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• ACA 2023 Hybrid Pre-Conference Workshop:Introduction to Archival Digital Accessibility

  • When
    28 Jun 2023
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (ADT)
  • Location
    In-Person Delta PEI, Charlottetown and online via Zoom
  • Spaces left
    7

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  ACA 2023: Belonging - Considering archival bonds and disconnects

  Introduction to Archival Digital Accessibility

  Pre-Conference Workshop

  Today, more than ever before, those who work with archival digital materials rely on websites, images, PDF documents, audio, and video, to connect with researchers and the public.
  
  Lowering barriers to make digital materials more accessible is crucial for the one out of five Canadians, who identify as having disabilities. As well, some of the 1.3 billion people worldwide may also be using Canadian archival digital materials.
  

  There is also provincial and Federal accessibility and human rights legislation across Canada that may require many of us working with archival digital materials, to identify and lower barriers for people with disabilities.
  
  Lowering barriers makes access easier and more inclusive, and provides a sense of belonging for those of us who have disabilities.
  
  In this workshop, learn the basics on how to start identifying and lowering barriers. The first part of the workshop will focus on 'why' digital accessibility is important for people with disabilities, and what legislation may apply to your work. This will include information on who may be accessing your digital materials, and what technologies may be used. There will be one or two live demonstrations of some popular technologies.
  
  The second part of the workshop will focus on the basics of the 'what' and 'how'. You will learn practical tips that can be used right away, to help make digital materials more accessible and inclusive. The workshop is geared to a beginner and intermediate audience. No technical expertise is required, just have an interest in the subject.

  What You Will Learn:
  

  • How digital barriers impact people with a wide range of disabilities.
  • The basics of accessibility and human rights legislation in Canada, and how it may impact your work with archival digital materials.
  • What kinds of software and hardware people may use to access your archival digital materials, with at least one live demonstration.
  • Practical tips, and some tools, to help you to start identifying and removing barriers to make your archival digital materials more accessible.
  • Hands-on exercises to practice some of the tips, so you can apply your knowledge right away to identify and lower barriers in your digital materials.

  Outline  
  

  • Introductions-10 minutes
  • Part 1: Different disabilities, legislation, technologies with live demo- 40 minutes
  • Part 1 Interaction: Questions will be asked about each area, so some discussion will take place.
  • Break-10 minutes
  • Part 2: Practical Tips-50 minutes
  • Part 2 Interaction: In each tip area, examples will be shown, we will work through them, and solo, or group, exercises will be provided for most tip areas.
  • Question Period-10 minutes
  • Question Period Interaction: Attendees will ask questions, and discussion will take place.

  Please note: This workshop will take place in person and using Zoom. The session will be recorded and accessible for 7 (days) to participants.
  

  Costs: 

  ACA Members: $ 50.00

  Non-Members: $ 75.00

  ACA Members - students / precariously employed: $25.00

  ACA Members - subsidized: $ 0 (please reach out to the ACA Secretariat for the application).
  

  Workshop Facilitator:

  Lisa Snider is CNSA MemoryNS Support Specialist and AABC MemoryBC Coordinator. She is a digital archivist, and since 2010, has worked with digital and hybrid collections in North America, including at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Lisa's passion in life is working with website, document, audio, video, and social media accessibility. She shares her knowledge with others to lower barriers, and make digital materials more accessible for people with different disabilities. Lisa has worked with, and helped create, accessibility legislation across Canada. She has worked with digital accessibility since 1999, and collaborates with Microsoft to improve their product accessibility.

  
  

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• Pre-Conference Workshop: Quill Work on Birch Bark

  • When
    28 Jun 2023
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (ADT)
  • Location
    In-Person Delta PEI, Charlottetown and online via Zoom
  • Spaces left
    13

  Register

  ACA 2023: Belonging - Considering archival bonds and disconnects

  Pre-Conference Workshop: Quill Work on Birch Bark

  
  

  Pre-Conference Workshop: Quill Work on Birch Bark

  Quill work is an ancient artwork that inspired the Mi’kmaq, or the porcupine people, to create such beautiful pieces of art that are now kept in museums all over the world for their beauty and timeless creativity. In this experience you will be able to work with a skilled artisan and create your own decorative birch bark circle to take home with you while learning about the rich and beautiful history of the Mi’kmaq on PEI.

  This art form has been passed down from generation to generation and now it is your time to learn this amazing skill.

   

  Workshop Details:

  Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2023

  Time: 10:00 am to 12:00 pm AT.

  Location: This workshop will take place at the Delta, PEI, the room location will be emailed to attendees in advance of the workshop.

   

  The capacity for the workshop is 25 participants.

   

  Costs: 

  ACA Members: $75

  Non-Members: $85

  ACA Members - students / precariously employed: $50

  
  

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• ACA 2023 In Person Pre-Conference Workshop: “Artificial Intelligence and Archives: the I Trust AI Research Project.

