Cindy McLellan

The BCIT experience of the COVID-19 global pandemic

October 26, 2021 by Cindy McLellan

All of 2021 I have found myself looking back to what I was doing and what was going on in 2020. There are many Anniversaries of note: when those of us who could, started working from home, and became armchair epidemiologists, when borders closed, trips were cancelled, when I last had an in real life meeting with colleagues, and when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked people to refrain from “speaking moistly.” COVID-19 impacted all of our lives to varying degrees. Most of us know someone who was sickened by the coronavirus. Some of us lost a loved-one. Many BCIT grads, students, faculty, and staff stepped up to help out in any way that they could.

The above is BCIT’s Breaking News website captured March 15, 2020. To watch Kathy Kinloch deliver her message to the BCIT Community about the rapidly developing situation you can visit the page I captured with Archive-It, and click the blue play button located at the top right of the banner. Also in the banner, you can see that this page was crawled on March 15, 2020. If you click on ‘All versions’ in the banner you can see other capture dates.

Looking back at the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1920 the best sources for research are found in archives. These primary sources are used as evidence in books, legal disputes, thesis, blogs posts, and other historic publications. Being an Archivist I was quickly made aware of blog posts that highlighted parallels of this time. A couple of favourites were The Spanish influenza: the deadly pandemic of 1918 from Queen’s University Alumni Review & UBC and the last great pandemic 1918-1919. Primary or original sources used for these articles include photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, reports, and newspaper articles.

This is what the School of Health main page looked like in May of 2020. Note the “Important Notice: COVID-19 Institute response” at the top of the page. This snapshot was taken prior to the switch to WordPress when BCIT’s website took on a whole new look and feel.

Where are the records tracing BCIT’s experience of the current pandemic? Some of them are on the social media sites of our students and community.** Others are in various offices around BCIT where decisions, big and small, are made. Many of these decisions are shared and updated on BCIT’s website. In March of 2020 I started using the BCIT Archives Archive-It account to collect the BCIT Breaking News website where regular Institute updates could be found. Once it became clear that our new reality would include COVID-19 for an extended time a special COVID-19 website was created where updates for students and staff could be regularly shared. Snapshots of what the BCIT COVID-19 response was are now full-text searchable on the BCIT Archive-It page. Researchers of the future will note the COVID-19 banner prominently splashed across the top of much of BCIT’s websites for the duration of the pandemic.

BCIT Archive-It homepage where you can full-text search collected webpages. Including the BCIT 50th Anniversary websites and other obsolete BCIT webpages.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is a popular resource for finding obsolete or removed websites (the average website lifespan is less than three years) or verifying what inflammatory or incriminating statements politicians or celebrities have removed from their websites. In order to search the Wayback Machine you need to know the exact URL of the page you want to visit. This is not the case for the Archive-It service where full text searching of captured pages is a key feature. The BCIT Archives has been using Archive-It to collect websites of historical importance to BCIT since 2017. The advantages of using Archive-It are many; I have been able to create curated collections, add metadata, run tests, put in tickets for help, connect with the Archive-It community, and set up automatic crawls. Of immediate concern in the spring of 2017 were the 50th Anniversary websites and Update blog, which first moved to the web in 2004. You can find thirteen years of the Update blog on Archive-It. The paper versions are available as full text searchable PDFs in the BCIT Archives database.

If you are familiar with the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine you will recognize the capture information at the top of the screen. “You are viewing an archived web page…This page was captured on 20:48 Mar 11, 2017…” etc. Here is a screenshot of BCIT’s 50th Anniversary merchandise page.

For scholars studying the 1990s onward web archives are an invaluable resource. A great project out of the University of Waterloo and York University called Archives Unleased Cloud has created open-source analytical tools and a collaborative community of scholars. A couple of years ago I was fortunate to be able to participate in a workshop where archivists and researchers got to try some of the tools they had created for analyzing website collections. Since then, Archives Unleashed has become more powerful and, from the test versions I have had access to, more user friendly. The project is moving to the Archive-It platform – a perfect partnership that supports the longevity of the project and allows for seamless collecting and analyzing of web archives.

SE16 BCIT Recreational Services gym set up for in real life exams February 2021. BCIT Archives item no. C19-s01-010.

The global pandemic continues to rage on and create many uncertainties in our lives. As COVID-19 dominates the headlines web-archivists in Canada and around the world are ensuring that the researchers of the future will have access to the records of these “interesting” times. The BCIT Archives has created a, so far, all-digital BCIT COVID-19 collection. This collection includes links to relevant Archive-It web archives collections and digital photographs of the BCIT-community’s experience of the past nineteen months.

