Community Engagement at Western University Archives: Celebrating Our Relationships with Communities, Collections and Donors

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1 Western University From the SelectedWorks of Anne Daniel Spring May 10, 2018 Community Engagement at Western University Archives: Celebrating Our Relationships with Communities, Collections and Donors Anne Daniel Tom Belton, Western University Amanda Oliver, Western University Available at:

2 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AT WESTERN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES CELEBRATING OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH COMMUNITIES, COLLECTIONS, AND DONORS Tom Belton, Anne Daniel, and Amanda Oliver

3 CELEBRATING PLACE AND COMMUNITY IMPROVING AWARENESS OF THE LONDON FREE PRESS COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVES

4 LONDON FREE PRESS Established Daily since Hired first staff photographers in 1930s. Photographers established regional bureaus in 1940s. Owned by Blackburn family until Acquired by Sun Media in 1997, which was acquired by Postmedia (current owner) in TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

5 LONDON FREE PRESS COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVES Donated to Western University by then owner Blackburn Group in a series of accessions between 1984 and mid 1990s. Copyright was transferred with most of these accessions (but only for original work of staff photographers). Changes to Copyright Act in 2012 enhanced rights of photographers. Current collection range is , with most images dating About 20% of images (around 300,000) were published. More information at TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

6 COLLECTION DESCRIPTION Approximately 1.6 million negatives, entirely black and white until late 1966, in a variety of sizes. Majority are chronologically arranged job files, usually 1 envelope per job. Each envelope includes a brief description of the job and/or contents. Also a significant series of portrait files. Some envelopes were moved into separate series of historical and aerial files. Historical files tend to be copy negatives of older prints TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

7 HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY LEAVES STRATFORD January 6, 1941 AFC 177-S3-SS6-F TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

8 TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

9 DIGITIZATION Proactive digitization since Initial focus on improving access. Began by digitizing one negative from each envelope for selected years. Have since expanded criteria to include preservation concerns (e.g. vinegar syndrome). Some thematic chronological digitization has been undertaken (e.g. World War Two era images). Approximately 50,000 images (about 3% of collection) have been digitized to date TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

10 FOUR LONDON, ONTARIO MINISTERS IN SELMA, ALABAMA Photographer: George Blumson AFC 177-S1-SS1-F1700 5/9/2018 TOM BELTON, WESTERN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

11 TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

12 HISTORYPIN MAP AND COMMUNITY AWARENESS IN LONDON, ONTARIO TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

13 COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT Semi-regular postings on our Historypin site: Regular postings to our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Our postings have been widely shared with local history social media groups. Talks and publications TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

14 TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

15 TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

16 CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS ON NEW MUSEUM NEXT TO LIBRARY October 25, 1967 AFC 177-S1-SS15-SSS2-F522 Photographer: Don James TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

17 BRANTFORD CENTENNIAL PARADE July 1, 1967 AFC 177-S1-SS15-F3521 Photographer: Dick Wallace TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

18 TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

19 BOYS PLAYING HOCKEY January 14, 1967 AFC 177-S1-SS15-F TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

20 INTERSECTION INTERACTION HEAVY TRAFFIC AT HIGHBURY AND OXFORD March 13, TOM BELTON, AAO CONFERENCE, WATERLOO

21 CELEBRATING COLLECTIONS AND DONORS CREATING THE LABATT 170 VIRTUAL EXHIBIT Amanda Oliver

22 LABATT BREWING COMPANY Alexis de Sakhnoffsky concept drawing for Labatt Streamliner, c. 1935

23 LABATT BREWING COMPANY COLLECTION Donated in 2011 Comprised of 450 linear m of textual records, over photographs and illustrations, and almost audio-visual items

24 THE VIRTUAL EXHIBIT Labatt employees inspecting bottles, 1950s.

25 LABATT HISTORIC COLLECTION: A CANADIAN STORY

26 COLLABORATORS Labatt Grip Limited Faculty of Information and Media Studies Department of History Museum London Western Libraries Western Communications and Public Affairs Labatt Union-Management Meeting, 1946

27 PROMOTION Traditional media Social media Coasters Events Homecoming Senior alumni lecture Community lecture

28 BY THE NUMBERS: OCTOBER 23 MAY users sessions 1.33 sessions per user page views 3.38 page views per session 4min 10sec average session duration 85.8% new visitors, 14.2% returning visitors Country demographics Canada 82.67% USA 12.72% UK 1.50% Labatt Bottle Shot, c. 1940s

29 CHALLENGES Community engagement Balancing work Many collaborators = many opinions Resource implications Labatt highway courtesy program, c. 1950

