectful.”

RM: Looking back, what are some of the major shifts you've lived through with regard to archival work?

PD: "[In] the beginning the archivist did almost all function: reference, custodial, appraisal, acquisition. […] The archivist was really in charge of those records. You did it all. Over time, the amount of authority that a particular archivist has over a fonds has diminished. [...] It had to happen. [...] So much changed when ATIP came in. Our responsibilities increased intensely."

Her advice is that "archivists should be part of the decisions," because silos won’t serve the record well. “There is just one record.”

I asked Paulette about her involvement with the ACA.

PD: “[I] started in the early 1980s on the membership committee, and then the membership chair for a long time. Then I was on the Public Relations committee and I was chair when we did the booklets like Business Archives." Paulette recalls organizing a pop-up frame to set up behind the table at events, getting the ACA out and present in the community. She started publishing and giving papers, and was on the editorial team for Archivaria for a while. At this point in the interview Paulette paused as if this was the extent of it, only to continue by mentioning that she was on 4 or 5 program committees for conferences, chaired the Newfoundland conference program committee in 1993 (Between The Rock and a Hard Place: Archival Theory and Practice). And it didn’t stop there: "I was the one who got approval for the special interest section on access and privacy issues in the 1990s." Paulette also spoke to the importance of the annual conference as an opportunity to establish and maintain the "links across the country that make the ACA a strong organization."

Caption: Cover page of the Business Archives booklet published by the ACA in 2000. Copyright Association of Canadian Archivists.

Alt-text: A blue and white rectangular image that serves as the cover page for a booklet entitled “Business Archives” with various images representing industry such as an oil rig, textual documents, machines, a satellite and a factory-like setting.

RM: What advice might you give to a young or aspiring archivist?

PD: "Dress properly (laughter). You know there was a time it was unheard of for an archivist to show up with jeans on. Just not done. [...] Have fun! If there's one word to describe how I feel about my career it's LUCKY. There were some tough times but we got through them."

I think I speak for many when I say that I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with Paulette, to have had her ear, her kind smile, and to have been able to sit in the corner of her very full office furiously scribbling notes as she told me stories and shared her wisdom on finding aids to restricted files and a few detours in between. Congratulations to Paulette on her well-deserved retirement!

Rebecca Murray

Rebecca Murray (RM) is a Senior Archivist in the Reference Services Division at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. She is also a member of the ACA’s Outreach Committee and Mentorship Program. She sometimes wears jeans to the office but will now never do so without thinking first of Paulette’s advice!

Lucidea’s LAMs Database Guides Users to Millions of Dollars in Grants

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:00:00 GMT

For many staff in Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAMs), it is difficult to carve out time to craft a competitive grant project, find an appropriate grant to apply for, and successfully work through the grant application.
There are resources available, but many fail to cover all areas of the grant process, and many more are too generalized to be effectively deployed in a LAM setting. Very few are comprehensive to LAMs, provide grant specifications, or offer advanced searching. There are no grant templates that allow LAM staff to plug in content and create applications. Fundamentally, there is no all-inclusive LAM grant toolkit.

Lucidea- provider of the ArchivEra and Argus collections management systems as well as industry-leading library automation and knowledge management software—partnered with grants expert Rachael Cristine Woody to provide a solution to these problems. They now deliver a single venue to meet the majority of grant needs, and have created a LAM grant toolkit—including a comprehensive grant database spanning Libraries, Archives, and Museums, with opportunities in the United States and Canada. Users can quickly see opportunities that best match their needs, with specifications such as: deadline, award range, and project theme—the most important things you must know to determine if the grant opportunity is a good fit. This resource provides LAMs with access to over $200 million annually—especially meaningful when budgets are constrained during COVID.

The toolkit is designed to empower LAM professionals by providing all the information and tools needed to confidently apply for grants. Included is a LAM grant workbook that introduces every typical grant application field and provides four grant application templates. It guides users through each application area, outlines what content is needed in order to be successful, and inspires action with four plug-and-play project frameworks.

Lucidea invites you to view the Grants Directory and/or download a copy of the grant workbook.

Rima Ghanem

Rima Ghanem is a Cultural Sector Research Analyst at Lucidea, where her primary focus is on archival and museum collection management systems. Rima holds an MA in Cultural Management from Université Saint-Joseph and an MAS from the University of British Columbia. Prior to Lucidea, Rima worked at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar, and other MENA region heritage organizations.

Producing the Archival Body: An Interview with Jamie A. Lee, PhD

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 15:00:00 GMT

It seemed fitting that, in preparing for an interview with Jamie A. Lee, PhD, about their new book Producing the Archival Body, I would feel an embodied manifestation of my own anticipation: a stomach-fluttering nervousness and excitement, a difficulty swallowing when considering whether or not I was up to the task, a chill in my blood when I decided I probably wasn’t.

Fortunately, Jamie A. Lee, a longtime interviewer, educator, and archivist quickly made clear that our conversation needn’t be stressful or fear-inducing: in situating our bodies -- even virtually -- they began the interview by envisioning that I’d flown to Tucson (in a non-covid world!) and that we were sitting in the unseasonably warm winter sunshine of a cafe, sipping lattes and listening to chirping birds. The physical sense of comfort and connection took hold right away to ease our discussion.

[Portrait of Jamie A. Lee, PhD, with a dark blue blazer and black-rimmed glasses. Courtesy of Jamie A. Lee]

Because Lee has been engaged in the work of documenting LGBTQ+ stories for years now, and because they have written about and presented on the Queer/ed Archival Metholodolgy extensively in recent years, Producing the Archival Body is in many ways a culmination of those experiences and efforts. “The book interrogates how power circulates and is deployed in archival contexts in order to build critical understandings of how deeply archives influence and shape the production of knowledges and human subjectivities” (https://ischool.arizona.edu/people/jamie-lee). The chapters interweave theoretical application with personal anecdotes and subject interviews, and I found myself often returning to the personal stories to understand the depth and richness of the theory through those connective tissues. What follows are a few of our discussion points.

KW: Can you tell me about the journey this book has taken from dissertation to book?

JL: It's been interesting to be finishing the book, in the midst of the pandemic. It feels so good to have that out in the world. Of course, it's so nerve racking. My writing feels so personal, like your heart’s on your sleeve, and you're so vulnerable. So, this is the first time I’ve been interviewed about the book. And the first time I’ve ever written a book; I came to the academy older (I turned 50 last year, in the pandemic).

“With each inclusion and exclusion, archivists have the power to develop the historical narratives, records, and collections, as well as the archival institution.” (p. 68)

One of the starting points for the book was to think about: what relationships does the archives have to humans? I started thinking through the body, bodily functions, and human subjectivities and all that that entails to consider the archives as archival body. We each have techniques, embodied techniques, that we use in our everyday lives. What are they and how do they carry into our work as archivists. And as archivists, we have all of these [archival] practices, but sometimes it feels more like we’re putting widgets into cogs on assembly lines because we can do them without critically thinking and reflecting upon what we’re doing and why. We’re not asked to pause and to see the big picture of the humans and the many complexities that make the records and the archives, and make the ideas of memory meaningful, and be important and be valued. These are the issues at the center of my work, including not only my published manuscript but also my ongoing research projects, multimedia projects, and public-facing digital humanities projects. I am interested in how to recognize, acknowledge, and work with nuance and complexity.

In 2008, Lee founded the Arizona LGBTQ Storytelling Project, Arizona’s first LGBTQ archives. Since 2011, this project has expanded into the Arizona Queer Archives, AQA, which has become an archival laboratory of sorts where community members and graduate/undergraduate students work together on building the archives. It is in these collaborative spaces where Lee continues to develop and apply a Queer/ed Archival Methodology, Q/M, to support archivists through rapidly changing information environments and the implications — socially, culturally, and technologically — of these changes.

[Arizona Queer Archive "Made for Flight" Kites Display. Courtesy of Jamie A. Lee]

When, in 2008, I initially founded the Arizona LGBTQ Storytelling Project, what is now the AQA, I wanted to know “what do I have to do to make this the right way, to do a good job?” What I found was that the “right” ways felt like they were doing more harm to the communities -- and as a part of the community, it was my role to push back at that and to make it better. I learned so much along the way about my own assumptions, and really tried to pay attention to the relationships I have with people. I wanted to demonstrate responsibility and respect for the people I was working with. If I didn’t have that, basically I was aligning with what we, as archival studies scholars, often critique of the institutional mainstream archives.

When I started my PhD program, Professor Susan Stryker arrived at my university as the new Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies. She came with an archival background after having directed the GLBT Historical Society and History Museum in San Francisco. I took her seminar on Somatechnics and the Technologies of the Body. It was in this course that everything I thought about archives kind of blew apart. That was where I began to realize that the body is so central to everything we do. While I wrote my dissertation, I drew from somatechnics literatures, queer theorists, and also from Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s 25 Projects central to decolonizing methodologies to develop the Queer/ed Archival Methodology. I really wanted to both center temporality and bodies. How do archives influence people? How do we see interconnections between people in the archives?

