Education and career
Terry Eastwood received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in History and French from the University of Alberta in 1965. He followed his BA with a Diploma in Education in Secondary studies from the University of Victoria in 1972 and a Master of Arts in History from the University of Alberta in 1977. [1] Eastwood taught at a number of schools, including Taihape College in Taihape, New Zealand in 1966 and several secondary schools in British Columbia from 1967 to 1973. [2] In 1973 he left the world of secondary education to become an archivist working in the Manuscripts and Government Records Division at the Provincial Archives of British Columbia. He also served as the secretary of the Public Documents Committee. [1] He remained at the Provincial Archives until 1981 and then made a move that would prove pivotal to both his career and the development of graduate archival education in Canada and the world by starting the first autonomous archival studies program in North America at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
Eastwood was appointed Assistant Professor of Archival Studies at UBC from 1981 to 1986, becoming Associate Professor in 1986. He served as Chair of the program from 1981 to 2000. His teaching specialties include: the juridical context of archives (the various laws affecting generation, maintenance, use, and disposition of archives, and the role of archives in democratic accountability); arrangement and description of archives; appraisal of archives, including appraisal of electronic records; the history and development of archival institutions and the archival profession; and public services and programs of archival institutions. He has supervised 73 graduate students to date. [2] He also served as a co-investigator in the InterPARES Project from 1999–2006.
In addition to his principal duties as Chair of the Archival Studies program at UBC, Eastwood has also taught at a number of institutions and provided a variety of educational opportunities, such as the Western Archives Institute at Salt Lake City in Utah in 2001 and the University of California at Berkeley in 2009, a course on description for the Association of Brazilian Archivists in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2008, a pre-congress seminar on Records Disposition at the International Congress on Archives in Montreal, Quebec, in 1992 and one on Arrangement and Description of Archives in Koblenz, Germany, in 1990. From 1996 to 1999 he was a guest professor at the Division of Communications and Humanities, Mid Sweden University (Mittuniversitetet), in Härnösand, Sweden. [2]
Professional activities
Eastwood participated in the formation of the Association of British Columbia Archivists, serving as its first Secretary-Treasurer from 1974–1976, the editor of the Association's first five newsletters, and its President from 1976–1977. On the national scene, Eastwood was General Editor of Archivaria, the scholarly journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists, from 1981 to 1982, as well as Vice-President (1977–1978) and President (1978–1979) of the association. [1] He consulted on archival education at the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts, and the University of Western Australia, Department of History, in 1989 during a tour of Australia sponsored by the Australian Society of Archivists. [2] He acted as Co-chair of the Working Group on Archival Descriptive Standards of the Bureau of Canadian Archivists from 1984–1986. The Working Group was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to study and report on the development of standards for the description and indexing of archival material to improve scholarly access. [3] Eastwood was also a member of the Planning Committee on Descriptive Standards of the Bureau of Canadian Archivists from 1991-1996. The Committee was responsible for producing the Rules for Archival Description, finalized in 1996, which constitute a bilingual national standard in Canada. [2]
Significance and legacy
The masters of archival studies offered at the University of British Columbia in 1981 was the first program dedicated to the study of archival science in North America. Eastwood, as the first professor and later chair of the program, developed an appropriate curriculum, obtained the support of the Canadian and international archival profession, trained and mentored hundreds of students and lectured and wrote widely on the topic of the necessity for archival education. The latter was a particularly vigorous fight; many archivists who had library or history degrees and who had on-the-job training opposed the increased emphasis on dedicated masters level archival education.
The report Towards Descriptive Standards: Report and Recommendations of the Canadian Working Group on Archival Descriptive Standards, which Eastwood co-edited with Jean Dryden in 1985, is a classic text, required reading for anyone interested in the development of standards in Canada. As a member of the Planning Committee on Descriptive Standards Eastwood contributed to a work of collaborative intellectual effort, and the product of the committee, the Rules for Archival Description , has made a significant impact on the archival profession nationally and internationally and on institutional practice in Canada and elsewhere.
Through his writings, consultations, and international teaching, Eastwood advocated for the improvement of the development of archival education in universities the world over.
To date Eastwood has published over 50 articles on arrangement and description, appraisal, archives and accountability, the history of archival institutions and other subjects in a wide variety of journals and written and edited a number of seminal books on archival theory and practice. These have contributed substantially to the development of archival science.
In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poet that were never published or the records of an institution during a specific period.
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is a standard for encoding descriptive information regarding archival records.
Archival science, or archival studies, is the study and theory of building and curating archives, which are collections of documents, recordings and data storage devices.
