20 October 2015

Welcome to new possibilities

With the election of a Liberal government we have the possibility of them living up to their promise of change. I wouldn't put it more strongly than that!
A comment posted to my election day post lamented that federal candidates were unaware of federal archives funding issues. It asks "where would I best locate the LAC lack of funding information to share with them?"
The Main Estimates tabled in Parliament last February show total budgetary funding for Library and Archives Canada falling from $95,864,788 in 2014/15 to $93,011,489 in 2015/16. That's a 3% reduction. See my blog post.
In my view a plea that LAC is underfunded is unlikely to get much response. More likely to be favourably received is funding for a new initiative, which I suspect would have digital somewhere in the title. See the advocacy pages of the Association of Canadian Archivists for ideas on the future.

2 comments:

Elizabeth Kipp said...

We need to start preparing for the possibility of funding for new initiatives in the preservation of our historic past. Jobs for our youth should be a top priority in our minds; initiatives that will employ all those graduates that can not find jobs that make use of the skills that they have learned. We retirees have lots of time to think about items that need to be brought together as work projects/research projects to keep our young graduates employed in a meaningful way and add to the enrichment of our heritage. Good thinking John to bring this to the forefront.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Elizabeth's comment wholeheartedly. Many of our youth and even those in their thirties are underemployed if employed at all in their field.One parent I spoke to was excited that her son was going to be able to get a job as an historian in the United States.
Anne in Ottawa