Canadian Photography postage stamps for 2013 unveiled

In Canada Post's Details magazine for January-March 2013 (vol. 22, no. 1), there's a writeup about the new "Canadian Photography" stamp series wherein I'm named as one of the "virtual photography task force" that recommended particular photographs for the stamps (p. 25). I'm very pleased to see that two of my recommendations made the first year: a portrait of an Inuit woman by Geraldine Moodie and a portrait of Yosuf Karsh by Arnaud Maggs. I was one of two consultants from British Columbia. This stamp series is being issued over five years up to 2017 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation. You can the 2013 issues by  looking through the online Details pages at http://www.canadapost.ca/shop/stamp-collecting/details-january-march-2013.jsf

Another nail in the coffin of Canadian culture

I've been personally impacted by another nail in the coffin of Canadian culture courtesy of Prime Minister Harper's Conservative government. I manage a Web site and a database that's been funded through an annual grant from the federal government to a non-profit society. That funding's been elmiminated effective immediately with no warning to either the many individual organzations or the umbrella organizaton that administers the grant applications. I'm talking about the National Archival Development Program (NDAP), money for which came out of the Library and Archives Canada's budget. In 2001 the British Columbia Ggovernment made a similar budget cut when it eliminated its grants to community archives through revenue from gambling (see https://aabc.ca/resources/grants-and-funding/ under Community Gaming Grants). The elimination of NDAP is not, at least in Britich Columbia, a case where costs can be passed on or offloaded to the province simply because there no longer is a comparable funding program to NDAP in our province. Of course is Harper's government cancelled but one of those fighter jet orders that money could pay for NADP for many more years to come.

"Searching for the Stars" (the real ones in the heavens) through Searcher magazine

My most recent article for Searcher magazine, "Searching for the Stars: Cosmic Views and Databases", made the cover of the September 2011 issue as you can see below and is available online (just select the hyperlinked article title in this sentence).

Searcher magazine cover, September 2011

The Twittering of the Search World by David Mattison is online

My latest article for Searcher magazine is available for free in its September 2010 issue: "The Twittering of the Search World".

Searcher magazine cover, September 2010

My Ten Thousand Year Blog now available for commercial syndication

My Ten Thousand Year Blog is now available for commercial syndication through Newstex. Details are available at http://www.newstex.com/publisher-search/Blogs/The-Ten-Thousand-Year-Blog/

"Through Her Lens" Knowledge Network short on Hannah Maynard

I was hired to do some research and writing about 19th century Victoria portrait photographer Hannah (Mrs. Richard) Maynard for a video short, one of a series called "The Edge of the World," that's available for free online viewing on the Knowledge Network. The title of the short is "Through Her Lens". I'm credited at the end of the video.

For a treatment of Hannah Maynard within the developing cultural community of arts Victoria, see Karen Finlay's exhibition catalogue "A Woman's Place" (2004).

Time, Space and Google, Searcher magazine, May 2010

My first post-retirement article for Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals was published on May 1, 2010. It's titled "Time, Space and Google: Toward a Real-Time, Synchronous, Personalized, Collaborative Web." I survey many aspects of Google's service offerings that to me signal Google is beginning to own the Web insofar as it's attempting to define your experience of Web time and space through its services. The article is not online for free but will be available through ProQuest and other full-text commercial databases licensed by Information Today.

A weekend on the Lower Mainland

I recently spent a weekend on the Lower Mainland. I was most impressed with the new Canada Line portion of Metro Vancouver's light-rail transit system called SkyTrain. The Canada Line runs between Richmond and the Vancouver Waterfront station with a spur line to the Vancouver International Airport. The Canada Line was busy so it is evidently a hit with commuters. The only dissatisfaction I had with it is that the ticket system only allows you 1.5 hours to reach the last leg of your destination. I was traveling from Richmond to North Vancouver and back again and it took one hour in the morning just to get from Richmond to the Waterfront Station. Then I caught the SeaBus passenger-only ferry that runs from there to Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver and from there a bus to my final destination. I think I ultimately had about 15 minutes to spare by the time I reached the North Vancouver bus. I was lucky because there was a SeaBus already docked and almost ready to load when I arrived in the morning. The return trip in the afternoon was a little less stressful except that it was standing room only in the Canada Line car because it was the start of rush hour for commuters.

