Wednesday, October 3, archivists around the world will take to Twitter to respond to questions tweeted with the hashtag #AskAnArchivist.
This is your opportunity to ask questions you’ve always wanted to ask archivists in universities, museums, historical societies, churches, businesses, and local, provincial, state, and national archives.
Perhaps you have questions you have always wanted to ask an archivist.
- When will the 1926 Canada Census be available online?
- When will the Montreal Star newspaper be digitized?
- What digitization projects are planned that will help genealogists research their family history?
- If I donate a copy of my family history to your archives, will you keep it and make it available to other genealogists?
- How can I find out if you have photos and papers of my ancestors?
The purpose of #AskAnArchivist Day is to break down the barriers that make archivists seem inaccessible. It will allow archivists to hear directly from the public about what interests them and to talk directly to the public via Twitter about what they do and why their work is important.
John D. Reid wrote yesterday on his blog, Canada’s Anglo-Celtic Connections, that staff at Library and Archives Canada remain “close mouthed” about the availability of the 1926 Canada Census. Will they answer the question on #AskAnArchivist Day? Probably not. But it doesn’t hurt to tweet them questions about this census.
No question is too silly. . .
What’s the craziest thing you’ve come across in your collections?
If your archives had a soundtrack, what songs would be on it?
What do archivists talk about around the water cooler?
No question is too practical…
What should I do to be sure that my emails won’t get lost?
I’ve got loads of digital images on my phone. How should I store them so I can access them later on?
How do you decide which items to keep and which to weed out from a collection?
As a teacher, how can I get my students more interested in using archives for projects?
How does it work?
#AskAnArchivist Day is open to everyone. All you need is a Twitter account. To participate, just tweet a question and include the hastag #AskAnArchivist in your tweet. Your question will be seen instantly by archivists around the world who are standing by to respond directly to you.
If you have a question for a specific archives or archivist, include their Twitter handle with your question. They may not know every answer right away, but they will likely get back to you after they’ve had the chance to do some digging.
Don’t want to ask a question? Search Twitter for #AskAnArchivist and follow along as questions and answers are shared.
Need ideas for questions?
Brainstorm with your friends over coffee or on Facebook about questions genealogists should be asking next Wednesday.
A list of the more than 200 archives on Twitter that I follow is available on my Twitter profile and open to the public, provided you have a Twitter account.