Those were the initial questions that I was building upon in moving the dissertation to the book project. The biggest thing, for me, is always the stories and the storytelling part of this work. That’s why I started each chapter with stories and put myself out there personally to say, “This matters to me because these are my histories too.” I’m a part of all these things, and there’s no way to discount the body and to break apart the body from each of these records.

KW: Who did you envision reading this book when you were writing it? And how would you teach it in your classroom?

JL: I could see community archivists picking up the book and being inspired. I’d want them to recognize that theory is emerging in their own everyday work within their home communities. Students in archival studies, in gender and women’s studies, in rhetoric, maybe in digital humanities would be able to find information here to think about the role the archives plays in all these areas -- maybe in understanding composition or how the stories come together.

[Selfie photo of Hope Herr-Cardillo processing Jay Kyle Petersen’s Collection, 2017. Courtesy of Jamie A. Lee]

In my own classroom, I could see teaching a couple of chapters, especially the one on the finding aid [Chapter 2, which includes an extensive section on reimagining the place of archivist’s personal reflections in the archiving process]. The postmodern turn in archival studies is still important in today’s classrooms. In the book, I considered incorporating posthumanism as heuristic, a tool, to inquire into the relationships between archives and humans. I know a lot of students are interested in thinking about things like the etymology of terms, what do those terms mean when we bring them to bear on our own collections and collecting practices?

“...archivists rarely return to finding aids to attend to time, the shifting bodies of records creators and bodies of knowledge, and any descriptive mistakes or needed revisions....Therefore, I understand that developing the conversational aspect of the finding aid is a way for the AQA to embody its participatory ethos.” (p. 58)

KW: That view seems like it’s part of the idea that we build the world we want to live in -- at least as archivists and archival studies educators.

JL: Yes. We have more power to do good than we think we do. We think there are so many gatekeepers around who aren’t going to let us do what we want or need to do, but we just need someone to say “Yes, I’ll do it.” Someone said to me 12 or 13 years ago that since I had the filmmaking equipment and local elder LGBTQ people were dying, I should collect their stories. I said “yes.” And that was how I started Arizona’s first LGBTQ archives. We have a lot of power to collect and build our histories and to shape all of the many nuanced narratives that don’t often get a chance to be seen.

KW: Who are some of the most significant influences on your work?

JL: When I first read Jasbir Puar’s book Terrorist Assemblages, Elizabeth Freeman’s Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories, and Avery Gordon’s Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination -- those three books knocked my socks off in my first semester of my doctoral studies. Professor Frank Galarte worked closely with me in this first semester to challenge my assumptions and grow my ideas of the archives and what they can do. I’ve always been curious about time, space, and the understanding of our bodies in that time and space, and where that all overlaps with archives. Those three books really opened up doors for me to just try on ideas and noodle my way through it.

KW: How would you characterize your methodology?

Lee has written extensively on Queer/ed Methodology, which informs much of their work and this book.

JL: I bring in a queer methodology; not just a queer theoretical lens, but a way to use a queer methodology to also suggest storytelling as a method. It goes beyond the act of collecting the story to the act of telling the story. I think that we should pay attention to thinking about what stories these records will tell, and then put the records into the collection in that way. It’s a way to understand relationality.

“Like both haunting and decolonizing as temporal methods of producing and consuming archives, queering provides a means for reimagining normative assumptions within archives and about the bodies of knowledges therein." (p. 78)

KW: What do you want readers, current and future, to know about Producing the Archival Body?

JL: The book is similar to my own personal trajectory in the archives, including me entering the archives as a non-academic social justice activist. So we can see the ways we move through and have different journeys when we’re working in archives. I would like our students to learn in the classroom that we’re all wrestling with these same ideas, and that we can make different inroads and interventions. I’d like our students to have the confidence to push for social justice and make change in whatever archives they’re working in.

There’s a quote from one of my earlier documentary films that has stuck with me. Pastor Anita Hill was ordained by St. Paul Reformation Lutheran Church; she was a lesbian and would not divorce her partner or be celibate. At her ordination, we interviewed Bishop Krister Stendahl who said, “The drop makes a hole in the stone, not by its weight, but by constantly dropping.” Thinking about social justice, it’s not like one big thing is going to change it. But it has to be all of these little drops continuing to drop. How can we spread this urgency to make change? Even if it's small and incremental, it could be lasting. So how do we do it?

Kristen Whitson

Kristen Whitson has a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and she has worked in digital preservation, community and indigenous archives, and LGBTQ+ archives. She is currently a Program Assistant with Recollection Wisconsin.

Jamie A. Lee is Assistant Professor of Digital Culture, Information, and Society in the School of Information – Arizona’s iSchool – at the University of Arizona, where their research and teaching attend to critical archival theory and methodologies, multimodal media-making contexts, storytelling, and bodies. For more information about Lee’s research, visit their website: www.thestorytellinglab.io

Behind the Scenes: Presenting at Archive/Counter Archive 2020 Symposium

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Last October, I was invited to present at the Archive/Counter-Archive 2020 Symposium. The theme for the symposium was Black lives and archival histories in Canada. My presentation took place on December 11, 2020, as part of “Panel 1: Place-based/Institutional Engagements with Black Histories.” The organizing committee reached out to me after a former co-worker shared my blog post, “Archiving Hate: Racist Materials in Archives.” They were interested in my perspective on how racism should be addressed in archival training and pedagogy. The issue of racism and oppression in archives was rarely addressed during my studies at McGill University’s School of Information Studies. Regardless, I was aware of how deeply ingrained “neutrality” was in archival education and practice. I decided to focus my presentation on anti-racist and anti-oppressive approaches to archival pedagogy and training in Canada. While these approaches are not new, I argued that they are poorly incorporated into Canadian archival education and training. The research aspect of my presentation was challenging. The prevalence of neutrality in Library and Information Studies (LIS) programs and the archival profession is well known. However, more research studies are needed to understand how critical theory and practices are incorporated into archival education and training in Canada. Despite this, I was able to gather evidence for my presentation.

Archive/Counter Archive 2020 Symposium poster featuring the panelists and the event details

I started my research by gaining a greater understanding of various anti-racist and anti-oppressive theories and how they have been applied in practice. There has been an emergence of scholarship and community-centred archival initiatives that look critically at traditional archival practices. These efforts have led to the creation of several critical approaches to archiving including decolonization, postcolonialism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, and deconstructionism. My next step was to research how these critical theories and practices were integrated into archival pedagogy and training.

In terms of examining archival pedagogy, I reviewed several LIS programs in Canada to find archival course descriptions and syllabi. This was challenging, as some programs published vague course descriptions, outdated syllabi, or there were no syllabi publicly listed. I identified a few programs that included some critical theories and practices in their curriculum. However, when I spoke to a few recent graduates in my network who completed those programs, they had issues with how those critical theories and practices were integrated. In their experience, one former student explained that international examples of critical practices were emphasized over those in the Canadian context. Another former student found that critical perspectives were tokenized rather than included as foundational knowledge. They found that the instructors poorly facilitated conversations around racism and other forms of oppression.

After searching for a more in-depth examination of this issue, I came across two publications: “Education for the Common Good: A Student Perspective on Including Social Justice in LIS Education” by students from the Master of Library & Information Science (MLIS) program at Western University and "A Report on Diversity and Inclusion Experiences at the Faculty of Information" from various student groups at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. These publications addressed the issue of “neutrality” in their programs and made several suggestions for instructors to move towards more anti-oppressive pedagogy. Amongst these suggestions, it was recommended that instructors receive formal training in facilitating conversations surrounding race, sexuality, gender, and disability.

As I was searching for an example of an archival course with anti-oppressive frameworks, I discovered that the School of Information Studies at McGill University hired Gracen Brilmyer as a new Assistant Professor. Gracen’s website states that their research interests are “located at the intersection of critical archival studies and disability studies.” Gracen also disclosed that they identify as a “disabled and chronically ill white, queer, non-binary person from a middle-class background.” I was excited that the School of Information Studies hired a professional with an under-represented perspective and research interest. Given Gracen’s positionality and research interests, I wanted to know if they took an anti-oppressive approach to their pedagogy. I contacted Gracen and they agreed to speak with me. Gracen explained that they were hired to redesign the Organization of Information course, which is a required first-year course. They also will be looking at the program’s archive-specific courses and considering how they can be restructured.

Gracen told me that their education included critical perspectives and cultural competency training that was specific to the information studies field. With that background, Gracen said they take a critical and anti-oppressive approach to their pedagogy. The Organization of Information course was redesigned to look at traditional and critical theories and practices together. Perspectives and scholarship from professionals that belong to Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) and other marginalized communities are included as required readings. As Gracen is part of the disabled community, they understand that peer-reviewed journals can be seen as a barrier to marginalized communities looking to publish their content. Peer-reviewed journals may reject a perspective, heavily edit submitted content, or hide publications behind a paywall. To address this issue, Gracen includes a range of content that is produced by professionals that belong to diverse communities. Some examples include a blog post, video, or tweet. The course consists of lectures, guest lectures and workshops from professionals who do radical work, and hands-on, problem-based learning. The assignments and activities ask students to think critically about the impact of organizing systems and practices. Based on my experience with the previous iteration of this course, I think that Gracen made some well-needed changes to the course.

