Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC releases special report, "A Failure to Archive"

Elizabeth Denham, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC, released a special report on July 22, 2014 titled "A Failure to Archive: Recommendations to Modernize Government Records Management". The report deals with three issues:

1. the decade-old backlog of 30,000+ boxes of records awaiting transfer from government to the BC Archives, which is part of the Royal BC Museum, a Crown corporation. The RBCM established a fee of $454 for the transfer of a box, so government offices decided to warehouse the records which was less expensive. 
2. "the lack of a practical method for archiving government’s electronic records", especially on the part of the BC Archives, which "does not have the capability to accept or archive those records. This challenge has been addressed in other jurisdictions, but B.C. [the province] has yet to make any significant progress in managing the archiving of electronic records."
3. modernization of the legislative framework for records management.

You can download the PDF report at https://www.oipc.bc.ca/special-reports/ and a press release is available for downloading at https://www.oipc.bc.ca/news-releases/

Bravo to the RCMP for thwarting a terrorist threat in Victoria

Good for the RCMP and other public security agencies in managing to thwart a terrorist threat in Victoria that would have seen pressure-cooker bombs like those used in the Boston Marathon explode on the grounds of the Parliament Buildings in Victoria on Canada Day (July 1) 2013. According to the CBC.ca article "Court records indicate Amanda Marie Korody, 30, and John Stewart Nuttall, 39, have each been charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity and possession of an explosive substance." Considering this was next door to where I used to work at the Royal BC Museum (BC Archives) and where friends and former colleagues still do, this was close to home. I do remember some colleagues being skeptical about the Buildings ever being a target following 9/11.

Thanks for the music boost Tim Willis!

Tim Willis, Director of Exhibitions and Visitor Experience at the Royal BC Museum, mentioned in his blog post on March 8, 2011 about the piece of music I created after being inspired by a new, travelling exhibit on invasive alien species. Thanks very much for the music boost Tim!

"Alien Species Invade BC" uploaded to SoundCloud

I asked a couple of folks at the Royal BC Museum if they'd like to listen to my little composition inspired by the alien species natural history program. They said yes, sounds intriguing, so I've uploaded it to my SoundCloud account where you too can listen to "Alien Species Invade BC". It's 3 minutes and 53 seconds long. Downloading is disabled.

Royal BC Museum launches new collections database

The Royal BC Museum has launched its new collections database. As of October 12, 2010, you can access new databases for Ethnology, Archaeology and Modern History. Databases that utilize existing search engines and have yet to be transitioned to the new system are the natural history collections and the BC Archives.

You too can get Behind the Scenes at the Royal BC Museum

You too can enjoy the privileges and pleasures of going Behind the Scenes at the Royal BC Museum. Part 1, on the Natural History collections, opened this morning, a great ceremony capped off by young Master Jack Campbell who looks to be destined for childhood stardom on screen or stage perhaps. The exhibit is an impressive testament to the natural history sciences within BC and all the people who have managed those treasures since 1886. Congratulations RBCM!

Warriors in the City public art fundraising campaign for 2011-2012, how about it BC Lions Society?

Update of June 24, 2010:

A highly reliable source in the Royal BC Museum confirmed for me today that the BC Lions Society has taken up this suggestion, which was also made by a RBCM staffer, and that the Warriors in the City will be standing guard in Victoria probably some time in 2011 to coincide with the exhibit.

Original post of January 29, 2010:

The Royal BC Museum is one of the four Canadian venues in the exhibit The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army that begins at the Royal Ontario Museum on June 26, 2010. Visitors to the Victoria Bay Centre, a downtown shopping center, may recall the shopping mall version of these clay pieces. This touring exhibit, however, is the real deal courtesy of the Chinese government. The RBCM will host the army of clay in late 2011-early 2012.

As part of that exhibition I'd like to encourage the BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities, who are currently sponsoring the Eagles in the City fundraising campaign, to consider the possibility of replicating either a warrior or perhaps a horse for a Warriors in the City fundraiser. Previous public art exhibits of this nature by the BC Lions Society included Orcas In The City and Spirit Bears in the City (the URL http://www.spiritbearsinthecity.com/ gave a MySQL database error when I tried it on January 28, 2010). The RBCM had sponsored the Eternal Egypt Orca which was decorated by staff member and artist Adrienne Aikens.

