ARCHIVES IN THE NEWS

ALBERTA ARCHIVES NEED ATTENTION: WHY NOT A NEW HOME FOR 2005?

an editorial in the Edmonton Journal of July 8, 1997

The provincial committee currently planning Alberta's centennial festivities in 2005 should not limit its options to providing the obligatory grants for agricultural societies or small town tourist attractions like the World's Biggest Gopher.

There could be no better centennial legacy for Albertans than a new home and enhanced resources for the Provincial Archives of Alberta.

This institution, which serves as the keeper of Alberta's collective memory, has suffered a sort of benign neglect over the years. Archives are not glamorous in the same way as interpretive centres like the Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, or Royal Tyrell Museum.

You are not likely to see a fleet of RVs parked outside the entrance to an archives. The tourism spinoffs are negligible. But the Provincial Archives arguably has more to do with the true history of Alberta than all the province's glitzy historical attractions combined.

It is the Archives that house the homestead records of the North West frontier. It is there that fragile glass plate photographs are stored. It is there that church records, corporate records, cattle brand directories, court documents, maps, and correspondence of great historical significance is kept.

The Archives' current cramped and inadequate quarters, an appendage to the Provincial Museum of Alberta, are a sad reflection of the slight importance we collectively place on that history.

The facility remains largely unchanged in recent years despite a tenfold increase since the 1970s in the public demands for services. More people are visiting the Archives than ever before, people investigating family histories, or community histories, or those undertaking scholarly work. They expect access to records, even electronically, and they are often frustrated by the limited resources that are available.

How is it that the local research centre of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has more microfilm readers than the Provincial Archives of Alberta? For all their dedication and volunteerism, the Friends of the Provincial Archives cannot and should not be expected to fund a function that really is at the core of what a government should do.

There have been improvements since an audit nine years ago that found 90 per cent of the documents directed to the Archives had not been sorted, or itemized. But the history hasn't ended.

Documents, donations, collections continue to be added to the Archives. And with the passage of time, the demands for preservation of crumbling and fading papers and the conservation of fragile photographs only grows.

What better gift to Alberta's second century than a new archives for the memories of the first?

The story of Alberta is a remarkable one, a history made of countless individual stories of lives lived hard and noble lives. It is a history worth celebrating, but more than that, it is a history worth protecting.

Please see the Archival Community's response to the Journal's editorial.