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CNSA Award Winners 2010
22 June 2010

The CNSA Awards for 2010 were presented during the Annual General Meeting on Friday, 11 June 2010. The CNSA promotes the preservation of, and public access to, archival material and the annual awards serve to recognize institutions and volunteers for their outstanding work in the archival field.

This year’s Phyllis R. Blakeley Award was presented to St. Francis Xavier University Archives in Antigonish for their project Masters of Their Own Destiny: the Coady Story in Canada and Across the World. This was a collaborative project involving the Angus L. Macdonald Library, the Coady International Institute, the Marie Michael Library, the St. F.X. Faculty of Education, and the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha (Bethany Archives). The project’s goal was to create a website documenting the Antigonish Movement, the creation of the St. FX. Extension Department and the Coady International Institute, as well as highlighting the individuals involved. Published and primary sources were digitized to add to the website, providing access to these research materials as well as historical context. The digitized materials date from 1920 to present although most of the material dates from 1920 to 1950. Kathleen MacKenzie, University Archivist, was unable to attend in person but will pick up her placque, framed certificate and $200 gift certificate for SAA Bookstore.

The 2010 Carman V. Carroll Award was presented to Shambhala Archives for their Audio Recovery Project which involved the preservation and digitization of more than 3000 audio recordings. Shambhala Archives has one of the largest collections of audio records related to the Buddhist religion in North America, consisting of reel to reel tapes, standard cassettes, and micro-cassettes. The original tapes were rewound, cleaned, and reformatted. Digital copies were made on gold cds and on a file server, while MP3 copies were created for ongoing reference use. The archives generated part of the funding for this project by providing a selection of material from the collection on cds to institutions in North America, Europe, and Asia in exchange for financial support. More than 30,000 cds were generated in-house for this purpose.

Carman Carroll, retired NS Provincial Archivist, was on hand to present the Award. From left to right: Carman Carroll, Carolyn Gimian and Gordon Kidd of Shambhala Archives

The Anna Hamilton Memorial Award for outstanding volunteer was presented this year to Marney Gilroy of the Cumberland County Genealogical Society (CCGS). Since joining the society in 2002 Marney has participated in a wide range of activities and projects, including serving terms as both Treasurer and Director of the society, helping to organize a Loyalists and Planters Genealogy Workshop held in Springhill, and helping to prepare for the opening of the Cumberland County Genealogical Centre in 2005. In the past year she has continued to take digital photos of gravestones in Cumberland County for the CCGS and label and crop the images, accessioned archival records to help with the society’s backlog, and she has also worked several weekend shifts each month operating the Cumberland County Genealogy Centre and Archives. In addition to these activities, she also exhibits a positive attitude, an abundance of energy, and a willingness to help with several ongoing projects.

Marney Gilroy (left) accepts her Award Certificate and gift card from CNSA Executive Board member Laurena Fredette.

The CNSA would like to congratulate all of the winners, thank all of those who submitted nominations, and thank the members of the 2010 Awards Committee.

CNSA Held AGM 11 June 2010
16 June 2010

The Council of Nova Scotia Archives held its annual general meeting (AGM) at the Westin Nova Scotian hotel in Halifax last Friday June 11, 2010. The business meeting was postponed from its usual time in May in order to coincide with the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) national conference.

The returning president, Susan McClure, gave her report summarizing the activities of the Council for the fiscal year 2009-2010. Dorothy Outhouse, outgoing treasurer, gave her final report on finances for 2009-10 and presented the budget for 2010-2011. An update on the Routes to Your Roots Project was provided by Susan Gilson, Project Coordinator. Three CNSA Awards were presented by Member-at-Large Laurena Fredette and the meeting concluded with the official approval of the new slate of officers for the Executive Board, presented by Kim Walker, Member-at-Large.

Here is the Executive Board 2010-11, from left to right: Secretary Virginia MacIsaac (Celtic Music Interpretive Centre), Member-at-Large Kim Walker (Shelburne Co. Archives & Genealogical Centre), Member-at-Large Laurena Fredette (individual member), President Susan McClure (Halifax Regional Municipality Archives), Vice President Catherine Arseneau (Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University), and Treasurer Jennifer Copage (Treaty & Aboriginal Rights Research Centre of NS).

CNSA Awards Prize at NS Heritage Fair
3 June 2010

At the 2010 Provincial Heritage Fair on May 29, the CNSA awarded the first CNSA Prize for the best use of original records related to Nova Scotia history to Daniel Prest. Daniel visited several archives and made excellent use of primary sources in his project about his great-grandfather, sealer and merchant mariner Capt. W.E. Baker.

The Provincial Heritage Fair brings together grade 4--9 students who created the best projects in each of Nova Scotia's school boards. Several prizes are given, and the CNSA decided to offer a prize to encourage students to use primary sources in their history projects. CNSA Executive members Laurena Fredette and Susan McClure joined other judges from across the province to award the prizes. It was a great opportunity to talk to students about their research process and the added value of using primary sources. Many students had used community or family records in their research and were very articulate about how much closer it brought them to the story. Congratulations to Daniel Prest.

Honouring Our Own
7 April 2010

The deadline for CNSA Awards nominations is quickly approaching. Each year the CNSA invites members to sugest projects and/or volunteers they would like to see recognized for their success or dedication. There are three awards available:

• The Carman V. Carroll Award for Outstanding Achievement in Archival Preservation
• The Anna Hamilton Award for Outstanding Voluntary Service to the Nova Scotian Archival Community
• The Dr. Phyllis R. Blakeley Award for Archival Excellence

Information about all three awards, as well as printable nomination forms, can be accessed via the links above. Nominating your own archives project or volunteer is encouraged.