  • When
    28 Jun 2023
  •  
    1:00 PM - 4:00 PM (ADT)
  • Location
    In-Person Delta PEI, Charlottetown
  • Spaces left
    38

  Register

  ACA 2023 - Belonging - Considering archival bonds and disconnects

  Pre-Conference Workshop

  “Artificial Intelligence and Archives: the I Trust AI Research Project.”

  
  

  When: June 28, 2023, Delta PEI Charlottetown
  

  Time: 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM AT

  Capacity: 50 participants
  

  The ongoing availability, accessibility, and trustworthiness of public records is under threat, due to sociotechnical changes that have left our public institutions staggering under an overwhelming abundance, complexity, and lack of control of records. Without automated means of processing, we will increasingly lose control of public records, and ultimately, the public will lose trust in archives. However, implementing automated solutions - especially Artificial Intelligence solutions - raises a whole new set of costs and risks, from the expenses involved in implementing systems, to the risks of privacy breach, bias and discrimination, and loss of discretion.
  
  This workshop will explain the fundamental ideas on which AI is based, discuss types of AI tools available, and identify both the advantages and issues presented by their use on records and archives. It will then outline the way the new InterPARES project, I Trust AI, aims to determine how the records and archives community can develop its own AI tools based on archival principles, and leverage them to support society's demand for trustworthy public records. Finally, it will present some of the studies that are being carried out by the I Trust AI researchers, and their outcomes to date, and will involve the workshop participants in the analysis and discussion of such outcomes.
  
  

  Outline:
  

  • Muhammad Abdul Mageed and Peter Sullivan will explain types of AI systems and tools.
  • Luciana Duranti will present what kind of tools are needed by the profession vs those that have been used to date, and the reasons why the 5th phase of the InterPARES project will be necessary.
  • Corinne Rogers will discuss the structure of the I Trust AI project and, with Peter Sullivan, provide an overview of the studies in progress
  • Tracey Lauriault will discuss two I Trust AI case studies about the preservation of digital twins and smart grids
  • The participants will be divided in 4 groups, each chaired by one of the speakers, to discuss the studies and propose additional studies
  • The participants will rejoin to discuss the new proposals

  Learning Outcomes

  The participants will learn to:

  • recognize different types of AI tools
  • identify the type of tool needed for different archival functions and activities
  • assess the conditions required for the use of AI tools (e.g. amount of terabytes of digitized material)
  • understand what is feasible and what is not
  • learn what current research is being done on the use of AI in archives

  Workshop Instructors
  

  Muhammad Abdul-Mageed is Canada Research Chair in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. His research focuses on deep representation learning and natural language socio-pragmatics, with two main goals: (1) development of `social’ machines for improved human health, safer social networking, and reduced information overload; and (2) use of machine learning as a vehicle for making discoveries with and about human language. He is currently leading several funded projects, including InterPARES Trust AI, and has been funded by SSHRC, NSERC, CFI, Google, Amazon, AMD, among others.
  
  Luciana Duranti is a Professor at the UBC School of Information, where she teaches archival diplomatics, appraisal, preservation of digital records, and history of recordkeeping. Her research aims to find solutions to digital record issues that can be universally applied. Since 1998, she has been the Director of InterPARES (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems), a multi-national and multi-disciplinary research project studying the long-term preservation of authentic electronic records, which is now in its 5th phase. She has been the lead investigator also for other SSHRC-funded projects, such as Records in the Clouds and Digital Records Forensics.
  
  Corinne Rogers is the Project Coordinator for InterPARES Trust AI (UBC, 2021-2026), a multidisciplinary, international partnership researching the uses and applicability of Artificial Intelligence in archival workflows to ensure trust and trustworthiness of records and data. She is an adjunct professor in the UBC School of Information, where she teaches diplomatics and digital preservation.  She was most recently a Systems Archivist at Artefactual Systems, lead developers and organizational home to open source projects for digital preservation, AccessToMemory (AtoM) and Archivematica.
  
  Peter Sullivan is a Graduate Academic Assistant working under Luciana and Muhammad. His research focuses on Speech Processing, particularly Automatic Speech Recognition and classification (State Detection, Language and Dialect ID). Prior to returning to academia, he was a high-school Computer Science teacher, and brings with him his passion for demystifying complex technologies.
  
  Tracey P. Lauriault is Associate Professor, Critical Media and Big Data, School of Journalism and Communications, Cross Appointed to Digital Humanities, and board member of the Institute for Data Science at Carleton University in Canada. She a founder of the field critical data studies, open data and Open Smart Cities. As a data and technological citizen, she examines large and small data and technology systems to make them more just, inclusive, equitable and environmentally sustainable. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1847-2738
  
  
  

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