MESOC Serapeum | Where culture meets AI

Id		195
Author		Richards, I.,
Title		Archives as a cornerstone of community growth: developing community archives in Brandon, Manitoba.
Reference		Richards, I. (2009). Archives as a cornerstone of community growth: developing community archives in Brandon, Manitoba. (Thesis) The University of Manitoba.
Link to article		https://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/handle/1993/3833
Abstract		This thesis explores some possible approaches to better integration of archives with communities and engagement of archives with local community development initiatives. The study suggests that innovative usage of archival material can facilitate community engagement in the knowledge-based economy and support a broad range of community economic development initiatives. Archival public programming and the need for archivists to actively engage with existing and potential users is included in the discussion. Brandon, Manitoba is used as an example of a community that could benefit from the establishment of community archives.

Results:

Candidate transition variables
One way of serving multiple imagined communities within a geographical community is to develop linkages between communities and identify ways of working together toward common goals. .
The basic components of social capital involve a sense of belonging within a community and the desire of community members to share knowledge and personal connections among one another in order to help the community grow collectively. .
By strengthening connections between different segments of the community the projects enabled the creation of bridging social capital. .
The societal connections nurtured by the projects may prompt the participating communities to pursue future community development projects designed to bring together community members with diverse backgrounds. .
Urban economies, on the other hand, are Dominanted by new, rapidly growing industries in which innovation and technology are major drivers of development. .
Regular interactions with cultural communities, organizations, families, and neighbours foster a sense of belonging, home, and social location. .
Ultimately, this bridging may generate a broader community identity and sense of reciprocity within the community. .
In this way, they may hope to become key participants in developing their communities. .
Archives and the records management strategies they employ have the potential to engage citizens with local history, promote education, foster a sense of community inclusion, support local cultural programs, and to develop the local economy. .
This may be because archives have traditionally been identified with cultural endeavours. .
Archives and other cultural institutions help citizens to develop a sense of community and commonality among one another. .
Along with local museums, libraries, galleries, and historic sites (all of whose work an archives can support with documentation), an archives is a key part of a group of amenities that make life in a community attractive, and can thus help draw people to a community to visit and to live. .
Participation in the creation and use of an archival institution can thus support a sense of community ownership and inclusion. .
Identity mapping deals with intangible cultural resources, such as local histories, traditions and values that combine to create a sense of community identity. .
Archives present an excellent environment in which older people can exercise their minds and foster a state of well being. .
Creating an archival mandate can be an exciting process in that it allows community members to imagine the potential an archival institution may have for their community. .
Some people may find remembering the past to be a happy and nostalgic experience. .
A community archives can do so especially by helping people develop and employ skills that enable them to participate in the knowledgebased economy. .
Enhancing the ability of archives to support local historical initiatives may prove particularly useful to people involved in education. .
Archives could support the teaching of local history and development of students research skills. .
Much of the interest in cultural development stems from the recognition that well developed cultural infrastructure is necessary to retain skilled and educated workers. .
The pursuit of successful community economic development and archival public programming initiatives both rely upon community engagement. .
City involvement in recreation, leisure and arts could be used to strengthen existing partnerships between community groups. .
Particularly in small communities with limited resources it is useful for community organizations to work together on development projects because each organization participating in the initiative can contribute resources and knowledge14 Archives and archivists can potentially contribute to multi-organizational development projects by using their holdings and knowledge to support community initiatives in a variety of areas, such as culture, education, history, and social justice. .
One of the greatest benefits of a community archival institution is that it can support archival and records management initiatives within a community for the benefit of local people and organizations. .
The most basic step involved in environmentally friendly growth is making citizens aware of environmental issues and demonstrating how these issues can be addressed by the average citizen. .
Essentially, cultural mapping involves identifying existing cultural resources and finding ways of leveraging them for the benefit of the community at large. .
Essentially, place branding involves using a local cultural inventory to identify some of the cultural elements that can create a unique image of a community. .
Students, teachers, and archivists all stand to benefit from an increased archival role in education. .
