Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives
Jane Parkinson, Archivist
The Banff Centre is over 70 years old, but because there were few permanent employees before 1979, the Archives is fairly new. Peggy Leighton collected materials for a history book in 1983 and the librarian, Bob Foley, began to catalogue them and acquire other records. He was soon inundated with records and the first archivist, Elizabeth Kundart-Cameron, was hired in the early 1990s. In 1997, the Paul D. Fleck Library & Archives was named after the president who had supported the establishment of the Archives.
The Archives' mandate is to acquire material created by The Banff Centre, a non degree-granting post-secondary institution with a staff of 500. The Archives holds material that dates primarily after 1970, earlier records having been donated to the University of Alberta before The Banff Centre Library was established. The photographic holdings of 180,000 images are the most heavily used resource. Records of senior administrators, documenting past initiatives and relationships, are invaluable. The Theatre Arts fonds is the most comprehensive, including technical drawings, wardrobe renderings and set maquettes. The most recent large acquisition is from the early years of the Aboriginal Arts program.
Over half the requests for access come from within the organization and, as an institutional archives, staff provide research services, copying and displays. For outreach, the Archives contributes a column and photographs for the staff newsletter. In the area of records management, there is a storage/retrieval service for semi-active records and the development of retention and destruction guidelines for voluminous series.
The Archives is proactive in acquiring key material, such as reports and newsletters, as soon as they are printed and has arrangements with staff to send other material, such as press clippings, as soon as they become semi-active, to ensure that important records are accessible to the institution even with staff changes. On the other hand, an ongoing campaign is to encourage departments to destroy the massive amounts of routine administrative records, such as form letters, that are generated by every activity.
The Banff Centre documents artistic performances, concerts, readings and talks in an ever-changing array of audio-visual formats. This presents the challenge of preserving thousands of audio and videotapes as the formats degrade and/or become obsolete. Appraisal has become essential: only the most valuable records can be given the time and expense of remastering. As an example, dance choreography records are the highest priority for reformatting as the video is the only documentation of the choreography, whereas videos of widely produced plays will be allowed to fade away unless an easier technological solution comes along to save them. Efforts to convince staff to use formats that will not create the same preservation problems in the future are no match for the lure of "sexy" or inexpensive new media.
The solution to the problem of "too much documentation" may well create the problem of "not enough". The Banff Centre is increasingly going digital: music concerts are now recorded digitally on a server, as well as onto audio CDs; the photography department often shoots with digital cameras; e-mail usage is extensive; departments are creating shared directories to use as file cabinets; and the intranet is a central "archive" for widely used documents. As yet, these digital files are under the care of their creators, but the Archives will need to watch carefully to ensure important material does not drop into digital oblivion.
Staff includes the Archivist, a part-time Archives Assistant, Liza Hay, and temporary grant staff. The Archives, established after the construction of the Library in 1979, occupies rather dismal quarters that were only intended as general basement storage. However, we are planning a new Library and Archives facility as part of a central administration building slated to open in 2008, The Banff Centre's 75th anniversary.
Jane Parkinson
Jane Parkinson, who has a Master of Archival Studies from UBC, came to the Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives after carrying out records management and archival contracts for the provincial government of BC, and the Nanaimo Community Archives. She also has been an instructor for the Archives Association of BC. She has held her current position for six years. Although she finds the inadequate space where the Archives is located a source of frustration, Jane enjoys interacting with the staff of The Banff Centre and assisting them to find the information they need.