Nominations for the awards will be accepted until April 30, 2010 and should be mailed to:
Council of Nova Scotia Archives
6016 University Avenue
Halifax, NS
Canada B3H 1W4
Attention: Awards Committee

Winners will be announced during our Annual General Meeting at the ACA Conference on June 11.  We look forward to learning more about all of the great projects and people in Nova Scotia’s archival community so make sure to send in your nominations!

National Conference Coming to Halifax June 2010
8 March 2010

The national Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) will be holding their annual conference in Halifax this year. The last time ACA came to Halifax was 1998. It will be held at the Westin Nova Scotian hotel from June 10 to 12, 2010, with an opening reception at Maritime Museum of the Atlantic on June 9, 2010.

As a result, the regular spring conference of the CNSA will not be held this year but will reappear in the spring of 2011.

Several members and former members of CNSA will be giving presentations including John Macleod (NSARM), Jodi McDavid (formerly at Beaton Institute), Rebecca Young (NSCAD Library), Ern Dick (former CNSA president), Kathryn Harvey (formerly at Dalhousie University Archives), David Mawhinney (NSARM), Jane Arnold (Beaton Institute), and Karen White (CNSA).

All CNSA members are invited to attend the ACA conference. Financial assistance is available through the CNSA Professional Development & Training Bursary. Follow the link for application forms and criteria.

Members also have the opportunity to win one free day registration thanks to the support of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society. If you are not a member of ACA, send your name to Karen White before March 19, to be entered for the draw.

Librarian & Archivist of Canada Visits Nova Scotia
12 February 2010

Dr. Daniel Caron, new Librarian and Archivist of Canada, was in Halifax this week to give the keynote address at the student-led Information Without Borders conference Feb 11 at Dalhousie University.

During his visit Dr. Caron met with CNSA President Susan McClure to discuss the CNSA Cooperative Acquisition Strategy. Dr. Caron is considering using our Strategy document as a model for Library and Archives Canada to cooperate with archives across the country on the acquisition of records with long term value.

Travel Bursary Assists Member
25 November 2009

In October, the CNSA Travel Bursary for Professional Development & Training assisted Dalhousie University archivist Michael Moosberger to attend a conference on preserving records created in digital form. Here is his report on the conference including a list of the papers presented. All members of CNSA are eligible to apply for the Bursary, which provides up to $500 for attending an educational event about archives.

Report on the sixth iPRES Conference, 5-6 October 2009
International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) Meeting, 7 October 2009
Mission Bay Conference Centre
San Francisco, California

As part of my research leave from my position as University Archivist at Dalhusie University, I am exploring many of the issues that archival institutions have to contend with when trying to manage, preserve and make available archival materials created in digital form that will be transferred from our sponsoring institutions or given to us from private donors. The iPres 2009 Conference and the subsequent IIPC meeting appeared to be the perfect opportunity to hear what the leading researchers are doing with regard to digital preservation and the preservation of the Internet.

The conference was attended by 309 delegates representing 152 different institutions from 22 countries. Much of the work that is being done on digital preservation is being done in large national institutions like the National Library of France, the National Library of New Zealand, and Library and Archives Canada; by consortiums like the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, the California Digital Library, COPPUL and LOCKSS, and through the development of projects like PLANETS, CASPAR, MIXED, KEEP and a myriad of others. To say that the task ahead of us is a daunting one is indeed an understatement and even the largest and best funded institutions are still only able to undertake short-term projects that preserve a limited amount of material. For example, a project like the PANDORA Project in Australia has collected 70 million files off the Internet from 1996 until July 2009. That certainly sounds like a lot of files, and it is, but then you realize that by the estimates presented by the Internet Archive there are over 150 billion pages currently in existence on the Internet and that number is growing by 4 billion every month. Are we fighting a battle that we will never be able to win? As with paper-based records, the reality is that archives and libraries will only be able to preserve a small fraction of the digital information that is created. That important role that we will have is to make the right determination as to what records are important and need to be preserved.

The presentations that I heard and the people that I spoke to all had a sense of urgency to their message. I think many feel that progress has been too slow coming and that we still have to rationalize the need for preservation as well as trying to reach consensus on the best approaches in dealing with digital preservation.

There were many issues that were discussed at the conference with overlapping discussions dealing with the OAIS (Open Archival Information System) model, metadata, risk management, the costing out of digital preservation services, and the preservation of software, blogs, and social networking sites. These are very complex and it would be impossible in this report to condense the information they provide. Fortunately, as part of the Conference, each delegate received a flash drive with pdf copies of each of the papers presented at the Conference. I am enclosing a list of the 31 papers that I have and would be pleased to forward an electronic copy of any paper that a CNSA members is interested in reading. Please contact the CNSA Office to make arrangements.

