Friday, December 4, 2009

Christmas Memories



Genea-Bloggers has what I think is a very good idea leading up to Christmas. A Christmas Advent outlining your memories of Christmas pasts. I will get us started with childhood memories of my own (even though these are going to definitely date me).

My father worked for the London Free Press, and in the 50’s the company was family owned. Walter J.Blackburn took a particular interest in his employees (the old if you work for me you are family attitude). One of the highlights of the year was the employee’s family Christmas party. Of course, for us children the fact that the presents were good ones might have coloured our attitude. It was a big event throughout the 50’s largely because there were so many of us. Sometimes I think that the attitude at that time was that if you did not have a minimum of 4 children you were not really trying.

There was candy, popcorn, ice cream, hotdogs, the company’s cartoonist “Merle Tingly” drew cartoons of each child.; and of course Santa appeared and gave each child a gift.

The company’s employee news sheet  took pictures of the event, and the picture of me (yes there I am at age 5) appeared in the Christmas 1953 edition probably because at that time I was on crutches ( a picture of the child on crutches naturally got front page).

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Library and Archives Canada Pathfinder Projects

 John D. Reid in his blog "Anglo-Canadian Connections" Noted today that Library and Archives Canada(LAC) have placed online four pathfinder projects “ that seek  through practical projects, to validate the four guiding principles and the key roles of the Documentary Heritage Management Framework developed by Library and Archives Canada (LAC) during summer and fall 2009."

They are:
Canada's Military Documentary Heritage: Challenges and Opportunities
Long-Term Loans: A Client-Focused Collaborative Approach
Rethinking the Stewardship of Newspapers in a Digital Age
Exposing Union Catalogue Metadata Via Third Parties

I looked through the paper on Military Hertitage as that is where I have an interest. Frankly I am not encouraged by what I see. There is little or nothing there that relates to the online researcher or for that matter anyone from outside of the Ottawa area. I wonder if what they are proposing is to download their responsibilities onto others- local museums, libraries, etc.

The paper promises consultation; but given past experience with LAC I wouldn’t hold my breath on this one.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/modernization/012004-2051-e.html