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 “Kwento’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.

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! 

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. 

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.

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.

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 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.  

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. 

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 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 

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. 

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 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.