The Origins and Aims of the Master of Archival Studies Programme at the University of British Columbia

Abstract

In September 198 1, an inaugural class of ten students enrolled in the Master of Archival Studies Programme at the University of British Columbia.That class, which graduates in 1983, is the first ever in this country to study archives and prepare for professional archival work in a separate program of studies for aspiring archivists.How the program came about and what it is trying to d o are matters of no small concern to Canadian archivists and archives.For several years prior to the inception of the program, the Canadian archival community was aware that something was brewing at the University of British Columbia.Few archivists knew exactly who was doing the brewing and what intoxicating academic drink they had in mind, for universities tend to consult whom they will when they judge they have a need in order to fulfil their mandate.Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a great many courses of study were established in Canadian universities to meet society's need for trained professionals but, despite approaches from the archival community, no school or program of archival studies surfaced anywhere in North America, though the literature on the subject does not lack discussion of, and proposals aimed to meet, the educational requirements of the archival profession.Before turning to an examination of the origins of the Master of Archival Studies Programme, let us look at the stance towards education taken by the profession in Canada and the United States in recent years.Leaving aside in-service training programs, short institutes for working archivists, and other efforts at continuing education, all of which have their rightful place in a national scheme of education and training of archivists, we are left with the issue of pre-appointment education for aspiring archivists.In that realm, recent Canadian experience stands in contrast to that in the United States.In June 1976, after several years of debate in the archival community, the newly-formed Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA), which was a transmutation of the Archives Section of the Canadian Historical Association, adopted a document drafted by Hugh Taylor and Edwin Welch entitled "Guidelines Towards a Curriculum for Graduate Archival Training Leading to a Master's Degree in Archival Science."Perhaps because the matter of archival education had been on the agenda of Canadian archivists for so long and the majority of archivists at the first annual meeting of the ACA agreed on the need for a university-based education for archivists, the guidelines passed with little debate.Whether through modesty, Archivuriu 16

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