@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix dc: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Arts, Faculty of"@en, "Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Pitblado, Lisbeth J."@en ; dcterms:issued "2008-09-05T16:59:36Z"@en, "1993"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Master of Archival Studies - MAS"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description "The acquisition of records from environmental non-governmental organizations will be of increasing interest to archivists over the next few years. The impact of these organizations on our society is only beginning to be felt. Their records will form an important facet of our documentary heritage. This thesis studies the approaches which might be taken for the strategic acquisition of these records by archival repositories and programs. Environmental non-government organizations are examined in light of the development of the movement, the general structure of the organizations, and in greater detail through a survey of organizations in British Columbia. The results of this survey indicate the possibilities for successful acquisition of these records through cooperative interinstitutional strategies, acquisition strategies, and documentation strategies."@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/1656?expand=metadata"@en ; dcterms:extent "3800011 bytes"@en ; dc:format "application/pdf"@en ; skos:note "DEVELOPING AN ACQUISITION STRATEGY FOR THE RECORDS OFENVIRONMENTAL NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONSbyLISBETH JOY PITBLADOB.A., Wilfrid Laurier University, 1989A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFTHE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFMASTER OF ARCHIVAL STUDIESinTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIESTHE SCHOOL OF LIBRARY, ARCHIVAL, AND INFORMATIONSTUDIESWe accept this thesis as conformingto the required standardTHE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIAJULY, 1993© Lisbeth Joy Pitblado, 1993In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanceddegree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make itfreely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensivecopying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of mydepartment or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying orpublication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my writtenpermission.(Signature) Department of /^r^t^(iSThe University of British ColumbiaVancouver, CanadaDate^(1„,/- y i(riSDE-6 (2/88)ABSTRACTThe acquisition of records from environmental non-governmentalorganizations will be of increasing interest to archivists over the next fewyears. The impact of these organizations on our society is only beginningto be felt. Their records will form an important facet of our documentaryheritage. This thesis studies the approaches which might be taken for thestrategic acquisition of these records by archival repositories andprograms. Environmental non-government organizations are examined inlight of the development of the movement, the general structure of theorganizations, and in greater detail through a survey of organizations inBritish Columbia. The results of this survey indicate the possibilities forsuccessful acquisition of these records through cooperativeinterinstitutional strategies, acquisition strategies, and documentationstrategies.iiTABLE OF CONTENTSPageABSTRACT ^ iiTABLE OF CONTENTS^ iiiLIST OF TABLES ivLIST OF FIGURES^ vACKNOWLEDGMENTS viINTRODUCTION^ 1CHAPTER 1: PLANNING ARCHIVAL ACQUISITION^ 6CHAPTER 2: THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT 29CHAPTER 3: ENVIRONMENTAL NON-GOVERNMENTORGANIZATIONS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND THEIRRECORDS^ 44CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION: THE STRATEGIC ACQUISITION OFENVIRONMENTAL RECORDS^ 74BIBLIOGRAPHY^ 87APPENDIX A: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE^ 92111LIST OF TABLESTable^ PageTable 1.— The approach model of the Private Sector AcquisitionResearch Strategy Working Group ^ 22Table 2.—Relationship between geographic areas of operation andgeographic location of organizations (percentage oforganizations) ^ 52Table 3.—Relationship between extent of records and use of a filingsystem (percentage of organizations)^ 58Table 4.—Relationship between number of activities and extent ofrecords (percentage of organizations)^ 60Table 5.—Relationship between age of office and extent of records(percentage of organizations) ^ 61Table 6.—Relationship between location of office and extent ofrecords (percentage of organizations)^ 62Table 7.—Relationship between membership size and extent of records(percentage of organizations) ^ 63Table 8.—Relationship between value of records and extent of records(percentage of organizations) ^ 64Table 9.