I wandered around Steveston a couple of times, a popular destination with local families and visitors from elsewhere in the Lower Mainland and beyond, and took some photos, a few of which I've posted on Flickr.

Here's one of them of a concrete and steel fishboat sculpture near the start of a waterfront walkway that leads to the Britannia Shipyard. The original is color but I enhanced it to look like black and white infrared film.

Official word, and the new BC Archival Network Service Coordinator is ... me

The Archives Association of British Columbia bid farewell on its ARCHIVES-BC mailing to the current BC Archival Network Service Coordinator, Janet McMaster, and then welcomed the new Coordinator ... me. I am eagerly looking forward to doing the best that I can for the AABC members who are part of MemoryBC: the BC Archival Information Network.

You can contact me at aabc.bcans@gmail.com about your MemoryBC needs.

How to make a pivot table and chart in Microsoft Excel, might come in handy one day

This a great little tutorial on SEOgadget Blog titled How to Make Pivot Table and Chart in Excel. It may just save your career one day.

AABC Newsletter article about my retirement

You can read a nice little summation of my career at the BC Archives written by my former colleague Ann ten Cate in the AABC Newsletter (Winter 2010; PDF file). The Newsletter also includes a post reprinted by permission from my Ten Thousand Year Blog, "Martin Knelman claims Canadian audio-visual heritage at risk, but is it true?"

Google Buzz for Information Today Newsbreaks published

Update for February 22, 2010

My short article on Google Buzz was published today as one of the Information Today Newsbreaks titled "Google Gets Stung by Its Own Buzz."

Original post: February 21, 2010

Google Buzz was launched by Google on February 9, 2010 and immediately generated a hornet's nest of buzzing, angered Gmail customers backed by a dark cloud of consumer privacy protection organizations. Who can resist these metaphors and puns? I was asked to write up the controversy surrounding Google Buzz for an Information Today Newsbreak that should appear on Monday, February 22, 2010. I completed and submitted it on time. This is my second Newsbreak in seven years almost to the day that I've written on Google, the first back in 2003 was on its purchase of Pyra Labs, the creators of Blogger and Blogspot.com. The title of that piece also had the word buzz in it: "Blooglelicious—the Buzz about Google Buying Pyra Labs."

My Newsbreak article on SAP AG's 12sprints (now known as StreamWork) is online at InformationToday.com

Update for April 26, 2010: SAP has branded its beta 12sprints product as StreamWork. If you had an account on the beta version, it is still accessible through the basic, free version of StreamWork at https://streamwork.com/.

My Newsbreak article on SAP AG's 12sprints collaborative decision-making Web application is now online at InformationToday.com.

Business cards are coming

I worked up a double-sided business card design on the Staples Web site and submitted an order. This is what the front and back look like:





The Hawaiian on the back was inspired by the Hawaii State motto and I used it in the print edition of my self-published Camera Workers (1985). It means The life of the land is preserved by the photographers. The actual motto means The life of the land is preserved in righteousness.

Testing 12sprints beta collaborative Web platform from SAP

Update for April 26, 2010: SAP has branded its beta 12sprints product as StreamWork. If you had an account on the beta version, it is still accessible through the basic, free version of StreamWork at https://streamwork.com/.

I am beta testing the collaborative Web platform from SAP with the codename of 12sprints. If you would like an invite to participate in an activity, I can set one up and you can contact me through the e-mail address on my personal blog. Do let me know what kind of activity you'd like to be involved in such as decision-making, online research, project planning, a discussion on a topic or an online meeting.

Created OCLC WebJunction group Google Wave for Libraries

Update for August 5, 2010:

In the wake of Google's announcement that Google Wave has broken over the boulders of public apathy, I'll be investigating future support options for my OCLC WebJunction group.

I set up an OCLC WebJunction group called Google Wave for Libraries on January 21, 02010. Come join me and help your colleagues discover what all the Waving's about.

Times-Colonist (Victoria) newspaper mention

The three early retirees from the Royal BC Museum, including yours truly, were written up in Darron Kloster's "On the Street" column in the business section of the Victoria Times-Colonist for January 2, 2010.