In terms of archival training in Canada, I failed to find a publication or an article that examined how anti-racist or anti-oppressive approaches were integrated. To get a sense of the archival training offered, I searched the websites of several archival associations and conducted general searches online. There are a few issues with this. It was difficult to see what type of archival training was offered in the past or anticipate what may be offered again in the future. It was also difficult to locate archival training through keyword searches as different terminology may be used to describe the training. I tried different terminologies such as “anti-racist,” “anti-oppression,” “Indigenous,” and “critical.”

Most of the archival training I found provided “neutral” approaches to professional development. For example, I identified an archival training on Rules for Archival Description (RAD) that did not include anti-racist approaches to description practices. Some archival training opportunities looked at oppression or marginalization. However, when I read the description or contacted the instructor, I realized that these training opportunities were not intended to guide archivists on how to apply anti-oppressive practices. There are a few informal, participant-driven conversations for archivists to discuss and share their knowledge on anti-oppressive practices. I decided to reach out to my network and spoke to several archivists in Ontario and Quebec who have an understanding of current archival training in Canada. They acknowledged that more archive-specific anti-oppressive training would be beneficial for addressing issues in the archival profession. Some of them provided me with suggestions for anti-oppressive training. An example that stood out to me was training on how to provide reference services to BIPOC researchers in light of offensive language in legacy finding aids and historic materials. I also performed online research to find examples of anti-oppressive archival training from the United States. I found a few recorded webinars of critical training for librarians and archivists. One webinar offered training on how to critique library policies, procedures, and practices with an anti-racist analysis.

As my research shows, more work is needed for Canadian archival education and training to challenge “neutrality” in the profession. This will help prepare students to work with diverse communities and support archivists in challenging oppressive practices. While there is a lack of best practices, there are resources as well as archive and community-based initiatives that can provide a framework for emerging and practicing archivists to do anti-oppressive work.

Melissa Nelson

Melissa Nelson is a second-generation Jamaican Canadian from Toronto, Ontario. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in History, with a minor in Sociology, from Carleton University. She also completed a Master of Information Studies at McGill University. Her experience includes working at George Brown College Archives, The Presbyterian Church in Canada Archives, the Law Society of Ontario Archives, and Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at York University. Melissa currently works freelance as an archival consultant. Melissa conducts research and produces content on history and archive related topics for her website melissajnelson.com.

ICHORA 2020 Conference Report : The Many Lives and Afterlives of Digital Archives

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:00:00 GMT

The 9^th International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (ICHORA), held virtually by the University of Michigan School of Information, featured a variety of presentations and keynote speeches. Given the scope of the conference and the quality of the speakers, ICHORA constitutes a good indicator of the current state of archival research and research about archives. The theme of the conference, with a full week-long program starting on October 26, 2020, Archives and the Digital World, allowed for multiple discussions and perspectives that testified to the power of the digital in the overall direction of archival research and practice.

[ICHORA 2020 yellow and light blue poster with the title of the conference, the location, and the Michigan University logo. Featuring an 1980s looking computer]

Past ICHORA conferences gave birth to groundbreaking and innovative scholarship that challenged and changed archival theory and practice. From Andrew Flinn, Mary Stevens, and Elizabeth Shepherd’s presentation about community archives – which led to the article “Whose memories, whose archives? Independent community archives, autonomy and the mainstream” – to Jeannette A. Bastian’s “Reading Colonial Records Through an Archival Lens: The Provenance of Place, Space and Creation” and Tom Nesmith’s “Reopening Archives: Bringing New Contextualities into Archival Theory and Practice,” ICHORA has been a fertile ground for the dynamic evolution of archival theory throughout the twenty-first century.

This year’s edition featured a range of presentations that will certainly leave their mark in the archival realm and beyond. Multidisciplinary research is now established as part of the nature of archival studies. This has brought new horizons where a plurality of fields, including anthropology, media studies, history, gender studies, postcolonial studies, computer science, digital humanities, and others have contributed to the expansion of archival studies. On the other hand – and this is something that was evident by the type of research presented during the conference – increasingly, the diversity of archival research is also penetrating other academic fields.

Marisa Elena Duarte’s keynote speech set the tone for rich conversations that marked the five days of the conference. Duarte’s eloquent connection between the digital and the birth of new worlds, and on notions around digital bodies of knowledge, testified to the extent of archival relationships and power. Duarte mentioned that “the technically powerful archive is but a shadow of the relationships among us.” As Duarte brilliantly put forward, data sovereignty, digital literacy, and radical empathy signal the dynamic engagement of archives and digital archival conceptions in the shaping of memory and digital relations.

Discussions of digitization practices and the impact of the digital world resonated with Duarte’s perspective on knowledge development and the relational encounters of archives. Tomla Ernestine Tatah Lukong, for example, talked about the challenges faced by the Cameroon National Archives. Drawing attention to the volume of records created in Cameroon institutions, alongside financial and infrastructural challenges, Tatah Lukong offered a compelling account of archival advocacy oriented toward bridging the gap in the archives, and on the importance of community engagement in the trajectory of the national archives. While digitization and digital practices have been presented as crucial players that contribute to historical knowledge and access to records, other presentations highlighted darker impulses of digital initiatives and use. Katharina Hering discussed the potential crumbling of historical contexts around digital records represented in the database Ancestry.com. Acknowledging the immense market power of the genealogy-based platform, Hering highlighted that the maximization of access to records could be made at the expense of political and ethical concerns associated with private information. By paying attention to the participation of public archives in the development and expansion of Ancestry, Hering presented compelling arguments about the importance of the relationality of records and their context, and the responsibilities of archivists who work with public records.

The manipulation of records and their digital afterlives was further emphasized by a keynote speech given by Tonia Sutherland. Sutherland presented a powerful account aligned with social and cultural tensions associated with the use of what was called “digital remains.” The speaker provided an exposé concerning the commodification of Black bodies and the deaths of black people in digital spaces. Sutherland mentioned that, through the use of images and records about the death of Black people, social and political forces are extending the lives of Black people, and ultimately changing their present and future narratives. Sutherland argued that while offering new uses and recontextualizations, the sharing of records through digital platforms and in the media is deconstructing the agency and the realities of Black lives and death. Accordingly, this use of Black bodies was presented as being performative, where imaginations and projection of narratives ultimately separated the Black body imaginary from the lived experiences of Black peoples. Sutherland identified this process as being very dangerous. In talking about the digital afterlife, Sutherland insisted that race, records, and the violence of archival processes converged. Furthermore, Sutherland presented the digital afterlives of records portraying, using, and recirculating Black death as being part of expansive colonial powers in the digital world.

Critical views of the digital resonated throughout the conference. Critical lenses on digitization, technology, and archival standards powerfully illustrated colonial conceptions of archival practice. James Lowry, for instance, indicated that normative procedures of the ISO standard emerged from a universalist and colonial framework. This association of documentation standards with the legacies of colonialism was echoed by a presentation given by Hannah Turner, who has done research on the history of documentation in an ethnographic museum. Turner signaled the importance of studying documentation in order to situate ethnographic knowledge development. In doing so, Turner highlighted the durable and performative qualities of documentation technology and situated its crucial role in colonial knowledge production and limitations. Ayantu Tibeso, in turn, challenged conceptions of colonialism, exclusion, and marginalization by drawing attention to the silencing of Oromo peoples through recordkeeping practices in Ethiopia. By situating these activities through a colonial frame of reference, Tibeso reflected on the dynamic nature of colonial practices and of the importance of ancient oral recordkeeping practices in archival spaces. Diana Marsh pursued this theme, providing strategies and practices conceived to fill the gap in Indigenous knowledge, through the power of the digital and of digitization. Marsh reiterated that understanding the impact of digitization on Indigenous research is crucial when crafting archival processes, insisting on themes such as historical sovereignty, representational belonging, and the limits of digital knowledge sharing.

All of these notions forced the participants to reflect on traditional archival conceptions of provenance. New perspectives of the concept of provenance was the highlight of two rich presentations. In discussing two feminist activist archives, Jessica Lapp offered a critical analysis to provenance, by proposing what is defined as “provenancial fabulation.” Lapp talked about the many variables associated with records creation, by insisting on the imaginative process of archival creation. Furthermore, Lapp discussed the dynamic and temporal characteristics of provenance, through structures and infrastructures, and ultimately through feminist perspectives that challenge official historical narratives. Gracen Brilmyer put forward the concept of crip provenance, by highlighting the creation of records about disabled people made from the perspective of people in power. Brilmyer argued that traditional notions of provenance contribute to historical absence, erasures, and partial and non-existence evidence. While doing so, Brilmyer offered a critique of this sense of wholeness to recordkeeping, formulated by traditional visions of provenance. Moreover, they indicated that restoring some sort of order to records can provoke inequities and further marginalize people with disabilities.