—Percentage of organizations choosing archival repositories,by geographic area of operation^ 69Table 10.—Percentage of organizations choosing archival repositoriesby geographic location of office^ 69Table 11.—Percentage of organizations willing to donate by value ofrecords^ 71ivLIST OF FIGURESFigure^ PageFigure 1. Number of paid employees^ 48Figure 2. Location of \"office\" 49Figure 3. Age of environmental non-government organizations andof responding offices^ 50Figure 4. Membership size of B.C. organizations^ 51Figure 5. Number of organizations involved in principal activities ^ 54Figure 6. Environmental organizations' adherence to the 3Rs^ 56Figure 7. Extent of records^ 57Figure 8. Preferred repository for the donation of records^ 67vACKNOWLEDGMENTSGrateful acknowledgment is extended to the B.C. EnvironmentalNetwork and participating ENGOs without whose support and cooperationthis thesis would not have been possible. I am also grateful for support formy research from a fund established by Shirley Spragge in honour offormer Ontario archivist, George Spragge. Thanks to Terry Eastwood andMary Sue Stephenson for the direction given in archival theory andquantitative studies. Special thanks to Hugh Taylor for unknowinglyinspiring me to study environmental organizations. Thanks forencouragement and support from other M.A.S. students and, of course, JeffPitblado.viINTRODUCTIONWe in this \"mediocre country\" have actually been foremost in terms ofecological awareness and action. Greenpeace came out of this country.The International Fund for Animal Welfare came out of this country, asdid Paul Watson [Sea Shepherd Conservation Society] and many others.There's been more ecological leadership coming out of Canada thanthere has been from any other comparable nation.'Reflecting society's ever increasing concern for the state of theenvironment is the growing awareness among archivists that recordsbearing information about the natural environment form a valuable portionof our documentary heritage. Records of various kinds can be utilized todocument the state of the environment, our stewardship of theenvironment, and societal debate about environmental policy. Archivalliterature has touched upon the first two of these three spheres throughexamining archival records as scientific resources on the state of pastenvironments 2 and through examining the appraisal of scientific records\"which reveal the age-old human desire to monitor, control and forecast(sometimes) unpredictable nature, including the actual data marshalled to'Farley Mowat, Rescue the Earth! (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart,1990), 82.2A.J.W. Catchpole and D.W. Moodie,^\"Archives and theEnvironmental Scientist\" Archivaria 6 (Summer 1978): 113-136.1support these aims.\"' This thesis focuses on an aspect of the third sphere,organizations in what is usually called the environmental movement.Environmentalists working in a plethora of organizations areresponsible for creating a valuable part of our documentary heritage. AsCandace Loewen puts it, \"the scientific record will not be complete unlesswe document the activities and findings of alternative, protest groups —such as anti-nuclear groups — as well as all concerned parties: local,provincial, national and international.\" 4 While environmental groups wereonce on the fringe of contemporary society, their influence is alreadywidespread. Canada's report to the Earth Summit in Brazil in 1992 speaksof this influence ranging \"from the decision to abandon the planned SpadinaExpressway in Toronto, to moratoriums on the development of uranium inBritish Columbia and Nova Scotia, to the establishment of importantprotected areas like South Moresby National Park in British Columbia andthe Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan.\"' As environmentalorganizations increase the range and influence of their activities, theirrecords become a potentially more important segment of our documentaryheritage. Before embarking on efforts to acquire environmental records, itis important to know more about the environmental movement and theenvironmentalists belonging to non-government organizations.3Candace Loewen, \"From Human Neglect to Planetary Survival: NewApproaches to the Appraisal of Environmental Records,\" Archivaria 33(Winter 1991-92), 95.4Loewen, \"Human Neglect,\" 100.'Canada, Canada's National Report, United Nations Conference onEnvironment and Development in Brazil, June 1992, ([Ottawa], 1991), 98.2Many of these groups are voluntary organizations. Some arise fromspecific concerns and disappear when they are resolved. Others reach forthe holistic healing of the earth, extending their influence into all cornersof the globe. Canada sketched its picture of environmental groups for theEarth Summit as follows:In 1991, there are approximately 1800 environmental groups in Canada.Most are small, local single-issue groups. They operate on smallbudgets and are usually staffed entirely by volunteers. Each provincehas at least one \"major\" group that has a focus on a broader range ofissues. Their libraries and staff serve as important resources for thesmaller groups. As well, there are over thirty national groups in Canada... The national groups can generally be sub-divided into a number ofmajor categories: parks, wilderness and wildlife groups, environmentaladvocacy groups dealing with issues like toxic chemicals and nuclearwaste, as well as groups pursuing changes through the courts. 