A Look at a bigger picture: The demographic profile of Archivists in Canada based on a national survey

Archivaria

Volumn 49, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 20-52

  Craig, Barbara L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

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EID: 32644479628     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (17)

1. For example, see T.H.B. Symons, To Know Ourselves: Report of the Commission on Canadian Studies (Association of Canadian Archivists, 1975).
2. A number of Statistics Canada publications contain data about archives and archivists. Generally this data is subsumed in a larger classification of cultural or heritage institutions and professionals. Labour Force Information (Statscan catalogue #71-001-PPB) appears monthly from October 1976. It provides summary tables on the characteristics of the labour force nationally, provincially, and for metropolitan areas. Archivists are lumped into a category called "information, culture and recreation. " Culture Counts: Cultural Labour Force Survey (Statscan catalogue #87f0012xpe) appears occasionally beginning in September 1995. The data covers 1993 and includes archivists with librarians. The categories include number of jobs, highest level of education, gender, average and median income, perceptions of technological impact, training taken as a result of technological impact, education and training methods, education and training wanted, and reasons education or training not taken. Focus on Culture (Statscan catalogue #87-004-xpb) is a quarterly publication which may contain articles pertinent to archives and archivists. For example, "Selected culture workers-a ten year perspective, " in vol. 10, no. 7 (Winter 1998), treats archives as part of a subgroup with museums and libraries. Heritage Institutions (Statscan catalogue #87f0002xpe) is an occasional publication first issued in April 1995 under that title. It appeared from 1985-1995 under the title of Culture Statistics. There is a section which contains statistics about institutions by type, including archives. Information includes operating and capital revenues and expenditures, number of visits, type of visitor, number of paid staff, and number of volunteers. Culture Labour Force Survey (Statscan catalogue #87c0032) was first issued in 1995 and is available on a fee for service basis. This Statscan publication collates libraries, archives, and museum workers. Statistics Canada informed me that "due to the small number of archivists captured in the CLFS, the data are suppressed because of confidentiality and reliability reasons. " The best route for acquiring data about archivists would be to request a "target group profile for archivists (based on 1991 Standard Industrial Classification code F013 [5113]) for those who identified themselves as [archivists] on the Census questionnaire. For geographies where there were more than 250 persons, [Statistics Canada] can produce demographic & socio-economic data. The cost of [the] profile is $275 plus $3.00 per additional area. " Canada's Culture, Heritage and Identity: A Statistical Perspective (Statscan catalogue #87-211-xpe) appears biennially. Archives are grouped with museums, galleries, and other heritage institutions.
3. Two were general views undertaken as initiatives of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Consultative Group on Canadian Archives, Canadian Archives: Report to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (1980). Chapter 3, pp. 29-50 contains detailed tables and charts with a variety of statistical profiles. This document is known colloquially as the "Wilson Report. " Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Advisory Committee on Archives, Report of the Advisory Committee on Archives (c. 1985). This document, a sequel to the "Wilson Report, " does not contain any demographic statistics. Also see Public Archives of Canada, Canadian Archives in 1982: Survey of Heritage Institutions (1985) for some statistical summaries and tables. Two were national surveys of Canadian college and university archives done by the late Don Baird. Don Baird's Surveys were reported in the ACA Newsletter. Other special purpose surveys have been done in connection with graduate work in archives courses. A recent example is the Twenty-First Century Agora: A Survey of Heads of Repository on Attitudes to Charging Fees for Services in Canadian Archives (1995). It was undertaken by Steve Zoltai in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree in the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto.
4. Statistics about archivists and archival activities are also collected as part of the regular work of national, provincial, and territorial institutions but these are not published or accessible. The ACA's Ad Hoc Committee on Salaries and Job Descriptions is currently completing a job description and salary survey of members.
5. The frequency charts of responses are provided in Appendix A. The survey was a research proposal prepared for consideration by the Internal SSHRCC Grants Committee at the Faculty of Information Studies in the University of Toronto. The funds awarded ($2800) paid for the purchase of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, printing, postage, data entry, and analysis. I am grateful for the support of the faculty for this professional undertaking. The cost of doing subsequent surveys would be considerably less, I believe, because the basic questionnaire and programme for data entry and analysis have already been developed and are in place to be used. Postal costs would be negligible if the survey were undertaken electronically.
6. I am grateful to the ACA for providing the membership list for the survey.
7. To determine the appropriate sample size, we used a chart in Robert V. Krejcie and Daryle W. Morgan, "Determining Sample Size for Research Activities, " Educational and Psychological Measurement 30 (Autumn 1970), p. 608. To determine a minimum response rate we used Priscilla Salant and Don A. Dillman, How to Conduct Your Own Survey (New York, 1994). Their chart indicates that from a sample of 420, we needed 287 valid responses to satisfy a 95 per cent confidence level (with +/-3 per cent margin of error). This works out to a minimum response rate of 68.33%.
8. Keirsey Temperament Sorter. 8 Keirsey 1995. PN Books, Box 2748, Del Mar, CA, 92014, USA.
9. The protocol for the survey, the questionnaire, and letters were submitted to the university's ethics review committee to ensure that the process met the high standards of the research community in dealing with human subjects. This approval was received. 10. The questionnaire used for Canada is the same in virtually all respects to that administered by Ann Pederson in Australia in April-June 1998. I am grateful to Stephen Francom for assistance in the survey and the analysis. Stephen helped refine the questionnaire and administer the Canadian survey. He did the data entry and produced the frequency and cross-tabulation reports.
10. The temperament profile of Canadian archivists will be analysed in a paper, "Canadian Archivists: What Types of People are They?" which will be published in Archivaria 50.
11. The questions were especially pertinent to the Australian situation but were included to maintain consistency in the surveys.
12. A preliminary report of this survey was presented in the session "Cross, Type, and Match" at the ACA annual conference in Halifax, May 1998. Ann Pederson's extensive analysis of the Australian temperament data was presented at the Australian Society of Archivists conference in 1999. Her paper, "Understanding Ourselves and Others: Australian Archivists and Temperament, " is unpublished but is available from the author.
13. Experts in the field find that the four-part mail survey achieves high rates of response and our experience bears out this conclusion.
14. In retrospect, we would amend this question to distinguish the respondent's job/employment title from the profession to which they attribute their continuing affiliation.
15. A total of 33.3 per cent of respondents in the seventy-five-or-older age group chose archivist as the title for their employment.
16. In retrospect we would provide a way for these special situations to be more precisely identified.
17. Further questions asked in support might reveal the extent to which specialization has begun to penetrate the workplace.