Course:ARST573/BC Archives

From UBC Wiki

BC Archives is the provincial archives of the Province of British Columbia (BC), located in Victoria, BC, Canada. Founded in 1908, it is one of the oldest archival institutions in Canada, and the oldest Canadian archives west of the Great Lakes.[1] From the beginning, BC Archives has adopted a total archives approach, combining private records and public records in holdings that are of enduring value to the Province of BC.

History and Development

Formation and Early Years

BC's Provincial Legislature was built in 1894 with a Legislative Library run by the province's first Legislative Librarian, R.E. Gosnell. Gosnell, an avid historian, began collecting and preserving documentary evidence of Colonial British Columbia, saving some of the earliest government records from the trash heap.[2] He was appointed provincial archivist in 1908, when the Archives were first recognized as an important institution in their own right, separate from the Legislative Library.[3] The Archives moved to a dedicated space in 1915, but were not open to the public. Early archivists, like Gosnell and E.O.S. Scholefield, were able to spend large amounts of money on acquiring “rare items, manuscripts, and records relating to BC and the Northwest;” [4] their institution was interested in settler history, and operated both as a research library and a public record office. Gosnell and Scholefield acquired newspaper files, books, pamphlets, photographs, journals, maps and copies of manuscripts, but neither had a strong focus on organization or indexing of the collection.[5] BC Archives was first opened to the public in the 1920s, under Provincial Archivist John Forsyth, who imposed a system of organization on the holdings and made them accessible.[6] W. Kaye Lamb headed the Archives from 1934-1940, the period when the Document Disposal Act was enacted; it was there that Lamb developed a growing concern and frustration with a “lack of awareness and cooperation by government departments” with records management and archival transfer. [7]

1960s–1980s

Fifty-five years of active acquisition, 34 of them under the tenure of Provincial Archivist Willard Ireland, led BC Archives to outgrow its location in the Connaught Library in the Legislative Buildings, moving to its present location at 675 Belleville Street in Victoria, BC in 1970. The positions of Provincial Librarian and Provincial Archivist were separated in 1974; Allan R. Turner was named Provincial Archivist.[8] BC Archives opened a satellite gallery devoted to documenting the life and work of Emily Carr in 1977; this would remain open until 1991.[9] In 1979, BC Archives established a motion picture collection which grew throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and now contains over 4,000 film and videotape recordings, the majority of which are government productions.[10] A formal records management program, with a separate reporting structure but closely aligned with BC Archives, was created within the Government of BC in 1982.[11] The two departments formally integrated in 1988 under the name British Columbia Archives and Records Service (BCARS).[12]

Watch a tour of the BC Archives given by Provincial Archivist John A. Bovey and Archivist Terry Eastwood, hosted by Webster! in 1979:

1990s–2003

The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act was enacted in 1996, and led to the reorganization and integration of records management and archival functions within the BC Government. BCARS and the Information and Privacy Branch were merged to create the BC Information Management Services division with Information and Analysis Service (records management, information and privacy functions) and the Archives and Information Access branch (traditional archival functions).[13] BC Archives got a dedicated website, separate from BCARS, in November, 1996,[14] with search capabilities for governmental and non-governmental records, images, and the Research Library. It also provided information about records management policies and legislation.[15] In 1998, BC Archives launched The Amazing Time Machine, an innovative online educational gallery of BC history topics drawn from social studies curriculum.[16]

The Amazing Time Machine

This project was the recipient of several web awards, including Netscape's Netcenter Cool Site for the weekend of Decemeber 5-6, 1998.[17]

That same year, BC Archives and BCARS officially formed separate branches.[18] Corporate records management functions were returned to BC Archives' purview in 2000, but responsibility for privacy and the administration of Freedom of Information legislation lay with the Information and Data Management Branch of the BC Government.[19] At this point BC Archives managed ARCS Online, the Administrative Records Classification System of the provincial government.