6These organizations and the acquisition of the records they generate arethe subject of this study.Chapter 1 examines archival acquisition programs and the elementsthat contribute to their success. Strategic plans for acquisition —documentation strategies, acquisition strategies, and cooperativeinterinstitutional strategies — are considered with an eye towards theirapplication to the acquisition of records from environmental non-government organizations.Chapters 2 and 3 aim to build the necessary foundation for developinga strategic approach to the acquisition of environmental non-governmentorganizations' records. Chapter 2 reviews the development of theenvironmental movement and the general structure of environmental6Canada, Canada's National Report, 97.3organizations. Chapter 3 reports on the results of a survey ofenvironmental non-government organizations in British Columbia.There are several methods that might have been used for buildingbaseline information about environmental non-government organizations inBritish Columbia in order to develop strategies for acquiring their records.Archival research has included functional analyses of creator groups,diplomatic analyses, ethnographic studies, and quantitative surveys.?Functional analyses focus on building knowledge about records creators,while diplomatic studies concentrate on the formative processes and formsof records. Ethnographic studies and quantitative surveys are methods ofgathering information about any aspect of a subject with the precise focusvarying from study to study.The archivist developing an acquisition strategy for a targeted type oforganization will receive more assistance from a methodology thataccommodates gathering information about both records and creators. Themethodology chosen for this thesis is that of the quantitative survey. SusanHart has already demonstrated the value of the ethnographic approach tounderstanding records creators and their records keeping practices, but sheconcludes that \"as a qualitative approach, it achieved a good depth of'Examples of each of these methodologies are as follows: functionalanalysis, Donna Humphries, \"Canadian Universities: A Functional Analysis\"(Master of Archival Studies thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991);diplomatic analysis, Janet Turner, \"The Records of the United Church ofCanada: A Study of Special Diplomatics\" (Working title of Master ofArchival Studies thesis, University of British Columbia.); ethnographicstudy, Susan Hart, \"Archival Acquisition of the Records of VoluntaryAssociations\" (Master of Archival Studies thesis, University of BritishColumbia, 1989); quantitative survey, Valerie Billesberger, \"MunicipalRecords Keeping in British Columbia: An Exploratory Survey\" (Master ofArchival Studies thesis, University of British Columbia, 1990).4understanding of these associations, although the breadth of data madepossible by quantitative studies could not be achieved.\" She also observesthat \"it may be useful for the archival community to distribute aquestionnaire to a sample of voluntary associations.\" 8 This thesis may beregarded as taking up her suggestion for further study in the determinedrealm of environmental non-government organizations.In conclusion, Chapter 4 examines the results of the survey in light ofthe structure of the environmental movement and the different strategicapproaches that archival repositories and programs might take towards theacquisition of these records.Also included with this thesis are a selected bibliography and anappendix detailing the questionnaire sent to environmental non-governmentorganizations in British Columbia.8 Susan Hart, \"Archival Acquisition of the Records of VoluntaryAssociations,\" (Master of Archival Studies thesis, University of BritishColumbia, 1989), 137.5CHAPTER 1PLANNING ARCHIVAL ACQUISITIONModern complex societies are overflowing with an abundance ofinformation and records. Beyond government bureaucracy, the range oforganized human activity generating records is staggering. From this vastpotential, archivists are struggling to determine what to preserve andwhere and how best to preserve it in a world of limited resources foracquisition. Three methodological approaches are being developed byarchivists to address the question of acquisition. These