Greetings from the MAIG Executive,

On behalf of the Executive I am pleased to share the second part of the Municipal Archives Interest Group’s (MAIG) Industry Survey. This second installment of the survey, a collaborative effort between MAIG and the AAO’s Institutional Development Committee, focuses on pandemic recovery for archives throughout Ontario. Many archives have resumed services and reopened their doors, but we recognize that many institutions are not necessarily back to “business as usual”. 

To determine how to best support our members during pandemic recovery, we ask your assistance in providing important information to the AAO Board and MAIG Executive through completing this short survey. The data provided will be essential in determining the ongoing archival response to COVID-19 in Ontario and various concerns of AAO Institutional Members. We ask that you submit your response by August 3, 2022.

The Pandemic Recovery Survey can be filled out online here: https://forms.gle/QVhYS9E7bb7vLHNi9.

Please Note: Once the survey closes, all survey responses from municipal and/or government archives will be identified and made public to members via the Municipal Archives Interest Group (MAIG) website: https://www.aao-archivists.ca/maig. This is due to the overwhelming request for this data from MAIG Members. Information from other respondents will be anonymized at this time.

To provide feedback on this form, or if you have any questions or concerns, please contact the IDC Chairidc@aao-archivists.ca or MAIG Executive (contact information available at https://www.aao-archivists.ca/maig).  

Thank you for taking the time to fill out this short survey.

Sincerely,

The MAIG Executive – Megan, Amber, and Gina

The AAO Board of Directors is looking for AAO individual members to join the newly established Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee for a two-year term (2022-2024). 

Building on the efforts of the DEI Working Group, this committee will advise the AAO Board of Directors, standing committees and membership on issues relating to DEI within the AAO itself and in the archival profession at large. 

Questions and expressions of interest can be sent to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee chair Krista McCracken (past.president@aao-archivists.ca).

Archives Association of Ontario 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM) information package

The Archives Association of Ontario will hold its 2022 annual general meeting (AGM) virtually on May 27th, 2022, between 9:30 and 11:00am via Zoom. The AGM information package is now available here and you can register for the meeting here. 

Details on how to join the meeting will be sent to registered attendees in advance of the meeting. Please register by May 20th if you wish to attend the meeting.

We hope that you will join us on May 27th!

Please register here.

Municipal Archives Interest Group (MAIG) - Upcoming Annual General Meeting

May 25, 2022 – 12:15-2:15PM

Please join the MAIG Executive for our virtual AGM on May 25 from 12:15 – 2:15pm!

All AAO and Chapter members, and anyone interested in or involved with municipal archives is welcome to attend. This event is a great opportunity to meet and connect with your municipal archives peers and to hear about MAIG’s upcoming plans and projects for the year, including Part 2 of the MAIG Industry Survey and the fall Open House.

If you plan on attending the MAIG AGM, please send your RSVP to mlockhart@oxfordcounty.ca.

Agenda:

• Report of the Chair 2021-22
• Financial Report 2021-22
• Budget Approval 2022-2023
• Open House Updates & Discussion
• Other Business
• Roundtable

Please view the agenda package here: Agenda Package

AAO Conference attendees will be able to access the Zoom meeting through the Whova web portal.

Zoom details below:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/93925754610?pwd=YlorUVdvVWtjdjV0eEdhSlVWeDU5QT09

Meeting ID: 939 2575 4610

Passcode: KFYmP1

I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the AGM on May 25!

Megan Lockhart, MAIG Chair

Toronto Area Archivists' Group (TAAG) Chapter Executive 2022-2023

The Toronto Area Archivists' Group (TAAG) Chapter Executive 2022-2023 has been announced. Members of the Executive are:

President: Charly Wreggitt

Past-President: Lindsay Osmun

Treasurer: Tanis Franco

Secretary: Louise Curtis

Member-at-Large: Maegan Ayre

Member-at-Large: Beverley Darville

Member-at-Large: Livy Wren

Member-at-Large: Tiffany Ribeiro

Archives Association of Ontario East est (AAOEe) Chapter Executive 2022-2023

The Archives Association of Ontario East est (AAOEe) Chapter Executive 2022-2023 has been announced. Members of the Executive are:

President: Claire Sutton

Claire Sutton is an Assistant Archivist with the City of Ottawa Archives, where she has worked since 2015. She holds an M.A., History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London and a Certificate in Archives and Records Management from Algonquin College, Ottawa. Prior to working for the City Archives, she interned with the Canadian Museum of Nature Archives in Gatineau. In 2015, Claire received the Shirley Spragge Bursary from the AAO, awarded to emerging archives professionals to attend the annual AAO Conference.