2003–present

In 2003, the BC Liberal Government moved BC Archives from a core government ministry funded from general revenue to form part of the Royal BC Museum (RBCM), where it remains today.[20] Records management functions were moved to the Ministry of Labour and Citizens’ Services, ending fifteen years of an integrated records and archives program.[21] According to a report by BC's Information and Privacy Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, the Museum was not provided additional funding to handle incoming government records, and determined its existing revenue (from copying and permissions charges and fundraising) was sufficient to maintain the archives' original collection only.[22] BC Archives initiated a controversial archival processing fee to cover the costs of incoming government records. In response, ministries decided it was cheaper to move their records to off-site storage rather than transfer them to the archives. There are currently over 33,000 boxes of government records in storage, with more accumulating each year; no government records have been deposited to the BC Archives for over twelve years.[23] The responsibility for corporate records management is currently within the Ministry of Technology, Innovation, and Citizens' Services, which is preparing for the transition from print to digital information management.[24] British Columbia lags behind all other provinces in per-capita spending on archival funding; the annual B.C. budget for BC Archives is 62 cents per British Columbian, compared with 83 cents per person in Alberta, and $1.39 in Ontario. [25] Funding for the Royal BC Museum was reduced by twenty percent during this period, from a high of 2.7 million in 2003.[26]

Current Facility and Services

BC Archives, taken May 2014 by under_volcano

BC Archives is located in Heritage Court beside the Royal BC Museum. Their holdings are stored onsite, below sea level in less than optimum conditions, as well as in long-term storage located in records centres offsite. Vision 2017, the Royal BC Museum's strategic planning document, has identified renewing and re-purposing BC Archives' current facility as one of their five strategic priorities for 2017.[27] The facility is open Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.[28] Registered visitors can conduct research in the Reference Room during these hours. Advance planning is recommended, because of the size and complexity of the collections held both on and off-site.[29]

Reproductions and licensing of material is available where possible under Canadian Copyright Law and applicable donor restrictions. Copies can be provided for research and private study only; researchers are responsible for securing permission for other uses from the copyright holder. BC Archives often does not own copyright to records in their collection. [30]

Collections (textual, visual, cartographic, sound, moving image, etc.) can be searched using the database of indexed record descriptions by media type. Typical search results for textual records include a summary, finding aid, and box list. [31] Visual records searches will display image results online, when scans are available.[32] Genealogy searches have a separate interface, and combine indexes to genealogical records. Search results summarize information from vital event registrations such as births, baptisms, deaths, and marriages.[33] BC Archives has created a number of thematic research guides to aid researchers. Their research library holds approximately 70,000 books, newspapers and other publications about the history and culture of the province; contents are indexed and can be searched using the same database. Helpful tips on searching are available to frustrated users.

Friends of the BC Archives are a registered non-profit dedicated to raising funds and awareness about the province's documentary heritage; they regularly organize events and encourage membership.

Provincial Archivists of British Columbia [34]

1908–1910: R.E. Gosnell
1910–1919: Ethelbert O. S. Scholefield
1920–1926: John Forsyth
1926–1934: John Hosie
1935–1940: Dr. W. Kaye Lamb
1940–1974: Willard Ireland
1974–1979: Allan R. Turner
1979–1998: John A. Bovey
1998–2014: Gary A. Mitchell, CRM
2015: Gary A. Mitchell, retired, holds the position of Provincial Archivist Emeritus. A new position, Vice President of Archives, Collection & Knowledge, is created and currently held by Peter Ord.

Legislation and Governance

Museum Act

The Museum Act, enacted in 2003, moved BC Archives out of core government services and made it part of the Royal BC Museum. Within the act, the responsibilities of the BC Archives are briefly mentioned as responsible “to hold and manage the archives of the government.” The archives of the government are defined as “archival records transferred from government to the corporation under section 26 of this Act, under the Document Disposal Act or under another enactment.” [35]

Document Disposal Act

BC's Document Disposal Act (DDA) was first passed in 1936 and designed for a paper-based record-keeping system. This act identifies policies and procedures necessary for the destruction of records, but none for their selection and transfer to the Archives. Record destruction is prohibited by the DDA without "the written recommendation of the Public Documents Committee, which consists of the chief executive officer of the museum or a person designated by the chief executive officer, a person designated by the minister responsible for the administration of this Act, the Comptroller General, and 3 other persons to be named by the Lieutenant Governor in Council." [36] Records schedules must be approved by the Select Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly on Public Accounts and Economic Affairs. [37] Nothing in the legislation exists to compel civil servants to comply with records scheduling and disposition.

Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act

BC's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA) was passed in 1996 and applies to all provincial government bodies. It does not apply to the private sector. The purpose of the act is to provide the public with a right of access to government records, and to protect personal privacy by restricting the collection, use or disclosure of personal information by government bodies.[38] BC Archives may disclose personal information in its custody if the disclosure would not be an "unreasonable invasion of personal privacy," if "the disclosure is for historical research," if the information is about someone who has been dead for over 20 years, or if the record is over 100 years old.[39] Government records produced since 2003, currently stored instead of transferred to BC Archives, are available only by informal request to a government body or through a formal FOIPPA request. Government bodies have 30 days to respond to requests. BC's Information and Privacy Commissioner regularly reports on the timeliness and completeness of government's responses to FOIPPA requests.

Government Information Act (Bill 5)

BC's Government Information Act had its first and second readings in Parliament in Spring 2015; if passed, it will replace the Document Disposal Act. In the act, "archive" means "to transfer government information from a government body to the digital archives or museum archives of government." [40] The act improves the procedures for creating records schedules by designating a Chief Records Officer with the power to approve schedules, and establishes a digital archives for digital and digitized government records.[41] The Chief Records Officer's powers include deciding which non-digital records to transfer to BC Archives.[42] The transition to digital records management is expected to start in 2015 and last three years, after which digital archives will be open to the public and searchable online.[43]

Criticisms of Current and Proposed Legislation

Elizabeth Denham, in her report "A Failure to Archive: Recommendations to Modernize Government Records Management,” released in 2014, recommended an updated information management act be developed for the realities of born-digital records, and advised that such act should clearly define what transitory records are and establish both a “duty to document” key decisions and how the government arrived at and implemented them.[44] This recommendation for updated provincial (and federal) legislation is echoed by the Expert Panel Report on The Future Now: Canada's Libraries, Archives, and Public Memory.[45]

In a public response to the reading of Bill 5, Elizabeth Denham listed concerns of the proposed Government Information Act. They include the lack of a Duty to Document, and no provision for independent oversight of the management of government information. [46] In an interview with the Times Colonist newspaper, NDP critic Doug Routley stated the NDP plans to introduce "Duty to Document" legislation that would enforce better recordkeeping by government; [47] on March 12th, 2015, he introduced the Open Government Act in the BC Legislature. The Vancouver Sun's Rob Shaw notes Bill 5 does not address the existing dispute between the BC Government and BC Archives over inadequate funding for processing government records.[48] In the Hansard debates of Bill 5's second reading, Routley's criticisms of the bill, beyond the lack of a duty to document, highlight the split between archives and records management, its failure to address the backlog of unprocessed paper records, its removal of existing penalties for the improper disposal of records, the lack of a definition for transitory records, and low archives funding in comparison to other provinces. [49]

See Also

Archives and Freedom of Information
Archives and Privacy
Archives and Copyright

Archival Holdings

BC Archives stewards material in a variety of formats created by the Government of British Columbia and provincially significant organizations, businesses and individuals.[50] Of their 80,000 boxes stored both on and off-site, 60,000 are government records and 20,000 are records of private individuals, families or corporate bodies.[51] Record types include court records, land and settlement records, and maps, as well as film and sound recordings, microfilm, photographs and documentary art.[52] Examples of significant holdings include:

Sisters of St. Ann

Sisters of St. Ann in Victoria, BC

The Sisters of St. Ann provided education and health care in Victoria from St. Ann's Academy, established in 1871, now a national historic site.[53] The Sisters donated their collection of historical and religious records to BC Archives in 2012. [54] [55] This collection is separate and distinct from the rest of BC Archives' holdings and has its own archivist. [56]

Fort Victoria Treaties

Excerpts of published versions of the Fort Victoria Treaties were compiled by archivist Frederike Verspoor in 2012. They detail the exclusively English-language text of colonial land transaction records. These treaties were made between the Hudson's Bay Company, under charter with the British government to develop and settle Vancouver Island, and the Teechamitsa, Kosampson, Swengwhung, Chilcowitch, Whyomilth, Chekonein, Kakyaakan, Chewhaytsum, Soke and Saanich peoples in the early 1850s. Archivist Raymond Frogner published a diplomatic analysis one of the treaties in Archivaria 70, entitiled "“Innocent Legal Fictions”: Archival Convention and the North Saanich Treaty of 1852."[57]

Emily Carr

Emily Carr, born in Victoria in 1871, was a modernist painter and writer inspired by the Pacific Northwest and associated with the Group of Seven. The Emily Carr fonds includes correspondence, diaries, notebooks, paintings and manuscripts dating from 1879-1946, the year after her death.[58] Carr is the subject of a feature in The Amazing Time Machine.

References

  1. ↑ Royal BC Museum. Archives History. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/history/
  2. ↑ Eastwood, Terry. "R.E. Gosnell, E.O.S. Scholefield and the Founding of the Provincial Archives of British Columbia, 1894-1919." 1982. BC Studies 54: 38-62.
  3. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Archives History. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/history/
  4. ↑ Denham, Elizabeth. “W. Kaye Lamb and the Provincial Archives of British Columbia 1934-1939.” Unpublished Masters Thesis. 1981. https://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/24494/UBC_1984_A3%20E45.pdf?sequence=1
  5. ↑ Eastwood, Terry. "R.E. Gosnell, E.O.S. Scholefield and the Founding of the Provincial Archives of British Columbia, 1894-1919." 1982. BC Studies 54: 38-62.
  6. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Archives History. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/history/
  7. ↑ Denham, Elizabeth. “W. Kaye Lamb and the Provincial Archives of British Columbia 1934-1939.” Unpublished Masters Thesis. 1981. https://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/24494/UBC_1984_A3%20E45.pdf?sequence=1
  8. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Archives History. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/history/
  9. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Archives Timeline. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/history
  10. ↑ BC Archives. Moving Images. http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/movingim/general/movingim.htm
  11. ↑ ibid.
  12. ↑ ibid.
  13. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Archives Timeline. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/history/
  14. ↑ BC Archives, What's New. 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/19980123160900/http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/whatsnew.htm
  15. ↑ BC Archives, RIM. 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/19980123161035/http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/rim/rim.htm
  16. ↑ BC Archives, Home Page. 2001. https://web.archive.org/web/20010331092047/http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/index.htm
  17. ↑ BC Archives, Time Machine Awards. 2001. https://web.archive.org/web/20011216211008/http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/awards/awards.htm
  18. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Archives Timeline. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/history/
  19. ↑ ibid.
  20. ↑ Denham, Elizabeth. “A Failure to Archive: Recommendations to Modernize Government Records Management.” Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia. 2014. https://www.oipc.bc.ca/special-reports/1664
  21. ↑ Mitchell, Gary A. Press Release. 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20070815193721/http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/general/bcarbcm.htm
  22. ↑ Denham, Elizabeth. “A Failure to Archive: Recommendations to Modernize Government Records Management.” Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia. 2014. https://www.oipc.bc.ca/special-reports/1664
  23. ↑ ibid.
  24. ↑ Ministry of Technology, Innovation, and Citizens' Services. Press Release. February 12, 2015. http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2015/02/act-brings-bcs-information-management-into-digital-age.html
  25. ↑ British Columbia. Legislature Debates. March 2, 2015. (Doug Routley, MLA) https://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/40th4th/20150302pm-Hansard-v20n9.htm#bill05-2R
  26. ↑ ibid.