approaches overlapin some respects, but all attempt to address the problems of limitedresources through careful planning of all acquisition activities.Documentation strategies focus on ensuring that adequate documentationon specified topics is created and preserved. Acquisition strategiesconcentrate on identifying the universe of existing records creators in agiven sphere and targeting those which a specific repository will attempt topreserve. Cooperative interinstitutional strategies focus on arationalization of institutional policies and programs to assist in the overallpreservation of the documentary heritage by all archival institutions andprograms in a given geographical area. Each of these strategic approachesmight be applied to the acquisition of records related to the environmentalmovement of the late twentieth century.6The acquisition of records is the first function, at least temporally, ofarchival institutions or programs.' Acquisition determines the documentaryheritage that is to be passed on to future generations. Acquisition byselection from among the records of a government or other organizationwhich an archival institution serves is one method. Acquisition of archivalfonds beyond such organizational scope is another. The latter type ofacquisition, non-institutional acquisition, is the focus of this study.An archival institution might acquire records through transfers fromits sponsoring body and by various means from other organizations orpersons. In most such situations, the primary responsibility of the archivalinstitution is to the records of the parent body. These records needappraisal and arrangement and description to make them accessible. Time isspent appraising for selection from among the mass of records created bythe sponsoring institution and bringing those accessioned under control.Given these responsibilities, it is necessary to work out very carefully whatthe sphere of acquisition will be beyond the parent body. There is a needfor strategically planned acquisition to provide efficiency in non-institutional acquisition activities.Because of institutional limitations on resources, non-institutionalacquisition programs need clear formulation and careful implementation.An acquisition program as a whole consists of an institutional mandatestatement, a complementary acquisition policy, and the development of'The other two being preservation and ensuring accessibility. RichardM. Kesner, \"Archival Collection Development: Building a SuccessfulAcquisitions Program,\" in A Modern Archives Reader: Basic Readings on Archival Theory and Practice, ed. Maygene F. Daniels and Timothy Walch(Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Service, 1984), 114.7specific strategies to carry out the policy. Further involvement incooperative interinstitutional strategies and documentation strategies mayalso benefit acquisition programs. The National Archives of Canadaprovides an illustration of the building of a complete acquisition program:legislated mandate, an acquisition policy, and the development ofacquisition strategies.Simply stated, a mandate is a statement of authority to administer amatter. The mandate of an archives may be part of legislation, as for publicarchives, or it may be a statement endorsed by the sponsoring institution.For example, the National Archives of Canada Act provides the authorityfor the National Archives to:conserve private and public records of national significance andfacilitate access thereto, to be the permanent repository of records ofgovernment institutions and of ministerial records, to facilitate themanagement of records of government institutions and of ministerialrecords, and to encourage archival activities and the archivalcommunity. 2This act provides the National Archives with the authority to preserve therecords federal government agencies, and to acquire non-governmentalrecords. Similarly, provincial and city archives often have combinedresponsibility to acquire, preserve, and make available records of thesponsoring government and non-governmental records falling within theiracquisition policy.This combination of government and non-governmental records in themandates of Canadian public archives, to reflect \"the total complexion ofsociety\" and \"the total life cycle of institutional records,\" in all media2National Archives of Canada Act, 1987, 35-36 Eliz. 2, c. 1, s. 4(1).8possible, is called the \"total archives\" concept. In its most completeformulation, the concept includes a network of all archives cooperating toacquire and preserve the archival heritage of the country. 