**Preserving social media sites is prohibitively challenging for many reasons including privacy and the proprietary nature of the platforms themselves.

This blog post has been adapted from a blog post that I wrote for the BCIT intranet; first published March 16, 2021.

Bad vending machines! SE02 October 2020. BCIT Archives item no. C19-s01-255.

iPres 2019 Inspiring & Informative

November 7, 2019 by Cindy McLellan

Photo from the ferry of the Eye Film Museum. Photograph by C. McLellan

iPres took place at the Eye Film Museum. An eye-catching building that is a free 5 minute ferry ride from Amsterdam Centraal. It was a jam-packed five days often with four concurrent sessions; making choices about which room to be in difficult.

After I left Amsterdam someone tweeted about this art project to the #iPres2019 hashtag. Faces on the ferry by Rachelle Meyer. Her work sparked some happiness in me. The bike culture in Amsterdam is captured very well on these ferries and by Meyer. Each drawing is a mini story about someone going somewhere. The theme of commuting in the different seasons comes through really nicely in the titles and what the subjects are wearing.

I have been consciously thinking about the power of story-telling in my Archival practice lately. The stories waiting to be found in Archives and the stories we tell about our holdings have the power to inspire, to provide proof, to make a connection with the past and so much more. Stories can be used to demonstrate the value of Archives which Archivists are asked to do more than we’d like. Stories are great for helping the uninitiated understand the importance of long term digital preservation.

One of my thirty-second digital preservation pitches is about VHS tapes and the fact that the last VCR was manufactured in 2017. Enthusiasts like to think that parts for old machines could be 3D printed; there’s going to be a limit to how long old machines can be kept in working order. Adding to this problem, the tapes themselves have moving parts that wear, never mind the delicate nature of the magnetic tape itself.

Each of the three wonderful keynotes at iPres told at least one story. The stories that resonate, for me, are grounded in truth and contain at least a nod to humour. So I am going to center my post around storytelling.

The conference began with a keynote from Geert Lovink a media theorist from the Institute of Network Cultures (INC). INC does applied Science and Lovink’s research about the internet and has been active since the 1990s. The model of the INC is based on a sustained interrelationship between public research, publications and events. Lovink and INC strongly believe that meeting in person in a physical space is vital to richness and diversity and maintaining meaningful networks. INC is involved in many networks that critically engage with internet culture.

The story Lovink told was about his teenage son, his most intimate informant. Being a person who has been thinking critically about the internet since the 1990s Lovink looks to his son as someone with their finger on the pulse of the internet. And it was his son who convinced him of the necessity and relevance of his latest area of inquiry: Sadness. The interaction that sparked a focus on sadness was a sincere conviction from his son that everything is sad. The water glass on the table is sad. Sadness is everywhere. Social Media creates and reinforces sadness. The immediacy of what one’s friends are doing online – constant updates require constant attention. He argues that the internet has stagnated and regressed there is a monopoly by a few Social Media platforms over the online experience of the majority of internet users. After reading from his newest book: Sad by design: On platform nihilism Lovink did not leave us completely sad. He pointed to the website Humane Tech. If was started by former Google and Facebook employees/dissidents that want to understand how the Social Media behavioral modifications can be reversed. And how societies and young people can learn to break free from platform monopolies.

Excellent way to travel to a conference dinner in Amsterdam. Photograph by H. Mackay

Michelle Caswell delivered the second excellent keynote. Her introductory story stemmed from the feminist standpoint epistemology of valuing knowledge gained from lived experience. The fact that in the early 1990s she was attending Columbia University in NY was surprising given that she: is a white American woman, who was public school educated, accustomed to being one of the few white women in her predominantly black Chicago high school, and neither of her parents graduated from high school; her working class background made it obvious to her that she did not belong. However, although she felt alienated acutely, her not belonging was invisible to others because of her whiteness. The required freshmen Contemporary Civilizations class reading list had remained unchanged at Columbia since 1919 and included only classics written by white men for white men of priviledge. Caswell’s classmates knew these texts; they had read them before, at their private high schools, possibly in the original Greek or Latin, and were comfortable preforming, for four years, what was expected of them at university before they inherited the earth from their families. Caswell had a difficult time seeing herself in the readings and eventually vented her frustration in an essay about how she did not belong instead of the assigned weekly reaction to the reading. Luckily for her, her professor took her for coffee after class and pushed her in the direction of post-colonial studies where she found some critical thinkers who made sense to her own world view.

