Community archiving - SISARO

Community archiving

Special Interest Section for Archives of Religious Organizations

The Society of American Archivists defines a community archives as “documentation of a group of people that share common interests, and social, cultural and historical heritage, usually created by members of the group being documented and maintained outside of traditional archives.”

Join the Association of Canadian Archivists – Special Interest Section for Archives of Religious Organizations for a panel discussion on community archives.

Date: Thursday, May 25, 3:00 pm EST/EDT

The Archives:

• The Toronto Information Network for Independent Music Co-operative (TINI Music Co-op)
• Nature London
• Madonna House
• Anglican Diocese of Huron parishes
• Catholic Women’s League

The Panelists:

Simon Patrick Rogers is the special collections archivist at the John M. Kelly Library at the University of St. Michael’s College and a founding member of the TINI Music Co-op, a community archiving project to promote DIY archival documentation and information resources for Toronto area musicians, archivists and music enthusiasts. He has published numerous articles on diverse topics including archives, municipal history and architecture, music, literature, and the field of monetary appraisal.

Long-time naturalists Winifred and David Wake have been the volunteer archivists for Nature London since 2006.  A registered charity with no paid employees, the 500-member club has roots going back to 1864.  The archive was established in 1966 and now holds the equivalent of about 20 banker’s boxes of material.  Winifred and David continue to learn as they work to establish the archive on a more professional footing and seek ways to accommodate digital holdings.

Dez Nacario is the Archivist for the Huron Diocese of the Anglican Church in Canada. The V.M. Cronyn Memorial Archives collects records from churches, parishioners, clergy, and from the Synod activities of the Diocese of Huron. The collection encompasses over 200 churches, both active and inactive, across Southwestern Ontario from the early 1800s to present day. While churches are responsible for the care of their active records, Canon Law compels them to send records of historic value to the Archives for safekeeping and to make them available to interested researchers.

Kathy McVady was born in Chicago and came to Madonna House in 1966, making Promises in 1968.  Most of her apostolic life was spent in a Madonna House mission house in Winslow, AZ, and in Barbados, West Indies.  During that time, she learned from a distance what field houses needed to provide for the ongoing work at Madonna House Archives, and when she was reassigned to Combermere in 2015, she began working at St. Sergius Archives, becoming the Department Head in 2016. 

Kathleen Winter was born in Dublin, Ireland and came to Canada as a young child.  She has been active in the Catholic Women’s League serving as Secretary and President of St. Bonaventure Council of the Catholic Women’s League and on Calgary Diocesan Council as Resolutions, Education and Health, Spiritual Development Chairpersons and President Elect and Organization. In 2015 she started cataloguing the Catholic Women’s League records at the Calgary Catholic Pastoral Center.