Archives Society of Alberta - Conference 2021 Program May 27 - 28, 2021
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Archives Society of Alberta
Conference 2021 Program
May 27 – 28, 2021Welcome Message from Welcome Message —
Honourable Leela Sharon Aheer ASA President
Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism and Welcome to the 2021 Archives Society of Alberta Conference.
Status of Women Funding cuts have pummeled our profession, and a pandemic
As the Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of has caused layoffs and the closure of many archives. We have
Women, it is my honour to welcome everyone to Archives had to rethink how we engage with the community, develop
Society of Alberta’s 2021 Biennial Conference! new partnerships and reimagine projects and standard
workflows. ‘Archives in Interesting Times’, the conference’s
We are living through times of great change. From the theme, offers inspirational and creative case studies of how
pandemic, movements of social change, and ground-breaking archivists have risen to unprecedented challenges.
discoveries, we are all part of history being made. It is hard to
think of capturing these moments for future generations when I know from personal experience the amount of work
we are still processing it ourselves. involved in organizing a conference. I imagine organizing
a conference online has created some unique challenges for
Now more than ever, archivists are vital to our society. There is the ASA Conference Program Committee and staff. I would
comfort in knowing that Alberta’s archivists are documenting like to thank Sara King, Melissa McCarthy, Karly Sawatzky,
how our province survived these challenging times, through Bryan Bance and Jennifer Willard, members of the Conference
documents, photographs, video, and more. Thanks to their Program Committee, as well as Ericka Chemko, Conference
work, future generations will be able to study and experience Organizer, for the effort and hard work.
Alberta’s story of perseverance and community.
While we will not meet in person this year, I hope you will
My sincere gratitude to the organizers and volunteers for enjoy the conference!
adapting the society’s conference to a virtual experience. It is
wonderful to hear so many organizations finding innovative Sincerely,
ways to gather and learn safely. Valla McLean, ASA President
Enjoy the conference!
Leela Sharon Aheer
Minister
Conference Schedule — May 27 and 28, 2021
Thursday, May 27, 2021 Zoom Room 1
9:30am – 11:30am Alberta On Record Training
(Institutional Members Only, free)
11:30 am – 12:30 pm Lunch
12:30 – 2:00pm Annual General Meeting
Friday, May 28, 2021 Zoom Room 1 Zoom Room 2
8:30 – 9:00am Welcome & Opening
9:00 – 10:00am Session 1:
Keynote Address
Shelley Sweeney
10:00 – 10:15am Break — 15 mins
10:15 – 11:45am Session 2A: Session 2B:
‘Pandemics in the Archives’ ‘What to do About RG10?’
Sara King, Jesse Carson, Kristine Lehew Kenton Storey, Greg Bak, Carmen Miedema,
Sarah Hurford
11:45am – 1:00pm Lunch Lunch
1:00 – 2:00pm Session 3A Session 3B
‘Arts and Archives’ ‘Internal Systems’
Kelly Jaclyn Andres, Candace Laycraft Anna Gibson Hollow, Melissa McCarthy
2:00 – 2:15pm Break — 15 mins
2:15 – 3:45pm Session 4A Session 4B
Bottom’s Up! ‘Archives during the Pandemic’
Michael Gourlie, Heather Northcott, Sara King Vino Vipulanantharajah, Jia Jia Yong, Jillian
Staniec
3:45 – 4:05pm ClosingPre-Conference Workshop
Alberta On Record Training
May 27, 9:30 – 11:30 am
Instructor: Maryna Chernyavska, Description: The AOR Training session using AOR or for those who would like
Database Administrator is an introduction to contributing a refresher on how to use the database.
content to AOR. The training is intended (Pre-registration required)
for those with little to no experience
Program Details
Session 1: Keynote Address, Shelley Sweeney
at UBC (1985) and received her Ph.D. and academic archivists as agents for
in Archival Enterprise from UT Austin change, an encyclopedia article on
(2002). She has taught sessions in the provenance and a textbook chapter on
University of Manitoba Masters of primary and archival sources, among
Archival Studies program, and sat on a others. She co-chaired the establishment
number of thesis defense committees. of the National Centre for Truth and
She was President of the Association Reconciliation in 2013.