With this framing she challenged us, the digital archivists in the room, to look at our work in a new way. Archivists are obsessed with context and the context in which records are created and used. Archivists do not often look at the broader context of the existing dominant power; often, our employer, e.g. a government – which is not neutral. She points out the myth of neutrality and argues that dominate archival practices and theories, written by white men working for governments, are oppressive by design. Archivists are not neutral and the archives in their care are also not neutral. Let’s start valuing ways of being from the margins and create collecting policies for our archives that are socially located and culturally situated not solely from the unquestioned place of power (we know lots about them and so will future researchers). If you are interested in archival theory and want to start asking more questions in your archives do read more about Caswell’s Feminist Standpoint Appraisal.

Favourite quote: Feminism is for everybody. Patriarchy hurts us all: just not equally.

This is a warm stroopwaffle with chocolate. Highly recommended. Photograph by C. McLellan

Once upon a time there were some mice who thought it would be great if the cat that terrorized them wore a bell. Then they would be able to hear the cat coming. Some brave mice banded together and put a bell on the cat. A version of this story was used to introduce Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat.

The room remained quiet while Higgins told us about how he and Bellingcat have been using their networks and tools available on the internet to determine truth from lies. Their main focus has been discovering truth from lies when it comes to war. Using Google maps and other tools to determine whether what was bombed was, as claimed, a legitimate military target or a hospital or a school or a residential area. Using their extensive network and tools online they have aided police in uncovering the location of illegal activities.

One of the stories that resonated with everyone was about how Bellingcat showed that the Russian Ministry of Defense used footage from a videogame to ‘prove’ that the US Military was working with ISIS to promote American interests in the Middle East. Bellingcat was so successful showing the Russian military using something as ridiculous as a videogame as irrefutable evidence that even mainstream Russian media picked the story up.

Story after story Bellingcat was succeeding in revealing the truth. In the current state of the world it is very important work indeed. Check out Bellingcat’s Yemen project.

All three keynotes were excellent and told stories worth listening to. Links to those stories can be found here:

Keynote 1: Geert Lovink, Institute of Network Culture. Sad by Design: Politics and Psychology of the Social Media Age
Keynote 2: Michelle Caswell, University of California at Los Angeles. Whose Digital Preservation? Locating our standpoints to reallocate resources
Keynote 3: Eliot Higgins, Bellingcat. Bellingcat and beyond. The future for Bellingcat and online open source investigation

As of December 9, 2019 the conference proceedings were made available both on the Phaidra Repository, and the Open Science Framework (OSF) for scholarly documentation where you can also access all posters, hack-a-thon materials, tutorials, etc..

I got a behind-the-scenes tour of Atria Institute on gender equality and women’s history. It was was the first women’s rights archives in Europe as it started in 1939. Those boxes at the top are a sample of the boxes that material was returned to the Atria Archives from Russia in the early 1990s. The materials were stolen by the Nazis. Photograph by C. McLellan

New mural on campus – Journey into the BCIT Archives!

June 11, 2019 by Cindy McLellan

A great bit thanks to Campus Development and my friends in Marketing and Communications who made this happen and look fabulous! Next time you are in SE2 take a look just outside Townsquares C & D.

Photograph of mural of BCIT Archival photographs

The mural installed in SE2. Photograph by C. McLellan

All of the photographs used in the mural can be found in the BCIT Archives database. If you visit the mural and look on the far right the item numbers are listed which makes searching easy. There are over 6000 photographs digitized and available in the BCIT Archives database – this is about 2% of the estimated 300,000 photographs in our holdings.

The wall looking quite dull. Photograph by C. McLellan.

Thanks to everyone who contacted me after the 50th Anniversary mural came down! I hope you enjoy the new one.

BCIT Burnaby Campus Street Names: A little history of BCIT the second part [2 of 2]

April 11, 2019 by Cindy McLellan

With so much construction continuing around Burnaby campus it seemed like a good opportunity to think about street names. Over its history BCIT has been home to many inspiring people. Current streets around Burnaby campus are named after some of these people as well as men who were early influencers in technical training in this province. Too many people to mention in a single blog post; I have already published BCIT Burnaby Campus Street Names: A little history of BCIT the first part [1 of 2] I hope you enjoy the second part.

Burnaby Campus map from 1988. Includes the following streets: White Avenue, Goard Way, Smith Street, English Street, Roper Avenue, Carey Avenue and you can clearly see the Butcher Shop where SE2 is now.

I noticed a trend while writing and researching this post so decided to start with some brief biographies of people not honoured with a street name. Do you need to be a white man to have street named in your honour? If not, BCIT has a number of remarkable students, educators and influencers in its rich 50+ year history:

Barbara Kozier, Department Head of General Nursing, 1968(?)-1979; staff photograph ca. 1960s.

