Inspiration at the Archives

The link above will take you to a CBC Manitoba article about the May 10th Manitoba Day Awards, which honours users of Manitoba archives who have taken records and made use of them in their community, their country, and the world. This year’s honourees included people working on community history projects, academic books, films, and Canadian recording artist John K. Samson.

Sampson, along with other recipients, expressed their deep disappointment at the federal NADP and LAC cuts. These users of archives pointed out that if they were just beginning their projects now, they would likely encounter a lot more difficulty accessing the records that they needed for their projects since the budget cuts have limited the ability of many community archives to provide access.

One honouree went so far as to call archivists superheroes, without whom he would not have found many of the records he needed. More online access does not make all archives more accessible, despite what those making the budget cuts would have us believe.

Archival users recognise the problem of losing the National Archival Development Program and staff & resources at Library and Archives Canada. Evidence of this was shown at the Association for Manitoba Archives ceremony and has been shown by the outpouring of support from academic and community users of archives.

Archivists recognise the problem, and have been rallying together since the April 30th announcement.

Now let’s help the federal budget-makers to recognise and understand the problem. Let’s get them to make things right and repair the situation.