NRAM Newsletter Articles on Registers of Archives

The Archives Network of Alberta and its Creation

Susan Kooyman, Glenbow Archives

The Archives Network of Alberta (ANA) had its origins on February 1, 1994, when representatives of twelve southern Alberta archives met informally at the Glenbow Archives in Calgary, to discuss a possible joint database of fonds-level descriptions. Many of these archives already had existing archival descriptions in InMagic databases, and the thought of uniting these into one big database was very appealing.

The outcome of this meeting was the creation of a pilot project by six of the archives represented at the meeting, to see if we could create a joint database. What we had in mind was what you in New Zealand call a "National Register of Archives and Manuscripts", and what Canadians usually refer to as a "Union List". Our provincial archival organization, the Archives Society of Alberta (ASA), quickly blessed the project and provided some much-needed seed money in early April 1994. Our first purchase was a host computer, which found a home at my institution, the Glenbow Archives.

The pilot project team was very fortunate in that Canadian descriptive standards had already been established with the 1990 publication of the manual, Rules for Archival Description (RAD). RAD clearly sets out the elements of a fonds-level description, so it was an easy task for the team to agree on the fields for the proposed united database. The database was set up to include the essential fields of a fonds-level description (title, dates, physical description, biographical sketch / administrative history, custodial history, scope and content), and fifteen optional notes (including such things as restrictions, finding aids, source of acquisition, accruals, location of originals). The existing databases had either been based on RAD, or were in a RAD-friendly format, so with just minor editing to individual databases, the pilot project successfully combined five databases into a single database. One pilot project participant, whose institution did not already have a database, created one based on the new format we had agreed upon, and was soon contributing to the joint database as well. With relatively little fuss, we now had a database representing the holdings of six archives, with a very respectable 3500 entries.

The next problem was how we were going to connect to each other so that everyone could use the database. None of the participants had modems, and to be truthful, at the time we did not even know what they were! Modems had just become part of standard computer equipment, but those of us who had slightly older computers were without this very necessary communications equipment. With the ASA seed money, we bought modems for all pilot project participants, and successfully established a simple dial-up system to connect the six archives. Using the new modems, archivists could now have their computers telephone the ASA computer at Glenbow, and the database would magically appear on their screens, wherever they lived in Alberta. It may sound like primitive technology now, but at the time we were pretty excited by our new "network". Even then, however, we knew the dial-up version of ANA would be a temporary measure, until a friendly home for ANA could be found on the Internet, and equally importantly, until the province's archivists had come to terms with the new technologies, and were willing and able to use the Internet. The newly-accessible database was given its current name, the Archives Network of Alberta Database (better known simply as ANA), and in January 1995 was officially launched. Now, both archivists in the pilot project archives, and their researchers, had access to ANA.

The pilot project was considered a success, and in response the ASA created the Archives Network of Alberta Task Force to continue and expand the work. The first action of the Task Force was to survey Alberta's archives, to determine their states of automation. The results showed that while 42% had fonds-level descriptions in some sort of electronic format, and 33% had an Internet connection, or at least a modem, only 15% had both. To simplify this, archives with older computers tended to have electronic descriptions but no modem, while archives which had just recently become computerized had modems, but no electronic descriptions. We hoped that ANA itself, with its 3500 examples of fonds- level descriptions, would encourage the creation and contribution of fonds-level descriptions to ANA. A more pressing concern was the need to make ANA more widely accessible.

In November 1995 the Task Force held a two-day workshop dedicated to the further development of ANA. All Institutional Members of the ASA were invited, and there was a very good turnout of representatives from Alberta's archival community. At this workshop several things happened. First, we attempted to inspire the province's archivists with a demonstration of the wonders of the Internet, and of just how email works. It may be hard to believe today, when we are totally dependent on the Internet and email to do our jobs, but just three years ago these tools were still a mystery to most archivists. This introduction was an important step in encouraging archives to arrange their own Internet connections. Then Bill Purver, the coordinator of a database project undertaken by the Archives Association of British Columbia (AABC), demonstrated the British Columbia Archival Union List (BCAUL). BCAUL was the first Canadian union list to be created, and Bill's demonstration was a wonderful way of showing Alberta archivists just what could be achieved. Finally, the technical problem of gaining access to ANA was addressed by the distribution of modems, along with hands-on instruction on how to reach, search, and contribute to ANA. As a result of this workshop, we increased the number of archives providing dial-up access to ANA from six to twenty-six.

Despite the fact that so many archives could now connect to and use ANA, and despite several timely ASA educational workshops on RAD, and other ANA-related topics, the contributions of archival descriptions to ANA did not pour in as quickly as the Task Force had hoped. The number of contributing archives gradually rose over the next two years to sixteen, or about half of ASA's Institutional Members.

February 1997 was an important landmark for ANA. Exactly three years after our initial endeavour, ANA went "live" on the Internet (http://www.glenbow.org/asa/general/database.htm). At the invitation of our sister organization, AABC, the ANA database was mounted along side BCAUL, on a server at a British Columbia university library. We had worked closely with Bill Purver, the BCAUL coordinator, and appreciated very much the offer of a home for our database. By this time, the Internet had become a household word even amongst archivists, all computers now came equipped with modems, and our dial-in system seemed positively archaic. Although ANA was now available on the Internet, we kept the dial-in version of ANA at Glenbow alive until early 1998, then pulled the plug permanently.

One lesson we learned while undertaking this project is that you can't accomplish everything on a voluntary basis. We seemed to be stuck with just over half of Alberta's archives contributing descriptions to ANA, despite all the training, publicity and encouragement that had been provided. In early 1998 the new ASA Archives Advisor, Michael Gourlie, was given the task of increasing the number of contributors. During his site visits to archives, he now not only provides his regular advisory services, but he also collects, edits, and even writes new fonds-level descriptions of holdings, which are then added to ANA. As a result of Michael's initiative and hard work, there are now 26 archives contributing to ANA, out of approximately 30 ASA Institutional Members, and there are 6111 entries in the database.

So where are we now? During the last six months, ASA web page statistics show that we have had 4589 users visiting ANA on the Internet. We know that the total number of users is much higher, because ANA can also be reached directly through its British Columbia address and we have, unfortunately, no statistics for these visitors. Our users come from all over the world, including at least 65 from New Zealand! Another exciting chapter in the life of ANA came in April 1998 when the Interprovincial Archival Union Lists (http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca/icaul.html) went online. This service enables researchers to concurrently search the ANA and BCAUL databases, giving access to over 12,000 descriptions of archival fonds in Alberta and British Columbia. It is our hope that Interprovincial Lists will further the work towards creating a truly national network, linking databases across Canada.