Barbara Kozier was a Nurse, author and educator who had a longstanding position in the Nursing program at BCIT, eventually becoming the Department Head for Health Care Services at BCIT. She authored the seminal nursing textbook Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts, Process & Practice (now in its 10th edition) as well as several other important nursing textbooks.

Judy Monk giving the valedictorian speech, 1966.

Judy Monroe (nee Monk) was BCIT’s first valedictorian in 1966 when she graduated from the Hotel and Restaurant Management Program. Monroe was the first Secretary of the Student Council and was instrumental in initiating what is now the BCIT Student Association and running the first student council election way back in 1964. She taught night school for a couple of years at BCIT as one way of giving back. She went on to manage the Facilities Department of the Portland Oregon Zoo.

Feel free to use the comments below to name more amazing BCIT personalities that deserve to be recognized. I am keen to learn from the community and hear your suggestions.

Fairey Avenue was named after Col. Francis Fairey, Provincial Director of Technical Education who became Deputy Minister. A teacher by profession, Fairey served as a Liberal member of the House of Commons from 1953 to 1957 and was instrumental in promoting technical education. After his retirement, he headed World Commissions on technical education; one in Japan, and one in Africa.

BCIT Rededication invitation card insert includes the following streets: Lister Avenue, White Avenue, Goard Way, Ford Street, Roper Avenue, Carey Avenue, Fairey Street.

Lister Avenue was named after J. George Lister , first principal of Vancouver Technical School (1916-1930) and one of the promoters of the Federal Technical Education Act of 1918; an Act which provided $10 million for technical education.

Sinclair Walk was named after James Sinclair, second of Principal of Vancouver Technical High School (1930-1944), Vancouver’s first technical school, also known as Van Tech. Sinclair Walk no longer appears on our maps – I’m not entirely sure when it disappeared.

Guichon Creek with SE16 Recreational Services and SE14 the Library in the background, ca.1979.

Kyle Street was named after John Kyle, the Director of Technical Education for the Province of British Columbia, between 1914 and 1938. For a time Guichon Creek was known as Kyle Creek.

Guichon Alley references Guichon Creek which exists under most of our campus in a pipe. Guichon Creek is named after Laurent Guichon who owned a hunting cabin at Willingdon Ave. and Price St. in the late 1890s. Plans to daylight North Guichon creek and create a green corridor through the campus are slowly moving forward and can be seen in long term plans of BCIT Burnaby Campus.

Classic photograph of Guichon Creek with students standing on a discarded car. The creek through our campus has been through many changes over the years. I’m looking forward to seeing it daylighted one day.

BCIT Burnaby Campus Street Names: A little history of BCIT the first part [1 of 2]

March 26, 2019 by Cindy McLellan

With so much construction continuing around Burnaby campus it seemed like a good opportunity to think about street names. Over its history BCIT has been home to many inspiring people. Current streets around Burnaby campus are named after some of these people as well as men who were early influencers in technical training in this province. Too many people to mention in a single blog post; watch for BCIT Burnaby Campus Street Names: A little history of BCIT the second part [2 of 2].

Exam location map from 1979 shows: English St., Goard Way, White Ave., Lister Ave., Roper Ave., Ford St. and Fairey St. And look, Student Parking lot D, at Ford St. & Wayburne Dr. was once a playing field! Some exams were held at the Gizeh Shrine Temple – but don’t try parking there!

C. Margaret Briscall, Business Management, staff photograph, taken sometime between 1965 and 1967.

Margaret Briscall, BCom, MBA, FCPA, FCMA. When Briscall retired from BCIT after more than 35 years she was BCIT Associate Dean Financial Management. Briscall played a significant role in establishing BCIT’s Financial Management department, within the School of Business, beginning her career there as one of the first female instructors hired at BCIT in early 1965 to develop the second year business courses. She was delighted with the move to BCIT as she would get a pay increase by leaving UBC. In her two previous positions, at BC Electric and at UBC, there were separate pay scales for men and women doing the same job – at BCIT she would be paid equally. In 1978 she became the first female president of the BCIT Staff Society, representing the interests of a predominantly male faculty. Briscall was universally respected for her forthrightness, integrity, commitment to the students and experience in the field. She was a CGA national examiner for many decades and became a fellow of the Society of Management Accountants of Canada in 1984 and a Lifetime Member for the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC in 2001.

Robert (Bob) George receiving his honourary doctorate.

Elder Bob George (1923-2014) of Coast Salish, Tsleil-Waututh Nation was BCIT’s first Indigenous Elder in residence and a rock for many who attended BCIT over the ten years that he held this position. In 2005 BCIT presented George with an honourary doctorate.