of Canadian Archivists, Secretary of Title: Living – and Working – Through
the Academy of Certified Archivists, Challenging Times
Secretary General of the Bureau of
Canadian Archivists, and helped found Abstract: Archivists are going through
three archival associations, among other particularly challenging times at the
professional work. She spoke about the moment. How will the gig economy
Presenter: Shelley Sweeney is Senior profession at the ACA conference in impact the ability of people to find
Scholar and Retired Head, University Whitehorse in 2012, and has spoken permanent full-time work in the
of Manitoba Archives & Special and written widely about the history archival field? Will funding cutbacks be
Collections, Winnipeg, where she of the archival profession, archival temporary or permanent? As archivists,
started in 1998. She was the University education, and the possible creation can we look to the past to provide
Archivist at the University of Regina of the information super-professional. insight on how we as a profession can
(1983-1998). She was in the first class of Shelley has written journal articles be resilient? Let us examine what we
the Master of Archival Studies program about shortfalls in funding for archives do best in order to show us the bright
promise of an archival future.
Session 2A: Pandemics in the Archives
Presenter: Sara King, Government finding aid for our early Vital Statistics Presenter: Jesse Carson, Archives
Records Archivist, Provincial Archives death records. By luck of the draw, I Assistant, Thomas A. Edge Archives
of Alberta would be working on 1918. And what a & Special Collections at Athabasca
year it was. University
Title: Messages in the Margins:
Inadvertent stories hidden in the Vital In this presentation, I’ll examine how Title: Thomas A. Edge Archives
Statistics Records the review of that year’s statistics and Special Collections’ COVID-19
would reveal more than what a simple Memory Archive Project
Abstract: For many people, the arrival
government form was meant to capture.
of COVID-19 has necessitated changes Abstract: In the spring of 2020, in
They would document the spread of the
to the way we approach our workplaces response to the COVID-19 pandemic,
pandemic from returning soldiers to the
and our interactions with the public. and the rapid and extensive changes
general public, how private homes and
While the Provincial Archives of Alberta adaptation to it wrought on Athabasca
public buildings were converted into
is once again open and welcoming University (AU) and the AU community,
isolation hospitals before the creation of
researchers (by appointment at least), in the Thomas A. Edge Archives & Special
a Government organized public health
early 2020, the majority of the Provincial Collections planned and launched our
department, and how officials and
Archives staff found themselves working COVID-19 Memory Archive Project.
ordinary citizens left their own legacy in
at home. That meant the hunt was on The stated goal of the project was to
the official record as they reacted to the
for projects that could be completed “create an archive of our individual
disaster unfolding around them. And a
without needing access to the physical and shared experiences during the
few murder mysteries too.
worksite. One of these projects 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19)
happened to be completing a searchable outbreak.”The project, which was inspired by Presenter: Kristine Lehew, City of The ways in which records are organized
similar projects launched by other Calgary Archives and managed by the department who
archives across the world, sought created the records directly effects the
Title: Archival Pandemics
to solicit digital submissions of information available. This means that
photographs, artwork, recordings, Abstract: This study looks at the records understanding this period is about
blog and social media posts, poetry management practices of the City of more than just reading the content of
and prose, or whatever else people Calgary during the 1918 Pandemic and the City’s records, but it is also about
thought would be representative of their how these practices provide important reading the sometimes overlooked
experiences in this unprecedented time. information about the way the city annotations of records professional.