Top Two Questions Asked of Any Retiree

I wonder if there's ever been a study of the questions that are asked of retirees by their co-workers. I'm sure these would rank among the top two:

1. How do you feel or what does it feel like to be leaving?


2. What are your plans after retirement?

My answers were

1. I felt a combination of nervous excitement, nervous tension, sadness, much happiness and relief. I certainly smiled a lot.


2. I plan on relaxing for at least six weeks and have three writing assignments to complete for Searcher magazine. I have many, many unfinished research and writing projects I've accumulated over the years, the most important of which is to continue and complete as best I can work on my decade-old Web site Camera Workers: The British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Photographic Directory, 1858-1950 (link to current version and archived version). I will also be looking for either salaried or contracted part-time work.

Highlights of my last three days at the BC Archives, Royal BC Museum

Here are some of my memories of my last three days at work. On December 16, 2009 I served for the last time on the reference (information) desk, fondly known as The Bridge because it was an elevated workspace from which to survey our reference room. My co-workers, current and a couple of past ones, startled me by gathering round in front of where I sat. They presented me with a Stitch doll (Experiment #626 from the Disney animated film set in Hawaii Lilo and Stitch) dressed up in its Elvis outfit and on a surfboard with a ukulele along with a crown decorated with pithy and witty sayings about being retired. I gave a little impromtu speech. I wore the crown all day much to the amusement of some of our researchers and a tour group from a government office.





On December 17 I was invited to partake of a pizza lunch generously provided by my colleagues in Human History of the Royal BC Museum.

On December 18, my last day at work, my boss had organized a morning farewell coffee for another retiree and me. We were, to say the least, stunned by the turnout of museum, archives and past co-workers, chiefly from the records management arena. My wife and I had arranged at the last minute for a small token of our friendship with the other retiree and I presented the Royal BC Museum with my parting gift, a new tradition that I hope will be carried forward in the "pay it forward" manner. It was inspired by a remark a co-worker had made on December 16 that there should be an award of some sort for retirees similar to the joke award we give new hires after they complete their probationary period. Inspired by that thought and also recent episodes of the TV series "Numbers" where Professor Charlie Epps is struggling to write a letter to the next person who will inhabit a research chair office (or something like that), I decided to create a "Push the Envelope" award in the form of a letter to the next retiree, so I pushed my envelope, which had another envelope inside with my letter and gently coerced my former boss to pick it up. I later told him which manager I thought he should give the envelope to.

In the afternoon I went up to the University of Victoria for the launch of four student Web sites, part of Professor John Lutz' course in micro-history and the Internet that he incorporates into a meta-site called Victoria's Victoria. Other content was also refreshed and we raised a glass to toast Leona Taylor for her work on the newspaper index. Then came another surprise, John announced that an archivist from the BC Archives had just finished his last day at work. He gave a succinct and glowing account of my career and I stood to a round of applause. A tremendous gesture on his part and one for which I'm extremely grateful. Thank you John!

Last day at work, British Columbia Archives, Royal BC Museum

My last day at work at the British Columbia Archives, Royal BC Museum, was Friday, December 18, 2009. My working life at the BC Archives, known as the Provincial Archives of British Columbia when I started, will have covered 29 years less a day from when I started in 1981. Here is some of what I wrote in a farewell thank you to my co-workers:

... I've seen too many changes to even begin to recount them all. Of all the activities with which I was associated over those three decades, I'm most proud of having introduced automation to the BC Archives in the form of dedicated word processing equipment, of having championed the introduction of Internet e-mail and of starting the process of converting our hardcopy finding aids to electronic versions.

In case you've been wondering what I was up to the rest of the time, I was hired as an archivist to work in the Sound and Moving Division and then moved from there in 1986 to the Library and Maps Division. In 1992 I made my final move to the Reference Services unit. I worked half-time for six months in the now-dissolved Corporate Information and Management Library, 4000 Seymour Place, managed the implementation of the Voyager library system for the BC Archives Library as part of a Y2K software transition project, served as the Private Records Archivist between 2002-2008 and helped with the implementation of MAMMOTH [an acronym for the Royal BC Museum's new collections management system] over the past two years.

I've been extremely fortunate in my career here to have had the support of managers, supervisors and very dedicated co-workers, all of whom ensured that each day here was something to look forward to as I knew each one would be different and that I would learn something new.

Equally as important to me as significant and long-lasting memories are of experiencing someone else's joy at finding a tiny or a large part of their history in our records and objects.