If the impact of archival research and the innovations of archival theory were unequivocally expressed throughout the conference, a pertinent question was at the heart of the panel discussion in honour of Richard J. Cox. David Wallace, Lindsey Mattock, Joel Blanco-River, and the host of the conference Ricky Punzalan attempted to respond to the question posed by the moderator, Jeannette Bastian: Is archival work more a profession or part of a discipline? Based on the responses of the members of the panel, if it is a profession, it is heavily subject to academic directions; and if it is more a discipline, it is a discipline ingrained in practical articulations. David Wallace spoke about the ethics of archival work, being engaged in research and writing. He mentioned that the academic dimension improves the intellectual positioning of archival work. On a personal note, Wallace testified that the social and cultural scope of archival endeavours and research was, for him, a “salvation.” Blanco-Rivera, for his part, emphasized the multidimensional aspects of teaching to highlight the reach of archival theory and practice. Mattock added to this by mentioning that archival studies is an academic discipline that informs practice, with its own intellectual history. To conclude, Ricky Punzalan framed archival studies and practice from a multidisciplinary perspective, suggesting that these discussions do not need to be informed by this binary (profession/discipline), but should rather be thought in terms of a duality that emphasizes the importance of connectivity in the development of archival thinking.

Various connections between digital spaces, archival records, and the scope of archival work was reiterated in the final keynote address given by Margaret Hedstrom. Problematizing the use and the ubiquity of the term “curation” in public spaces and social media, Hedstrom associated the power of the digital with surveillance capitalism. Hedstrom offered explanations that touched on the commodification of people and their representations in the archives, and how curatorial practices in the archives must be deliberate and better defined to counter the neoliberal and authoritarian impulses of surveillance capitalism in the digital world.

The richness of the various presentations certainly evoked the multidisciplinary and multifaceted scope of archival initiatives and research. While discussions of social justice, colonialism, and social movements emerged – alongside conceptions and the reach of the digital – the different panels convincingly highlighted the impact of archival thinking and archival involvement in the direction of a plurality of memories and memories’ conceptions. ICHORA 2020 certainly left important intellectual trails that will push archival theory toward new areas of research and practice.

François Dansereau

François Dansereau is the Senior Archivist at The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada and a course lecturer at the McGill University School of Information Studies. He is the author of the chapter “Men, Masculinities, and the Archives: Introducing the Concept of Hegemonic Masculinity in Archival Discourse” in the volume Archives and Special Collections as Sites of Contestation (2020), and of the article “The Portrayal of Gender in Health Care: An Examination of Hospital Photographic Archives” (Archivaria 90, Fall 2020). Dansereau holds an MA in History from Université de Montréal and a MLIS with a concentration in archives from McGill University.

Social Media as a Crucial Actor in Archival Conferences

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 14:00:00 GMT

As online academic and professional conferences are now becoming the norm rather than the exception, Claire Williams and Jasmine Charette reflect on the importance of social media in the planning, development, and organization of conferences, and on the use of social media to share crucial information during the course of the 2020 ACA conference.

Social media is a fantastic tool for engagement and promotion, which the ACA Communications Committee has harnessed over the past several years to advertise and showcase the annual conference.

The ACA Communications Committee recently reinvigorated its presence on Instagram - this coincided promotion of our ACA 2020 annual conference. Originally, the plan had been to have Claire Williams, Communications Committee member and Host Team member, take awe-inspiring photographs of the beautiful Vancouver for conference attendees to see. However, as the COVID-19 situation developed, we quickly began to realize that the photogenic Vancouver would have to be saved for another year. Instead, Instagram was used to advertise many of our wonderful sessions and plenary speakers, as well as how-to's for registering for the conference and downloading the WHOVA app. Together with Alexandra Alisauskas from the Programming Committee, we crafted a schedule of highlights to share with potential attendees on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. It was wonderful watching the ACA Instagram account grow in size as attendees, organizers, and speakers engaged with our conference program.

When it finally came down to the week of the conference, we saw followers and likes pour in as we posted about TAATU, the SIS meetings, ‘All Shook Up: The Archival Legacy of Terry Cook’ book launch, downloading the virtual poster sessions, and our amazing opening reception talk with Leslie Weir. We had no further to look then sharing the amazing programming through the conference, as the first and second full day of speakers and sessions began.

When it came time for our closing plenary (all too fast!) we shared just one of the amazing quotes from Michelle Caswell’s talk on Feeling Liberatory Memory Work. All-in-all Instagram proved to be a great place to share our first ever digital conference and we look forward to promoting the amazing work of our ACA community on this visual platform as we all learn to see archives differently.  

Given the exceptional nature of the conference, our Twitter and Facebook response evolved as well. While many major updates are communicated to members by email and through our website, our Twitter and Facebook presence (and recently, Instagram), has allowed us to further promote the conference to non-members of the ACA and other interested parties. Thanks to the wonderful visuals cross-posted from Instagram, our Twitter and Facebook page audiences grew significantly in the lead-up to the conference, allowing us to share these posts to a larger audience than in years past, furthering discussion of new theories and great thinkers in the archival field.

Since not everyone can attend the conference, even with our record-breaking numbers in 2020, we have previously live-tweeted from specific sessions, using and promoting hashtags such as #ACA2020 to add to the stream of conference tweets. This allows for anyone interested to follow along at home, and attendees can read recaps from sessions they may have missed. However, we decided to take a step back from active tweeting during sessions this year and instead highlighted, through retweets, what attendees found engaging and thought-provoking from various sessions. In addition, through our use of Facebook Live, we saw high engagement with the book launch of ‘All Shook Up,’ as the launch was open to the public.

We are grateful for the impact social media has done to increase engagement with the archival field, presenting new ideas, and keeping us on our toes for how to move forward in these novel times.

Claire Williams and Jasmine Charette

ACA Communications Committee

TAATU Activities

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 14:00:00 GMT

Alongside the Association of Canadian Archivists’ move to an online conference in 2020, The Archives and Technology Unconference (TAATU) met via videoconference on June 10. Started in 2008, this BarCamp for archivists is a place for all archivists interested in IT and digital culture to meet, exchange ideas and have a bit of fun. The only requirement is that everyone is expected to participate in some manner. This year, with as many as 92 people on the conference call at one time (the largest number of attendees in TAATU history), participation was, in some ways, greater than ever, if a bit harder to keep track of.

This short blog post will highlight what was discussed at this year’s TAATU and hopefully encourage people to join and participate in new and different ways – online or not – next year.

Land acknowledgements

With such a huge group, split across nations and time zones, land acknowledgements appeared in a variety of ways at TAATU: some individuals unmuted themselves and acknowledged, over video, where they were speaking from. Some people typed greetings in the chat window of our call. Other folks entered information about the land they are living and working on in the TAATU agenda and participants list. Vancouver participants, as a group, acknowledged by typing into the agenda, the lands of the Coast Salish people, where the ACA conference was going to be held in person. With people in dispersed locations, it was surprising (in a good way) to see that participants were still able to bring focus to this small act of reconciliation.

Lightning talks

There were four sessions this year. From my notes…

Peter Van Garderen: Preservation Action Registries and Archivematica

Peter summarized this project that seeks to share technical best practices. Artefactual Systems, Preservica and Arkivum are all participants. The potential of this is huge but, at this time, it is a proof of concept project with lots of work outstanding. Peter believes this really is the future of automated digital preservation but questions around data mapping, intellectual entities and complex business processes need to be identified and addressed.

Krista Jamieson: Archival transcription or Work from home “job jar” project

At McMaster, they are digitizing a lot of material and this project – while not super techy – is still solid digital work, and it’s lo-fi and accessible to many. Transcription of digitized records, especially with staff working from home due to covid-19, is work that can be done easily, with just a computer and an internet connection, from home. An example of a document, with a completed description, can be found here: https://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A73929#page/4/mode/2up

Grant Hurley: Dataverse-Archivematica integration

Grant talked about this work on the preservation of research data and using Dataverse (an open-source platform to discover research data) and Archivematica (a tool for processing digital objects for preservation and access). There has been a growing interest in research data preservation internationally and the aim of this project was to investigate how Dataverse datasets could be processed into AIPs. Grant provided a demo of this first attempt to get the two systems to talk to each other. There is more work to be done and improvements can be made but there is obvious interest in something like this, as evidenced by OCUL’s sponsorship of the work.

Jeremy Heil gave an update on NAAB and the monetary appraisal of electronic records. As these were lightning talks and Jeremy was a bonus speaker, I am going to direct you to his slides because I have very few notes of my own!

AtoM roadmap committee

Kelly Babcock led a discussion and encouraged input from the community on what features people are interested in seeing in an AtoM 3.0. Discussion ideas included:

- Recap of AtoM 3 Roadmap Committee activities since March 2020.

- What can we do to prepare our AtoM 2 data for migration?

- Can we make improvements to our data now to improve interoperability between our repositories?

- AtoM 3 features - brainstorming on what TAATU considers the “essential” features

Following these sessions, TAATU participants then discussed becoming actively anti-racist in our work. The conversation was wide ranging and I will note here just some of the high-level topics that were examined:

- RAD: will it be revised? How could this be moved forward?

- How can archives revise their own policies without waiting for association or other guidelines? Examples were shared from Waterloo (language in descriptions), Archives of Ontario (description policy), and the University of Saskatchewan (Indigenous titles and guidelines).