We also created a survey asking people handled the crisis. Records keeping systems provide insight
about their experiences. We reached out A study of the 1918 Pandemic records at into the city’s operations and the ways
to students, staff, alumni, and residents the City of Calgary Archives showcases organizations valued and disregarded
of the Town and County of Athabasca how records management remarks and stories of various individuals.
through social media, email, newsletters, indicators of original arrangement can This study also looks at how archivists’
and newspapers to promote the project be avenues to understanding diverse can help researchers understand records
and invite people to contribute. stories that may otherwise appear management along with the historical
I would like to offer a presentation on silenced in the archives. The ways in information they are looking for. This
our experiences planning and executing which the records were organized and research will lead to discussions of how
the project, as well as project outcomes. managed by the creating department contemporary records management is
The project has offered insights into directly influences the information shaping covid-19 records.
various aspects of archival practice available. Since archivists can only work
including community engagement, with the records that ended up in their
social media outreach, collaboration collections, these records management
with other organizations, and archival decisions should be carefully considered
practice in a post-secondary context. when one studies the 1918 Pandemic.
I would also like to share some of the These remarks are particularly
submissions we received, and talk about important when researchers are looking
plans for their short and long-term use for diverse stories and perspectives that
as archival resources. tell more than just the colonial or settler
narratives that archives sometimes
provide.
Session 2B: What to Do About RG10? Advancing Archival Decolonization by Addressing
Institutional Biases in Governmental Records
Presenters: Kenton Story; Greg Bak, sponsored surveillance. Historians and the LAC website and Canadiana.org.
University of Manitoba; Carmen archivists understand how unsettling Our panel considers the implications
Miedema, National Centre for Truth and this content can be. of these transformations of RG 10
Reconciliation; Sara Hurford, Library for the Indigenous people, and their
Nevertheless, RG 10 is core to
and Archives Canada. descendants and communities, who
Indigenous rights activism and
are in the records. Our questions
Abstract: Everything about RG 10 is research. Archivists at Library and
include: how should LAC prepare users
problematic; compromised, even. This Archives Canada and its predecessors,
(conceptually and emotionally) to
enormous set of records relating to the recognizing this, have long worked
access RG 10? How might Indigenous
Department of Indigenous Affairs bears to make the records more accessible
communities garner control over
witness to settler Canada’s genocidal to Indigenous legal and historical
records of their communities? What can
attempt to assimilate Indigenous peoples researchers. Selected series of RG 10
archivists and historians learn from each
– by violence and coercion, if not by were microfilmed and made available
other’s experiences?
persuasion. In it, one encounters the full at multiple sites across Canada; more
range of racist stereotypes in records, recently these microfilmed records and
both mundane and extraordinary, many more have been digitized and
created through long-term state made freely available online throughSession 3A: Arts and Archives
Presenter: Kelly Jaclyn Andres, City of panel to choose the final content for In the Spring of 2020, that’s exactly
Red Deer the artwork. This task created an the scenario I faced. I was hired by
opportunity for not one but three Northern Light Theatre in Edmonton,
Title: The Art of Untold Stories from
image-based research and storytelling to create a preservation plan for their
the City of Red Deer Digital Archives
projects within The City of Red Deer digital records, retrieve history that
Collection
digital archives collection. Additionally, was lost due to a server crash, and
Abstract: In early September 2020, as the research for the multiple themes and eventually deposit these records into an
part of a Development Permit process, coinciding images was transformed into existing collection at the University of
an exterior façade improvement in the an innovative public exhibition-town Alberta Archives. Designed to celebrate
form of a mural or artwork was required hall forum (January-February 2021) and reflect upon the company’s 45th
for The City of Red Deer’s new Archives as well as the public artwork (March anniversary, this grant-funded project
and Record Centre by late October 2020. 2021). This paper and presentation had already faced one hurdle. The
The initial project theme developed was will share the trajectory of navigating funding received to carry out this work
titled “Women in the Land” featuring a complex civic environment in terms was significantly smaller than was
twelve photographs (circa 1910-1930) of curatorial vision, political sensitivity, originally hoped for, which had already
of unnamed women situated in natural process, community engagement, and prompted a drastic project revision.
environments to be laser engraved the technical aspects of the project.
