Is a precious Canadian asset being digitized to death?
Literary Review of Canada, January-February, 2011.
"It does not take long to discover the great truth about archival work, which is, appearances to the contrary, that it is utterly absorbing."
This piece grew out of several visits to the National Archives of Canada in 2010. I was very troubled to discover archivists at their wits’ end and heading for the door, unable to assist researchers as they have in the past. New management has flat-lined the budgets for acquiring of private (non-governmental) papers, cut back on service, and embraced digitization as the one-stop answer to everything. The Canadian Association of University Teachers has since launched a campaign to save the archives.
Read the article National Archives Blues online here.
