Archives
volunteers Rosemary Wilson and Lise Ouimet attended a workshop held at
the Ursula Surtees Conservation this fall. They went with the right
attitude. Who wants to drive to Kelowna at five in the morning? The two
packed up and went the night before, checking into a nice hotel. It was a
girl’s night out. I suspected there might be a bottle of French wine to
share in the evening. The women did not disappoint:, they went to a pub and had a beer with supper. No expenses paid!
The workshop, Managing Archives, was partially funded by the Library
and Archives Canada DHCP program and hosted by the Kelowna Museums.
Archives Association of BC Education Advisor Lisa Glandt billed the
workshop as an introductory course covering basic archival principles.
Participants learned about appraising collections, and accessioning and
de-accessioning, followed by how to process records.
Lise and Rosemary came home confident and beaming.
“I’m so glad we had a working knowledge of archives before the course. We
would have been lost without it,” Lise said afterwards. She was
reaffirmed and now dramatically puts her foot down on the subject of
sketchy images. “No more photographs that are out of focus!” Lise will
not process any more poor-quality images. She’s also thinking about
de-accessioning those that don’t make the grade.
“We were told not to be afraid of de-accessioning items.”
Existing large collections should be re-evaluated periodically, and fuzzy images should not be preserved.
The course also reaffirmed Rosemary’s belief that we are doing a
really good job. “I’m pretty proud of what we’ve accomplished in the
archives at RJ Haney Heritage Village. Our little community archives is
in good shape,” Rosemary Wilson said confidently.
I can see their point. It is nice to be reaffirmed.
Photograph credit: Allan Wilson
3 Amigos : left to right
Rosemary Wilson, Deborah Chapman, Lise Ouimet