Two days after the publication of Catherine Lalonde’s article on Marie Grégoire’s vision for the future at the head of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Carol Couture, former curator of BAnQ’s archives, wondered Saturday if the new president and chief executive officer, who wonders about the great digital shift undertaken by her predecessors, is not in the process of moving the institution she heads from locomotive to caboose. In other words, don’t we risk turning the flagship into a second-rank vessel?
BAnQ is the formidable reunion of two major documentary institutions (National Library and National Archives) whose resources have been pooled in order to give them the means to better serve all citizens of Quebec, wherever they are in the world. territory.
To this end, its leaders before Marie Grégoire have relied on the mass digitization of paper documents in order to optimize access to Québec’s archival heritage, which is moreover inspired by a global trend in this area. The work to be done is certainly still colossal, but BAnQ and the numerous archives services of Quebec have already got down to it, and the time is not to slow down the business. On the contrary, it must be encouraged, which does not seem to be the priority of the new CEO
The Premier of Quebec, François Legault, says he is proud of Quebecers who demonstrate innovation, dynamism and excelling. It is precisely in this spirit that the archivists of Quebec designed the Quebec Declaration on Archives (now the Universal Declaration by UNESCO) in which they have always asserted, since 2006, that every effort must be made to ensure that the exceptional the historical heritage of the community is made available to all Quebecers, by all present and future technological means. In practice, this means having remote access in a few clicks to documents that bear witness to the achievements of Quebec, its institutions, its businesses and its citizens. The “BAnQ experience” of which Marie Grégoire speaks should consist of a boost in digitization and not a slowing down. And his job is to get the resources to make it happen.
Let’s assume that she will correct the distressing first impression her remarks made to the journalist of the Duty. Let us hope that she sees big and knows how to give the prestigious ship she commands even more panache.