Page from Honorary Degree Register showing Bill Reid and Harry Hawthorn’s signature, 1976. UBCA-ARC-1307
Records that tell UBC’s stories come to the University Archives (UA) from all across the campus. Institutional records are a unique resource used by researchers, historians, genealogists, and internally, for fundraising efforts. Arguably, no office has more of this type of celebratory documentation then the Ceremonies and Events office (C&E).
Earlier this year C&E contacted us because, like many other units across the university, they wanted better control over their information. Additionally, they had some old records that they thought would be of interest to the University Archives. When John Moran, term Archivist with the University Archives and I met with Liz King, Director, UBC Ceremonies & Events, it was clear C&E held a lot more than your run-of-the-mill records. It took less than 30 seconds for us to see the gems glistening from their bookshelves… but they had even more in store for us.
To meet the unit’s immediate records management needs, and to help them better control information on a daily basis, I developed a two-part information management strategy that included a plan to:
-transfer key records to University Archives, and
-develop a structured filing plan along with naming conventions to help streamline their daily work.
John and I often work collaboratively across our respective program areas (University Archives and Records Management). Recently, however, I have been working more closely with the University Archives (UA) ironing out procedural details for the transfer of born-digital institutional records to UA.
Part One – Transferring Archival Materials
One of the items the UA received from C&E was four leather-bound registers dating back to 1925 of distinguished guests and the signature of every person receiving an honorary degree. Liz King from C&E pointed out that, “these registers are irreplaceable. It makes sense for them to be at the University Archives.” For archival records geeks like Moran and myself, it was exhilarating to leaf through those pages.
Perhaps most exciting, however, was the digital transfer of some of the records we spied on their team-shares. Described in the newly approved university-wide records schedules as having full archival retention (CE2000-19, if records schedules are your thing), we worked with the office to transfer three important groups of digital institutional records. They included:
- The ceremony surrounding the raising of the reconciliation pole (2017) by Haida master carver and Hereditary Chief 7idansuu, James Hart
- The installation of Steven Point as the University Chancellor, the first Indigenous person to hold this position and the first virtual installation event held due to COVID19; and,
- The special joint (SFU & UBC) honorary degree conferral upon His Highness the Aga Khan
We don’t just copy these records to a thumb drive and call our work complete. To do the transfer we use an application called MoveIt. MoveIt was developed using open-source code developed by SFU and prototyped by UBCO Library. The application was tailored for use at UBC to help with the management of both office records destined for destruction and those deemed archival. MoveIt packages, inventories, and checksums content into digital “bags” that includes additional metadata. The packaging and metadata help automate the transfer, receipt, storage and retrieval of information. The bags are stored in the RMO’s digital warehouse where they receive monthly integrity checks ensuring the content has not changed or degraded. The RMO’s digital warehouse provides bit-level preservation for institutional records while they await more robust preservation actions by UA.
Raising of the Reconciliation Pole 2017
What’s Next? Part Two – Filing Plan and File Naming Conventions
With the digital transfer complete, and the rest of the the physical transfer scheduled, part two of the information strategy includes a new filing structure and naming conventions for information stored on their team-share or on MSTeams. This filing plan will be aligned with the RMO’s newly approved records schedules and will include a folder for regular transfers to the University Archives via MoveIT.
The Records Management Office and the University Archives work together supporting the life-cycle of UBC’s institutional records, building our unit’s digital records management and archival preservation capacity. These efforts help guarantee ongoing research access to UBC’s rich institutional legacy.
Find out more about Ceremonies and Events: https://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/ceremonies-office-fonds