Collaborating for Comprehensive Collections

Summary:

This individual paper will present insight gleaned from a cautiously intrepid archivist’s active and ongoing pursuit of the collection-building collaborations available in corporate and institutional environments. The presenter hopes to share potential leads for colleagues pursuing comprehensive collections strategies in their own contexts.

The brief presentation will highlight the benefits archives can gain from specific practical partnerships that the presenter has discovered both within and outside traditional archival practice. The presenter will also acknowledge some of the observed risks that have accompanied new alliances including impacts on day-to-day work, and conflicting understandings of professional identities.

Working from the perspective of an archivist with records management duties, the presenter hopes this paper will contribute to a discussion of the scope of present day archivists’ roles to perform outreach as it relates to collection building; and other colleagues’ experiences engaging in non-traditional partnerships for the benefit of archives.

Presenter:

Andrea McCutcheon

Andrea is an archivist at the University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services where she helps university faculty and staff manage their records, acquires the school’s archival administrative records, and facilitates research access to the archives. She has over ten years of experience working with corporate records in public and private archives and holds a Master of Information from the University of Toronto Faculty of Information. Andrea is currently pursuing a certificate in Information Privacy and Access at Ryerson University’s Chang School and is interested in finding ways to foster comprehensive and accessible corporate archives in environments governed by legislation.