Signatures Is Published Twice a Year
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE MAGAZINE OF LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA FALL WINTER 2019 THE MAGAZINE OF MANAGING EDITOR Michelle Pellerin LIBRARY AND EDITORS Martin Beaudry Lisa Forbes ARCHIVES Louise Pedneault Chris Pitre Clément Prévost CANADA COORDINATOR DIGITAL VERSION FALL / WINTER 2019 Jean-François Drouin All images presented in this issue are from the collection of Library and Archives 1 Introduction 16 TD Summer Reading Club: Canada unless otherwise indicated. by Leslie Weir Inspiring Tomorrow’s Readers Library and Archives Canada by Lianne Fortin 550 de la Cité Boulevard 2 Building a Network to Support Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0N4 Documentary Heritage 18 A Year of Youth www.bac-lac.gc.ca by Alain Roy Advisory Council by Laura Blackmore 5 Partnerships and and Tyler Owens Tomorrow’s Professionals by Jérémie Blondin 20 Jewish Journeys at the Cat. No.: SB3-3 (print) Canadian Museum of History Cat. No.: SB3-3E-PDF (online) ISSN: 2369-4521 (print) 6 Travelling the Traditional by Michael Kent ISSN: 2369-453X (online) Métis Homeland with Date of publication: November 2019 Hiding in Plain Sight 22 A Collaborative Approach by Megan Lafrenière to Intellectual History: Signatures is published twice a year. The Footprints Project Subscribe online: www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/signatures 8 Co-Lab: Crowdsourcing by Michael Kent Our Digital Collection For more information: by Alexandra Haggert 23 The Gatineau 2 Project: [email protected] A Lasting Partnership More Than a Name by Dino Roberge © Library and Archives Canada 10 by Marcelle Cinq-Mars and Alex Comber 24 LAC Perspectives 12 Collaboration, Conservation 26 What’s New Cover: Young girl carrying groceries and a Classic Composite in the Collection on a snowy road, Buffalo Narrows, by Mary Piper Hough, by Liane Belway, Saskatchewan. Susannah Kendall, Meaghan Scanlon Photo: Rosemary Gilliat Eaton, Tania Passafiume and and Véronique Bélec March 1955. Source: Rosemary Gilliat Eaton fonds/e010975246 Madeleine Trudeau 28 A Place for Everyone This image is featured in the travelling 14 The RCMP Gave Canada by the LAC-OPL Joint Facility exhibition Hiding in Plain Sight: and the World Big Band Music Project Team Discovering the Métis Nation in by Cheryl Gillard the Archival Records of Library and Archives Canada. See the article on page 6 for more information about this exhibition. Individually, we are one project, which aims to develop a database to track the move- drop, but together, we ment of rare Jewish books. In another article, the same “ are an ocean.” author details LAC’s experience with the Canadian Museum of History in bringing to life the exhibition Jewish Journeys – This powerful thought from Stories of Immigration from the Treasures of Library and prolific Japanese writer Archives Canada. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa per- fectly captures the essence Speaking of museums and exhibitions, Mary Piper Hough, of this issue of Signatures. Susannah Kendall, Tania Passafiume and Madeleine Trudeau highlight a collaborative restoration project undertaken To be a source of enduring by LAC and the National Gallery of Canada, while Megan knowledge accessible to all, Lafrenière focuses on the LAC travelling exhibition, Hiding Library and Archives Canada in Plain Sight: Discovering the Métis Nation in the Archival (LAC) relies on a number of Records of Library and Archives Canada, which explores the national and international partnerships, as well as on the portrayal of Métis in our art and photography collections. expertise and collaborative efforts of our employees, to enrich and expand access to our collection and preserve the coun- And let us not overlook the significant roles that Canada’s try’s documentary heritage for present and future generations. youth have played at LAC this past year. Enjoy reading Jérémie Blondin’s chronicle of his internship as a student Every day, LAC seeks to identify new collaborators while acquisitions librarian, and learn about the valuable experi- continuing to work with established partners to build better ences of members of the inaugural LAC Youth Advisory networks for expanding our impact at home and on the world Council. Through these types of relationships, LAC is stage. These relationships facilitate knowledge sharing for investing in a new generation of professionals who aspire the advancement of better tools, processes and standards for to contribute to Canada’s cultural heritage. On the topic of the memory sector, and enable the development of innovative Canada’s young people, Lianne Fortin gives readers a look programs, services and technologies that empower us to at the TD Summer Reading Club—Canada’s biggest bilingual enhance engagement. summer reading program for kids of all ages. In light of LAC’s ongoing focus on building meaningful In addition to these collaborative endeavours, this issue of connections with compatible individuals, communities Signatures also highlights how LAC will be transitioning and institutions, it is fitting that this issue of Signatures our