- ACA Communications is working on a list of resources; these were published on the ACA blog on June 11

- Decolonizing archives

- Recruiting and retaining BIPOC archivists

- Need for white archivists to confront white supremacy in themselves

This year’s TAATU ended with a No dumb questions session, inspired by last year’s BitCurator Users Forum. Given the online nature of this year’s event, a document was set up and people asked and answered various questions. You can see that document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FElQvBJLkZPcrFm2tRzFljvadv0N47ua59gfadI1RKo/edit

Remember to open the link in Incognito/Private mode so as to remain anonymous. This session was a great way to retain the original TAATU spirit of inclusivity with no minimum IT experience required to participate.

Jenn Roberts

Jenn Roberts has a wide range of work experience and has plied the archival trade in Canada, the USA and Switzerland. She currently calls Whitehorse, Yukon home and is part of Artefactual Systems' remote workforce.

We Saw Things Differently, Reflections on ACA 2020 - The Online Version

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 14:22:35 GMT

Emily Lonie, Program Team Chair ACA 2020

As one of my final acts as Chair of the 2020 Program Team, I have been asked to reflect on the 45^th annual conference of the Association of Canadian Archivists. Wow—where to start? How do you sum up such an incredible and historic experience?

I couldn’t have foreseen it, but as it turned out, our theme for this year’s ACA conference: 20/20 Vision: Seeing Archives Differently, could not have been more appropriate. 2020 has forced us all to see things differently.

To read the full blog post, go here.

Association of Canadian Archivists’ Resources on Archives, Anti-Racism, and Black Lives Matter

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 14:00:00 GMT

As written in the ACA Board Statement issued 3 June 2020, we, as archivists, condemn racism, injustice, and violence against Black people. However, as the recent deaths of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, D’Andre Campbell, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery (among far too many others), racialized violence and injustice remain a part of our systems in Canada and North America. In a profession historically dominated by White people, we acknowledge our responsibility to engage with the effects of White supremacy on archives and archival practice. While the Association of Canadian Archivists recently launched an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force to prioritize actions that the ACA may undertake to make our profession more equitable, inclusive, and diverse, we believe that there are initiatives and learnings we can all undertake as individuals to further this work.

We have compiled a list of resources and readings relevant to anti-racism, the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and archives and archivists in Canada, and the United States. This list (available here) is not exhaustive, and it is our hope that it will continue to grow while inspiring conversation and action in the archival profession. Please email communications@archivists.ca to add to or edit this list.

Claire Williams and the ACA Communications Committee

“Archiving the Personal” at ACA McGill’s 13th Annual Colloquium

Wed, 20 May 2020 14:00:00 GMT

The ACA McGill Student Chapter hosted its 13th Annual Colloquium on Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. The theme of this year’s Colloquium was “Archiving the Personal” and speakers offered a vast range of perspectives on how personal experiences and personal information shape archival practice.

After a brief introduction by current ACA McGill Coordinator Nicholas Decarie, we heard from our first speaker, Marcel Caya—the Quebec regional director of the National Archival Appraisal Board. Caya gave an informative talk on the “Monetary Appraisal of Personal Archives: a Tool for Acquisition.” Following his presentation, audience members were brimming with questions about the appraisal of digital archival material and on the increasing appraisal of digital groups of private papers.

Marcel Caya (Photograph by Katherine Sorrell Kirkpatrick)

François Dansereau—Senior Archivist at the Archive of the Jesuits in Canada—followed Caya with his presentation on “The ‘Personal’ in Institutional Archives: Or How Personal Photo Albums Open Up Narratives.” Using a case study from the McGill University Health Centre Archives and Special Collections, Dansereau demonstrated how personal archives can be used to complement institutional records in order to share lesser-known historical narratives.

François Dansereau (Photograph by Katherine Sorrell Kirkpatrick)

Following the presentation from Dansereau, we heard from Jonathan Dorey—a Research Officer for a Quebec University consortium composed of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique, École nationale d’administration publique, in Montréal. Dorey gave a presentation entitled “From Personal Papers to Research Data: Archival Theory in Context,” where he compared and contrasted perspectives from his own experiences working for the Quebec Gay Archives and working in research data management. He discussed the difficulty in applying archival theories such as appraisal, selection, original order, and description in the highly personal and complex contexts he has worked in.

ACA McGill’s Coordinator Nicholas Decarie gave the final presentation before our lunch break. The graduating McGill Master of Information Studies candidate presented on “The Decarie Family Archives: Building a Cloud-Based Archive.” He described his own and his family members’ efforts to archive their family history. Decarie’s efforts have focused on digitizing photographs, videos, and textual records to be preserved in his own digital repository, currently hosted on a Google Drive platform. He discussed some pros and cons of a cloud storage approach and challenges he has faced.

Following a lunch break, first-year Master of Information Studies candidate and ACA McGill’s First-Year Representative, Sean Sallis-Lyon, gave a presentation entitled “Quality Archives on a Budget.” Sallis-Lyon discussed his experience in information technology (IT) consulting and his preferred digital storage strategy for his budding family archive. The question period was an opportunity for constructive feedback about file formats and related challenges in digital archiving.

Lori Podolsky—a Sessional Lecturer at the McGill School of Information Studies and PhD student—offered a compelling presentation on “The Emotive Archives: the Personal Within.” Her presentation involved personal anecdotes from her experiences as a volunteer, a researcher, an archivist, and her family’s historian. Podolsky spoke about challenges and considerations archivists must face when handling sensitive, personal archival material.

McGill School of Information Studies Sessional Lecturer, Gordon Burr, gave his talk on “Archiving the Emotional and the Personal: The Case of Fred Wigle” to finish off the day. Burr revealed how personal narratives can become submerged by the scope of records found in the archives, and how the archivist must be willing to confront these emotional materials while remaining aware of how their own experiences shape their interactions with such records.

Gordon Burr (Photograph by Katherine Sorrell Kirkpatrick)

We are grateful to the Association of Canadian Archivists for offering funds to support this event, as well as to all of our guest speakers and ACA McGill volunteers. This event could not have been the success that it was without the tremendous amount of support we received. Thank you to everyone who attended: we look forward to welcoming new and returning guests to our event next year!

Email: acamcgillstudentchapter@gmail.com

Jazmine Aldrich

Jazmine Aldrich recently completed her first year in the Master of Information Studies program at McGill University. She served as an Assistant Coordinator for the ACA McGill Student Chapter in the 2019-2020 school year, and will share the role of Coordinator with her colleague Katherine Sorrell Kirkpatrick in the upcoming 2020-2021 school year.

Web Archiving COVID-19 at Concordia University

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 14:00:00 GMT

The COVID-19 global pandemic has forced many archivists to change how they work, and the staff at Concordia University Records Management and Archives (RMA) are no different. RMA is embracing new approaches to their archival projects and the challenges that come with working from home.

Toward the documentation of this demanding time, RMA has launched a web archiving initiative, led by Records Management Assistant Olivier Bisaillon-Lemay, to capture sites, blogs, and articles linked to Concordia’s reaction and response to the pandemic. The inspiration for this project was derived from similar on-going web archiving projects taking place at the National Archives of the UK and the International Internet Preservation Consortium. In addition to these projects, web archiving has recently been featured in a New York Times article highlighting the work of the Library of Congress.

The goal of Concordia’s COVID-19 web archiving project is to preserve these often-ephemeral sites for their long-term informational value as well as their look and feel, which often provides additional contextual value. These sites have been brought together and centralized in a COVID-19 web collection for those currently interested, and for future researchers potentially focusing on Concordia’s digital footprint during this unprecedented time.

Figure 1: Concordia University COVID-19 Web Collection

A secondary goal of the project is to open it to the wider Concordia community and incorporate a crowdsourcing element. Each week, through RMA’s social media channels, the department is encouraging faculty, staff, and students to send along COVID-19 sites with a Concordia connection.

Web archiving at Concordia

Although web archiving at RMA is not entirely new, the reality of archives staff now working from home has placed renewed focus on the RMA web archiving program. As of summer 2018, RMA has used the Archive-It platform to archive university sites – an effort linked to RMA’s mandate to preserve and make accessible the history of the University.

Over the last two years, RMA has archived over one million documents and 177GB of content related to Concordia University. This content is broken down into the following five collections housed on Archive-It: Institutional Web Collection, University Publications, Student Associations and Groups, Sir George Williams Affair – 50th Anniversary, and the COVID-19 Collection.

Figure 2: Concordia University Records Management and Archives (RMA) Data Archived

Archiving, and making these sites accessible through Internet Archives and Wayback Machine, has already facilitated the work of archival researchers tracking information from inoperative sites.

Crowdsourcing call

A foundational aspect of the project from its inception was to seek participation from the Concordia community toward documenting the diversity of perspectives represented within the University during the COVID-19 pandemic. Promotion of the project currently includes a weekly social media campaign that highlights the collection of material and takes advantage of the #WebArchivingWednesday hashtag on Twitter. RMA has also launched a page advertising the project that encourages members of the community to get in touch with site URLS for the collection.

Between mid-March and early-April, 2020, RMA captured 538MB and over 21,000 documents from the official University website and student publications The Link and The Concordian.

