"The Past, Present, and Future of Archives"

BC Archives Awareness Week: November 12-18, 2023

Join the AABC for the 2023 Archives Awareness Week where we explore “The Past, Present, and Future of Archives”. In these times we appreciate the basics of our theory and practice, while also imagining the ways we can adapt and welcome new ideas and initiatives for the future of our profession. Join us for an unconference mix of presentations, forums, student sessions, and interactive social media posts which show where we've been, where we are, and where we can go from here. 

Celebrating BC Archives Awareness Week Social Media Style!

We encourage you to celebrate and promote our Archives Awareness Week theme by sharing "Past" and "Present" photos from your collection with your colleagues around the province on your social media platforms! Use the hashtag #AAWpastpresentfuture to tag the AABC on your social media sites. You can also send images to the AABC at info@aabc.ca and we will post them on the AABC Facebook page throughout Archives Awareness Week. Please make sure to include useful contextual information about the photos you are sending. Photo submissions are welcome between November 1-18, 2023!

Registration

All Archives Awareness Week events are free, except the "Lone Arranger" webinar. Pre-registration is required to indicate your RSVP for the individual sessions. Each session will have a separate Zoom link and participant instructions sent in a registration confirmation email (check your Spam/Junk folder if you don't see it in your Inbox). We hope that you will be able to join us for at least one, if not all of the Archives Awareness Week events.

Donations

While almost all of the events for Archives Awareness Week are free of charge, we encourage participants to consider donating to the AABC. Your donations will help provide awards to UBC School of Information students and contribute to the annual ACA@UBC conference. Donations can be made via our website or through Canada Helps.

2023 Archives Awareness Week Schedule

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm PST

Location: Zoom online

Session: "BC Geographical Names Office - Indigenous Naming Project"

The BC Geographical Names Office (BCGNO) is responsible for naming geographical features and managing all official place names in the province of British Columbia. Geographical names are essential for communication and navigation but also represent much more: they reflect the values of communities or decision makers at the times the names were created and continue to influence how we view, understand, interact with, and remember places and their histories.  Indigenous Peoples have always named places and Indigenous place names, especially in the original languages of the land, help tell the story and deep history of this place we know today as British Columbia. Learn how the BC Geographical Names Office is working to better represent Indigenous names in the Province, and the connections between this process and the work of archival institutions.

Speaker: Genevieve Weber, Manager of Programs and Services at the Provincial Heritage Branch. She works closely with the Provincial Toponymist, responsible for the BC Geographical Names Office. In her past role as an archivist, Genevieve regularly used the BC Geographical Names app to assist researchers looking into the history of geographical places in BC.

This session was recorded! To view the presentation slides and watch the recording, please visit the AABC ROUNDTEA page.

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Time: 10:00 – 11:30am PST

Location: Zoom online

Session: "Climate Change and Archives"

Climate change is impacting archives across Canada. Extreme weather and changing climate will affect archival collections, facilities, staff, and users. Archives professionals will play an important role preparing for and mitigating the impact of climate change at their institutions. Together we will talk about approaches to climate adaptation in archives and strategies for addressing climate change in archival work.

Speaker: Amanda Oliver (she/her) is the Head, Archives and Special Collections at Wilfrid Laurier University, located on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science, with a concentration in archives, from McGill University, and a Master of Arts in Preventive Conservation from Northumbria University. Her article “The Impact of Climate Change on Canadian Archives” was published in the Records Management Journal in 2021.

This session was recorded! To view the presentation slides and watch the recording, please visit the AABC ROUNDTEA page.

Additional resources presented during the session can be found in the Archivist's Toolkit under "Climate Change and Archives".

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Time: 12:00 - 1:00pm PST

Location: Zoom online

Session: "Indigenous Archives Networking Forum"

This is a networking space provided for cultural knowledge keepers, Indigenous archives, and archivists working in Indigenous organizations. Participants will have the opportunity to connect with and support each other through questions and updates. This will be an informal gathering so please join us with a cup of coffee and your lunch if you like! Note: this event will not be recorded.

Host: Lisa Glandt, AABC Education and Advisory Services Coordinator.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Time: 9:30 – 11:30am PST

Location: Zoom online

Webinar: “The Lone Arranger: Practical Approaches to Arrangement” 

Join us for this webinar where we will walk through a key stage of processing records: archival arrangement. Participants will learn how to arrange records based on best practices and the theoretical framework of respect des fonds. But a box of archival records is not always a straightforward (!) so the webinar will introduce practical strategies for approaching records when original order and provenance is unknown. A review of processing supplies, workflow, discussion of the “more product, less processing” concept, and arrangement examples will be evaluated. Participants are encouraged to bring their questions.

Presenter: Lisa Glandt, AABC Education and Advisory Services Coordinator

Registration fee: AABC members $20.00; non-members $35.00

This session was recorded! To purchase a link to watch the webinar recording, please visit the AABC WEBINAR page.

Friday, November 17, 2023

Time: 1:30 – 2:30pm PST

Location: Zoom online

Session: "Emerging Professionals – Student Session"

Join us as we hear from current archival students who will share their research, interests, and questions as they start on their archival journey.