3 Wilfred Smith,in his characterization of total archives in Canada, summarized the fourelements of the concept: \"all sources of archival material appropriate tothe jurisdiction of the archives are acquired from both public and privatesources\"; \"all types of archival material may be acquired\"; \"all subjects ofhuman endeavor should be covered by a repository in accordance with itsterritorial jurisdiction\"; and \"life cycle — there should be a commitment byboth the creator of the records and the archivist to ensure efficientmanagement of the records throughout the 'life cycle\". 4 The overall aim oftotal archives is to contribute to the building of as comprehensive adocumentary heritage as possible in a given geographic framework.There are many variations on the total archives concept. A recent oneof note is the Nanaimo Community Archives of Nanaimo, British Columbia.It is sponsored by the City of Nanaimo, Malaspina College, NanaimoCentennial Museum and Archives, and the Nanaimo Historical Society. Theaim of the Nanaimo Community Archives is to preserve the archives of itssponsors and of organizations, persons, and families of the region ofNanaimo. This idea of developing initiatives to serve localized communitieswas supported by the Wilson Report in 1980.3Terry Cook, \"The Tyranny of the Medium: A Comment on 'TotalArchives',\" Archivaria 9 (Winter 1979-1980), 141-142.4Wilfred I. Smith, \"'Total Archives': The Canadian Experience\"Archives et Bibliothêques de Belgique 57, 1-2 (1986), 341.9In many communities across Canada, there are a number of local bodieswith significant series of records. No one of those separate authoritiesmight be able to justify a full-time archivist or a suitable archivalfacility. But rather than each of them depositing records with a remotearchives, they might explore the possibility of a cooperative archives.The archives of a number of organizations — for example, university,municipality, business, union local, parish, association — might behoused together, sharing a good archival facility and the services ofprofessional staff.'Another local initiative along these lines has been proposed for theRegional Municipality of Waterloo in Ontario. 6Other archival programs preserve records of the sponsoring institutionand other organizations and persons. For example, most university archivespreserve the university's records and the records of other creators. Often,the non-institutional sphere is determined by the situation of the archivalprogram. When it is in the library, as many are in English Canada, 7 thepolicy for non-institutional acquisition is affected by the mandate of theuniversity and the role that the library fulfills. Essentially, the universitymandate is to promote research and the library exists to serve the needs ofthe faculty. In these cases, the acquisition policy may focus on the researchinterests of the academic community in a thematic configuration of somekind. For example, the Special Collections Division of the Library of the'Consultative Group on Canadian Archives, Canadian Archives: Report to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada by the Consultative Group on Canadian Archives (Ottawa: Social Sciencesand Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1980), 92.6Elizabeth Bloomfield, A Regional Archival System for Waterloo: Report of a Feasibility Study by Elizabeth Bloomfield for the Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation, (Guelph, 1991).\"'Ian E. Wilson, \"Canadian University Archives\" Archivaria 3 (1976-77), 17-27; Marcel Caya, ed., Canadian Archives in 1992 (Ottawa:Canadian Council of Archives, 1992),41-44.10University of British Columbia has a special focus on the records of thelabour movement in general and labour unions in particular. The UniversityArchives is quite separate in its policies from other acquisition undertakenby the Special Collections Division. In the university setting, there is oftenno obvious connection between the acquisition of records from the parentbody and non-institutional acquisition.Even though many archival institutions and programs have expressedacquisition policies in terms of themes of concentration, there are relativelyfew purely thematic archives in Canada. One example is the Canadian GayArchives located in Toronto. Its objective, as found in the Statement ofPurpose, is \"to aid in the recovery and preservation of [gay] history. It is arepository for all relevant, recordable information by and about gay menand lesbians, especially in Canada.