Doughty on the Use and Utility of Government Information and Archives, 1933

  • Daniel German
  • Paulette Dozois

Abstract

In 1933, a Select Committee of Inquiry submitted a cost-cutting report to the federal government on the topic of government printing and publications. A copy of the report was sent to Dominion Archivist, Arthur Doughty. In his response to this report, Doughty attempted to convince the government of the benefits, uses and utility of archives, government records, and good information management. He did so through an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative, reporting on the many times that archives and government records had benefited the government. Doughty argued for the continued and continuing value of archival holdings. The criticisms he levied are familiar to modern users, the concerns he uttered are well-known, and his comments on the value of good records management could have been writtentoday. Indeed, some of his comments are just as applicable to modern digital copying. Doughty’s commentary speaks across the generations as archivists will easily agree with his views on appropriate pay, records preservation, and the value of archives.

RÉSUMÉ

En 1933, une commission spéciale d’enquête a soumis au gouvernement fédéral un rapport de réduction des coûts pour l’impression et la publication de documents gouvernementaux. Une copie de ce rapport a alors été envoyée à l’Archiviste du Dominion, Arthur Doughty. En réponse à ce rapport, Doughty a tenté de convaincre le gouvernement des avantages et de l’utilité des archives et des documents gouvernementaux, ainsi que d’une bonne gestion de documents. Pour ce faire, il a choisi comme instrument un récit presque sous la forme d’un monologue intérieur, dans lequel il relate de nombreux cas où le gouvernement a bénéficié des archives et des documents gouvernementaux. Doughty y défend la valeur continue et permanente des documents d’archives. Pour les personnes qui se servent présentement des archives, les critiques qu’a faites Doughty sont familières, les préoccupations qu’il avait sont bien connues et ses pensées sur la valeur d’une bonne gestion de documents auraient pu être écrites aujourd’hui. En fait, certains de ses commentaires peuvent tout aussi bien s’appliquer aujourd’hui à la reproduction numérique. Les observations de Doughty ne se limitent pas à son époque et les archivistes d’aujourd’hui seront facilement d’accord avec ses opinions sur le niveau de salaire approprié, la conservation des documents et la valeur des archives.

Author Biographies

Daniel German

Daniel German has been with Library and Archives Canada since the early 1990s, and has worked with both private and governmental records. At pres-ent he is Senior Archivist, Security and Justice Portfolio, Government Records Branch. He has previously published in a number of venues, including the Journal of Canadian Studies, Saskatchewan History, Revista Arhivelor/Archives Review, as well as Archivaria.

Paulette Dozois

Paulette Dozois began her career at the then Public Archives of Canada in 1977 working with the private records of politicians and prime ministers. Since 1981 she has been a government records archivist at Library and Archives Canada where she is currently senior archivist of the International Affairs Records Portfolio with particular responsibility for the records of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. She has held many positions within the ACA over the last thirty years and is presently Chair of the Special Interest Section on Access and Privacy Issues.

Published
2010-10-20
How to Cite
German, Daniel, and Paulette Dozois. 2010. “Doughty on the Use and Utility of Government Information and Archives, 1933”. Archivaria 70 (October), 177-96. https://www.archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13299.
Section
Study in Documents