In order to better serve their communities, some small archives have undertaken outreach programs that actively seek to engage local citizens. .
Thus, a broader segment of the geographical community would be given an opportunity to take part in and benefit from community development processes. .
In addition to building the capacity for citizens to participate in their communities, archival institutions may be able to assist citizens in becoming more engaged with local government. .
Examples of facilities supporting cultural growth are post-secondary institutions, art galleries and heritage buildings. .
Networking and economic growth can be facilitated through the development of a local environment that is friendly to economic development and investment. .
Therefore, from a tourism perspective, there may be some value to Brandon investing in local cultural infrastructure.57 Community development in Brandon depends on attracting tourists and new residents, and retaining existing residents. .
To attract new citizens and retain its current population, the city needs to be able to provide jobs and business opportunities. .
Furthermore, the strategic plan suggests that these organizations may form partnerships with the business community in order to improve their funding prospects. .
Planners supportive of community economic development recognize that in the global economy there are employment opportunities all over the world and communities must find new ways of competing to attract new citizens. .
Economic development is a major goal of Brandons community strategic plan and the engagement of archivists and records managers may enable Brandon to foster local knowledge-based economic growth. .
Public programming may provide outlets through which archivists can share their enthusiasm for archival records and demonstrate their value to society.29 An archives with a key role in community development activities would require a proactive public programming agenda. .
In many cases, archival institutions can add value to the existing functions of an organization by improving information management practices or providing contextual historical information. .
Archives have the ability to add value to community development projects. .
Community planners Greg Baeker and Jeanne Hanna promote cultural mapping as a means of leveraging local cultural assets for economic and other community benefits. .
Using the citys records to support community economic development initiatives will require a considerable expenditure of resources on public programming. .
The planning of public programming activities may provide a further opportunity for citizen engagement in a community archives as citizens may be able to assist public programming activities. .
Community economic development programs rely upon broad definitions of community that include a willingness to work collaboratively with other citizens and government in order to be successful. .
Archives can also play an array of new roles in communities -- from addressing environmental concerns to helping to promote tourism. .
Used strategically, the collective knowledge contained in a community archives may serve as a support for a communitys participation in the knowledge-based economy. .
If a community archives were created to act as a repository for local knowledge the archives could potentially foster Brandons nascent knowledge-based economy. .
The study suggests that innovative usage of archival material can facilitate community engagement in the knowledge-based economy and support a broad range of community economic development initiatives. .
Utilizing the community economic development practice of coordinating and mobilizing local resources in order to achieve common goals may help to overcome several of the challenges facing community archives. .
Community archives have the capacity to act as centres of local knowledge, providing a resource that the citizens of Brandon can use to participate in the knowledge-based economy and support many other aspects of community well being. .
The community archives initiative reflects a desire by archives and communities to become more engaged with archival services. .
Archival programming in schools can represent an investment in local education and history. .
Archival planners sought to strike a balance between providing efficient records management for institutional records, and providing long-term care for records of major cultural value to the community. .
Archival records, described and preserved by archivists, are often a source of professional and personal pride. .
A community archives can retain that knowledge. .
By providing a location where they may remember and learn about the past a community archives can create a strong relationship with older citizens. .
The desire to retain local archival records in the community that generated them is understandable. .
Traditionally, archivists had placed a great deal of stock in accumulating all of the records of a particular creator into comprehensive fonds located in one archives. .
In an attempt to identify some of the ways in which archives can gain a foothold in community development activities this thesis will examine some community-oriented public programming initiatives archives may undertake. .
In order for archives to redefine their role in society and to become more engaged with their communities archivists will need to promote use of their holdings. .
In the context of community economic development, the knowledge stored in these records represents a substantial community resource. .
In order for an archival institution to become part of a sustainable community economic development scheme, it needs to be engaged with a variety of local citizens. .
As a rapidly growing city, Brandon may likewise benefit from encouraging archives and records management programs to contribute to its development strategies. .