on 24” square stainless steel panels. Change once again became necessary
The concept was to introduce the Presenter: Candace Laycraft when the pandemic hit and the
importance of featuring individuals world shut down the week I was
Title: Changing Trajectories and supposed to get started. Suddenly, I
whose stories are often untold, Preserving Community Theatre was homeschooling and wondering
underrepresented or excluded from
mainstream settler-colonial portrayals Abstract: At the best of times, how to move this project forward.
of history. Due to a perceived “political community archiving can be What followed was panic, pivoting,
sensitivity” to this theme as not “being challenging. While the need for such adjustments, and eventual success
inclusive”, the Occupancy Permit was work is often great, resources are as this work was made possible
granted with the technical concept of limited. This reality is compounded by through technology and community
“archive photos on stainless steel panels” the challenges of preserving born-digital stakeholders. In my presentation, I will
but the artistic part of the project was materials. Throw in a global pandemic be reflecting upon how community
put on hold. The recommendation was and community archiving becomes even archiving changed during these
to present multiple choices of “themes” more difficult. challenging times.
while engaging an exterior selection
Session 3B: Internal Systems
Presenter: Anna Gibson Hollow, • Risk of losing archival records University Records Office, PARIS
University of Alberta Archives through mismanagement or brings together training, product
improper destruction development, and implementation
Title: Welcome to PARIS!
activities under a single harmonized
At the University of Alberta, the
Abstract: The University of Alberta plan. In this presentation, participants
Archives is not the only office to be
Archives is the official repository for will be introduced to the University
challenged in fulfilling its mandate.
the permanently valuable records of the of Alberta’s PARIS initiative. We will
The University Records, Information
University of Alberta and its affiliated look at the process and reasons leading
and Privacy, and Information Security
institutions. It has a broad mandate to to its formation, and review some of
offices all struggle to provide services to
acquire, preserve and make available the challenges faced in this process.
the university community. With limited
university and private records. Like We will also look at the benefits that
resources and a highly decentralized
many archival institutions, however, this partnership brings to the offices
environment, it was clear that changes
the Archives experiences challenges in involved, particularly the University
needed to be made. Enter the world of
fulfilling its mandate including: Archives, and to the university as a
PARIS.
• Insufficient resources to properly whole.
acquire and preserve institutional PARIS, which stands for Privacy,
memory Archives, Records and Information
• Lack of awareness within the Security, is a collaboration between
university on mandate and role of the offices that provide information
archives management and security services.
Launched in 2020 and led by thePresenter: Melissa McCarthy, City of impetus for adopting CAAIS has been via ACDPS — one consequence being
Edmonton Archives standardizing these many systems — that our accessions are temporarily
some of them exclusively paper-based, not within our archives database; and,
Title: A CAAIS Study in Early
some a hybrid, none of them entirely like everyone else, we’re navigating
Adoption
RAD-compliant — into one simple, the choppy waters of COVID and the
Abstract: The City of Edmonton easy-to-use, easy-to-refer-to system. economic downturn. All of this has led
Archives is ahead of the curve in to a rationalization and streamlining of
This change comes for us at a time
adopting the Canadian Archival what we do, a move toward more careful
of many other changes. We’re in the
Accession Information Standard. Our adherence to standards, and an openness
process of completing a governance
implementation is well underway — to new ways of doing things.
review; we’ve had some staffing changes
we’ve switched to a CAAIS-compliant
in the past few years; the City has largely The process has been exciting,
spreadsheet for all new accessions, and
switched to Google from Microsoft educational, and full of surprises. This
we’re transitioning legacy data into the
Office — making it easier to work presentation is not a “how-to” but a
new system as well, dating back to the
on CAAIS collaboratively and from “how-we,” and a look at the joys and
1960s. Several donation forms, transfer
home; the Archives has switched from challenges of early adoption.
forms, and accession systems have been
Inmagic Presto to AtoM/Archivematica
used over the years, and part of the
Session 4A: Bottoms Up! An experiment in Government Records Description
Presenters: Michael Gourlie, Sara King, amounts and regular accruals that looking for information (or for the
Heather Northcott, Provincial Archives typify a Government Records program, archivists trying to find it). The solution?
of Alberta combined with recent efforts to clean Flip the problem on its head and start at
up past use of Selective Retention, have the bottom.
