AAO News

Dear AAO,

Ah, the glories of late October. Waking up in total darkness in a warm bed and hitting the snooze button. Eating too many chocolate bars in the office on the day after Halloween. Laying awake till 2 AM hearing ghosts because you watched that terrifying Netflix show too close to bed. All totally non-specific, shared experiences of the season. But best of all - and definitely for everyone - reading the newest issue of Off the Record! 

The new issue of OTR is now available for members. 

This excellent issue includes AAO news and updates, a member spotlight interview with Liz Mayville, an article by AAO Archeion Coordinator Lisa Snider on bulk uploads, a reflection on a summer's work well done by Louise Curtis, a report on the new Reclaiming Shingwauk Hall exhibition by Krista McCracken, and an article on an exciting new way to process collections using speech recognition by Kathy Traynor. 

All my thanks to these wonderful and talented contributors who make OTR such an engaging publication! 

The still-very-good Fall 2017 issue is also now available free to the world. 

Best,

Grant Hurley

OTR Editor

Call For Papers: Archives Association of Ontario (AAO) 2019 Conference

The Archives Association of Ontario (AAO) is pleased to announce its Call for Papers for the 2019 AAO Conference to be held 8-10 May in Belleville, Ontario.

Unlocking the Vaults: Access, Outreach & Engagement

In 2019 we invite archivists to show us how they are sharing their collections with the wider world. This might be by cutting through cataloguing backlogs, developing digitization and digital archives workflows, or by taking archives to community groups in innovative ways.

This is an opportunity to speak about successes – as well as the challenges faced – in promoting collections, expanding audiences, and fostering engagement with archives. We’d also like to hear about your instructive failures!

The AAO 2019 Program Committee invites proposals which touch on any aspect of the broad theme of improving access to archives.

Session topics may include:

• Providing access via digitization
• Innovative outreach activities
• Engagement with diverse user groups or emerging areas of research and scholarship
• Promoting archives through partnerships
• Strategies for reducing backlogs

Submissions of proposals for papers are invited.

The Program Committee will accept both individual submissions for papers as well as full session proposals for multiple speakers.

Full sessions are 1h15m in duration and may take the form of:

• Conventional sessions (formal presentation of papers; approximately 20 minutes per speaker, with questions to follow as time allows);
• Panel discussion (abbreviated presentation of papers; approximately 10-15 minutes per speaker, with discussion to follow);
• Roundtables (brief 5-7 minute presentations with open discussion); or
• Focused Debate on a specific topic (brief presentations with open discussion & debate to follow).

Full session proposals should include: name and contact information of all the presenters, along with a brief biography, a short session description (500 works, max) and a session abstract (suitable for use in the conference program, 150 words, max.).

Individual paper proposals should include your contact information, a brief biography and a short description of the paper (150 works, max)

Proposals should be sent to the AAO Office using this form.

The deadline to submit proposals is November 30, 2018.

If you have any questions, please contact the Program Committee Chair:

Rodney Carter
Archivist, RHSJ St. Joseph Region Archives, Kingston
 rgscarter@gmail.com

The 2019 AAO Conference will include, depending on student interest / response, a Student Papers session and, possibly a Poster session. A separate call for submissions will be issued early 2019.

A reminder to Institutional Members that Archeion offers two new features:

1.Bulk Uploads

Up until now, you could only manually input authority records and archival descriptions into Archeion one by one. However, if you are interested in adding authority records and archival descriptions in bulk through an Excel spreadsheet that you create, please contact Lisa Snider for more details at archeion@aao-archivists.ca or 1-(800) 208-1936.

If you use AtoM 2.3 in house, the process is very easy. If you use another product or method in house, you can convert that format into the specific Archeion AtoM Excel spreadsheet. Lisa can provide guidance for either type of database, and whether this bulk upload method would work for your situation.

2. Extra Space

Institutional Members receive 1 GB of free space with their membership. If you need more space for digital objects, we offer 5 GB and 10 GB packages. Please contact Lisa Snider at archeion@aao-archivists.ca or 1-(800) 208-1936. 

Hello AAO,

As we enter the dog days of summer, I highly recommend sitting back and relaxing into your favourite deck chair (or desk chair for those of us not on vacation) and enjoying the newest issue of Off the Record! 

The issue is now available to members. 

The issue features updates from AAO Archives Advisor Iona McCraith and Archeion Coordinator Lisa Snider, the 2018 AAO Award winners, a response to the organizational history book panel at the recent AAO conference by John Smart, and a piece by yours truly on the Canadian cartoonist Seth. 

Furthermore, the excellent Summer 2017 issue is now available free to everyone. 

Best,

Grant Hurley

OTR Editor

The Municipal Archives Interest Group (MAIG) is extending its deadline for article submissions to include in our 2018 MAIGazine publication. The new deadline is Friday, July 20.

We want to hear your stories about public outreach - successful programs, programs you are currently developing at your archives or failed attempts at outreach. How have you engaged your community in local heritage and culture? Please consider submitting to the MAIGazinetoday!

If you are interested in submitting an article, please send your submissions to Megan Lockhart (mlockhart@oxfordcounty.ca) by July 20. 