CHEK TV interview, fleeting 5 seconds of fame about VIH heli lift of RBCM new HVAC equipment

I was down around the Royal BC Museum early this morning to watch and photograph the VIH helicopter lifting the museum's new HVAC equipment on to the roof of the exhibits building. A CHEK TV cameraman approached me for an interview. I'd talked to him earlier and he asked who I was, so I guess he thought I'd make an interesting talking head. It was all of 5 seconds or so that aired, but I was misidentified as another fellow he interviewed who appeared before I did.

The story appeared on the CHEK TV News at 5 pm on May 16, 2010. The story is currently online under the title "Museum Lift". Due to the way WordPress.com handles security, I'm unable to embed the video into this post.

Royal BC Museum gets bitten by the blogging bug at last

The Royal BC Museum Blog, hosted by Google's Blogger service, in case you had not yet heard, is out there on the blogosphere. The first post by Tim Willis was on March 10, 2010 and the most recent by archivist Ann ten Cate, all about a bathroom fetish, was on May 12, 2010. The RBCM is also on Facebook and YouTube.

Flaying the Freedom of Information sinners

On April 10, 2010 Stephen Hume published in the Vancouver Sun a powerful and provocative denunciation of the British Columbia governments' evisceration of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA) that was introduced in 1992 as the new law governing information dissemination and personal protection privacy. Among his targets were my former employer the Royal British Columbia Museum and the division I worked for at the time, the BC Archives. The BC government in its wisdom placed the Archives under the Museum, which itself was turned into a Crown corporation through a new Museum Act on April 1, 2003. One of the facts Hume got wrong in his story, which was easy enough to check, was the number of hours the BC Archives reference room is fully staffed. He stated it was four hours Monday to Friday when in fact it is currently six hours (10 am to 4 pm). Hume draws this chilling analogy between the current state of the FOIPPA administration and the BC Archives:

The emaciated travesty that the archive has become under successive governments might be said to symbolize what has been going on for decades with freedom of information legislation.

S'abadeb exhibition reception at the Royal BC Museum, March 4, 2010

I attended a reception for supporters of the Royal BC Museum that gave us a special look into S'abadeb: The Gifts: Pacific Coast Salish Art and Artists exhibition. I particularly enjoyed Director of Exhibitions and Visitor Experience Tim Willis' atlatl story about how he came close to spearing a poodle out for a walk on his first attempt at using this ancient spear-throwing tool.

Royal BC Museum joins the sociable world of Facebook

The Royal BC Museum has launched itself into the sociable world of Facebook. A YouTube channel was started in September 2008. Could a blog be next?

Royal BC Museum unveils rezoning plan

Late this afternoon (February 17, 2010) I attended a reception at the Royal BC Museum at which the chair of the board, Donald Hayes, and CEO Pauline Rafferty unveiled plans to begin the long process of site redevelopment, the first step of which is to have the land use rezoned to a more appropriate context. Museum representatives will initiate this process almost immediately. The Museum will seek a Comprehensive zoning designation, a big step up from the current R-2 Two Family Dwelling zoning (duplex housing), the same non-conforming zoning, ironically, that applies to the block on which the British Columbia Parliament Buildings are situated. I also noticed in a model showing the kind of massing that could eventually be built that the Netherlands Centennial Carillon had been moved several meters west of its current position. When I asked the CEO about this, she confirmed that because the Carillon is seismically unstable, it would have to be moved, but she did not know if it was physically possible. Some of the artwork that was presented also shows two different treatments for the northwest corner of Belleville and Government streets. In one drawing there's something described as a "Public Plaza" and in another street-level view that public plaza space is gone. In both cases the much beloved, at least by staff, Native Plant Garden will be moved to a new location in Thunderbird Park.

The plan is ambitious and bold and the Museum leaders hope the public will back its vision.

Update for February 18, 2010: The Times-Colonist published an article about the plan on February 18, 2010. According to the article, "Open houses are set for March 6 and 7, noon to 3 p.m. at the Royal B.C. Museum." Information about the Museum's plans are available on its site. The Museum wants to hear from you about its plans!

Since the BC Archives building, where I spent most of my working life, will be demolished, don't look for this kind of view in the future: BC Archives snowed in, January 2005.

