English

The Department of Canadian Heritage is once again conducting the Government of Canada Survey of Heritage Institutions. The previous survey, launched in 2021, enquired about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canada’s Heritage Sector.

Canadian Heritage sent out the survey on the week of March 3^rd via email, and the cut-off date to respond is March 21^st. If you haven’t already responded, please check your email for your personalized survey link!

For more information about the survey, please email the Department of Canadian Heritage at PCH.infoegcep-gcshiinfo.PCH@canada.ca

 

French

Le ministère du Patrimoine canadien mène à nouveau l'Enquête du gouvernement du Canada sur les établissements du patrimoine. L'enquête précédente, lancée en 2021, portait sur les répercussions de la pandémie de COVID-19 sur le secteur du patrimoine canadien.

Patrimoine canadien a envoyé l'enquête par courriel dans la semaine du 3 mars, et la date limite pour répondre est le 21 mars. Si vous n'avez pas encore répondu, veuillez vérifier votre courriel pour obtenir votre lien d'enquête personnalisé !

Pour plus d'informations sur l’Enquête, veuillez communiquer avec le ministère du Patrimoine canadien, par courriel à l’adresse  PCH.infoegcep-gcshiinfo.PCH@canada.ca

On behalf of the 2025 Library Research Forum Committee,   

Tomasz Neugebauer, Kate Ripley, Pat Riva, Ellen Wright (Chair)  

lib-forum@concordia.ca  

 
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You are cordially invited to register to attend Concordia University's 23rd annual Library Research Forum. Registration is free and all are welcome. 
 
This year’s Research Forum will be a one day in-person event, at Concordia University’s Loyola Campus on Friday, April 25, 2025. 
 
The annual Research Forum provides an opportunity for librarians, archivists, graduate students, teaching faculty, and information professionals to describe and promote their completed or in-progress research, or practical case studies. The Forum also provides a venue for researchers to seek suggestions for enhancing their research interests, to identify potential new partners for projects, to test the effectiveness of their undertakings, and to promote research in academic libraries.  

This year’s Keynote speaker will be Sophie Montreuil – Executive Director of Acfas. 
 
The Forum is free to attend, but registration is required for planning purposes. 

Deadline for registration is April 11, 2025.  
 
To register and for more details about the event, including a full schedule, please visit https://library.concordia.ca/about/staff/forum/ 

Questions? Please contact the Forum Committee at lib-forum@concordia.ca   

Letter sent to Ministers Anandasangaree and Hadju:

On behalf of the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) and the Association des Archivistes du Québec (AAQ), we are writing to express our concerns about the reports of cuts in funding to support the investigation into missing children and unmarked burials associated with Indian Residential Schools across Canada.

Letters.

The Workshop Accessibility Strategies for a more inclusive Canadian Archive has sold out.

If some places become free closer to the date, anyone on the waiting list will be contacted.

You are cordially invited to a free online lecture (27 February 2025 at 12 p.m. EST): “Usurpers of the Delphic Name: Dolphin Imposters in the Long Eighteenth Century.” 

Join Dr. David Hou for an exploration of eighteenth-century conceptions of the dolphin. Dolphins are deeply embedded in classical mythologies, appearing as messengers of the gods, oceanic saviors, or sometimes even as the gods themselves in disguise. Furthermore, dolphins frequently appeared in art and literature, responding to and reflecting the numerous real encounters those ancient cultures had with this friendly oceanic mammal. 

Despite all of that, knowledge about the dolphin seemed to have slowly faded from the public memory – by the late sixteenth century, naturalists bemoaned the state of popular conceptions of the dolphin, a creature that had increasingly become more of a reference to a symbol than a real living animal. The advent of more formalized branches of biological study in the eighteenth century did surprisingly little to halt the cultural effacement of the dolphin we know today. This degradation reached its peak in this period, culminating in the name fracturing into the ‘dolphin of the ancients’ and the ‘dolphin of the moderns’. In this talk, Dr. David Hou traces the development of this taxonomic instability and proposes that it can be best understood through the era’s particular blend of utilitarian and aesthetic values. 

This lecture is hosted by McMaster University Library’s Archives Alive program in partnership with McMaster University Alumni.   

Register using this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/8017380031200/WN_SDub1TQkSGyy9tQr_k8paA#/registration 

Please feel free to share this invitation with other interested parties. 

We are a group of researchers who hope to provide training regarding research in archives concerning Missing children, unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian Residential Schools. We are fortunate enough to have received a grant to develop and offer basic training with little or no cost. Before creating this training, we will consult and establish relationships with different groups of interest, including research teams, archivists, and translators, to hear about their experiences and the needs they observe. We see this as a collaborative effort and value your input. 

On October 23rd, we hosted our first online forum, where we heard from IRS research teams across the prairie provinces. This time, we are hoping to engage with archivists who collaborate directly and indirectly with IRS research teams.

This will be an opportunity for you to share about your own needs regarding training and learning regarding the history of residential schools, and the needs you have seen in IRS research teams. The forum will include presentations from panelists and will leave plenty of room for you to share your experiences, needs, and thoughts as well. 