Feel free to use the comments below to name more amazing BCIT personalities that deserve to be recognized. I have researched a few more deserving personalities for Part 2. I am keen to learn from the community and hear your suggestions.

Dr. English and Cecil Roper (right), 1966.

Roper Avenue was named after Cecil E. Roper (1914-1996), the first Principal of BCIT (1962-1967). A provincial Advisory Council[1][2], made up of industry executives, recruited Roper from the Faculty of Commerce at UBC as the first Principal of BCIT. Roper, trained as a mining engineer, had earned an MBA after 20 years in the mining industry. Well connected to the world of BC industry, and equally well connected at UBC, he was able to attract faculty and staff from both arenas to work and volunteer for BCIT in its earliest days.

English Street was named after Dr. J. F. K. English, Deputy Minister and Superintendent of Education of the province of BC. Dr. English was appointed Chairman of BCIT’s first Advisory Council.

Principal Dean H. Goard.

Goard Way was named after Dean Goard (1909-1986), the second Principal of BCIT (1967-1974). In 1939 he began his teaching career at the Vancouver Technical School. He was a Chemist who was educated at UBC where he also did the teacher training program. Previous to his appointment at BCIT Goard was assistant director at Vancouver Community College and Assistant Director of Adult Education at the Vancouver School Board. After his retirement from BCIT he went on to be University Affairs Director for the province of BC.

Ford Street was named after Dr. C. Ross Ford, Director of Technical Training Branch of the Federal Department of Labour. Dr. Ford was not directly involved with BCIT but he was instrumental in the establishment of technical institutions across Canada.

Carey Avenue was named after Ralph Carey, long- standing member of the first BCIT Advisory Council.

Smith Avenue was named after Lorne Smith, second Principal of BC Vocational School (BCVS). BCVS became the Pacific Vocational Institute (PVI) in 1978 and merged with BCIT in 1986.

I hope you learned something and enjoyed Part 1 of the Street Names of BCIT Burnaby Campus.

[1] 1961: An Advisory Council was formed to begin planning the proposed BCIT. Dr. J. English, Deputy Minister and Superintendent of Education was appointed chairman and J. S. White, Director of Technical and Vocational Education, vice-chair.

[2] Between 1961 and 1974, BCIT was controlled and funded directly by the BC Department of Education, in partnership with an Advisory Council chosen from business and industry. The roles of the Advisory Council included:

To advise the Minster of Education on the operation of BCIT in particular
Approve faculty and technical support staff appointments
Approve scholarships and assist in obtaining financial donations from industry
Advise on major policy
Advise on new building requirements
Approve educational programs or extension of existing programs

People make records – ARA 2018

October 11, 2018 by Cindy McLellan

Not long after the heat wave plaguing the UK ended I arrived in Glasgow for the Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland) Conference (ARA). The theme of the conference, ‘People Make Records’, is a play on the popular travel Glasgow initiative/motto/website: People Make Glasgow. The people do make Glasgow – it’s an incredibly friendly city.

The BCIT Archivist all ready for things to get started at #ARA2018!

The conference itself was challenging, informative and well organized. All three keynotes were inspiring and shaped the conversations throughout each day. Hopefully they will also shape the future with the realization of the Glasgow Manifesto as it was called for in the final panel debate. It’s time to stop just talking and start taking action!

At ARA every day I was moved to laugh, cry and be inspired. I would like to share a few highlights from my conference experience.

Professor Augustine (Gus) John delivered the first keynote inviting archives and records professionals to radicalize the Archives. He began by listing a few anniversaries that happened in August that went by unremarked upon by most including the date August 18, 1518 when King Charles V of Spain issued a charter authorizing the transportation of slaves directly from Africa to the Americas. 2018 is 500th anniversary of the start of the transatlantic slave trade. Not widely known or marked, in contrast to the end of the slave trade. It’s easy to celebrate positive events – it’s more challenging to tell politically unsettling stories and remind the public of less savoury anniversaries. Records are power. John highlighted three main ways in which records can be obviated: willful omission, erasure and malicious changes. Archivists are not neutral. Archivists do have power. Homework from Gus John; read: The History Thieves by Ian Cobain (can be borrowed from the BCIT Library).

People make records. People tell stories. If you are ever in Glasgow I urge you to visit the Women’s Library it began in the 1990s with a passionate group of women. Equality, diversity and inclusion are core functions of the Glasgow Women’s Library. It is now funded, has it’s own building, and runs wonderful community, learning and art projects. Quotable quote from Adele Patrick of the Glasgow Women’s Library, “marginalized communities aren’t hard to reach – they are easy to ignore.” [As a sad aside – the Vancouver Women’s Library closed this past August.]