\" The Canadian Gay Archives wasinitially established by The Body Politic, a national gay liberation journal.It incorporated as a separate entity in 1980 and is no longer sponsored bythe journal, or Pink Triangle Press which offered some financial supportbefore the incorporation of the Archives. The Archives continues topreserve the records of The Body Politic and Pink Triangle Press, inaddition to many other records, but it has established itself clearly as athematic archives.'Whatever the structure of a repository, non-institutional acquisitionsrequire a clear and concise acquisition policy for the archival program toavoid chaotic and ineffectual acquisitional activities. The acquisition policy'For a complete description of the establishment of the Canadian GayArchives see James A. Fraser and Harold A. Averill, Organizing an Archives: The Canadian Gay Archives Experience, Canadian Gay ArchivesPublication No. 8 (Toronto: Canadian Gay Archives, 1983).11of any repository is the element that determines the character andcohesiveness of non-institutional acquisitions. An acquisition policyidentifies the realm in which appraisal for selection is conducted. AsTimothy L. Ericson points out, \"the principles of appraisal help us toanswer the question, 'Why am I saving this?' — while acquisition policiesforce us to answer the equally important question, 'Why am I saving this?'\"By and large, the principles of institutional responsibility, complementarity,territoriality, and provenance rule the definition of acquisition policies.Institutional responsibility is a factor seriously affecting thedevelopment and review of non-institutional acquisition policies forrepositories that have followed the total archives concept. The BritishColumbia Archives and Records Service, for example, is responsible first tothe government of British Columbia for the preservation of its records.While historians and others may lament the loss, the provincial archives canno longer afford to acquire many private records. In 1990, Reuben Ware,then Deputy Provincial Archivist, made it clear that the institutionalresponsibilities of the provincial archives must come before active effortsto acquire private fonds. 1° In 1993 John Bovey, Provincial Archivist,reported to British Columbian archivists the continuation of a passive non-9Timothy L. Ericson, \"At the 'Rim of Creative Dissatisfaction':Archivists and Acquisition Development,\" Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92),68.°Reuben Ware, in panel discussion with Guy Robertson and KathleenKyle, \"Collecting Private Records: Present Policies and Future Directions,\"B.C. Studies Conference, University of British Columbia, 2-3 November,1990.12institutional acquisition policy for the provincial archives.\" The enactmentof freedom of information and protection of privacy legislation iscompounding the effect of institutional responsibility on the acquisition ofnon-institutional records. Large backlogs of unprocessed records areincompatible with the right of citizens to access records. Less time is,therefore, made available for non-institutional acquisitions.Where institutional responsibilities can be met and the resources areavailable for non-institutional acquisitions, the principle ofcomplementarity should prevail in the development of an acquisition policy.It is logical to acquire non-institutional records that complement those ofthe institution. Complementary fonds might be defined in an acquisitionpolicy by subject, theme, historical period, or bodies with which the parentwas related in some way. A complementary policy benefits both users andarchivists. Users researching the institution will find their researchexpanded by related records housed in the same repository. Archivists willfind that processing complementary fonds is assisted by contextualknowledge gained from previous accessions or accruals. In the universityenvironment, complementary acquisition might include the personal papersof past university presidents as an enhancement to the administrativerecords from the president's office. Public archives tend to basecomplementarity on the national (or provincial or municipal) significance ofthe creator.Complementarity can be reined in, if it ever loses its head to theinterconnectedness^of all^archives,^by^considering^territoriality.\"John Bovey, reporting to the annual general meeting of the ArchivesAssociation of British Columbia, Vernon, British Columbia, April 24, 1993.13Territoriality refers to the geographical area from which acquisitions willbe made. By defining the territory from which records will be acquired,archivists ensure that there are limits to acquisitions and conflicts withother repositories. In this way, two repositories in two different regionscan have the same acquisition policies without competing for the samerecords by limiting the geographic territory from which they will makeacquisitions. Territoriality is especially important when complementarity ina total archives is defined by significance, a term with \"no sliderule thatensure[s] impartiality\". 12 As the Wilson Report found:the collecting mandates, self-imposed or legislated, of these archivesoverlap entirely, with federal interest absorbing provincial interest, andthe latter absorbing local interests. Their mandates also overlap withthe archives which simply attempt to document their own institutions. 