Browse the Concordia COVID-19 web collection at: https://archive-it.org/collections/13662

John Richan

John Richan is the Digital Archivist in Records Management and Archives at Concordia University, Montreal, where his primary responsibilities are tied to digital preservation activities. John holds a MLIS from McGill University with a specialization in Archives. His professional interests include working open source applications and systems into digital preservation workflows.

COVID-19 and Archival Responses

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 14:00:00 GMT

COVID-19 has transformed the ways in which archival organizations operate and, at the same time, is an object of study for current and future researchers, as well as various health care communities. The ACA Blog In the Field is looking for contributions from archivists and archival institutions regarding their initiatives, strategies, and methods to either document responses to COVID-19 or with regards to their organizational functioning.

How does the pandemic affect archival labour, from an organizational perspective or from archivists’ points of view? What are your organization’s policies and procedures regarding archivists’ safety and the preservation of holdings during a complete shutdown? What is the impact of the current situation on archival organizations’ crisis management and planning? What are the initiatives of your organization regarding the collection of records on COVID-19? How the collection and dissemination of data on the pandemic mobilizes your institution to reach out to various communities? How can archival records be involved in future planning and responses to global pandemics?

These are only some of the questions that interest us.

We want to read your thoughts, strategies, perspectives, and initiatives.

Please complete this form to submit your proposed blog post.

We are looking forward to reading your contribution!

François Dansereau, The ACA Blog Editor

ACA Communications Committee

Theory? Meet Practice! Supporting Archival Development at St. Peter’s Cathedral Church, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 14:00:00 GMT

What do you get when you combine 150 years of backlogged archives with a dedicated group of Anglican parishioners and an archival funding opportunity? In the case of St. Peter’s Cathedral Church in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, you get a semi-trailer truck’s worth of official reports, financial records, legal documents, meeting minutes, photographs, and personal letters and diaries – arranged, described, and available for public access.

In this blog post I share some of the story of St. Peter’s archival journey. Many archivists reading this piece, especially those in community settings or other low-resource environments, may feel a sense of déjà vu – working in archives, large or small, inevitably demands cooperation, commitment, and compromise. The path from start to finish was long, and as all archivists know the job of managing archival collections is never done. But St. Peter’s has achieved a great deal, in part by looking creatively at how to balance archival theory with the practical realities of developing and sustaining an archival service on the shoulders of a small – but determined – team of volunteers.

Project beginnings

In 2016, St. Peter’s volunteer archives committee decided they could no longer manage the task of organizing the church’s archives themselves. They had been working diligently for several years to make sense of a disordered backlog, much of which had been stored in loose boxes and plastic bags in the church’s bell tower for years before being lowered down ladders and staircases to a dedicated archives room in the church basement, constructed by volunteers in 2007.

To take the church’s archival programme to the next level, the volunteers applied to Library and Archives Canada for a Documentary Heritage Communities Programme (DHCP) grant to develop a strategic plan. They engaged me as their consultant to help construct the plan, which was then used to support an application to Library and Archives Canada for funding for archival arrangement, description, and digitization.

In this second application, the volunteers highlighted the fact that St.Peter’s 150^th anniversary was coming up in 2019, and they explained the research benefits of creating a safe, organized, and accessible collection of archives. They also argued that because St. Peter’s had been such a pivotal institution in Charlottetown for so long, organizing its archives would make available documentary evidence not just of church life but also of people and events central to the story of the city and the province since Confederation. As well, they articulated a strong vision of sustainability: from the construction of a high-quality archives room in 2007, to their commitment to implement standards-based archival practices, to their vision of long-term capacity through extensive volunteer participation in the archives.

The church’s application was approved in 2018, providing two years of funds to support a range of archival activities. The volunteers asked me to serve as Archives Advisor on the project, working mostly from my home in British Columbia with periodic trips east. Their goal was to ensure the project operated on a sound archival footing, while spreading resources as widely as possible and ensuring church volunteers played a central role. My challenge was to develop a range of activities that resulted in a strong, sustainable archival programme while ensuring the bulk of the work would be carried out by volunteers, students, or interns.

To succeed, I had to tuck archival theory into my back pocket, dig out my winter boots for less expensive off-peak travel, and think creatively about how to build an effective and capable local team while ensuring a high-quality outcome. Throughout our two-year project, which ends in March 2020, I watched as theory and practice ran into each other more than once. Sometimes theory came out a bit worse for wear, which I am inclined to think might have been a good thing.

Bev White and Cindy MacLean reviewing archival documents, 2019.

Technology is the answer?

Over the years, St. Peter’s archival volunteers had developed a series of paper-based processes, including the use of handwritten accession records and description forms. Prince Edward Island’s Provincial Archivist had helped them set up a database to capture archival descriptions, but the volunteers found working in paper more effective, as they met weekly to sit around the large conference table and describe photographs or accession documents. They captured information on printed forms and often worked in pairs to share information and correct each other’s memory of people or events. Before long, the computer and the database were essentially obsolete, as a stack of paper accession records built up.

I believed that computerization was essential to supporting broad public access to the archives. But I recognized that the current cohort of volunteers did not want to walk away from their involvement. And with only one computer and one keyboard in the archives, spreading the workload meant thinking creatively. The church agreed to acquire a top-quality scanner and computer, and to purchase a license for Access to Memory or AtoM. We also agreed that Artefactual Systems Inc. would provide server storage and backups, that the church would commit funds to continue the license after the project ended, and that we would establish a mechanism for exporting data out of AtoM should that be necessary in future.

Even though the computer took pride of place on the desk, however, we maintained some paper-based processes, particularly to support the description of photographs. I worked with the volunteers to refine existing forms, templates, and procedures. As a result, volunteers can continue with familiar description tasks, but it is now easier to transfer handwritten records into digital form in AtoM. By training some volunteers on the use of AtoM, we also caught the interest of some new participants who did not feel comfortable describing older church photographs but who were excited to help with data entry and quality control. Some of them even chose to bring in their own laptops or work remotely from home. By combining analogue and digital approaches, and providing training and support, we now have a larger pool of volunteers adding to the AtoM database.

Bev White packing up office files for the archives, 2019.

Always work from the general to the specific?

Very early in my work with St. Peter’s, I realized that attempting to organize all the archives at a general level before moving to more specific arrangement and description would be counterproductive. Even though a large portion of the archives had been in the basement archives room since 2007, new materials were popping up all the time. A snoop through basement cupboards or a cup of tea with a parishioner might yield new treasures. And engaging volunteers in arrangement and description meant compartmentalizing tasks, so everyone could work on different parts of the collection without bashing into each other, archivally or physically. For example, I organized the personal archives of the early priest incumbents into series and files, then I asked the volunteers to complete further arrangement and description by sorting documents into date order, transcribing selected letters, or writing file lists. Meanwhile, some people described photographs, while others provided historical background to church events. By dividing work into distinct “chunks,” we saw the archives as pieces of a puzzle, which came together over the course of the project.

Textual archives sorted by incumbent priest.

Context is king?

When St. Peter’s volunteers began organizing the archives years ago, original order was already more or less gone. The volunteers ended up focusing their attention on medium and content, for example by sorting documents by the era of the incumbent priest and moving photographs into an entirely separate collection. Attempting to reconstruct original order, or to confirm ownership or copyright for backlogged materials, was virtually impossible. Better to start fresh and establish new processes going forward.

Because the volunteers enjoy working with photographs, and because many of them know very well the events depicted in the images, we decided to maintain the photographs as a discrete collection and refine the workflow to incorporate stronger archival controls, as I explained earlier. I concentrated my actual archival input on organizing the backlog of textual records, looking for functions and activities whenever possible. Once I had a rough order in place, I would then ask for volunteers, students, or interns to help with more detailed arrangement and description. We also established better processes for capturing donor information and documenting copyright conditions for new accessions, and we set up a process for ensuring that new donations would no longer be anonymous – a significant problem for any community institution, where enthusiasm for the archives can make us all forget to document the “who, what, where, and when” of each new accession.

Sorting archives can be a messy business.

A full-time archivist is essential?

While the DHCP project funds could have supported several months of full-time employment for one person, that approach would not help the church build capacity to sustain the archival collection or provide archival services in the long term. St. Peter’s volunteers wanted to be involved, and they wanted to be left with a collection they could manage effectively themselves, with occasional professional support. Anything more, while desirable in theory, was highly unlikely in practice, and the church did not want to set itself up to fail.

The church did not hesitate, however, to seek funding for students and interns, and we were able to hire two summer students, one in 2018 and one in 2019. In 2018, Josh Smith, a graduate student in history at Trent University who was home in Charlottetown for the summer, worked with volunteers to provide initial listings of backlogged archives, allowing me to do some initial appraisal from British Columbia. He also conducted research to support planning for 150^th anniversary displays and exhibits. In 2019, Andrea Corder, a graduate student in music at the University of Regina, also home in Charlottetown for the summer, helped us describe photographs, sort newspaper clippings, and scan annual reports so we could upload them to AtoM for online access.

