association of canadian archivists—university of british columbia

Symposium 2009: "Our Professional Identities in a World Gone Digital"

From February 11 to February 13, 2009, the UBC student chapter of the Association of Canadian Archivists presented the international symposium, "Our Professional Identities in a World Gone Digital." The symposium brought together professionals from the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States, Library and Archives Canada, and the National Archives of the United Kingdom to speak on the role of archivists, records managers, and information professionals in the modern age. On February 11 and 12, speakers lectured to SLAIS students and affiliates in the Lillooet Room of the Barber Centre. Events on February 13 were held in UBC's Frederic Wood Theatre, and were open to the public. Friday's events drew almost 150 people, including students and faculty from UBC and visitors from the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, Washington state, and elsewhere.

A PDF copy of the event program is available here. The schedule for the symposium was as follows:

Wednesday, February 11

1:30-3:00Agnes Jonker: "Archives, and Appraisal of Archives for Acquisition (in the Netherlands)." View slides.
3:00-3:15Break.
3:15-4:45Caroline Williams: "Appraisal in Practice." View slides.
4:45-5:00Break.
5:00-6:00In conjunction with the SLAIS colloquium series, Peter Grant speaks on his role as a CIO in managing electronic records.
 

Thursday, February 12

9:00-10:30Jean-Stéphen Piché and Genevieve Allard: "The Recordkeeping Regime: Overcoming RK Challenges in the Public Service." View slides.
10:30-11:00Break.
11:00-12:30Richard Brown: "Developing Documentation Standards for Business Activity in the Government of Canada." View slides.
1:30-3:00Jason R. Baron: "The E-Records/E-Discovery Connection: Selected Hot Topics & Case Law (U.S., Canada, U.K.)." View slides.
3:00-3:15Break.
3:15-4:45Ken Thibodeau: "Transfers of Electronic Records to NARA, 1970-2009." View slides.
 

Friday, February 13

9:00-9:15Kelly McElroy, ACA Student Chapter Coordinator, and Kathryn Harrison, Associate Dean, UBC Faculty of Arts: Opening Remarks. View text.
9:15-10:00 Ken Thibodeau, ERA Program Director, National Archives and Records Administration: "The Survival of Records (and Records Management) in the Twenty-First Century." View text.
10:00-10:45Jean-Stéphen Piché, Director General, Library Archives Canada, and Genevieve Allard, Director, Government Operations Division, Library and Archives Canada: "The Recordkeeping Regime: Overcoming RK Challenges in the Public Service." View slides
10:45-11:00Break
11:00-11:45Richard Brown, Senior Strategic Advisor, Library and Archives Canada: "Developing Documentation Standards for Business Activity in the Government of Canada." View slides.
11:45-12:30Daryll Prescott, "DoD 5015.2 and Records Management Services." View slides.
12:30-13:30Lunch Break
13:30-14:15Jason R. Baron, Director of Litigation, National Archives and Records Administration: "Needles, Haystacks and Smoking Guns – Searching for Legal Evidence in the Modern Email Archive." View slides.
14:15-15:00Caroline Williams, Head of Research and Collections Development, National Archives of the UK: "'Consigned to history?' Digital collecting and the archive professional." View slides.
15:00-15:20Break
15:20-16:30Luciana Duranti, moderator, Panel of all speakers addressing the question of whether the digital environment has changed our professional identities. View notes from the discussion.
 

Event Photos

Click here to see a gallery of photos from the Symposium.

Sponsors

The UBC ACA Student Chapter would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following sponsors:

UBC Alma Mater Society and its Finance Commission
Association of Canadian Archivists
City of Vancouver Archives
UBC's Faculty of Arts
Frederic Wood Theatre
InterPARES
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
UBC's Library and Archival Studies Students Association
Simon Fraser University Archives and Records Management Department
UBC School of Library, Archival and Information Studies