Building your institution’s archival processing checklist for digital records

Building your institution’s archival processing checklist for digital records

This workshop will provide practical guidance and advice for building a checklist for the archival processing of digital records. The session will include an overview of the checklist tool developed by Library and Archives Canada (LAC) staff working on the Prime Minister Papers Project. The tool is used to assess acquired digital records, and to think through processing steps requiring further research, consultation, and/or the use of specialized software/tools. Walking away from the workshop, participants will have the building blocks for developing and nuancing their institution's tools for digital archival projects. 

This workshop aims to:

• Provide a starting framework for starting your digital processing project.
• Develop skills to help you anticipate potential digital processing issues.
• Develop skills to help analyze digital processing workflows, including assessing strengths and weaknesses in existing processes.
• Learn from fellow workshop participants who have experience processing digital records, and have the opportunity to share the tools used or developed to respond to project needs.

Outline:

• Presentation - 30 minutes
• Break - 10 mins
• Breakout rooms - 50 mins
• Break - 10 mins
• Wrap-up - 20 minutes
  

• Kelsey Beauvais (she/her) obtained her BA (in History) from Laurentian University and Master of Arts (History) from the University of Ottawa (completing a portion at the Université de Haute-Bretagne 2). She is currently the Oral History Collections Specialist at the Canadian War Museum and is part of the In Their Own Voices Oral History project. Previously Kelsey worked as an archivist on the Prime Minister's Project at Library and Archives Canada from 2018 to 2021. Kelsey is a franco-ontarian settler who makes her home in Ottawa on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.

• Kelly Ferguson (she/her) obtained her Master of Arts in Public History from Carleton University in 2017. She joined Library and Archives Canada as a portfolio archivist in 2018, and is currently working as an archivist on the Prime Minister Papers Project. Kelly is a settler on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation.

• Laura Hernandez (she/her) obtained her HBA in History and Anthropology and Master of Arts (Public History) from Western University. She worked for a decade in historical litigation research, including land claims and TRC research, and is now on her fourth year at Library and Archives Canada. Her areas of research include Indigenous history, federal-provincial relations, and government records. She is currently working as an archivist processing digital records on the Prime Minister's Project at Library and Archives Canada. Laura is a settler of mixed Spanish, Afro-Latine, and Indigenous ancestry who makes her home in Ottawa, the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.

• Rachel Klassen (she/her) obtained her BA (Sociology and Political Science) and Master of Information (Archives and Records Management) from the University of Toronto. She joined Library and Archives Canada in 2014 as a portfolio archivist, and became the lead archivist for the Prime Minister Papers Project in 2018. Rachel is a settler who makes her home in Ottawa on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.