A community archives could provide resources for collaboration on this project. .
A community archives could provide a strong foundation for historical research at a local level. .
One way of developing the public profile of archives may be to work with existing community organizations to draw attention to the ways in which historical records are already contributing to community institutions. .
The ability of archives to contribute to community development has thus grown considerably in recent years. .
This thesis explores some possible approaches to better integration of archives with communities and engagement of archives with local community development initiatives. .
Archival literature provides examples of institutions from around the world that illustrate the numerous contributions archives can make to communities. .
Convenient access to archival materials has the potential to facilitate scholarly research into a community. .
Archivists would need to actively seek opportunities to contribute to and make their archives relevant to their constituent community. .
Community archives can play a significant role in the development of such networks as a major information hub in their communities. .
In the United Kingdom, the National Council on Archives Community Archives Development Group (CADG) provides an example of how an archival organization can play a leadership role in the cultivation of relationships between local archivists and archival users that can be beneficial to both groups. .
In order to promote the uses of community archives members of the CADG have worked with members of the public to identify potential archival initiatives that may be beneficial to a large part of the community. .
Once in an archival setting, the archives could be made publicly accessible for the various community development purposes discussed in this thesis. .
The inclusion of local volunteers in archival processes can mobilize local knowledge in pursuit of the community goal of archiving. .
However, if records are well managed and placed in a community archives, they can become a widely accessible resource. .
Archivists may be able to improve public understanding of archives and archivists by attracting members of the public who were previously unengaged with archives to their institutions through public programming. .
An archival and expanded records management program could make records generated by the City of Brandons government considerably more accessible to the public. .
Archival access could complement Brandons open approach to access to information by providing citizens with the tools necessary to identify what information is available for access. .
A community archives could provide publicly accessible finding aids and develop an archival partnership with the MGS in order to serve better the growing genealogical research community. .
This thesis suggests that, rather than being passive instruments of little use to a community, archives can play a key role in community development by supporting engagement in the knowledgebased economy. .
Archives and records management can also help an organization to develop economically. .
The notion that archives can support economic development suggests that in addition to the cultural and social contributions archives can make to society, archives also have the potential to support actual economic growth. .
Consequently, the Nova Scotia governments investment in archival programming may yield economic development opportunities by attracting tourists to the province. .
Local organizations could undertake similar projects in conjunction with archives and demonstrate the value of a community archives in Brandon. .
Archival materials can support local publishing, education systems (at all levels), news media needs, and tourism and community publicity. .
A well-used archival institution can attract researchers who then spend money in the community. .
Researchers attracted to Elgin County by the archives spend money in local businesses and contribute to the economic growth of Elgin County as a whole.25 The major economic advantages of a community archives are those that indirectly stimulate economic growth. .
An additional benefit of local retention of archival data may also help the knowledge-based economy to gain traction in Brandon by providing source material for environmental research at the local level. .
However, archives could fit into a local network of organizations that drive cultural tourism. .
Although keeping archives local helps them to connect with a sense of community identity, there are practical issues, such as cost, that may make funding a large number of local archives difficult. .
Ultimately, the most practical way of operating a community archives in Brandon may be to adhere to the community economic development mantra: by the community and for the community. .
This thesis will suggest some ways in which a community archives can take advantage of these opportunities. .
Small communities such as Brandon are actively searching for new development strategies, and with the emergence of the knowledge-based economy the establishment of a local archival institution may have the capacity to play a major role in contributing to these strategies. .
If archivists and community development professionals could find some way of identifying and applying the knowledge held in archival records to tasks associated with community development a strong case may be made that archives are integral to the future growth of Brandon. .
The ability of community groups to work together toward the common goal of establishing archives in Nanaimo and to promote the uses of archives throughout the community provides an excellent example of how archives can be established through grassroots support and community cooperation. .
Furthermore, by encouraging participants to work together to achieve common records management goals, records management cooperatives have the potential to support the development of social capital. .
Research into community history allows citizens to remember their personal roots in their communities and to better understand how their communities have developed over time. .