13Overlapping territories create competition and the greater chance of splitfonds. When developing acquisition policies, archivists require anawareness of not only other repositories' thematic or subject areas, but alsotheir geographic focus, in order to demarcate a territory which will notcreate \"the possibility of 'total war among total archives'.\" 14 The need forterritorial awareness is culminating in the establishment of cooperativeinterinstitutional strategies in the field of acquisitions. These strategies arediscussed in greater detail later.As institutional responsibility, complementarity, and territoriality setthe boundaries for the acquisition policy, the principle of provenance, as it12Robert S. Gordon, \"The Protocol of S.N.A.P. Demarcation ofAcquisition Fields\" Canadian Archivist 2, no.4 (1973), 53.°Consultative Group on Canadian Archives, Canadian Archives, 89.14Ibid, 64.14relates to acquisition, determines the players. All non-institutionalacquisition must eventually identify a class of creators that fits into thepolicy being defined. Given the unlikely possibility of the establishment ofa thematic environmental archives and the significance of environmentalnon-government organizations, it is important for archivists for recognizethat several configurations of acquisition policies might include theseorganizations as a class of creators from which records could be acquired.Following only territoriality and connecting it to provenance produces apolicy for the acquisition of records from all classes of creators, includingenvironmental non-government organizations, within the definedgeographic area. The organizations targeted might operate from theterritory defined or be operating to save that region. An archival institutionor program preserving records from natural resource industries could applythe principle of complementarity to add the class of environmentalorganizations to its acquisition policy. These organizations alsocomplement policies defined to preserve the records of social movements,voluntary associations, or if the parent body is itself involved in theenvironmental realm of activities. Many archival institutions or programsmight be involved in approaching environmental non-governmentorganizations depending on the specific configuration of their acquisitionpolicy.Regardless of the means for inclusion of environmental organizationsin an acquisition policy, archival institutions and programs would have tothen contact specific bodies within the acquisitional sphere. The next stepin a successful acquisition program involves the development of strategiesfor the implementation of the policy. Each of the three approachesformulated for the preservation of society's documentary heritage —15documentation^strategies,^acquisition^strategies,^and^cooperativeinterinstitutional strategies — might be successfully applied to theacquisition of records from environmental non-government organizations.The focus in recent archival literature has primarily been on thedevelopment of documentation strategies. Documentation strategy has beendefined as:on-going, analytic, cooperative approach designed, promoted, andimplemented by creators, administrators (including archivists), andusers to ensure the archival retention of appropriate documentation insome area of human endeavor through the application of archivaltechniques, the creation of institutional archives and redefinedacquisition policies, and the development of sufficient resources. Thekey elements in this approach are an analysis of the universe to bedocumented, an understanding of the inherent documentary problems,and the formulation of a plan to assure the adequate documentation ofan issue, activity, or geographic area. 15Acquisition strategies, which are intra-institutional, and cooperativeinterinstitutional strategies involve a number of the ideas of thedocumentation strategists, but the role of the archivist in the overallapproach to acquisition differs from that of the documentation strategist's.In drawing the line between acquisition strategies — both repositoryspecific and cooperative interinstitutional ones — and documentationstrategies, the role of the archivist needs to be clearly defined. Discussionsof the move from passive to pro-active archival acquisition and thedevelopment of strategies have had the tendency to redefine the archivist asthe recorder of history. F. Gerald Ham suggests that the new archivistmake use of various techniques: \"He can create oral history, he can\"Lewis J. Bellardo and Lynn Lady Bellardo, compilers, A Glossary for Archivists, Manuscript Curators, and Records Managers (Chicago: TheSociety of American Archivists, 1992), s.v. \"Documentation strategy.\"16generate a photographic record, and he can collect survey data.\" 16 Does amove away from passive custodianship necessarily require the archivist'sinvolvement in the creation of records?The role of the archivist has often been defined as that ofdocumenting society. Indeed, Richard Cox and Helen Samuels write that\"to successfully document society\" is \"the profession's firstresponsibility.