  27. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Vision 2017. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/about/vision-2017/
  28. ↑ BC Archives, Hours of Operation. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/archives-visitors/hours/
  29. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Plan a Visit. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/archives-visitors/plan-a-visit/
  30. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Archives Policies. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/archives-visitors/policies/
  31. ↑ BC Archives. Index Help. http://search.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-20753C8/indexhelp
  32. ↑ ibid.
  33. ↑ ibid.
  34. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Archives Timeline. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/history
  35. ↑ Government of British Columbia. Museum Act. SBC 2003 Chapter 12. http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03012_01
  36. ↑ Government of British Columbia. Document Disposal Act. RBSC 1996 Chapter 99. http://www.bclaws.ca/Recon/document/ID/freeside/00_96099_01
  37. ↑ ibid.
  38. ↑ Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens' Services. A Guide to the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. http://www.cio.gov.bc.ca/cio/priv_leg/foippa/foippa_guide.page
  39. ↑ Government of BC. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act RSBC 1996 Chapter 165, section 36.
  40. ↑ Government of British Columbia. Government Information Act. Bill 5 - 2015 https://www.leg.bc.ca/40th4th/1st_read/gov05-1.htm
  41. ↑ ibid.
  42. ↑ ibid.
  43. ↑ Ministry of Technology, Innovation, and Citizens' Services. Press Release. February 12, 2015. http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2015/02/act-brings-bcs-information-management-into-digital-age.html
  44. ↑ Elizabeth Denham, “A Failure to Archive,” Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC (2014): 17. https://www.oipc.bc.ca/special-reports/1664.
  45. ↑ Patricia Demers, chair of Expert Panel Report on The Future Now: Canada’s Libraries, Archives, and Public Memory. Royal Society of Canada, Ottawa, ON. (2014): 14. http://rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/L%26A_Report_EN_FINAL_Web.pdf
  46. ↑ Denham, Elizabeth. “Letter to Minister Virk Regarding Bill 5 – Government Information Act” https://www.oipc.bc.ca/public-comments/1752
  47. ↑ Kines, Lindsay. “Paper out, digital in for B.C. records under proposed bill.” Times Colonist Feb 12, 2015 http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/paper-out-digital-in-for-b-c-records-under-proposed-bill-1.1761932
  48. ↑ Shaw, Rob. “Province moves to digital archive system for provincial records.” Vancouver Sun Feb 12, 2015 http://www.vancouversun.com/Province+moves+digital+archive+system+official+records/10809539/story.html
  49. ↑ British Columbia. Legislature Debates. March 2, 2015. (Doug Routley, MLA) https://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/40th4th/20150302pm-Hansard-v20n9.htm#bill05-2R
  50. ↑ BC Archives, “BC Archives Research Orientation Guide.” (Undated): 2. http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/general/orientgd.pdf.
  51. ↑ Paty, Beverly, Archives Access Specialist. Personal correspondence, April 1, 2015.
  52. ↑ Royal BC Archives, Collections. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/archives-collections/
  53. ↑ Royal BC Museum. Sisters of St. Ann. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/sisters-of-st-ann/
  54. ↑ British Columbia Archives. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Archives
  55. ↑ Royal BC Museum. "Royal BC Museum and Sisters of St. Ann Preserve BC History with Unique Partnership". News Release. March 21, 2012.
  56. ↑ Royal BC Museum, Sisters of St. Ann's Archives. http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/bcarchives/sisters-of-st-ann/
  57. ↑ Frogner, Raymond. "'Innocent Legal Fictions:' Archival Convention and the North Saanich Treaty of 1852." Archivaria 70 (Fall 2010): 45-95.
  58. ↑ BC Archives. Emily Carr fonds search results. http://search.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-4B7FC47/view/Fonds/find%2Bemily%20carr%2B%2B%2B%2B/4

External Links

BC Archives main website
BC Laws
British Columbia archives Wikipedia page
Government of British Columbia, List of Bills With Hansard Debates
Ministry of Finance. “Information Management and Information Technology Management: Core Policy and Procedures Manual”
Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizen's Services. “Recorded Information Management (RIM) Manual."
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia
Royal BC Museum main website

Retrieved from "https://wiki.ubc.ca/index.php?title=Course:ARST573/BC_Archives&oldid=365861"