30 OPPORTUNITIES Meet goals of strategic plan Labatt and social media Celebrate Labatt 170 Celebrate relationship between Labatt and Western Foster relationships with faculties, communications department Engage with communities where they are (online!) Employee inspecting hops, 1947

31 FINAL THOUGHTS Extra Stock Ale advertisement, 1937

32 Social Media #fun Anne Daniel

33 SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS Facebook 1210 followers Twitter 1524 followers Instagram 376 followers

34 COMMUNITIES Students Faculty Staff Alumni General Public/External Researchers

35 OUR CONTENT Photograph heavy (eg. London Free Press collection) Other collections include our: Dr. Eddy Smet Comic Book Collection, Hannah Collection on the History of Science and Medicine as well as other archival collections including Labatt Brewing Company Collection and our James Alexander and Ellen Rea Benson Special Collections.

36 #HASHTAGS We try to be interactive by creating opportunities for engagement with our communities. Examples of interactive initiatives include: #colourourcollections #archiveshashtagparty #mysterymondays #doyouremember #Westernwednesday

37 HOW FREQUENTLY DO WE POST? Facebook twice per week Instagram daily Twitter daily

38 FACEBOOK WESTERN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES Western Archives belongs to the following memory Facebook groups: If you Grew Up in London.. 26,432 members London Past Present and Future London Blast from the Past

39 FACEBOOK We post at least once a month in these memory Facebook groups Try to monitor the Facebook groups to see how our content is being used Posts that are posted in the Facebook groups usually generate higher response than if we post it on our main page

40 #COLOUROURCOLLECTIONS

41 #MYSTERYMONDAY From the George Henry Studio Collection, May 22, After reading all the clues given here, and reading through 'Fragments from the Forks' by Dan Brock and '100 Fascinating Londoners' I think this may be William H Fox Jr. In May 1928, at the age of 18, he won the Dominion Oratorical Contest in Toronto. He was then given a civic welcome(handshake with Mayor Wenige), a parade, a banquet at Hotel London and a purse containing $250 in Canadian gold. He was a London student at De La Salle High School, a Christian Brothers school, and that could explain why we see at least four men wearing clerical collars.

42 #MYSTERYMONDAY From the London Free Press Collection, May 26, Received 48 likes, 14 shares and 45 comments Some of the comments include: You can't tell me that isn't the Scooby Doo Gang ; This looks like a friends old family gas station. It was on Wharncliffe. I'll ask him.

43 #DOYOUREMEMBER From the London Free Press Collection, May 22, I remember when London was that small! I remember driving 30 miles an hour. Gas was less then.50ct a gallon.

44 #DOYOUREMEMBER From the J. Malcolm Smith Postcard and Ephemera Collection, likes 82 comments 36 shares Used to love going there! Was a big treat for my brother and I when our parents took us.

45 #DOYOUREMEMBER From the London Free Press Collection, November 11, likes 131 comments 15 shares I've never seen this shot before! Fantastic

46 MEMORIES.. From the London Free Press Collection, May 1, Thanks for posting this--a photo of my mother, who passed in The dog was named Pugsley. I remember this dog from my youth, and I was born in '70! Thanks again for this treasure. Today is my wedding anniversary, and this was a great gift.

47 Impressions Number of times users saw the tweet on twitter Engagements Total number of times a user has interacted with a tweet 180 likes 79 retweets

48 TWITTER From the Dr. Eddy Smet Comic Book Collection Happy 80 th birthday to Superman 8917 impressions 81 engagements

49 TWITTER Labatt Prohibition exhibit 1719 impressions 36 engagements

50 TWITTER From the Labatt Brewing Company Collection, Indenture for sale of brewery to John Kinder Labatt, 1847 To celebrate #Labatt170 & #Canada150, we'll tweet 24 hours of shared history from the Labatt Historic Collection

51 From the Western University Historical Photograph Collection, #thatendofexamfeeling 70 likes 1 comment

52 INSTAGRAM From the Way We Were Collection, likes 1 comment

53 INSTAGRAM 63 likes 2 comments

54 CHALLENGES? Keeping content fresh and interesting Too much content and too little time Keeping up with the memory groups monitoring activity could be a full-time job Responding to questions that arise because of our outreach (many questions now come in via facebook and twitter and are a direct result of the content that we share online) Perception of academic archives Impact and effectiveness are very difficult to measure

55 OPPORTUNITIES? Share our collections with our communities Celebrate the memories held by our communities Ongoing dialogue/conversation with our communities Help expand our own knowledge of our holdings Opportunities to connect followers with their memories

56 #THEEND