City of North Battleford Historic Archives volunteer committee Chair Bill Wells addressed council Monday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

In the chambers

Historic Archives group requests city hire salaried archivist position

Sep 10, 2019 | 12:07 PM

The City of North Battleford Historic Archives volunteer committee continues to urge city council to step up and hire a salaried position to oversee the archives since the volunteers can’t manage the operations on their own.

Armed with several letters of support including one from the Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists, committee volunteer Chair Bill Wells addressed council as a delegation Monday. He explained why an archivist is needed, and encouraged the city to reinstate funding for an archivist position.

Several members of the eight-person volunteer committee also attended the meeting to show their support. The organization collects, catalogues and maintains documents and photographic material depicting the historic development of the City of North Battleford.

“To maintain its archives effectively, the City of North Battleford must recognize that running the archives with volunteers only is not an option,” Wells said.

He added volunteers cannot commit the same time a salaried position could invest in the archives facility and its projects. They often also do not have the qualifications to carry out an archivist’s work either.

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Wells said in his report the archives had a staffed position for almost 10 years, working for about 20 hours per week. However, the city did not refill the position when the former archivist left in 2018.

The group also provided a fact sheet of the contents of the archives collection that includes 11,850 photographs among the collectibles.

North Battleford lawmakers plan to discuss the request to hire a salaried position during its meetings later this year while planning the 2020 budget.

“It’s obviously lots for us to consider. We passed a resolution to include that with our budget deliberations this fall and see what options exist to potentially look at another staffed position within the archives,” Mayor Ryan Bater said following the meeting.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @OCoureurDesBois