Conference delegates were lucky enough to attend a reception at the Glasgow City Chambers where we were welcomed by the City’s Mayor. I was delighted to find a connection to a presentation from earlier in the day – a portrait of the First Convener of the Water Committee.

Robert Stewart of Murdostroun, Lord Provost of the City of Glasgow 1851-1854 and First Convener of the Water Committee 1855-1856.

The Arlington Baths Club (ABC) could not have started without this man, Robert Stewart of Murdostroun, First Convener of the Water Committee 1855-1856. This portrait was “painted to commemorate his public services in successfully promoting the waterworks act of 1855 by which the citizens obtained an abundant supply of pure water from Loch Katrine.” Fifteen years later, in 1870, ABC opened as a men’s swimming pool club that also featured a library, smoking room and card room. There were no public swimming pools in Glasgow at the time. It still has an annual membership. Members are generally middle class and women were first allowed in 1882 (their first races, judged on style and grace, were held that year and the following year, like the men, they had timed races). The ABC History Group recently started a blog sharing research done at the Glasgow City Archives about past members. The stories found by the ABC History Group are a sweet reminder of the genealogical joys found in Archives.

Michelle Caswell, Assistant Professor of Archival Studies at UCLA, began the second day of the conference with another call to action. Memory work has a political urgency and meaning; marginalized communities see history repeating itself. People need to be reminded that we should not let this happen again – foundations need to be shaken. She has gathered a community and started a project called Archivists Against History Repeating Itself. Homework from Caswell: print out and put up this poster Dismantling White Supremacy. Archives need to ensure they can be trusted by marginalized communities. .

twitter was very excited about Tunnock's caramel bars!

On a lighter note; Tunnock’s is a well-loved Scottish company. All locals were delighted beyond reason that caramel Tunnock’s bars were included in our welcome package and offered at coffee break more than once.

Just a couple more presentations that I would like to highlight:

Jenny Bunn offered a thought-provoking presentation about the future of Archival Description. She kindly put a post of her musings on her blog, Trailing Along: Rambles through recordkeeping.
Marion Kenny passionately shared with us the story or Qisetna, Talking Syria. A platform for sharing stories and connecting the Syrian diaspora. Artists, musicians, regular citizens and professional storytellers from Syria have shared their stories and found pathways to healing through this multi-lingual website. The entire panel that this presentation was part of was full of wonderful stories. I especially recommend the final presentation by Alan Butler of the Plymouth LGBT Archives.
In the UK the Master of Archival Studies programs are only one year. In North America most Masters degrees are two years. I very much enjoyed the discussions in the Skills Digital Archivists Need session surrounding what aspects of the traditional program to cut out now that digital archives skills are required by the profession. At Aberwystwyth University, you can still take courses in Paleography, however, it is no longer possible to graduate without digital learning.

Sibley on stage for the third and final Keynote of the ARA Conference.

Martyn Sibley began our final day in Glasgow with an inspiring and thoughtful key note. He is one of the UK’s most prominent activists and advocates for disabled people, check out one of his projects Disability Horizons. Describing himself as ‘…a regular guy who happens to have a disability called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).’ Sibley challenged the room to be mindful of improving accessibility to archives and records. Rather than see only barriers focus on your strengths and what you can do to include people. Takeaway quote from Sibley ‘being inclusive for disabled people is really about good customer service.’

People make records. People make changes. Believe that positive change is possible. Together the profession can grow in many ways. Embracing the idea of radicalizing the archives to tell the uncomfortable truths in our history as Gus John urged. Dismantling white supremacy. Knowing when it is time to shut up and do the hard work that needs to be done. Ensuring that the records of the marginalized are acquired and preserved so their stories are not forgotten and history does not repeat itself as championed by Michelle Caswell. Finally, knowing our ‘inclusion superpowers’ as Martin Sibley challenged us. Championing inclusivity in our hiring practices, in education and in serving our communities.

BCIT Archives – Office of the President series

January 10, 2018 by Cindy McLellan

My name is Chloe Perrin, and in the fall of 2017 I helped out in the BCIT Archives as an Archival Professional Experience student from the Master of Archival Studies program at UBC. I worked with records transferred from the Office of the President to the BCIT Archives. Transfers of records to the BCIT Archives from BCIT Departments are scheduled in BCIT’s Directory of Records; vital or important records with a disposition of ‘Ar,’ Archival Retention are transferred to the BCIT Archives for permanent preservation. My task was to appraise the current holdings, arrange them appropriately, and provide archival descriptions in the BCIT Archives‘ AtoM database.