Digging for answers: take the RBCM hole poll

[polldaddy poll=2716432]

Travels in America through Live@Lunch program, Royal BC Museum, on February 3, 2010

I went to my first Live@Lunch talk as a retired RBCM employee, usually by a Royal BC Museum staff member, on February 3, 2010. The presentation was by Shelley Reid, the Museum's registrar (the Live@Lunch description mistakenly calls her a Collections Manager), who made a trip last year to Washington, D.C., and several other historic points of interest to her. She gave a great talk well illustrated with photographs she took or gathered off the Web in cases where she couldn't photograph or wished to add some historic context to her own photograph. I almost mentioned that I might have been the only person in the room who had climbed up and down the Washington Memorial when I was eight years old. I particularly remember the climb down and being so glad to get out into the fresh air. The only other places I remember visiting on that trip were the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.

It was great seeing some of my colleagues again and they got to see more of me as I went next door to the Archives to do some research, only an item I'd requested by phone in the morning had gone walkabout, but they did thankfully find it later in the day, holding true to their motto, "It's Around Here Somewhere."

Beyond Eden rock musical, setting the record straight

None of the reviews I've read of the Vancouver Playhouse's rock musical Beyond Eden (January 16-February 6, 2010), and that includes those of the Globe and Mail (January 22, 2010) and CBC News, mentioned that the 1957 totem-pole-collecting expedition on which Bruce Ruddell's musical is based, was jointly sponsored by the British Columbia Provincial Museum (now the Royal BC Museum) and the University of British Columbia. Ironically, anthropologist Wilson Duff, on whom the character Lewis Wilson (played by John Mann) is based, worked for the Provincial Museum until 1965 when he became a professor at UBC. The BC Government filmed the expedition, the production is called The Silent Ones, with CBC also filming it and calling their work Totem. You can see a shortened, retitled version of Totem on the CBC Digital Archives ("Bill Reid's rescue mission for Haida art"), originally broadcast on May 21, 1959 in the series Pacific Eight.

British Columbia 1885 photo mystery: O.C. Hastings & G.M. Dawson photos

Posted the following on the Yahoo! Groups PhotoHistory this morning (January 19, 2010):

I was sent two scans from a UK individual that are most intriguing and currently pose a photo mystery. Here's what I know so far based on the photos themselves, archival descriptions and digitized, published content freely accessible to me.

In 1885 the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) geologist Dr. George Mercer Dawson visited northern Vancouver Island and environs, including Alert Bay on Cormorant Island. He took a few photos at Alert Bay in early August 1885 that are described on the Library and Archives Canada Web site as part of the GSC records it preserves. The Royal BC Museum has copy prints of at least three of the Dawson photos, including the two images I was sent.

The mystery is that the scans I was sent show both the Dawson photos on a cabinet card mount with the markings, front and back, of Victoria commercial photographer O.C. Hastings. My supposition is that Hastings processed Dawson's negatives as Dawson, according to his GSC report, once he returned to Victoria remained there for about three weeks working on preparations for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition that was held in London, England, in 1886.

I've uploaded one of the Dawson / Hastings photos to Camera Workers at http://cameraworkers.davidmattison.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=234&mediali\nkID=368

What I'm hoping to find is evidence in a diary or correspondence of Dawson that he purposefully allowed Hastings to market his photos. Some of Dawson's personal records are at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, and his GSC field notebooks and correspondence are at the Library and Archives Canada.

If anyone on this group can research this on my behalf  I'd be happy to reciprocate with research in archival records here in Victoria, BC.

As a followup, I wrote that I'd discovered that Dawson's fieldbooks are available on microfilm at the Library and Archives and that I'd arrange to borrow the reel (C-4845) that covered his 1885 work.

Here is the photo in question:

The day before my retirement from the British Columbia Archives, Royal BC Museum

Today, December 17, 2009, was the day before my last day of work at the British Columbia Archives, Royal BC Museum. Here's a photo taken by Dan Savard who looks after the audio-visual collections in the anthropology/ethnology section of Human History on the Museum side of our operation. This was taken at a pizza lunch. My former boss, Kathryn Bridge, curated the Emily Carr exhibit. Dan and I appreciated the sentiment of the exhibit's subtitle to which I'm pointing.