Also in 2019, we were able to use Young Canada Works funds to hire Meghan Kirkland, a graduate of Western University’s Master of Library & Information Science programme, to work on a pivotal archival project, to review and list over 1.5 metres of the church’s administrative records from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. The files had been created and managed in strict alphabetical order, with often cryptic file titles. Retaining original order meant analyzing every single file to clarify its contents, and Meghan tackled the Herculean task of producing a detailed file list along with a RAD-compliant description.

In keeping with the philosophy that “all good things come to those who wait,” St. Peter’s struck gold in late 2018, when Bev White, a recent retiree with a background in education and a strong understanding of computer systems, volunteered to help with our project. We ended up agreeing a paid contract with Bev, who serves as our Charlottetown-based Archival Coordinator. Bev has scanned hundreds of photographs and uploaded dozens of images to AtoM. She also coordinates volunteer work sessions and oversees quality control checks for photographs and descriptions. Bev has also organized and participated in several anniversary activities, and she oversees archival “work parties” – often as part of a coffee hour after Sunday services – to display copies of photographs and ask parishioners to help identify people, places, and events. In keeping with the mantra of “many hands make light work” we have been able to achieve the church’s vision for a highly integrated and interactive project – focusing as much on the process and the players as on the final product.

SPCA Archives Intern Meghan Kirkland and Summer Student Andrea Corder, 2019.

Planning for the future

Someday, I hope, St. Peter’s will find the resources to engage a part-time archivist. In reality, the church will likely continue to rely on volunteers, students, and part-time contractors for the foreseeable future. But as the DHCP-funded project comes to an end, we are focused on establishing sustainable processes, so that volunteers can carry out more and more of the work themselves in future. And of course there is still much to do; archival work is never finished. The volunteers at St. Peter’s know that – they knew it when they started on this journey, and they understand it better now.

Clamshell boxes hold archives by era.

We are all grateful for the great benefits that came with the DHCP funds, which allowed St. Peter’s to organize 150 years of archives and to establish processes for maintaining a stronger archival programme in the future. I am proud of what we have accomplished. But my greatest joy has been working with a vibrant group of volunteers, who remind me regularly that practical approaches – respectful of but not inextricably bound to archival theory – can often result in tremendous results.

Laura Millar

Laura Millar is a records, archives and information management consultant who works with governments, universities, non-profit organizations, and other agencies around the world. Since 2016, she has advised St. Peter’s Cathedral Church in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, including helping the church coordinate its 2018-2020 LAC-funded archival management project.

Building a Regional Digital Repository in British Columbia

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 15:00:00 GMT

The Okanagan Valley is situated approximately 400 km inland from B.C.'s South Coast. At the centre of the north-south trajectory of the Valley is Kelowna, which is home to the second campus of the University of British Columbia (after the first, in Vancouver). This strategic location, in combination with the human and digital infrastructure resources provided by the UBC Okanagan Library and generous donor funding have made the Digitized Okanagan History project possible.

For three years the authors have coordinated an effort based at the UBC Okanagan Library to assist memory institutions located in communities throughout the Okanagan region to realize their own goals of digitization, systematic metadata development, and provision of access to selected portions of their archival holdings. Digitized Okanagan History (D.O.H.) now includes over 100,000 digital objects drawn from 29 partners located in a catchment area extending from Sicamous in the north to Osoyoos in the south and Princeton in the west to Grand Forks in the east.

Curling on the Kettle River, ca. 1930.

Image courtesy of Kettle River Museum.

Recognizing that limited financial and technical resources prevented many community repositories from using evolving web-based tools to promote access to their unique historical resources, D.O.H.’s primary goal has been to build, customize, and sustain a complement of technical infrastructure and supporting procedures and workflows to allow a broad cross-section of regional partners to participate in a multi-institutional collaboration. This ensures that their relatively unknown or under-utilized primary historical records are made more broadly accessible in support of all levels of research through a single, integrated online portal.

Preliminary discussions with prospective project partners began in 2016. Immediately, the considerable breadth and depth of candidates for digitization became apparent. In step with this reported abundance, a counterpoint emerged equally as quickly: most community repositories faced significant operational challenges mostly relating to lack of money and staff. In fact, many of the organizations rely exclusively or primarily on a dedicated but unpredictable volunteer workforce to keep their doors open. This made it imperative that the bar to D.O.H. participation be kept as low as possible. When the project began implementation in 2017 a team of students travelled to participating repositories and spent three days scanning analogue material and collecting copies of existing digitized material at each repository. As stronger relationships developed with project partners and trust has grown, D.O.H. has adopted a model where almost all material is transported to the UBCO campus for digitization, or, for post-digitization processing. This approach is much more efficient and allows for greater productivity. Early D.O.H. efforts focussed on digitizing photographic material but, based on the priorities of the project partners, the scope has expanded to archival documents, maps, and audio recordings, as well as and newspapers and other publications.

Group of School Children on Joe Glaicar's School Bus, ca 1922.

Image courtesy of Armstrong Spallumcheen Museum and Arts Society.

D.O.H. selected Arca, the B.C. Electronic Library Network’s repository platform to host the new regional digital resources. Built on Islandora's open-source content management software, Arca allows both for the ability to steward and maintain descriptive information and facilitate searches limited to specific repositories, and universal searches across all participating repositories. This is important for allowing project partners to see the distinctiveness of their repository and their collections as a subset of the portal, discoverable through the browse function, while at the same time providing comprehensive access to all available records for those doing systematic research. Just as Arca allows for aggregation of our many project partners via the D.O.H. ‘subaggregator’ hub, D.O.H. itself is one of many institutional partners in Arca and benefits from the support of an active community of practice with knowledge exchange and reciprocal sharing of tools and strategies.

In charting D.O.H.’s future we are currently planning a transition from a mediated model of digitization to a more distributed model wherein we would provide project partners with training and guidelines for scanning their own material and compiling basic, standardized metadata which can then be sent to the UBCO Library for upload. To augment digital copies of the unique archival holdings from the region and to create a more comprehensive historical research resource we are also adding a newspaper repository to D.O.H. Newspapers are consistently identified by project partners as the single-most important source for documenting local history, and community newspapers provide a treasure trove of information and represent prime candidates for digitization, particularly if they are full- text searchable. Finally, based on the success of D.O.H. we are exploring the creation of a parallel regional collection in the neighbouring Kootenay/Columbia area. This region is defined by its adjacency to the Columbia River Basin; it being contiguous with the Boundary region (which is the eastern most area currently represented in D.O.H.) inclusion of the Kootenays and Columbias has the potential to provide digital coverage to a significant portion of B.C.’s geography, much of which is truly rural and variably, sometimes only seasonally, accessible. This past summer we collected copies of digitized material from seven Kootenay/Columbia repositories and expect that the parallel pilot regional collection will be launched in September 2020.

Group photograph at Women's Institute of the Okanagan District, 1914.

Image courtesy of Summerland Museum and Archives.

Despite significant challenges, community memory institutions have done a commendable job in identifying and preserving the unique records documenting their local histories. D.O.H., through its efforts to enhance public access to archival resources across multiple Okanagan repositories, builds on the work done at the individual community level and will help ensure that the resources are made available for a multitude of historical uses. Our hope is that D.O.H. has laid a broad and deep foundation not only for the creation of a network of digitized archival material but also to support further collaborative activity in the future so that the challenges of preserving local historical resources can be approached in a more holistic, coordinated manner.

Chris Hives & Paige Hohmann

Chris Hives is UBC University Archivist, Emeritus and for over three years now he, along with Paige Hohmann, has co-ordinated Digitized Okanagan History. He is very much looking forward to expanding the original Okanagan-based collaborative digitization project to include partners in a new parallel collection in the neighbouring Kootenay/Columbia region.

Paige Hohmann is Archivist at UBC Okanagan where she manages various primary source and special information resources with focus on digitized and born-digital media. She has coordinated the Digitized Okanagan History project with Chris Hives since 2016.

Healing and Education Through Digital Access – Residential School Digitization Project

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 15:00:00 GMT

Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC) has launched the results of the “Healing and Education Through Digital Access” project funded by the National Heritage Digitization Strategy (NHDS). Rooted in community archival practices, this project received $86,890 in funding to digitize and make available unique archival records which document the early years of the Shingwauk and Wawanosh Indian Residential Schools.

We see this project as meeting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's calls to action directed at archives and post-secondary institutions. By preserving and providing community access to these records the SRSC seeks to enhance Canada’s understanding of Residential Schools and reconciliation. The project made a great deal of information about Residential Schools as accessible as possible to the wider public, with an emphasis on centering Survivors and intergenerational Survivors who may not be able to travel to Sault Ste. Marie to view the documents in person. The involvement of Survivors in archival work is essential to any reconciliation work connected to Residential Schools. Likewise, the realization of Indigenous ownership, control, access, and possession of documents which discuss Indigenous communities played a key role in this initiative.

This project was driven by Indigenous community needs and priorities. The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA), a group of Survivors and intergenerational Survivors who govern the SRSC along with Algoma University, were very involved with the project from the beginning. Their needs and priorities were taken into account when choosing what to digitize, how to digitize, and how to make the documents available to the public. The NHDS included in the budget money to bring CSAA members to Algoma in order to discuss the digitization and description process.

