ARCHIVES AWARENESS WEEK 2022

The Archives Association of Ontario has designated April 2nd to 8th as Archives Awareness Week. This week is an excellent opportunity to celebrate your archives, the importance of documentary heritage within your community, and your organizational achievements. 

Tweeting about events? Use the #2022AAW hashtag!

The theme for Archives Awareness Week 2022 is Behind the Scenes, and will take place from April 2nd to April 8th. We encourage members to program events and engage in social media initiatives that will provide Ontario’s archival community with a behind the scenes look at your archives. Topics may include insight into your appraisal decisions, current projects or initiatives under development, profiles on staff, favourite items or collections, or anything else the public might not normally see or know about you and your institution! As per tradition, the AAO will be hosting a Twitter Takeover event. On Monday, April 2, a roster of guest archivists will take over the AAO Twitter account @AAO_tweet to answer your questions and comments related to work in the archives. If you would like to participate, please contact Tys Klumpenhouwer at director2@aao-archivists.ca by March 15th to book a one hour slot! Teams are welcome! Hurry - space is very limited this year!
On Friday, April 8th, the AAO will publish a series of short vignettes submitted by membership (yes, that’s you!) via our Instagram account. We are asking volunteers to submit recorded (sound and video) answers to any or all of the following questions. Examples from your collections will be encouraged!

• What record or set of records do you wish someone would finally write a book, make a film, and/ or  complete a PhD on?
  
• What is a document, photograph, recording, or item that sparks more questions than answers?
  
• Tell us about an archival surprise, something unexpected!
  
• What archival process or specific record in your collection keeps you up at night? 
  
• What archival task do you enjoy the most?
  
• Team white gloves or team no white gloves?
  
• What surprises people most about what you do?
  
• What is the strangest thing you have ever found in the collection?
  

If you would like to participate in the AAW vignette event, please contact Tiffany Ribeiro at webadmin@aao-archivists.ca prior to March 10th, so we can coordinate the recording and sharing of your vignette. Again, space is limited!

If you would like us to promote your event - whether it is related to the theme or not - please let us know prior to March 21st so that we can include it in next month’s The Original Order of Things newsletter.