Royal BC Museum launches crowd-sourcing transcription project

From the announcement circulated to mailing lists such as ARCAN-L:

Today, to celebrate National Volunteer Week, the Royal BC Museum launched Transcribe (transcribe.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca), a crowd-sourcing website that invites the public to transcribe valuable historical records from our archival collection.

Wonder becomes reality: BC Government reaches agreement with Royal BC Museum on transfer of thousands of boxes to the BC Archives

You read it here first when I posted in early March 02015 a reflection about Bill 5, the Government Information Act that is working its way through the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia:

I wonder too whether with this new legislation the door may be opening for the payment of a one-time fee and transfer of thousands of boxes to the "museum archives of government" as the bill styles the Royal BC Museum.

On April 15, 02015 the BC Government announced that it had reached an agreement with the Royal BC Museum to begin funding the transfer of government records to the BC Archives.

According to the BC Government news release,

The agreement includes:

• Commitment to fund storage of government records being transferred to RBCM now and in the future (up-front payment for first 20 years).
• Government will provide up to $400,000/yr. funding to the RBCM for the costs of arranging, cataloguing and preserving newly transferred and future records (to be reviewed after five years).
• The RBCM will cover storage, arrangement, cataloguing and preservation costs relating to previously transferred archival records from its existing budget.

The agreement (memorandum of understanding) is included as part of the news release at

http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2015/04/agreement-reached-to-address-archival-backlog.html 

Congratulations to all involved in accomplishing this agreement, far more than I thought would be possible. I know from having worked at the BC Archives after it was amalgamated with the Royal BC Museum that there was a great deal of skepticism that any kind of accommodation with government would ever be reached. Thankfully, that goal has now been achieved.

"Tackling the wicked problem of managing records in the digital environment" lecture, Victoria, BC, April 21, 02015

As part of the Archives Association of British Columbia's pre-conference, Dr. Julie McLeod,  Professor in Records Management, iSchool, Northumbria University, United Kingdom, will present a lecture titled "Tackling the wicked problem of managing records in the digital environment".

The lecture will be held on April 21, 02015 at St. Ann's Academy Auditorium, 835 Humboldt St., Victoria, BC, from 10 am to 11 am. Pre-registration at a cost of $10 is required by April 20. You can pre-register at http://www.gifttool.com/registrar/ShowEventDetails?ID=1831&EID=19998

Further details and updates are at http://aabc.ca/resources/news/2015/4/7/new-aabc-pre-conference-lecture-in-victoria-announced/