services over the next five years to serve an expanded offers readers a comprehensive look at some of our clientele in a new state-of-the-art joint facility with Ottawa collaborative endeavours. Public Library in central Ottawa. Collaboration has long been considered an essential LAC’s commitment to working collaboratively in serving as characteristic of the Canadian documentary heritage com- Canada’s continuing memory and in becoming a source of munity. With this in mind, our colleague Alain Roy begins enduring knowledge accessible to all is made possible in great this issue of Signatures with an overview of the history of part thanks to our employees, whose remarkable dedication, network building within our country’s library and archival passion and expertise are clearly reflected in the pages that communities to construct uniquely Canadian knowledge. follow—happy reading and discovering! Discussing the history of collaboration leads us to the digital revolution and the rise of a culture of citizen participation. In this vein, Alexandra Haggert writes about LAC’s online collaboration tool Co-Lab and its benefits for public engagement. The digital era also enables institutions around the world to share knowledge and learn from each other. One of these opportunities, as described by Michael Kent, features Leslie Weir the Jacob M. Lowy Collection of rare Judaica in the Footprints Librarian and Archivist of Canada Photo: Charles-Olivier Desforges-Rioux, LAC 1 BUILDING A NETWORK TO SUPPORT DOCUMENTARY HERITAGE — BY ALAIN ROY, Historian and Policy Advisor, Strategic Research and Policy ince the 1960s, and even before, (NLC) differed in some respects, they S collaboration has been consid- both played an essential role in building ered a fundamental characteristic of networks of partners within each of the Canadian documentary heritage these communities. community. This is because of the recognition that, in a federal state The creation of Library and Archives like Canada, responsibilities are Canada (LAC), which brought the shared. However, the ability to achieve two worlds together, continued the collaboration has varied over time, momentum and expanded the net- beginning in the 1970s and increas- working. Over time, this collaboration ing from the 1980s onward. While the has taken place in various forums approaches adopted at the time by across the spectrum of concerns, the Public Archives of Canada (which from acquisition to preservation became the National Archives in 1987) to access. In order to reflect and the National Library of Canada Canada’s diversity, a collaborative approach appears essential for the entire community. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND THE ARCHIVAL SYSTEM Cover page of the report The Future of the National Library of Canada, submitted to At the Public Archives, the idea of docu- Secretary of State David MacDonald in August 1979. Source: OCLC 6258809 menting the whole of society, the “total archives,” was launched in 1968, as a call for better co-operation. As early as 1970, a round table explored the idea of collaborating on acquisitions. That du Québec), brought together same year, the National, Provincial 63 participants from the Public and Territorial Archivists Conference Archives, provincial and university (NPTAC) was created, with the mission archives, and the research community. of promoting exchanges. This idea of As Dominion Archivist Wilfred I. Smith networking was supported in a 1975 pointed out, the objective was “to arrive report from a Commission on Canadian at a consensus and at agreements Studies led by T.H.B. Symons. on our collective goals and on the cooperative and other arrangements As a result, a National Conference on that would permit the harmonious Archives was considered in the late development of archives in Canada.” Cover page of the Canadian Archives 1970s. The publication of a report The attendees recommended the report. The report, prepared by the by Ian E. Wilson in 1980 supported establishment of a pan-Canadian Consultative Group on Canadian Archives, this idea; in August 1981, a sympo- archival co-operation program, then chaired by Ian E. Wilson, was based on provincial networks with submitted to the Social Sciences and sium, organized under the auspices Humanities Research Council of Canada of professional associations (the the support of the Public Archives, in August 1979 and published in March 1980. Association of Canadian Archivists whose important contribution Source: OCLC 7577390 and the Association des archivistes was recognized. 2 This proposal was endorsed by a The shift became more pronounced THE NEW MILLENNIUM 1982 NPTAC report that, in addition in the early 1980s; in The Future to supporting the idea of such a of the National Library of Canada The arrival of digital technology and network, highlighted the leadership (1979), Sylvestre pointed out that “the the fact that many resources were shared between the NLC and the role of the Public Archives. The emphasis on cooperative network- National Archives increasingly led to proposal was also backed in a second ing [is] meant to equip Canada with convergent thinking, where issues report by Ian E.