Therefore, investing in archives may be a step a community can take to develop a reliable source of collective knowledge. .
When dealing with controversies, archivists should perhaps strive to provide a broad array of well-contextualized records that can enable users to access alternative perspectives on a particular historical event. .
By providing researchers with as broad an account of the past as possible community archivists may facilitate dialogue between community members with conflicting interpretations of historical events. .
If archivists provide appropriate contextual information about local historical records, they may be able to further citizens understanding of the history of their community as part of wider communities, such as (but not limited to) the Canadian nation. .
By encouraging multiple ways of thinking about primary sources, the Edukit hopes to foster a greater appreciation of history. .
Archives may be able to provide both physical locations where older people may meet to discuss their lives, as well as records that can facilitate the act of remembering. .
Archives may provide both physical locations where older people may meet to discuss their lives, as well as records that can facilitate the act of remembering. .
The creation of a central community archival institution could provide context to these accounts. .
Participatory archiving involves harnessing the knowledge of archival users to create enhanced descriptions and interpretations of existing archival collections.80 .
Much of the community strategic plan is focused on identifying and building upon local resources, following the by the community for the community theme of community economic development. .
The very act of selecting which records represent a community is exclusive in that it recognizes some records as being more valuable to a community than others. .
While supporting scholarly research and historical initiatives are important archival functions, there are many other activities that an archives can facilitate. .
Archives contain massive quantities of information that can add value to existing organizational initiatives. .
Once described and preserved, it can be used to support cultural planning. .
Further assistance in developing a community archival institution may be obtained through national and provincial archival support networks. .
Community history is a form of historical research that is highly engaging to people from a variety of backgrounds. .
For instance, archival records are used extensively by authors of historical fiction. .
Archives elsewhere in the world have undertaken research projects into potential community applications of archives and developed public programming initiatives that respond to local interests and priorities. .
People within a community can share their knowledge and experience with one another to create community-wide networks of information. .
By providing historical context to contemporary issues, archives can facilitate informed dialogue between community members with opposing viewpoints. .
Archives can play a role in defining a community. .
Archives may further assist educators by providing archival resources that are able to engage students on a variety of intellectual levels while simultaneously fostering a greater appreciation for Canadas history. .
Many respondents to the community archival questionnaire identified working with local middle schools and high schools to develop educational programming as a key service an archives could provide. .
Creating an archival institution in a classroom setting enables instruction of students to be linked with the ongoing development of the archives. .
Thus, the PCI Archives is able to support both learning and archival objectives. .
Rather, the PCI projects have enabled students to engage with archival resources in creative ways, resulting in the creation of several high-profile research projects. .
Archives can bring people together to confront the past. .
Another noteworthy feature of the Nanaimo Community Archives is its ability to build the capacity for local historical research. .
Respondents to the community archival questionnaire identified the sense of inclusion that stems from the common history retained in archives as an important contribution of their organizations. .
The social capital generated by archives can also contribute to the development of pride, heritage and respect.49 .
However, the perceived value of archives may grow because archival records contain large volumes of knowledge. .
Furthermore, the local archives could provide a regional base where the knowledge of archivists and archival institutions in the area could be shared.18 Although the value of archives in protecting the cultural history of Nanaimo was obvious, many members of the community needed to be convinced of other possible positive roles archives could play in Nanaimo. .
The role of archivists and records managers as brokers of information and knowledge may be even more significant as the knowledge-based economy develops. .
The city council using bridging social capital may encourage participation from people with different backgrounds. .
Urban centres also absorb many new immigrants and people from surrounding rural areas who are seeking employment, education, or economic prosperity. .
Multi-organizational community development initiatives are becoming increasingly prominent with the growing popularity of community economic development. .
Definitions of Community Defining the community that a community archival institution will serve is a complicated process. .
Ironically, the demands of too many community sponsors may ultimately limit archives ability to engage with the community in general. .

ARTICLE - CANDIDATE TRANSITION VARIABLES

Results: