Publication Reviews

To ask archivists if society is better off forgetting is a bold and heretical question.The title of this volume of essays is somewhat enigmatic, and raises questions such as: Who is forgetting?What is being forgotten?What is the meaning of forgetting?These questions are never directly answered, and the essays themselves do not explicitly address the title's question.A close reading of the introduction is required to discern the editors' goal in assembling this particular set of essays: to explore the neglect of the archival enterprise from the perspective of Canadian public policy.One word that characterizes the contents of this collection of essays is "wideranging."Co-editors Cheryl Avery and Mona Holmlund (archivist and art history professor, respectively, at the University of Saskatchewan) have assembled diverse authors from different fields to address the many issues that affect the well-being of the archival enterprise.The wide scope is reflected in the titles of the five parts: "The History of Funding," "Access and Privacy," "The Digital Age," "Accountability and the Public Sphere," and "Resource for the Present."Fortunately, the volume includes an index to improve access to the host of ideas discussed.In part one, archivists Marion Beyea and Shelley Sweeney address the inadequate level of funding for archives in Canada.Beyea recounts the development of the Canadian archival system in the 1970s and 1980s (including public funding for archival processing and professional development) and its subsequent erosion.Sweeney compares funding for archives with that for libraries and museums, and concludes that financial support, regardless of the source, will come only if archivists change their priorities to broaden their user base, demonstrate impact, raise their profile, and become active fundraisers (pp.31-33).Part two explores the tensions between the concepts of access and privacy.Archivist Jo-Ann Munn Gafuik discusses the federal access to information legislation as a tool to support both transparency in government and the role of archivists in assisting the public in making sense of the records that are preserved.David Surtees, a law professor, talks about privacy and the so-called disenfranchised who have no control over information that is collected about them.The challenges in finding the appropriate balance between access and privacy are demonstrated in Terry Cook and Bill Waiser's account of the Census Wars-a battle over the release of the post-1901 Canadian census data that pitted privacy advocates against archivists, historians, and genealogists.The Digital Age is the focus of Part three of the volume.Historians Chris Hackett and Robert Cole discuss the implications, particularly for historians and the process of historical research, of having source material digitized and on-line.Archivist Yvette Hackett (no relation to Chris) provides a succinct and insightful overview of the emergence of born-digital records, as well as the ways in which digital records necessitate archival practices different from those used to deal with analog records.Her argument that "digital records cost more" (pp.129-135) clearly articulates the imminent risk to our collective memory if we do not address the challenges of digital preservation.

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