Vice President: Matthew Moore 

Matthew Moore is an Archival Assistant at Library and Archives Canada in the Government Records Initiative Division. Matthew’s educational background is in Canadian social and military history and includes an Honours B.A. in history (2013) and M.A. thesis in history (2015) both from Carleton University. His thesis research focused on veteran identity and helped him develop a passion for archives as he sought out answers to his own historical questions. His current work focuses on the reappraisal of government textual and architectural records. As a lifetime resident of Ottawa, he has worked as an assistant historian at the Canadian War Museum and has held a number of research positions in the National Capital Region. 

Past President: John D. Lund

John D. Lund hails from the dark recesses of British Columbia where tourist migrate on an annual basis. He is a corporate archivist at the City of Ottawa Archives specializing in electronic records. John’s previous positions, include, Collections Management Archivist, City of Red Deer, and Visual Records Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta. John has provided workshops on born digital and traditional photographs at the provincial/national level. He has presented papers on visual records and digitization at ACA conferences and has provided peer review for Archivaria. He continues to provide workshops on a variety of topics including photographic records, copyright and audio preservation and digitization. Outside of the nine to five John is a photographer, writer and general punk.

Treasurer: Theresa Sorel

Theresa Sorel has been Treasurer of the Eastern Chapter of the Archives Association of Ontario since 2006. A native of Nova Scotia, Theresa holds an Honours B.A. in History from St. Francis Xavier University and an M. A. in History (Scottish Studies) from University of Guelph, as well as a certificate in Museum Management and Curatorship from Sir Sandford Fleming College. She has worked at several archives, art galleries and museums in Peterborough, Toronto and Ottawa and is currently the Special Media and Exhibitions Archivist at the City of Ottawa Archives.

Secretary: Marcia Mordfield

Marcia Mordfield is an Assistant Archivist at the Canadian Science and Technology Museum and the Aviation and Space Museum. She has worked for the Corporation for the last 20-years, primarily with the archival photograph collections. Marcia holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Carleton University and a Certificate in Archives and Records Management from Algonquin College. A highlight in her archival studies was participating in a placement at the Natural History Museum in London, England.

Member-at-Large (Social Media): Jacinda Bain

Jacinda Bain fell into the archival world quite by accident during a family reunion in Nova Scotia and a visit to a small archives. Once she returned home Jacinda promptly quit her job and went back to school at Algonquin College, enrolling in the Archives Technician Program (Intensive) and hasn't been the same ever since. Upon graduation, she has been working in the archival field for several years and has worked in many archival and records management environments in the Ottawa-Carleton region. Currently, she is working as an Archivist at the City of Ottawa Archives specializing in municipal records and in the curation of exhibits.

Member-at-Large: Anne Lauzon

Anne Lauzon, after university, has worked in records management and archives for the last 30 years. She has kept abreast of records and archival developments through night classes, readings, and implications in the records/archival community. During her career, she has had the opportunity to work with various types of organizations’ archives and records centers such as: the Centre-de-recherche-en-civilisation-canadienne-française within the Faculty of Arts at University of Ottawa, the Ottawa General Hospital, and the Archives of the University of Ottawa. She has had the chance to work with and adapt various archival and records management tools in collaboration with IM specialists. Anne is part of a team of 6 archivists within the City of Ottawa. This team works closely with records managers on several other projects.

Member-at-Large: Moo-Jun Kim

Moo-Jun Kim (Pronouns: He/Him) has recently completed the Master of Information programme (Archives and Records Management Concentration) of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Information (iSchool). He was born in South Korea and came to Canada as an immigrant in 2011. In South Korea, he had been a student and labour activist that supported labour strikes or peace movements. He has been a volunteer at the ArQuives since February 2017 and is currently working as a Student Library Assistant at University of Toronto Libraries, Downsview. He has obtained a BA (Honours) in history and an MA in history and East Asian studies from York University. He will embark on working towards the Juris Doctor programme of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, this September.

Member at Large: Emery Leger

Emery Leger is an Archivist with Skate Canada and is a subject specialist in figure skating. Before his life in the archival field, he worked as a skating coach for 46-years, with a specialization in figure skating Singles-Free style. Some highlights during his career were coaching skaters to national and international medals, being a Mentor Coach for the National Coaching Certificate Program, and studying with Olympic Coach Douglas Leigh. Emery was the founder and director for the Mariposa - Moncton Skating Club, 1st Satellite School of Doug Leigh. He is also a past member of the Board of Directors for Skate Canada.

Member-at-Large: Emma Carey

Emma Carey is currently an archivist with the Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives in Arnprior, Ontario. She served as Archivist there from 2018-2021, when she left Ontario for Halifax. This year, Emma is back and working with the Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives again. She obtained her MLIS from McGill University in 2014, and is interested in Indigenous perspectives and archival practices, community memory, municipal archives, education, and outreach. The Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives is a non-profit, volunteer-run archive that aims to acquire, preserve, and make available important historical documents in the Arnprior and McNab/Braeside area.

Nominations for 2022-2023 AAO Board of Directors

The AAO’s Nominations Committee is pleased to announce the following slate of candidates for the 2022-2023 Board of Directors, to be voted on by AAO members at the 2022 virtual AGM (Friday, May 27th, 2022). Nominations from the floor during the AGM will also be accepted.

Stay tuned for more information about the virtual AGM in the coming weeks.

VP-President Elect: Sarah McDougall

Sarah McDougall (MI, MMSt) has been a member of the AAO since 2013 and has served as a member of the Advancement Committee since 2019. She was the moderator for the AAO’s "Archival Conversations: Solo Archivists and Small Staff Archives" in 2020 and has been the moderator of the “Safe Spaces for Archival Workers with Disabilities, Chronic Illnesses, and the Neurodivergent” sessions since 2020. She was also the Chair of the ACA Student Chapter at the University of Toronto for the 2015-2016 academic year. Sarah has experience working in the archives and records management fields for government agencies and cultural institutions and is currently the archives assistant at the Anglican Diocese of Toronto Archives.

Director Without Portfolio: Leslie Thomas

Leslie Thomas (formerly Thomas-Smith) has been an Archivist at Western University Archives and Special Collections for 20 years after graduating with a BA in history from the University of Guelph and an MLIS from Western. In addition to having experience in most aspects of archival work, she has presented at AAO conferences and SAA’s research forum. Her main research interests include; increasing the representation of groups traditionally excluded from the archives and intellectual access to collections. She was a member of the ACA’s membership committee and ran the mentorship program for several years. She has been involved with many internal committees during her time at Western, including Western Libraries’ Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion subcommittee since its inception. Currently, she chairs a working group to develop policies and procedures to review and update the language used in legacy archival descriptions. She is passionate about getting more material from members of excluded/underrepresented groups and creating a welcoming and inclusive environment.

We look forward to your participation at the AGM on May 27th.

The AAO 2022 Nominations Committee

These Are Unprecedented Times: How Archives and Archivists Changed, Struggled and Thrived Through Challenging Periods

The Archives Association of Ontario is pleased to announce its Call for Posters for the 2022 Annual Conference to be held virtually from May 25-27, 2022.

The 2022 Conference Program Committee invites poster proposals broadly connected to the conference theme of “These Are Unprecedented Times.”

We especially welcome and encourage posters by and from archivists who identify as part of minority communities. We also welcome posters from students, new graduates, and emerging archivists, or those archivists associated with under-represented institutions or collections. All individuals who work with archival records are invited to submit a proposal.

Potential subjects for consideration include but are not limited to:

• Changes to archival work through and post the COVID-19 pandemic or other major upheavals – practical and theoretical;

• Addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the profession and in our collections;

• Responding to key movements such as Black Lives Matter, Truth and Reconciliation, etc.;

• Developing better connections and engagement with known and new research communities;

• Straddling the demands of rapid digital advances and the spectre of technological obsolescence;

• Other topics related to archival practice will be considered.

Poster proposals should include an abstract of up to 250 words and a biographical note of no more than 100 words for each participant.

Proposals should be submitted to: AAO Office at aao@aao-archivists.ca

Proposals should use the subject line format: AAO2022_Poster_Lastname-Firstname

The due date of proposal submissions is March 31, 2022.

If successful, the presenter(s) will be later required to submit a short video (under 5 minutes) of their poster presentation and be available to attend a live Q&A during the conference.

On behalf of the AAO 2022 Conference Program Committee

Archives Association of Ontario (AAO)

aao@aao-archivists.ca

Archives Association of Ontario EAST EST (AAOEe) CHapter

The AAOEe wants you for the Chapter Executive in 2022-2023!

What does the AAOEe do?

The Archives Association of Ontario East / est (AAOEe) Chapter is a volunteer-led organization under the umbrella of the Archives Association of Ontario (AAO). The Chapter serves and engages our membership, provides programming, and promotes archives, heritage, and information management to the public through events. We also connect with the AAO Board to support its efforts to build membership and advance the organization’s development.

Why do we need volunteers?

The AAOEe is managed by volunteers and all the work we undertake requires the time and energy of an engaged team. The combined efforts of our Executive allow us to bring tours, workshops, speakers, and other events to the Eastern Ontario region. 

We are currently looking for new members to join the Executive to help shape the Chapter’s yearly program, develop activities for our membership, assist emerging professionals and advocate for the archival community.

What do we want to do?

The AAOEe must be responsive to your needs and interests. To this end, we want to build a diverse Executive that reflects our membership. Whether you are new to volunteering, a student, an established archivist, or a member of an allied discipline (such as heritage or information management), all voices are welcome and respected.

By contributing just a few hours each month, you will ensure that our Chapter continues to represent and bring engaging programming to our community. Our approach is friendly and informal, and our meetings are casual.

The Executive meets roughly 8 times per year and consists of the following roles, all of which are one-year terms that are elected at the Chapter AGM (April 2022) and are open for the 2022-2023 year. In addition to the responsibilities described below, all members contribute some time to program development and implementation.

For more information on any of the roles below, and to discuss how you can contribute, please contact the AAOEe Chapter Executive at aaoeast@gmail.com.

Which role do you want to fill?

• President

The President provides leadership to the Chapter. This includes acting as spokesperson for the Executive, the membership, and stakeholders to the AAO Board and other interested parties. For Executive meetings, work includes scheduling, setting the agenda, and chairing the meetings. The President also ensures that the Chapter is fulfilling its responsibilities to the AAO Board, such as submitting required reports. Note: upon leaving office, the President is asked to stay on the Executive for an additional year in an advisory role as Past-President. Time commitment: 5 hours per month, with additional time required for the AAO Leadership Meeting and AAO Annual General Meeting.

• Treasurer
  

The Treasurer looks after the Chapter’s finances. Duties include preparing budgets and financial statements, writing cheques, managing deposits and investments, and reporting on the previous year’s finances at the AAOEe AGM. Time commitment: 3-4 hours per month, with additional time required for the AGM. 

• Secretary

The Secretary is the official record keeper for the Chapter. They take minutes of all meetings and distribute documentation to the Executive and the general membership as required. Time commitment: 2 hours per month.

• Vice-President
  

• Member-at-Large

The Member-at-Large position assists the Executive to build capacity in subject areas that may be pertinent to the broader membership.

For example, the Communications Officer is a portfolio assigned to a Member-at- Large. The Communications Officer updates the AAOEe Facebook page with upcoming events, tours, and workshops. Other social media tools may also be used.

The Member-at-Large may be elected at the AGM with assigned responsibilities, or it may be project based and appointed by the Executive at any point in the year. The role often builds upon the subject expertise of the volunteer. Time commitment: flexible, 2-4 hours per month.

Note: the AAOEe encourages student participation, particularly through the Member- at-Large position. There is no limit on the number of Member-at-Large positions.

For more information on any of the roles described above, and to discuss how you can contribute, please contact the AAOEe Executive at aaoeast@gmail.com.