That’s My Auntie: Making Accessible Residential School History

two hands passing a black paper heart

This week my colleague Jenna Lemay and I presented "That's My Auntie: Making Accessible Residential School History” as part of the Maskwacis Cultural College Microlearning Series. Our webinar focused on specific community digitization and access projects including the Remember the Children project and our recent work with the Shingwauk burial register. You can view our slides … Continue reading That’s My Auntie: Making Accessible Residential School History

Planning Digitization Projects for Community Archives

A pile of 35 mm film rolls

This week I presented a webinar on "Planning Digitization Projects for Community Archives" as part of the Maskwacis Cultural College Microlearning Series. The webinar focused on the basics of setting up, planning, and implementing digitization projects at community archives. It will include how-tos, potential workflows, and best practices for digitization initiatives. I spoke a lot … Continue reading Planning Digitization Projects for Community Archives

Historical Reminiscents Podcast EP 66: Don’t Throw Out That VCR

Stack of VHS tapes on left of image, right reads Episode 66 Don't Throw Our That VCR

In today's episode I'm talking about digitization of VHS tapes, digital preservation, and my recent trials and tribulations of using VCRs. I chat about the labour intensive work behind digitization and the challenges of video preservation.  Mentioned in this episode: -Samantha Thompson, "Why Don't Archivists Digitize Everything?"-National Archives, Video Guidance: Playback and Digitization of Materials" … Continue reading Historical Reminiscents Podcast EP 66: Don’t Throw Out That VCR

Historical Reminiscents Podcast EP 55: Community Based Digitization

Web of connections right side reads: "Episode 55: Community based digitiztaion"

In this episode I discuss the recent conclusion of the "Healing and Education Through Digital Access" project undertaken by the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre. I talk about community engagement, how not all information wants to be free, and online access. I would love to hear about your experiences working with community to undertake a digitization … Continue reading Historical Reminiscents Podcast EP 55: Community Based Digitization

Healing and Education Through Digital Access

White arrows on dark wood, pointing up

Earlier this month I was thrilled to find out that the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre at Algoma University was successful in our Digitization Canadian Collection application to the National Heritage Digitization Strategy.  Details about all 21 projects which were funded through this program can be found here. The Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre's project is titled … Continue reading Healing and Education Through Digital Access

Indigenous Archival Material, Open Access, and Decolonization

Map of the united states

The Newberry Library recently released a digitized collection of early 20th Century drawings by the Lakota community.  These drawings are part of the Edward E. Ayer Collection which contains artworks, books, and other material relating to Indigenous culture.   These drawings were created in 1913-1914 and are now in the public domain. Any press content I've … Continue reading Indigenous Archival Material, Open Access, and Decolonization

Launch of Historical Reminiscents

White circle on blue background with text reading "Historical Reminiscents Podcast"

The Historical Reminiscents podcast is dedicated to discussing public history and archival practice. Created and produced by Krista McCracken this weekly podcast discusses archival impulses, shares insight into the world of public historians, and tackles historical interpretations in Canada. Find Historical Reminiscents on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Historical Reminiscents is live for all of … Continue reading Launch of Historical Reminiscents

Digital Community Archives: South Asian American Digital Archive

The recent issue of The Public Historian featured an article, "Seeing Yourself in History: Community Archives and the Fight Against Symbolic Annihilation", by Michelle Caswell.  The article looks at the development of the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) and the role the archive has played in preserving the marginalized history of the South Asian … Continue reading Digital Community Archives: South Asian American Digital Archive

Reverb14: Art Installations and Archives

In 2010 I participated in #reverb10. This year I plan on participating in #reverb14 as a way to get my writing habits back on track. The first prompt is Where did you start 2014? Give us some background on this year. My year started with a lot of thinking about digital preservation, digitization, and community … Continue reading Reverb14: Art Installations and Archives

Ontario Open Data

The Province of Ontario has announced that it in the process of making government data open by default.  This is part of Ontario's larger Open Government initiative that focuses on open data, open engagement, and open government more generally.   Since November 2012 the Ontario government has been publishing statistics in the open data catalogue.  … Continue reading Ontario Open Data