The daunting task I was faced with; twenty-four boxes. [Photograph by Chloe Perrin]

Records from the Office of the President date back to the mid-70’s on a wide array of topics. It’s overwhelming the number of areas that BCIT Presidents’ deal with. There’s information on everything from mundane meeting minutes to the implementation of new degree programs. Did you know that the ‘smart’ student card was issued 20 years ago?

Prior to my arrival only a small portion of the Office of the President series had been processed by the Archivist. Twenty-four bankers boxes of records from the President’s Office were transferred to the BCIT Archives and accessioned but were waiting to be rehoused, arranged and described in the database. The archival theory I studied at UBC prepared me well for the challenge.

My job was to turn boxes of files… [Photograph by Chloe Perrin]

Properal archival storage, neat labels, acid-free folders.

Into neatly labeled files in acid-free folders…at the same time creating hierarchical descriptions now incorporated in BCIT Archives’ database. [Photograph by Chloe Perrin]

If you are interested in learning more about these records, they can be found as part of the BCIT Archives database collections in the Office of the President series.

BCIT Archives – new search!

March 16, 2016 by Cindy McLellan

The BCIT Archives is pleased to announce the launch of our new online search.

Screenshot of BCIT Archives & Special Collections homepage. 'Search' and 'Browse by' circled.

Screenshot of BCIT Archives & Special Collections database homepage. ‘Browse by’ and ‘Search’ circled.

This change is exciting for many reasons:

It allows the BCIT Archives to make all descriptions and digital objects available in one place.
It allows us to show relationships between records and between records and their creators.
Researchers now have access to an Advanced Search feature which allows for easy filtering of searches and easy adding of additional search criteria.
Researchers can now easily browse digital objects, subjects, authority records (creators) and archival descriptions.
There is a ‘Popular this week’ feature that show what other people have been clicking on.

The BCIT Archives will continue to invest time and energy into making more digital objects available as well as describing the textual records in our holdings. At the same time our goal is to provide useful context for all of these materials.

Explore BCIT Archives

Some favorite collections to browse include: The BCIT Historical Photograph Collection and the BCIT Student Association fonds, which includes digitized versions of the BCIT Yearbooks and the Link Newspaper.

The BCIT Archives would like to thank iSchool@UBC Professional Experience student Sarika Kelm for her fruitful time in the BCIT Archives in the summer of 2015. Kelm’s main project while here, was the rehousing, arrangement, and description of the Fernando Vachon series. For access to these, or any other original archival materials in our holdings, please contact the BCIT Archivist.

A note about citing BCIT Archives materials

Screenshot of the file level description of 'BCIT and its place in education for the Canadian mining industry.' Reference code and nested hierarchy circled.

Screenshot of the file level description of ‘BCIT and its place in education for the Canadian mining industry.’ Nested hierarchy’ and ‘Reference code’ circled.

Whenever crediting BCIT Archives materials as a source please quote the Reference code. The Reference code for all levels of description can be found at the top of each description in the ‘Identity area.’ The Reference code is a neat nested summary of each file or item within a collection, fonds, series or subseries – proceeding from highest level to lowest.

For example, a file level description Reference code of: F01-s02-ss13-f1, would break down as follows: F01 British Columbia Institute of Technology fonds, s02 BCIT Office of the President series, ss13 Subseries Executive presentations, f1 BCIT and its place in education for the Canadian mining industry file. The top left corner of any description you are looking at will display the relationships. You can expand or minimize levels using the triangle icons.

Why this software

The BCIT Archives chose the open source software AtoM for several reasons:

AtoM was developed under the guidance of the International Council on Archives using international archival standards.
Starting from archival standards ensured that the end result would be a software that was able to reflect the complex nature of archival records.
It has an active community of users worldwide.
This active open source community means that updates are frequent and user-driven.
And finally, the lead developers on AtoM, Artefactual Systems, are our neighbours, based in New Westminster.

Time Capsule sealed until BCIT 75th Anniversary

March 1, 2016 by Cindy McLellan

The honoring ceremony begins. Joanne Stone-Campbell explains the BCIT Aboriginal Services blankets that cover the bentwood boxes. Photographer, Scott McAlpine

On February 29, 2016, Leap Day, a few people from the BCIT community gathered for a ceremony to honour the artist James Michels and to seal the two bentwood boxes that he made for this purpose. The boxes will not be opened until BCIT’s 75^th Anniversary in 2039-2040.

