Celebrate Learning Week, Pt. 2: experiential learning and RM at int’l orgs
Yesterday was another full day of stimulating talks. First was the SLAIS colloquium student panel, “Learning on the Job.” Students spoke about their summer work experiences at the music division of Library and Archives Canada, SFU’s Bennett Library, RM and archives of the UN, and the library at the Museo Nacional del Prado. Seriously, I never cease to be surprised at the variety of fun things that librarians and archivists get to do. Cataloging wax cylinder recordings? Be still, my beating heart! Kirsty really emphasized the network of contacts we all have as student librarians: we can tap into SLAIS faculty, UBC Library staff, SLAIS alumni, as well as contacts in whatever organization we find ourselves in. It’s a reassuring reminder that we really never are alone.
Directly following the panel, Donna Kynaston talked about her experiences in records management and archives at the World Health Organization. She highlighted some of the quirks of recordkeeping in many of the international organizations founded after World War 2 — namely, that they inherited a British registry-based administrative system (and some funny British colloquialism as well). There have been the typical problems with email, particularly when transactions take place entirely through email. When there’s a business requirement for the official record to be on paper, that obviously becomes a problem.
She also discussed the lack of legislation in international organizations. In most jurisdictions, records managers have a lot of legislation both to uphold but also to help motivate the folks who create and use records. Laws about freedom of information, protection of privacy, public records, e-discovery and the like all give guidance for records management. International organizations like the WHO don’t have those laws to follow. (This makes public access very interesting — you can get a pdf of the WHO archives access policy here.) She pointed out that other drivers are effective — namely, desire for accountability, administrative efficiency, and the preservation of historical memory — but it’s an interesting environment for records management.
Finally, she gave a delightful nearly-lost-but-found archives anecdote. One of their most heavily used collections is a fonds of historical photographs, 30,000 prints and even more negatives from the 1940s-1980s. (I believe this is its finding aid.) It was about to be thrown out, but was rescued from a storage space beneath a boardroom when the facility manager thought to ask if the archives wanted to keep ’em. It’s a familiar, shocking, and heart-warming story. And a good reason to work on raising awareness of archives, eh?