Abstract: In 2020 the Provincial
made trying to figure out what we have
Archives of Alberta began a pilot In this panel, the Government Records
on hand in terms of extents, dates, and
project to shift from our existing TMS Team at the Provincial Archives will
records creators a baffling ordeal. The
database to the AToM platform and this discuss the description pilot, focusing on
top down approach had resulted in a
presented an interesting opportunity the Department of Agriculture and its
handful of higher-level descriptions
for the Government Records team to successor departments, what we hoped
with massive extents and little to no
attempt something which hadn’t been to achieve, how the project went along
series or accession level information
done for the better part of fifteen years: the way, and probably a little bit about
attached. Needless to say, this was not
describe our records. The massive butter sculpting and Dairy Queens.
particularly helpful for researchers
Session 4B: Archives During the Pandemic
Presenter: Vino Vipulanantharajah and time, we as an archives department have This also includes contributions to our
Jia Jia Yong, Musée Heritage Museum been resilient in what we have been museum gallery exhibits and online
able to accomplish. As an example, we programming that has continued
Title: Re-Opening Musée Heritage
recognized that reference requests were since reopening. Lastly, the museum
Museum’s Archives
not going to stop and needed to meet recognized that we may not be able to
Abstract: The Musée Héritage patrons’ demands. We also utilized our produce new work for the public to view
Museum Archives proposes to share small but biggest asset, our staff, to on a consistent basis. However, we had
the experience of working during the tackle different projects. Thus, we would already produced work that needs to
pandemic lockdown and changes since like to share some ways our archives be shared more, so we figured out ways
reopening, namely the resiliency of department managed to contribute to to revisit older materials. Specifically,
the archives department, increased our organization much better than other we produced an exhibition about
and different forms of community departments that were worse affected. It world pandemics in 2019, which we
engagement, and adapting to new ways goes to show the potential for archives reformatted to an online based exhibit
to showcase work done previously. Our to have a more everlasting footprint with in 2020 and then asked for community
museum closed to the public in March people in uncertain times. Our museum involvement to add to our own archival
2020, cutting archival staff hours, and also recognized the need for increased collection. Thus, we were able to find
did not come back to normal staff levels community engagement. As a result of another way for people to continue to
until Sept 2020. During this lockdowns, we realized this engagement contribute to our archives.
has to mainly come through online
methods. This is something we planned
to do before, but it was given more
priority when we were closed.Presenter: Jillian Staniec, City of Red the City of Red Deer Archives. The maintaining reference services, dealing
Deer Archives circumstances included merging two with “found” and water-logged records
storage locations into one, combining (who knew we had five cabinets of
Title: Unprecedented Times: Moving
our location with the City of Red Engineering drawings, because we sure
Your Archives During a Pandemic
Deer Records Management section, did not), and ensuring our needs were
Abstract: There are few challenges designing more effective office and met as best we could despite not being
in the archival field more daunting researcher spaces, and staff layoffs and invited to the design table. We believe
than moving your archives into a new reorganization throughout the City. Did that other archives can learn from these
facility, in part because it is done so we forget to mention following all social experiences because even if you are not
rarely. Carrying out this move during distancing protocols? Opportunities moving anytime soon, you never know
a pandemic added to the challenge for and hurdles were discovered including when unprecedented times will hit.
Our Sponsors
ASA would like to thank the following sponsors of our conference for making this conference possible:
Conference Organizers
ASA’s Conference Program Committee volunteers include Sara King, Melissa McCarthy, Karly Sawatzky,
Bryan Bance and Jennifer Willard. Thank you for all the work you did in preparing the conference
program. The ASA Secretariat was also responsible for organizing this conference — Rene Georgopalis,
Executive Director and Ericka Chemko, Conference Organizer.You can also read