Feather and Smudge shell on top of one of the Blanketed cedar bentwood boxes. Photographer, Scott McAlpine

The honouring ceremony began with a cleansing Smudge lead by Alf Dumont, BCIT Aboriginal Services Elder and BCIT Aboriginal Services Advisor. He offered the smoke from tobacco, cedar, sage, and sweet grass to all who were there, as a way of preparing ourselves for the experience we are going into. “This allows us to focus on what is about to happen,” Elder Alf said. “We are putting memories of our community into these boxes, we are all responsible to carry memories.” Everyone present was invited to sweep the smoke over themselves and draw it into their hearts.

Mirabelle Rohatgi taking the Smudge offered by Alf Dumont. Photographer, Scott McAlpine

Joanne Stone-Campbell, BCIT Aboriginal Services coordinator, spoke about the significance of the boxes. They were made by artist James Michels of the Cree and Metis nations, in the traditional Northwest Coast method of steaming and bending a single plank of cedar wood into the shape of the box. Stone-Campbell explained that the blanketing ceremony honours “the importance of our gifts to be put in the time capsule.”

The boxes housed within the bentwood boxes are fireproof and waterproof. They hold memories and stories of the BCIT community as we celebrated our 50^th Anniversary. More than fifty items have been included in the 2014/2015 time capsule. These include local and national news articles about BCIT during its’ 50^th year, 50^th anniversary promotional items and memorabilia, as well as letters to the future. Some highlights include a replica vintage ‘I *heart* BCIT’ button, three banners representing the different BCIT 50 years colours, the special edition BCIT & Beyond Link Magazine 2015, The Vancouver Sun, Saturday, October 4, 2014,’BCIT: 50 years and counting: Institute broke new ground and launched thousands of careers,’ and the gorgeous, limited edition, BCIT 50 Years viewbook (only 60 copies printed). BCIT Aboriginal Services graciously contributed many special items and photographs including a wood box representing a bentwood box, decorated with the Aboriginal Services logo, designed by Chief Ian Campbell, Squamish Nation. The design represents mind, body, spirit and the Coast Salish welcome, hands held up. This item was given to grads and special guests for the June 2014 Aboriginal Graduation Ceremony.

Time Capsule boxes as they were being packed. Photographer, C. McLellan

Bill Their and Rene Jacques sealing the boxes. The storage boxes were packed with foam, then a layer of plywood, more Styrofoam, tape and then a fast-drying sealant. Once dry they will be topped with the artist-made solid cedar lids that are painted to match the House Post. Photographer, Scott McAlpine

BCIT Aboriginal Services thanked everyone involved in the process of the safe housing of the Time capsule; from the artist to the people from facilities who did the planning for the sealing and the labour.

Once Their had smoothed the concrete Dumont was given the honour of marking the wet sealant.

Elder Alf Dumont getting his hand dirty for posterity! Photographer, Scott McAlpine

The date, Dumont’s handprint and signature. Photographer, Scott McAlpine

For the sealing of the second box everyone got in on the fun. Writing in wet cement is harder than you might guess. Donna Woo made it look easy!

The ‘I LOVE BCIT’ sticker fell off Sandra Matsuba’s jacket and there it stays for the next 25 years! Photographer, Scott McAlpine

Thanks to everyone who made it a special event! And a heartfelt shout out to those who had other places to be. Photographer, Scott McAlpine

Where will you be in 2039-2040? What significant changes do you see happening to BCIT in the next 25 years? If the people planning the unveiling plan it just right they can do it on a Leap Day. See you on February 29^th 2040!

I was honoured to be a part of this project and delighted with my silk scarf decorated with the Aboriginal Services logo. As an archivist I spend a fair amount of my time looking back at history. I believe that looking back is a powerful way to plan and be ready for the future. Putting together this Time Capsule invited us to meditate on where we might be in 25 years. I will end with the quote about Archives and the power of Archives that I used at the end of the ceremony. A dear friend and fellow archivist in the UK, Geoffery Yeo:

Archives and records are important resources for individuals, organizations and the wider community. They provide evidence of, and information about, the actions of individuals, organizations and communities and the environments in which they occurred. They extend and corroborate human and corporate memory and play a critical role in maintaining awareness of how the present is shaped by the past…they are among the tools we can use to help us understand where we came from and where we are going.

Merry Christmas from the BCIT Archives!

December 21, 2015 by Cindy McLellan

Yule Link from December 1965.

Happy Holidays and all the best for 2016 from the BCIT Archives! This is some fun original art created for the December issue of the Link from 1965 – a very different look from the slick BCIT Student Association publications that we are accustom to now. If you want to read the full issue from 1965 it can be found here. The BCIT Archives has put historical issues of the Link online.