The Speakers will include:

Sarah Story, Archives Advisor and Office Manager for the Association of Manitoba Archives (AMA)

Heather Bidzinski, archivist for the University of Manitoba

We now hope to hear from archivists. We invite you to join us on Tuesday, January 28 2024, from 9-11:30 (SK time), through Zoom:

https://uregina-ca.zoom.us/j/92735915102?pwd=ZWTC7HIqblIjCCBeDNCO9zwg1OxNMj.1 

Your participation would be greatly appreciated and we look forward to the possibility of working together. If you have any questions, we will be happy to discuss this project further with you. Please feel free to share this invitation with everyone who might be interested. Thank you in advance for your collaboration.

Best,

Véronique Mireault

On behalf of Jérôme Melançon (U of R),  Emily Grafton (U of R), Winona Wheeler (U of S), Anne-Marie Wheeler (U of S), and the Office of the Treaty Commissioner.

 

Are you looking for financial assistance to attend ARCHIVES * RECORDS 2025 in Anaheim, CA? There are four travel award opportunities available to help with registration, transportation, and lodging costs while attending the SAA Annual Meeting. See descriptions and requirements of individual awards below. Nominations will be accepted until February 28, 2025. Note that you can apply for multiple awards in a single cycle, but may only receive one. All applications must be submitted online.

Brenda S. Banks Travel Award

The Brenda S. Banks Travel Award recognizes and acknowledges individuals, such as those of African, Asian, Latinx, Middle Eastern/North African, Native American, Alaska Native, or Pacific Islander descent, who have demonstrated professional archival experience and who manifest an interest in becoming active members of SAA. Recipients receive full complimentary registration and related expenses for hotel and travel to attend the SAA Annual Meeting during the year in which the award is received. In addition, recipients receive a complimentary one-year membership in SAA.

 

Click here to preview the application and/or to apply for the Brenda S. Banks Travel Award. All applications must include the following:

1. Personal statement/essay of no more than 500 words;
2. CV or resume. 

If you have any questions regarding the award or the application process, please contact Jane Cross, Brenda S. Banks Travel Award Committee Chair, at jane_cross@yahoo.com.

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award  

The Donald Peterson Student Travel Award supports students and recent graduates from graduate archival programs within North America to attend SAA’s Annual Meeting. This participation must include either a presentation of research during the Annual Meeting or active participation in an SAA-sponsored committee, section, or roundtable. 

Click here to preview the application and/or apply for the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award. All applications must include the following:

1. A 500-word essay describing the applicant's career goals and potential impact on the archival profession.
2. Unofficial transcript to verify student status or copy of graduate diploma.
3. Two letters of recommendation from individuals having definite knowledge of the applicant's qualifications.

If you have any questions regarding the award or the application process, please contact Megan Mummey, Donald Peterson Student Travel Award Committee Chair, at megan.mummey@uky.edu.

Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award

The Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award recognizes and acknowledges graduate students of color, and seeks to promote their participation in SAA and in the archival profession. Up to two awards may be given during an awards cycle. Recipients receive full complimentary registration and related expenses for hotel and travel to attend the SAA Annual Meeting during the year in which the award is received. In addition, each recipient receives a complimentary one-year membership in SAA.

 

Please note that this year, in an effort to encourage the broadest and most inclusive pool of applicants, the awards committee has removed the requirement for official transcripts and letters of recommendation. Learn more about the Pinkett Award and preview the application.

 

All applications must include the following:

1. Personal statement/essay of no more than 500 words discussing your experiences with and/or commitment to working with, or documenting and preserving, the histories of communities of color.
2. CV or résumé.  

If you have any questions regarding the award or the application process, please contact Kimberly Barzola, Pinkett Award Committee Chair, at kimvillafuertebarzola@gmail.com.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Award  

The Oliver Wendell Holmes Award enables international archivists, who are currently training or studying in the United States or Canada, to augment their experience by traveling to the Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists. Recipients receive a certificate and a cash award of $1,000 to help cover costs of the SAA Annual Meeting for archives students who are not U.S. or Canadian citizens (or permanent residents) and are studying in the United States or Canada. Self-nominations are welcome.

 

Please click here for additional details and to preview the online application for the Holmes Award. All applications must include the following:

1. Personal statement/essay;
2. CV or resume. 

If you have any questions regarding the award or the application process, please contact Susan Swiatosz, Oliver Wendell Holmes Award Committee Chair, at s.swiatosz@unf.edu.

The Association of Canadian Archivists has released its Competency Framework. The Competency Framework outlines competencies generally required in the archives profession. Core competencies provide the foundation of the framework, describing the knowledge and skills needed to achieve professional goals. It is available on the ACA Website : https://archivists.ca/resources/Documents/2024-ACA%20Competency%20Framework.pdf

The ACA would like to thank all members, past and present, of the Professional Competencies for Archivists Working Group for their time and effort creating the framework.

On December 31, 2024, the ACA Board and PAAC sent a letter to Ministers Anandasangaree and Hadju urging the Government of Canada to further support funding the investigation into missing children and unmarked burials associated with Indian Residential Schools across Canada.  The text is linked below.

ACA-PAAC_Letter in Support of Funding for Unmarked Burials (1).pdf

The ACA’s Public Awareness and Advocacy Committee (PAAC) has developed a Trauma-Informed Archives Resource List. This list includes English and French-language resources from within and outside of the archival profession for both individual practitioners and organizations.  

The intention is for this list to be dynamic and to develop over time. If you have any feedback or suggestions for additional resources, please get in touch with the ACA at aca@archivists.ca.  

Visit the list here: https://archivists.ca/Trauma-Informed-Archives-Resource-List