For information about MAIG, the MAIGazine or to view past issues, visit our webpage at http://aao-archivists.ca/maig​. Feel free to contact our executive with any questions.

Thank you to those who have already submitted an article!

 - Gillian, Megan and Gina

The Municipal Archives Interest Group (MAIG) is looking for submissions to include in our 2018 MAIGazine publication. This year we are seeking articles that fall within the theme of “Outreach in Archives”. Do you have a story to tell about an outreach initiative at your archives that brought people together? Have you developed an innovative way to reach out to the public and get your community engaged in archives and heritage? Or have you recently experienced a failed attempt at outreach and what did you learn? We want to hear from you!

If you are interested in submitting an article, please send your submissions to Megan Lockhart (mlockhart@oxfordcounty.ca) by July 6^th.

For information about MAIG, the MAIGazine or to view past issues, visit our webpage at http://aao-archivists.ca/maig​. Feel free to contact our executive with any questions.

Thank you in advance for your submissions,

- Gillian, Megan and Gina

Hello AAO,

The Spring 2018 issue of Off the Record is now available. Its release is miraculously lining up with a true spring after the fool's spring, second and third winters we experienced. Rejoice! 

The new issue is available to members here.

This issue features some excellent pieces that, appropriately for the season, reflect back on work completed and look toward new things to come. The issue includes a report from the Middlesex Centre Archives, a reflection on the recent GLAM Summit by AAO Archives Advisor Iona McCraith, a guide to uploading and creating finding aids by AAO Archeion Coordinator Lisa Snider, and a review of a survey from 1987 by John Smart. It also includes updates on the AAO's goings-on, such as the results of the recent membership survey and the proposed new mission and mandate for the Association. 

The Spring 2017 issue is now available free to everyone here.

Happy reading!

Grant Hurley

Editor, Off the Record

Dear AAO members,

It is with great pleasure that the AAO Nominations Committee announces the following slate of Directors put forth to the AAO Membership for election at the Annual General Meeting in Waterloo on May 10th, 2018.

Vice-President/President Elect: James Roussain

James Roussain is currently the Instruction and Outreach Archivist at the John M. Kelly Library at St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, position he has held since January 2017. Prior to joining the University, James worked for Scotiabanks’ Records and Information Management Office. James received his Master of Information (MI) degree from the University of Toronto. Beyond being the current president of the TAAG, the Toronto Area Archivists Group, James is currently researching how to engage large classrooms in the evaluation and use of primary source materials.

Director Without Portfolio: Lauren Halsey

Lauren Halsey is an Associate Archivist at the City of Thunder Bay Archives. She has a BA in English and received her MLIS from Western University, where she completed co-ops with Environment Canada and the University of Windsor (Leddy Library), and a practicum with the London Archives of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada. As a member of the AAO, she has served on the Professional Development Committee and is active with NOAA. In her spare time, she hikes and is the Publicist for the Thunder Bay Hiking Association.

Director Without Portfolio: Nick Richbell

Nick Richbell joined the University of Waterloo Library as Head, Special Collections & Archives in 2015. He has overall leadership of the department with a focus on strategic planning and donor relations. Prior to Waterloo, Nick was the Corporate Archivist at Canadian Pacific Railway, Project Archivist at McGill University Archives, and Archivist and Collections Manager at McGill University Health Centre. He has served on the Board of the AAO since 2016 and is excited to run for a second term.

Nominations from the floor will also be accepted during the AGM.

See you in Waterloo!

The Organizational History Committee and the AAO Board of Directors is extremely grateful to everyone who contributed to the crowdfunding campaign for the organizational history book, In Pursuit of the Archival Endeavour: The Story of the Archives Association of Ontario. We are proud to announce that we raised $4,920 through crowdfunding and an additional $3,000 from our corporate sponsors, Flume Media Archiving and Carr McLean. This puts our fundraising total at $7,920!

If you have not pre-ordered the book through the Indiegogo campaign or through your conference registration, there will be opportunities to order your copy online in May after the book is launched at the conference. We will follow up with more details about how to submit an online order in the coming months. The book will also be available for sale at the conference registration table.

Also, if you never had a chance to check out the pitch video for the campaign, you can still view it on the AAO’s YouTube channel. You will probably see some familiar faces!

Thanks again to those who provided support, and for those who still want to order a copy of the book, keep tuned for more details.

The Organizational History Committee is pleased to share an exclusive sneak peek of the cover design for In Pursuit of the Archival Endeavour: The Story of the Archives Association of Ontario. This cover utilizes the logos from the Ontario Association of Archivists and the Ontario Council of Archives to visually represent how the Archives Association of Ontario grew from the merger of those two associations in 1993.

There are only five days left to support the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for this book. Through the campaign, you can pre-order a softcover or a hardcover copy of the book and access perks including the opportunity to have your name listed in the book acknowledgements as a supporter! The campaign closes at 11:59pm on March 24, so don’t miss this chance to pre-order the book and show your support.

We are grateful to members of the archival community that have already contributed $3,705 to this project, as well as the $3,000 in corporate sponsorship graciously donated by Carr McLean and Flume Media Archiving.

You can also pre-order a softcover or hardcover copy when you complete your 2018 conference registration!