24 April 2020

City of Ottawa Archives: A-OK

You may have been concerned about the state of the City Archives in these uncertain times. I'm pleased to relay this news from John Lund on behalf of City Archivist Paul Henry.

All is good at the Archives.  We are all working from home, with a select number of staff responding to urgent requests on a case by case basis in line with the City’s emergency response. Most requests are civic in origin, supporting critical City services. 

We are not fulfilling requests unless they are urgent.  Client’s are requested to update us on the urgency of their request, it is forwarded to the City Archivist for consideration.

The Archives environmental measures and HVAC system are in full operation to ensure the long term preservation of the holdings. A building facilities staff member remains onsite daily and our Conservator can monitor the environmental controls remotely.

We are all well, with plenty of work to keep us busy.  We either continue to work on projects that began before the pandemic crisis or we have taken the opportunity to delve into important back burner projects that we are now freed up to focus on. Staff remain fully engaged and informed on one another’s work through a variety of online tools.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you to the staff at Ottawa Archives. We will look forward to hearing about what back burner work is getting done. I think many amateurs such as myself are doing back burner jobs, too.

    Anne S.in Nepean

    ReplyDelete