Michael Moosberger
Dalhousie University Archivist

1) Stephen Abrams, John Kunze, David Loy – An emergent micro-services approach to digital curation infrastructure
2) Reinhard Altenhoner – E-infrastructure and digital preservation: challenges and outlook
3) Martha Anderson, Michelle Gallinger and Abigail Potter – The National Digital Stewardship Alliance Charter: enabling collaboration to achieve national digital preservation
4) Emmanuel Bermes and Louise Fauduet – The human face of digital preservation: organizational and staff challenges, and initiatives at the Bibliotheque nationale de France
5) Geoffrey Brown and Kam Woods – Born broken: fonts and information loss in legacy digital documents
6) Pricilla Caplan, William Kehoe, Joseph Pawletko – Towards interoperable preservation repositories (TIPR)
7) Esther Conway, Matthew Dunckley and David Giaretta. – Curating scientific research data from the long term: a preservation analysis method in context
8) Angela Dappert and Adam Farquhar – Implementing metadata that guides digital preservation services
9) Angela Di Iorio – A translation layer to convey preservation metadata
10) David Giaretta, Brian Matthews, Juan Bicarregui, Simon Lambert, Mariella Guercio, Giovanni Michetti, and Donald Sawyer – Significant properties, authenticity, provenance, representation information and OAIS
11) David Giaretta – Tools for preservation and us of complex and diverse digital resources
12) Rebecca Guenther and Robert Wolfe – Integration metadata standards to support long-term preservation of digital assets: developing best practices for expressing preservation metadata in a container format
13) Mark Gettenbrunner, Mihai Ghete, Annu John, Chrisanth Lederer, and Andreas Rauber – Digital archaeology: recovering digital objects from audio waveforms
14) Ulla Bogvad Kejser, Anders Bo Nielsen, and Alex Thirifays – Cost model for digital curation: cost of digital migration
15) Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Erika L. Farr, Kari M. Kraus, Naomi Nelson, Catherine Stollar Peters, Gabriela Redwine, and Doug Reside – Digital materiality: preserving access to computers as complete environments
16) Christopher A. Lee, Richard Marciano, Chien-Yi Hou, and Chirag Shah – Mainstreaming preservation through slicing and dicing of digital repositories: investigating alternative serve and resource options for ContextMiner using data grid technology
17) Henry Lowood – Momento mundi: are virtual worlds history?
18) Jens Ludwig – Into the archive: potential and limits of standardizing the ingest
19) Brian Matthews, Arif Shaon, Juan Bicarregui, Catherine Jones, Jim Woodcock, and Esther Conway – Towards a methodology for software preservation
20) David Minor, Don Sutton, Ardys Kozbial, Michael Burek, and Michael Smorul – Chronopolis: preserving our digital heritage
21) Maureen Pennock and Richard Davis – ArchivePress: a really simple solution to archiving blog content
22) Klaus Rechert, Dirk von Sucholdoletz, Randolph Welte, Maurice van de Dobbelsteen, Bill Roberts, Jeffery van der Hoeven, and Jasper Schroder – Novel workflows for abstract handling of complex interaction processes in digital preservation
23) Rainer Schmidt, Ross King, Fabian Steeg, Peter Melms, Andrew Jackson, and Carl Wilson – A framework for distributed preservation workflows
24) Sabine Schrimpf – Lesson learned: moving a digital preservation network from project organization to sustainability
25) Pauline Sinclair, Clive Billenness, James Duckworth, Adam Farquhar, Jane Humphreys, Lewis Jardine, Ann Keen, and Robert Sharpe – Are you ready? Assessing whether organizations are prepared for digital preservation
26) Johanna Smith and Pam Armstrong – Preserving the digital memory of the Government of Canada: influence and collaboration with records creators
27) David Tarrant, Steve Hitchcock and Les Carr – Where the semantic web and web 2.0 meet format risk management: P2 registry
28) Rene van Horik and Dirk Roorda – MIXED: repository of durable file format conversions
29) Tyler O. Walters, Liz Bishoff, Emily B. Gore, Mark Jordan, Thomas C. Wilson – Distributed digital preservation: technical, sustainability, and organizational developments
30) Paul Wheatley and Brian Hole – Life3: predicting long term digital preservation costs
31) Wolfgang Wilkes, Jorg Brunsmann, Dominic Heutelbeck, Andreas Hundsdorfer, Matthias Hemmje, and Hans-Ulrich Heidbrink – Towards support for long-term digital preservation in product life cycle management

Copyright Experts in Halifax Nov 12 & 13
3 November 2009

Two highly qualified speakers will be in Halifax on November 12 & 13, 2009 to talk to the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick archival communities about copyright law in Canada. Wanda Noel, a nationally recognized copyright lawyer and Nancy Marrelli, director of archives at Concordia University in Montreal and chair of Canadian Council of Archives Copyright Committee, will present this two-day workshop.

At $75 per person for non-members or $50 per person for members, this educational event is a real bargain for professional development budgets. Space is still available and the deadline to register is November 9.

This workshop event is funded in part by the National Archival Development Program from Library and Archives Canada.

National Funding Program Opens
21 October 2009

Applications for the 2010-11 fiscal year are now being accepted for the National Archival Development Program or NADP. Forms, guidelines and score sheets can be downloaded from the Canadian Council of Archives website.

The deadline for submitting applications is Wednessday, December 9, 2009.

CNSA institutional members in good standing are eligible to apply. Assistance with filling out the application is available from Karen White, the Archives Advisor for CNSA, or by attending the NADP Writing Session day on November 30 in Halifax.

Funding is available for archives-related projects such as arrangement & description, preservation management activities such as global site assessments (the first step), and for promoting greater awareness of archives and the services offered.

Members' Colour Film Preserved in Cold Vault
6 October 2009

Two CNSA members are making use of the Nova Scotia Film Preservation Cold Vault to preserve their preservation master colour film: Dalhousie University Archives & Special Collections and the Admiral Digby Museum.

Admiral Digby Museum is depositing 33 cans of 8mm and 2 cans of 16mm reel film and Dalhousie University Archives is depositing 292 cans of 35mm reel film.  The films will enjoy 0.5 C temperature and 30% relative humidity, the conditions needed to prevent the colour from fading with time.   Access to the films will be provided via digital reference copies at each institution’s site.

Cold storage of colour film is the best method archivists have, so far, for preserving coloured moving images in their original format.

CNSA institutional members can deposit up to 3,000 film cans in the 18,000 film can capacity Cold Vault, located in the lower level of NSARM building in Halifax. This space is reserved free of charge for CNSA members as a benefit of institutional membership. 