This initiative was focused on making accessible three Anishinaabemowin and Cree language books and ten letter books from the early history of the Shingwauk and Wawanosh Indian Residential Schools. The letter books range in date from 1876 to 1904 and include letters from the first principal Edward F. Wilson and the fourth principal George L. King to various recipients including government officials, church representatives, white and Indigenous community members, former students, and more. The letters are of particular relevance for understanding the social, political and intellectual network in which Residential Schools operated.

2013-112-003_001_0737: This letter describes the clothing students would have worn in 1887 and includes sketches of the student uniforms designed by the first principal of the school Edward F. Wilson. Clothing was usually donated second hand or made and donated by Ladies Sewing Societies. Being Western style, they illustrate the assimilationist agenda of the schools.   

These documents in particular were selected for multiple different reasons; much of the information the public has learned about Residential Schools relates to the later years of the system based on Survivor testimonies. These letter books cover the early history which is not as well known and allows people to see how the system developed and where Shingwauk and Wawanosh specifically fit into the system. Their age also makes them very fragile and so preservation was a high priority in selecting these items for digitization.

2013-112-004_001_0173: This letter from September 1888 discusses specifics for an issue of Our Forest Children, a magazine which covered Anglican missionary work among Canadian Indigenous People and information about the Shingwauk Residential School. Magazines like this were used as fundraising tools for the school, spreading information as a way to encourage donations and monetary support. The header of the magazine included on this page was designed by Principal Edward F. Wilson. 

2014-017-002_001_0062: This image is the first page of one of the monthly Principal's Reports that Principal George Ley King was required to send to the Department of Indian Affairs as a condition of the government funding the school received. These reports included information on student health, school admissions and discharges, student activities, staffing, and much more. It illustrates the kinds of information the Government was collecting on Residential Schools in addition to being a great source for information on daily life at the school. 

The letters books and their descriptions are now available on the Algoma Archives Website, as well as on the Internet Archive. The information in these letter books is invaluable to researchers, Survivors and their families, and the wider public.

Jenna Lemay

Jenna Lemay is the Digital Archives Technician at the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre. With a background in history and information studies, Jenna has been working in the archival field for 3 years. She is interested in the history of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit, particularly in Ontario, with a focus on individuals, as she is also a Genealogist.

ACA Communications Committee: Launch of the ACA Blog - In the Field

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 17:00:00 GMT

It is with great pleasure that the Association of Canadian Archivists launches In the Field: The ACA Blog. The field of archives engages contemporary archivists in a multiplicity of environments. Whether through their work environment; through initiatives in the digital realm; through their involvement with communities to document, preserve, and provide access to their records; and through other outreach endeavours, archivists are involved in a variety of spaces. In the Field seeks to become a place where discussions about the scope of archives, archival education, and archival interventions happens.

In line with the ACA's Strategic Plan and Progress toward A Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan, the ACA blog focuses on publishing posts that explore “frameworks, strategies, initiatives, programs and actions” undertaken across the archival realm to “address issues of inclusion, access, diversity, multiculturalism, and regional, national, global and intercultural engagement.”

We want to hear from you. Did you work on an interesting project or are you working with a particular fonds that you’d like to share with others? Have you visited an archival institution abroad – or across the road – and want to share your journey? If you wish to share a particular initiative that will enlighten the archival world, to highlight new strategies and collaboration that facilitated access to a particular fonds or collection, or if you want to raise issues regarding archival practices and theoretical paradigms, please contact us at communications@archivist.ca. We encourage proposals from students and those new to the profession.

Guidelines for contributors

Blog posts should be between 500 and 2,000 words and be submitted accompanied by an author bio of 40-50 words. We use APA citation style. We encourage the use of links, if necessary, and photographs to accompany your submissions. Please make sure that you have the authorization to use the images. Images should be accompanied by proper citations and links, if necessary.

Please complete this form to submit your proposed blog post.

We are looking forward to reading your contribution!

François Dansereau, The ACA Blog Editor

The ACA Communications Committee

Association of Canadian Archivists Blog

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Erica Hernandez-Read

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Catherine Bailey

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Shelley Sweeney

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Jean Dryden

Volunteer Profile: Sam Frederick, Professional Development Committee

ACA@50 | In Conversation with Terry Eastwood

Rights & Records: Filipino Community Archives and Activism

ACA 50th Anniversary Logo

Preserving South Asian Canadian Heritage: The South Asian Canadian Digital Archive

A Spotlight on Digital Archives with Siham Alaoui

A Spotlight on Digital Archives with Luke Frolick

A Spotlight on Indigenous Archives with Karen Ng

Paying Our Archival Debt: Envisioning New Relationships for Sustainable Community Archiving

A Spotlight on Government Archives with Ariane Gauthier

AI in Ontario Archives

A Spotlight on Museum Archives with Ashlynn Prasad

Analyzing Artificial Intelligence Methods in Digital Preservation Workflow

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with Siham Alaoui

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with John Moran

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with Curtis Frederick

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with Sarah Lake

A Spotlight on Academic Archives with Sarah Glassford

A Spotlight on Religious Archives with Rhiannon Allen-Roberts

A Spotlight on Religious Archives with François Dansereau

A Spotlight on Religious Archives with Mary Flynn

A Spotlight on Community Archives with Melissa J. Nelson

Reflections on the ACA Conference from a Student Perspective

ACA 2023 Belonging: An Interview with Madelynn Dickerson and Christine Kim

ACA 2023 Belonging : Un entretien avec Simon-Olivier Gagnon

ACA 2023 Belonging: An Interview with Shadreck Bayane

ACA 2023 Belonging: An Interview with Adam Williamson

IAW2023: Association des archivistes du Québec – Où en sommes-nous? Orientations stratégiques 2021-2023

IAW2023: Community Outreach of the Saskatchewan Council for Archives & Archivists in 2022-23

IAW2023: The New Brunswick Newspaper Project

IAW2023: Advocacy Work at the Archives Society of Alberta

IAW2023: Updates from the Archives Association of British Columbia

ACA 2023 Belonging: An Interview with Sarah Hanahem

Welcoming collaboration in the digital universe: How can information professionals unite their efforts to open up culture data?

Vigour in the archives: Honouring International Women's Day at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre

Archivists Who Write (Part II)

Archivists Who Write: A Primary Resource (Part I)

Provenance in Place (Part II): Third World Decolonization & the Vienna Convention

Provenance in Place (Part I): Archival Fictions from the French Revolution to Canadian Confederation

Trauma-Informed Archives: Preparing the Next Generation of People-Centred Archivists

The collective documentation of the COVID-19 pandemic as a person-centred archival praxis

What can archivists learn from person-centred nursing care? A conversation between a nurse and an archivist

Where are the Children? A Question of Care for the International Archival Community

What’s (Not) in a Name: The Insufficiency of Standard Biography

Adopting person-centred praxis through Developing & Adopting an Inclusive Description Style Guide at Penn State

Archivist Authors: The Sound of Fire by Renée Belliveau

Archival Research, Indigenous Protocols, and Documentary Filmmaking: A Case Study of British Columbia – An Untold History (Part 2)

Archival Research, Indigenous Protocols, and Documentary Filmmaking: A Case Study of British Columbia – An Untold History (Part 1)

Archivist Authors: The Foulest Thing by Amy Tector

TAATU 2022

ACA Conference 2022: Conference Report

ACA@UBC’s 13th Annual Seminar and Symposium

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with R.L. Gabrielle Nishiguchi

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with June Chow

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with Daochun Li

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with Michael Marlatt (he/him)

Unsettled: Redefining Archival Power: An Interview with Csaba Szilagyi

Vancouver Recommendations - Part 1: UBC

Vancouver Recommendations - Part 2: Vancouver

My Encounter with Digital Records at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections

A Preliminary Analysis of Authorship in Archivaria (2011-2021)

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives Blog Post #5 - with Professor Karen Herland - Queer Theory and Archives: An exploration of opportunities for archives and archivists in undergraduate education with Professor Karen Herland

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives - Blog Post #4 - Steven Frost – Artist and Avid Archive Researcher

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives - Blog Post #3 - Dr. Mary Hague-Yearl and the Osler Library

BIPOC Forum turns 3: where we've come in two years

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives Blog Post # 2 - Academic Value of Archiving Sexuality: Discussion of University of Toronto's Sexual Representation Collection with Archives Director Patrick Keilty

Planning Virtual Events: Organizing the Human Library

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives Blog Post #1: Matthew Lawrence – Headmaster magazine

Meet NoRA: A Network for Canadian Lone Arrangers

Exploring Currency and Empire through Archive Mapping

Remote Mentorship: Experiences with the ACA Mentorship Program in 2021

Open Questions: Reflections on the University of Toronto Archives' Oral History Collection on Student Activism

Mapping transnational activism: challenges of historical research and archives on Timor-Leste

Working from Home at the Fisher Library: Improving Accessibility and Discoverability

ACA 2021 Conference: An Interview with Sofie Tsatas

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives Blog Post #5 - with Professor Karen Herland - Queer Theory and Archives: An exploration of opportunities for archives and archivists in undergraduate education with Professor Karen Herland