In archival science and archive administration, appraisal is a process usually conducted by members of the record-holding institution in which a body of records is examined to determine its value for that institution. It also involves determining how long this value will last. The activity is one of the central tasks of an archivist, to determine the archival value of specific records. When it occurs prior to acquisition, the appraisal process involves assessing records for inclusion in the archives. In connection with an institution's collecting policy, appraisal "represents a doorway into the archives through which all records must pass". Some considerations when conducting appraisal include how to meet the record-granting body's organizational needs, how to uphold requirements of organizational accountability, and how to meet the expectations of the record-using community.
Shelley Sweeney is a Canadian archivist. She was university archivist at the University of Regina from 1983 to 1998, and the Head of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections from 1998 to 2020. She helped found two regional archival organizations, the Saskatchewan Council of Archives and the Saskatchewan Archivists Society, and the University and Research Institutions section of the International Council on Archives. Sweeney is a charter member of the Academy of Certified Archivists and, with colleagues, wrote the first code of ethics for the Canadian archival profession.
Kent M. Haworth (1946–2003) was a Canadian archivist, best known for his pioneering role in the creation of archival descriptive standards in Canada. He published widely on a number of topics of importance to the development of archival theory, lectured and presented throughout the world, and was a contributing member of many national and international archival committees and associations.
The Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA), established in 1975, is a national not-for-profit organization representing over 600 archivists in Canada. With headquarters in Ottawa, the ACA's mandate is to provide leadership to the archival profession and to increase an understanding and appreciation of Canada's archival heritage.
UBC School of Information is a graduate school at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver offering a Master of Archival Studies (MAS), a Master of Arts in Children's Literature (MACL), a Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS), a DUAL Master of Archival Studies/Master of Library and Information Studies (MASLIS) and a Doctor of Philosophy in Library, Archival and Information Studies (Ph.D.). Founded in 1961 as the School of Librarianship, the iSchool is currently located in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. The school changed its name in 2018, but was previously known as the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. UBC iSchool is an internationally ranked, multi-disciplinary school, ranked first in the world for graduate education in library and information management based on 2019 and 2020 QS ranking.
Sir Charles Hilary Jenkinson was a British archivist and archival theorist, regarded as the figure most responsible for bringing continental European concepts of archival theory to the English-speaking world.
Respect des fonds, or le respect pour les fonds, is a principle in archival theory that proposes to group collections of archival records according to their fonds. It is one of several principles stemming from provenance that have guided archival arrangement and description from the late 19th century until the present day. It is similar to archival integrity, which dictates that "a body of records resulting from the same activity must be preserved as a group." It is also closely related to the idea of original order – the idea that archivists ought to maintain records using the creator's organizational system. However, respect des fonds differs from that other foundational sub-principle of provenance in its concern with the integrity of the collection or record group as a whole rather than the organization of materials within that collection or record group.
Terry Cook was a noted Canadian archivist and scholar in archival studies.
Hugh Alexander Taylor was an English-born Canadian archivist, archival theorist and educator.
Heather MacNeil is a professor at the Faculty of Information of the University of Toronto, Canada. She teaches archives and record keeping related topics. She is a former General Editor of Archivaria (2014-2015) and helped develop the concept of the Archival bond.
Barbara L. Craig is an archivist, archival educator and scholar. She has contributed to the scholarly literature of archival theory and professional practice in the areas of appraisal, the ethnographic study of practicing archivists and users of archives, and the history of archives in her study of the impact of technology on the record-keeping practices of the British Civil Service before 1960. She has an MA in history from McMaster University, a certificate in Principles and Administration of Archives from Library and Archives Canada, and a Certificate in Records Management from the Government of Ontario. In 1989 she completed a PhD in Archival Studies from the University of London. Her dissertation was titled "Hospital Records in London, England and the Province of Ontario, Canada, 1880 to 1950."
Laura Agnes Millar is an independent consultant and scholar in records, archives, and information management who has also worked in publishing and distance education. She has consulted with governments, universities, colleges, professional associations, non-profit organizations, and other agencies in Canada and around the world.
Louise Gagnon-Arguin is a Canadian archivist.
The International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems is a "major international research initiative in which archival scholars, computer engineering scholars, national archival institutions and private industry representatives are collaborating to develop the theoretical and methodological knowledge required for the permanent preservation of authentic records created in electronic systems." As a global consortia that works to develop preservation strategies, the project focuses on "developing the knowledge essential to the long-term preservation of authentic records created and/or maintained in digital form and providing the basis for standards, policies, strategies and plans of action capable of ensuring the longevity of such material and the ability of its users to trust its authenticity."
Victoria Louise Lemieux is a Canadian specialist in records management and Associate Professor of Archival Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is known for her research into financial information management, risk mitigation including using blockchain technology in risk reduction.
Jennifer Douglas is a Canadian archivist and academic who researches the creation of personal archives and their place within with traditional archival practice.
Michelle Caswell is an American archivist and academic known for her work regarding community archives and approaches to archival practice rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression. She is an associate professor of archival studies in the Department of Information Studies at University of California, Los Angeles and is the director of the school's Community Archives Lab.