$50,000 to Archives in Nova Scotia
21 September 2009

The NS Provincial Archival Development Program contributed approximately $50,000 to archives across Nova Scotia for 2009-10, to assist with archival projects related to preservation, education, and arrangement & description of records.

Six institutional members and the CNSA received funding contributions this year:

The CNSA wishes to thank the Department of Tourism, Culture & Heritage for providing this important new source of funding for NS Archives, and NSARM for administering the program.

CNSA Award Winners 2009
2 June 2009

One of the goals of CNSA is to promote the use of professional standards in archival work in Nova Scotia. The CNSA Awards are an occasion to recognize those members who are doing great work in an area of archival management. This year we had 6 nominations (!) making the judges' task a difficult one.

This year’s Phyllis R. Blakeley Award goes to the Cumberland County Genealogical Society in Amherst, NS for their project “Down Memory Lane”.  This project involved volunteers ranging from youth to seniors over 100 years old and resulted in 41 video-recorded oral histories, which were transcribed, burned to DVD, packaged in attractive cases, sold for an inexpensive amount to promote additional funds and which will have a lasting archival value for the county and beyond. The time involved by the volunteers who worked on this project, and the end result was described by committee members as “phenomenal” and “awesome”.  Susan Hill, volunteer for CCGS, accepted the Award on behalf of the Society.

The Carmen V. Carroll Award for 2009 goes to the Eastern Shore Archives (part of Memory Lane Heritage Village) located in Lake Charlotte, Halifax County. Acting on a 2007 risk assessment, the Board of Directors of the Archives sought to deal with problems which can affect many rural shops: loss of electrical power, access by emergency vehicles, and the distance to the local fire department. A portable generator was purchased and installed so that humidity and security controls can be maintained during a power outage, a front entrance and gate for emergency vehicles were constructed and a state-of-the-art fire suppression system was put in place with contributions from three levels of government, as well as fundraising efforts by the Society.

The Anna Hamilton Memorial Award for outstanding volunteer for 2009 goes to Fiona Day, volunteer chair of the Archives Committee for St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Halifax, NS. A graduate of the CNSA Core Curriculum, Fiona has made a strong commitment to bringing their archival material from being somewhat contained in plastic bags and cardboard boxes to such that their 250 years of material can be accessed by the public.

Congratulations to all the winners! Thank you to all who submitted nominations.

CNSA Goes to Saltscapes
13 May 2009

The 5th annual East Coast Expo sponsored by Saltscapes Magazine was held April 24, 25, & 26 and CNSA was there promoting our network of archives and distributing the genealogy map brochure.

The volunteer team from last year's promotion event in Toronto was reassembled for this 3 day event. Thanks go out to Pauline MacLean (NS Highland Village Society), Joanne McCarthy (Halifax Public Libraries), and Kim Walker (Shelburne Co. Archives & Genealogical Society) for their dedication and work on behalf of all CNSA members.

Together with Karen White, CNSA Archives Advisor, the team talked with 382 people and the booth, pictured below with Joanne McCarthy, was viewed by over 19,800 visitors.

And the Nominees are...
4 March 2009

The Academy Awards, celebrating all the wonderful work done in the cinematic community will be given out Sunday, February 22, 2008 in Hollywood. For those of us who might not make it in that world, here is an opportunity to create stars of our own in the Nova Scotia archival community.

Did you complete a great project, such as a book or website which made use of your archival resources? Nominate it for the Dr. Phyllis R. Blakeley Award!  Have a stellar volunteer without whom your shop might not function as well? Tell us about her/him for the Anna Hamilton Award!   Perhaps your organization has preserved previously ignored materials, or physically made your archives a much better place for housing your collection, making your documents safer, yet more accessible to the public.  Look into the Carman V. Carroll Award which promotes preservation as a vital component of our work.

Nominations for the annual Council of Nova Scotia Archives Awards will be accepted until April 9, 2009. Information about all three awards can be accessed here. Print out a nomination form, fill it in and mail with project documentation (a copy of the finished project, website address of the project, before and after photos of conservation work) and mail to Awards Committee Chair, Dorothy Outhouse, R.R. #1, Freeport, N.S. B0V 1B0.

Winners will be announced at our spring conference held at NSARM in Halifax on May 21 & 22.  Make the nominations and dust off your bling for the presentations– Let`s celebrate our stars!

Archives Software Reviewed
18 December 2008

In late November 2008 the ArchWay Committee released a report identifying 6 software programs for managing the key functions of accessioning and description, 2 open source and 4 proprietary applications: Archives Online 3, Archivists Toolkit 1.1 (OS), Archon 2.2 (OS), Past Perfect 4.0, Re:discovery Proficio 8.6, and STAR/Archives 4.0.

The report, called Archives Management Software Review Report, gives a snapshot of what is available in the under $8,000 price range, summarizes their strengths and weaknesses, and provides a template for evaluating any archival software purchase.

The Review was conducted in the summer and fall 2008 by Amanda Stevens, MLIS graduate from Dalhousie University under the direction of the CNSA ArchWay Committee. The Committee hopes this information will eventually lead to more efficient uploading of descriptions to the provincial database ArchWay.

Accompanying the document is a laptop pre-loaded with demonstration copies of the above software programs. This Laptop of Demos is available to CNSA members only, for loan.

Funding for this review was obtained from the Provincial Archival Development Program provided by the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture & Heritage and administered through Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management. The CNSA gratefully acknowledges this support.

Blakeley Award winner
27 November 2008

The newest CNSA Blakeley Award winner Sheryl Stanton, curator for Admiral Digby Museum, receiving her award from Kelly Ann Dean, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture & Heritage. The Award ceremonies took place at the annual Spring Conference May 15, 2008. Admiral Digby Museum won this award for archival excellence for exemplary use of archival records in the creation of a published guide to heritage homes in Digby, NS. Congratulations Sheryl!

$84,000 to NS Archival Community
25 September 2008

In its first year of operation, the Provincial Archival Development Program (PADP) awarded $84,659 in project funding to 11 members of the CNSA for 2008-09. An announcement was made by Honorable Bill Dooks, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, in late June 2008 and cheques were sent out in July 2008.

Congratulations to this year's recipients:

• Archives of the Diocese of NS & PEI - Preservation Re-housing of Documents
• Argyle Township Court House Archives - An Acadian Parish Revived
• Argyle Township Court House Archives - Global Preservation Site Assessment
• Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University - Abbass Studios fonds Arrangement & Description
• CNSA - Software Review & Recommendation
• Celtic Music Interpretive Centre Archives - Housing and Rehousing in the CMIC
• Celtic Music Interpretive Centre Archives - Review & Rewrite Policies
• Dalhousie University Archives & Special Collections - NS Business Records Processing Project
• Fort Sackville Foundation - Global Site Assessment
• Halifax Regional Municipality Archives - Preservation of Hfx City Engineers Office Maps & Plans
• Lake Charlotte Area Heritage Society - Global Preservation Assessment
• Shearwater Aviation Museum Archives - Global Assessment Report
• St. Paul's Church Archives (Anglican) - Global Assessment and Risk Management

Promoting Genealogy in Toronto
7 May 2008

Have you heard the latest? Tourism Division is planning a genealogy tourism promotion this June in Toronto and the CNSA has been invited to participate!

What: Bluenose II - Maritime Festival Promotion, Nova Scotia's biggest marketing promotion of the year - on the harbourfront of Toronto with Bluenose II and 3 other tall ships. The festival includes a consumer travel show, travel trade & travel media receptions, and traditional NS entertainment and animators.

Where: Queens Quay Harbourfront, Toronto (just south of Rogers Centre, downtown)

When: Friday June 20 to Sunday June 22, 2008

Expected audience: 150,000 to 200,000 visitors (mostly couples, 35+, affluent, well educated, use the internet for travel planning)

Your Executive Board thinks this is a great opportunity for us but we need to work fast to get organized and be ready for the May 28 deadline.

Plans are underway to revise and re-print the CNSA map brochure (please confirm we have your contact info right: visit CNSA website/members), and to have a CNSA booth at the travel show.

The Executive is looking for 2 representatives to help our president, Pauline MacLean, staff the CNSA booth.

If you are interested, please send an email by May 13 to Pauline at macleapl@gov.ns.ca telling her why you should be chosen as one of the expert genealogists for Nova Scotia. How many ethno-cultural groups do you know the history of? How many other CNSA members' holdings do you know about? How many years have you been serving genealogists?

Duties

• be in Toronto June 19-23 - be at the CNSA booth during open hours
  (Friday 12-8pm, Saturday 10am-8pm, Sunday 10am-8pm)
• help set up booth Friday Jun 20, 10am-12noon
• help pack up booth Sunday 8pm-?
• answer genealogy-related questions from visitors; help them find us online
• represent CNSA and Nova Scotia

Criteria

• have expertise in genealogy research in NS
• have experience doing genealogy research for an ethno-cultural group
  (e.g. Acadians, African Nova Scotians, Foreign Protestants, Gaelic-speakers, Loyalists, Mi'kmaq, etc.)
• be familiar with other CNSA members' and their holdings/strengths
• enjoy serving the public, answering questions, and being an ambassador for Nova Scotia
• willing to donate your time (travel costs will be covered or reimbursed)

If you are interested in being one of 2 CNSA representatives, please send an email to Pauline MacLean at macleapl@gov.ns.ca. The deadline is May 13, in order to be included in group travel rates.

Can't send an expert? Don't worry; you can still participate in this genealogy-focused promotion by sending your institution's best brochure or rack card for display at the CNSA booth and distribution to the expected 150,000 visitors. Shipment to Toronto is pre-paid, no cost to you.

Get 500 to 1,000 copies of your promotional material ready, or whatever amount you can spare, and bring it with you to the CNSA Spring Conference. (Drop off at CNSA table in Members' Hall.) Or send it to the CNSA Office at 6016 University Ave., Halifax, NS, B3H 1W4 before May 28.

NSARM will also have a booth at the event, probably near us, to highlight their genealogy holdings especially their web products and resources such as Historical Vital Statistics Online.

- 24 March 2008 -
Award Your Good Work: Nominations for CNSA Awards

It's now time to prepare our nominations for the CNSA three annual awards. Winners will be celebrated at the Closing Reception of the Spring Conference being held May 14th and 15th in Halifax.
Hope to hear from you soon!

The Carmen Carroll Award is awarded for excellence in fostering archival preservation. This can be achieved through a variety of methods, be it development of a policy, re-housing materials or solving archival problems in an innovative way.

Nominations of projects that focus on archival holdings, promote archives or display an excellence related to a specific archival function can be submitted for consideration of the Dr. Phyllis R. Blakeley Award. The project must be of lasting archival value.

The Anna Hamilton Award celebrates a volunteer who has given freely of their time and/or resources and worked cooperatively within the archival community and greater society. Through his/her efforts, the profile and image of the nominating archives has been increased and improved, bringing a better sense of the value of the work done by archives to those outside the immediate community.

All nominated projects must have been completed as of December 31, 2007. Individuals as well must have been working in the archival community prior to that date.

Nomination forms can be downloaded from here.

Submit nomination forms, as well as project reports and supporting documentation by March 31, 2008 to the following address:

CNSA Award Committee,
c/o D. Outhouse
R.R. # 1, Freeport,
N.S. B0V 1B0

ALL NOMINEES (ORGANIZATION OR INSTITUTION) MUST BE IN GOOD STANDING WITH THE COUNCIL.

- 25 February 2008 -
Spring Conference
May 14 & 15, 2008

It's that time of year again! We are pleased to announce the opening of registration for our 2008 Annual CNSA Conference. Follow the link to download the registration form.

The CNSA Education Committee has been hard at work in the planning of this year's conference. The two day conference will explore new perspectives on core functions and the application of core functions to non-textual media, specifically photographs, film and sound. Due to popular demand, Movie Night will once again be featured at the end of Day One. Day Two features experts in the field of photography and film, as well as presenters from our local archival community. We are confident you will find this year's conference has lots to offer.

The CNSA Annual General Meeting is scheduled for May 14, Day One, from 12 noon to 2 pm. A light lunch courtesy of Turning Leaf caterers will be provided.

Hope to see you there!

Regards,
Heather Pitcher
Chair, Education Committee

- 5 February 2008-

Two CNSA members travelled to Ottawa in October 2007 to attend a national conference on monetary appraisal and have submitted the following reports. CNSA travel bursaries provided financial support to help cover their travel expenses and registration fees at this conference.

Monetary Archival Appraisal in Canada
Conference Report by Susan McClure

I was very fortunate, and grateful for CNSA and HRM support, to attend the Monetary Archival Appraisal conference in Ottawa. I have little experience in monetary appraisal so the conference was a wealth of information. Even for veteran appraisers, it seems that the conference, the first of its kind since 1985, marks a dramatic shift in monetary archival appraisal in Canada - making it a more transparent, accountable and standardized process.

We are very fortunate in Canada that the federal government promotes the preservation of archival records by using a tax incentive to encourage people to donate cultural property to recognized institutions. Archives in Canada can issue receipts for donations of archival records, which the donor can then use for a tax credit. The crux of this conference was discussion of how we fairly and accountably determine the fair market value for those donations.

The Canada Revenue Agency accepts in-house appraisals for donations less than $1000; a 3rd party independent appraisal is required for more valuable donations. Archives can either hire an appraiser directly or take advantage of the services provided by the National Archival Appraisal Board (NAAB). The regional director for NAAB will appoint a 3-person appraisal committee who visits the archives to examine the donated material in order to determine its fair market value. The regional director for the Atlantic is Burton Glendenning from New Brunswick; "our own" Julie Morris assists. NAAB is improving access to its services through its new web-site: www.naab.ca .

Donations that are of national significance may also qualify for certification through the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board , reaping a greater tax benefit for the donor. The requirements for either of these processes are stringent and built on a very thorough, very detailed archival description. They also require a budget for the transportation and accommodation expenses of the appraisers.

I went to the conference hoping to have the mystery of monetary appraisal dispelled. I now have a better understanding of the processes and resources available, but I understand too that determining a fair market value for unique historical resources is inevitably subjective and a little mystical - but as long as a good justification can be made then archivists are doing due diligence for Canadian taxpayers. The conference also raised concerns for me, coming from a small archives, that the time to fulfill requirements for a thorough monetary appraisal is significant and needs to be carefully managed to avoid creating unrealistic expectations from donors.

The conference brought together considerable expertise from appraisers to media specialists to dealers to Canada Revenue Agency staff to Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board members. Use the NAAB website as a good starting point for questions. It would also be great to take advantage of NAAB's plan to offer training to dedicate a future CNSA workshop or conference to monetary appraisal. I can share the notes I took from each conference session with fellow CNSA members, if they have a particular question.

As always, a national archival conference is also an important networking opportunity. It was very helpful to meet new and old colleagues from across the country. The tour of the Gatineau Preservation Centre was a humbling experience that inspired me to renew efforts to improve our storage facilities.

Susan McClure
HRM Archives

Monetary Archival Appraisal in Canada
Conference Report by Catherine Arseneau

The NAAB is a non-profit organization which provides professional, independent appraisal of cultural material. The two day conference was held in Ottawa and offered a blended program of plenary presentations, workshops and information sessions regarding appraisal of specific media. There was a lot to choose from and choosing between concurrent sessions such as appraising photographs verses diaries and commonplace books was difficult. Sessions were delivered by experienced appraisers, including NAAB members, and archival professionals.

The opportunity to meet and network with archivists, managers, NAAB members and independent appraisers was invaluable. It is often said that a conference's nutrition breaks, lunches and social activities are as valuable to participants as the formal presentations. I found this to be true.

An important goal of the conference, which was articulated by Marcel Caya Chair of NAAB, was to address the future of NAAB and monetary archival appraisal. NAAB as an organization is investing in its sustainability. Many of the current members are founding members and if they wish the NAAB to continue to exist beyond their own participation they need to look at membership recruitment, renewal, and professional development. The NAAB Chair also delivered the preliminary recommendations of a study conducted by Carmen Carroll on the future of NAAB.

The sessions provided practical and useful information on the appraisal environment in Canada. As we prepare for future applications to the Cultural Property Export Review Board, the forms and information regarding fair market value and reasonable justification will be very useful.

Catherine Arseneau
Beaton Institute

- November 14, 2007 -

NADP 2008-09 Ready for Applications

It is time to formulate your application to the National Archival Development Program (NADP). Applications and guidelines are available at the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA) website: Apply for 2008-2009 NADP Funding.

Nova Scotia's funding envelope from Library and Archives Canada (LAC) remains $83,475. This full amount is available for members' projects as the CNSA will not be applying to fund the Archives Advisor position. CNSA is grateful to NSARM and Nova Scotia Tourism, Culture and Heritage for funding this important position.

CNSA Deadlines:
Friday January 11 by noon - send electronic version to advisor@councilofnsarchives.ca

-then send one signed and initialled paper copy to: Council of Nova Scotia Archives, 6016 University Ave., Halifax, NS, B3H 1W4 by Friday January 18.

Applications received later than these deadlines cannot be considered.

Tips for applicants:
- register for the Writing Successful Funding Applications workshop - Nov. 29 at NSARM - Karen White will focus on the NADP application and you'll even do some adjudication yourselves! Registration form available by clicking on the workshop link.

- see NADP Program Summary for brief overview.

- Karen White, Archives Advisor is available anytime to answer specific questions by phone 902-424-7093 or email advisor@councilofnsarchives.ca

- provincial priorities are listed on the CCA website. CNSA priorities are the same as last year.

- take a look at the NADP Criteria and Adjudication Scoring Guide in the "For Councils" section of the CCA website to know how the Adjudication Committee will be scoring the applications.

- there are only minor changes from last year's application form.

Notification:
CNSA's Adjudication Committee makes its recommendations to CCA by February 8, 2008. Applicants will be notified by the Adjudication Committee Chair whether or not their project was recommended. CCA will notify applicants of final LAC approval of their application.

Let's put this federal funding to good work in Nova Scotia,

Susan McClure
CNSA VP - Chair of the NADP Adjudication Committee

- July 18, 2007 -

Travel Bursary Takes Member to Kingston, ON

This year's ACA Conference 2007 was held in Kingston, ON and the CNSA Travel Bursary program assisted one of our members, the Beaton Institute, to send their archivist Jodi McDavid. Here is her report on the event.

My name is Jodi McDavid, and I am the Archivist at the Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University. Recently, I was very pleased to receive the CNSA travel bursary in order to aid my ability to attend the Association of Canadian Archivists Conference in Kingston, Ontario in June 2007.

As a new member of the Nova Scotia archives community at the outset of my career, I felt it was important for me to attend in order to explore professional opportunities at the National level, to develop my skill set, and to bring my own perspective, however fledgling, to the national stage.

As part of the conference I attended the educational programming workshop, which provided lots of ideas for education and outreach with school children and the general public. Our institution responds to educational requests from community groups, from schools, and from within our university. We have begun the process of developing educational workshops for independent researchers: I will lead my first in the fall on preserving personal collections and digitization, so this workshop was very timely!

Being the archivist at a university which has historically had deep connections with the local community, I was delighted that many of the panels dealt with both university and community archive issues. From a practical perspective, I also gathered information about privacy issues, disaster plans, and advocacy from the various presentations. The conference also provided a variety of social and networking opportunities: coffee breaks were well-attended and tables well-laid!

I presented a paper about archives and regionalism at the conference. Everyone was encouraging of my efforts to explore the issues facing archives, such as ours, that have a significant collection of materials which elicit an emotional response from the community, and of our endeavors to treat these records and the community appropriately. I was pleased to receive very positive feedback - and business cards - from a number of individuals who wish to keep in touch to discuss some of the issues I raised. Several well-established members of the ACA provided me with some feedback and input for my paper for which I was truly appreciative.

Furthermore, as the incoming secretary for the CNSA, it was also important for me to get to know other archivists across Canada and to have a better understanding of national programs so I can contribute to conversations about how we can best take advantage of those opportunities that are available to us.

It was my first ACA conference, but I am thrilled that the organization is having two conferences in Atlantic Canada in the next three years. I look forward to attending it again in 2008 when it will be held in Fredericton, New Brunswick and in 2010 when it will be in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

- May 18, 2007 -

And the Winners Are...

The winners of this year's three CNSA Awards were announced at the annual Spring Conference on May 10, 2007. The winner of the Phyllis R. Blakeley Award for archival excellence is the Nova Scotia Highland Village Museum & Archives for their website on Gaelic culture in Cape Breton, GaelStream . A surprised Pauline MacLean, collections manager, accepted on behalf of the Museum.

The winner of the Carmen V. Carroll Award for outstanding acheivement in preservation is Argyle Township Court House & Archives, in recognition of their hard work in fundraising and building a new facility to professionally house their archives and provide comfortable access for onsite researchers. Peter Crowell, archivist, and Carol Jacquard, assistant archivist, were in attendance and pleased to accept on behalf of ATCHA.

The winner of the Anna Hamilton Award for outstanding volunteer in an archives is Dr. James O. St. Clair of NS Highland Village Museum & Archives in recognition of his over 20 years of service on the Board of Directors, his talent as leader of the "Candlelight Tours" in the summer, his extensive writing on the history of Cape Breton Island, and his commitment to the genealogy program at the Village: Roots Cape Breton .

Congratulations to all the winners!

- May 4, 2007 -

Results from Membership Survey

The final results from the 2006-2007 Membership Needs Assessment & Planning Study have been analyzed and a report prepared for members entitled Building on Strengths. This report, prepared by the team of A.L. Arbic Consulting and Genesis Consulting, contains statistics on the archival community in Nova Scotia, an analysis of the community's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats, and recommendations for action.

The Report will be formally presented to members at the Annual General Meeting on May 10, 2007. You can get a preview of the Executive Summary here. The Full Report will be distributed at the AGM and made available for download from this website May 14.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Needs Assessment survey: the volunteers on the Steering Committee, the consultants, CNSA staff and most important, the members.

Additional documents for the AGM are available: the agenda, minutes from 2006 AGM, and annual reports from CNSA committees, staff, and the president.

- February 26, 2007 -

NSSHA Now Available in PDF

The Nova Scotia Subject Headings Authority (NSSHA), an indexing tool created especially for the Nova Scotia archival community in 1986, is now available online in an Adobe PDF document. The PDF version was created in January 2007 with the assistance of Dalhousie University Archives, who used a scanner to create an exact duplicate of the original publication and its "Supplement No.1" list.

The NSSHA lists terms to be used when assigning subjects for a database or print catalogue. It uses the same format and rules as the Library of Congress Subject Headings authority with the addition of Nova Scotia-specific terms to aid in describing our unique holdings. Instructions for using the NSSHA appear in its "Introduction" p.iii - v.

The NSSHA was originally compiled by Wendy Duff and Julie Morris working with the Council of Nova Scotia Archives in 1985. It was tested by seven CNSA members across the province in 1986 and published in hard copy that same year. One set of revisions/corrections was published in 1989 "Supplement No. 1". The CNSA is pleased to make this indexing tool freely available to all who visit its website. You will find it under "Indexing" on the Tools page of the Resources section.

- December 20, 2006 -

Heritage Strategy Final Report Released

The long awaited Final Report of the Task Force on Heritage Strategy was officially presented to government and the people of Nova Scotia on Dec. 14, 2006. Maureen Reid, Chair of the Task Force presented the Report at a press conference in the Red Chamber of the Nova Scotia Legislature. CTV, ASN and CBC were there along with a number of newspaper reporters.

Entitled Our Heritage Future: A Shared Responsibility the report is the result of public consultations and written submissions from heritage organizations, including the CNSA and its members. The report makes 59 recommendations encompassing archives, museums, built heritage, underwater sites, cemeteries, natural heritage, languages, music & folklore (intangible heritage), archaeology, publishing, education, and sector-wide planning and promotion. Four recommendations address archives specifically, including the development of county/regional archives, encouragement of municipal governments to create their own public archives, and increased funding to the Community Museums Assistance Program (CMAP) to include archival work. The Report also recognizes the success of NSARM's online research products and endorses the professional standards of the CNSA.

- December 13, 2006 -

Archives & You! Conference coming to Halifax 2007

The third annual Archives & You! Conference will be held in Halifax, NS on May 11 and 12, 2007. This national conference brings researchers and archivists together to share and learn from each other. The first day will consist of plenary and concurrent sessions, including ask-the-expert roundtables and workshops, plus a luncheon. The second day will be for behind-the-scene tours of archives in the surrounding area.

CNSA members are getting involved, supplying the photos to be used in the Conference's advertising and program booklet, opening their archives for tours and assisting with planning at the local level. A Call for Speakers has gone out to the local and national archival community asking for volunteers to present sessions on the three main themes of the Conference: Connecting to Communities; Archives for You! - Genealogy, Community History and Curriculum-Based Learning; and Making Archives Accessible.

If your archives is interested in participating please email or call Anne MacLean at the CNSA Office 424-7093.

- March 6, 2006 -

New Funding Program Announced

A new 5-year federal contribution funding program for archives was announced today by Library and Archives Canada called the National Archival Development Program (NADP). Members of CNSA who pay dues in the Institutional membership category are eligible to apply for this funding. The deadline for applications is March 30, just 4 weeks away.

In addition to a new name, the NADP has new objectives, new application forms, and new reporting requirements. The amount of money available remains the same for each province across Canada, at least for this year.

The new application forms, program guidelines and criteria are available for download from the Canadian Council of Archives website

A training session on the new program and how to apply will take place March 17 in Halifax.

The overall goal of this new program is to provide financial assistance to archives for projects to increase their ability to preserve and make accessible archival materials about Canada and Canadians. As in the old program, the NADP contributes up to 50% of the total funding required for a project.

- January 20, 2006 -

CNSA Submits Brief to Heritage Strategy Task Force

On behalf of its member institutions, the Council of Nova Scotia Archives sent a 29-page Brief to the Heritage Strategy Task Force on December 15, 2005. The Brief outlined a view of the heritage sector from the perspective of Nova Scotia's archival community. In addition to presenting the community's accomplishments and some of our challenges surrounding technology usage, funding, facilities, and access for users, the CNSA made the following suggestions for improvement:

1) A stronger provincial network of archival repositories with provincial legislation to ensure publicly-funded organizations commit to the proper management and preservation of their records, eg: universities, municipalities, hospitals and school boards.

2) Greater support to meet the challenges of information technologies including preservation of audio-visual and electronic records, greater public access to records via the Internet and the development of technical and preservation skills among archivists and heritage workers.

3) Capacity building and sustainability through stable, multi-year operational funding for archives, renewal of the provincial investment program to meet public needs and expectations, support for continuing education for all heritage workers, more collaborative projects among archives and between archives and other heritage organizations to maximize resources and reduce costs.

4) Greater public awareness by creating archival products and services to inform and educate Nova Scotians about their history, by supporting the genealogy tourism niche market, by promoting accountability through the effective management of government and public body records, by documenting the multicultural fabric of society and contributions of ethno-cultural groups in the province and by supporting life long learning through the promotion of archival research.

5) A new Heritage Partnership with a Heritage Council representing all the heritage disciplines which can speak for the heritage sector directly with the provincial government, the re-development of heritage funding that supports both necessary core heritage activities and new innovative approaches, the development of strategic partnerships with other sectors of Nova Scotia society to maximize visibility of heritage and promote it as an economic force within the province, and the development of strategic approaches for more effective communication within the heritage sector.

For more information please read the full text of the Brief on Nova Scotia's Heritage Challenges: The Archives' Perspective (33 pages in pdf), the Bibliography (2 pages in pdf), Appendix A "Archival Program in the Municipality of Argyle" (2 pages in pdf) and Appendix B "Archives-related Websites" (1 page in pdf).

- August 25, 2005 -

Get Your Username and Password Now for ArchWay Data Entry

Login accounts are now being set up for all CNSA members who want one.  This announcement was made by the ArchWay Project Committee