\" 17 Hans Booms similarly indicates: \"It is the archivist alonewho has the responsibility to create, out of this overabundance ofinformation, a socially relevant documentary record.\" 18 The verb 'todocument', the documentation of society, and the creation of adocumentary heritage have all been interpreted differently by variousarchivists. To the documentation strategist, documenting society includesthe creation of documentation:Documentation strategies, however, do not start with surveys ofavailable material. They begin with detailed investigations of the topicto be documented and the information required. The concern is lesswhat does exist than what should exist. 1916F. Gerald Ham, \"The Archival Edge,\" in A Modern Archives Reader,ed. Maygene F. Daniels and Timothy Walch (Washington, D.C.: NationalArchives and Records Service, 1984), 330.\"Richard J. Cox and Helen W. Samuels, \"The Archivist's FirstResponsibility: A Research Agenda to Improve the Identification andRetention of Records of Enduring Value,\" The American Archivist 51(Winter and Spring 1988), 29. Italics in original.\"Hans Booms, \"Society and the Formation of a DocumentaryHeritage: Issues in the Appraisal of Archival Sources,\" Archivaria 24(Summer 1987), 77.19Helen Willa Samuels, \"Who Controls the Past,\" The AmericanArchivist 49 (Spring 1986), 120.17Others view the role of documenting society as simply meaning thepreservation of existing documents. Frank Boles presents the furtherargument that the archival responsibility to document society should be asecond priority, after service to the archivist's employing institution.\"Frank Burke also cautions against the interpretation of the archivist's rolepresented in Cox and Samuel's article. Burke sees their ideas fordocumentation strategies as a role in which \"instead of picking up thepieces from the societal terminal moraine, archivists attempt to control theglacier. \"21In addition to this difference in the role of the archivist in acquisitionand documentation strategies is the scope of the planning. Documentationstrategies, as they have been theoretically and ideally described, involve ajoint analysis of the existing gaps in documentation. With a team ofcreators, administrators, archivists, and others, the issue to be documentedis defined, all related types of documentation are assessed, and plans areset for the creation, collection, and retention of records. The scope of thestrategy is as large a topic as can be managed comfortably to accommodateas many of the interrelationships of creators as possible.A documentation strategy for the environmental movement wouldinvolve an analysis of environmental issues and the activities ofenvironmentalists and those who would oppose them. In examining themovement, the strategists would determine which aspects should be\"Frank Boles, \"Commentary,\" The American Archivist 51 (Winter andSpring 1988), 43.21Frank G. Burke, \"Commentary,\" The American Archivist 51 (Winterand Spring 1988), 51.18documented and how best to preserve the documentation. Currentdocumentation — books by and about environmentalists, newspaperarticles, environmental impact assessments, research on particularenvironmental subjects — would be examined to discover the gaps.Records created by environmentalists, environmental non-governmentorganizations, government agencies, scientists, native groups, forestrycompanies, and others would be needed to document the whole issue of thestruggle over the state of the environment.An acquisition strategy, on the other hand, is of more limited scope. Itis generally limited to one repository's acquisition policy, tends to involveonly archivists in contact with prospective donors, and concentrates onlyon the available archival documents. For example, an acquisition strategymight be developed to determine the best method for a university archivesto acquire the records of the environmental non-government organizationsin the city. The scope of this type of strategy need not be designed solelyfor the benefit of a single repository, in the spirit of competition ratherthan cooperation. As in documentation strategies, cooperation arises fromthe information gained from creators and the sharing of this informationwith appropriate repositories. This is the role of cooperativeinterinstitutional strategies: building upon the mandates, policies andstrategies of individual repositories and ensuring the documentation of allfacets of society without unnecessary competition.An acquisition strategy developed by a single archival institution orprogram is a plan which turns a policy into specific records creators to beapproached. The individuals and organizations are targeted through generalresearch of the classes of creators defined in the acquisition policy. Oncespecific creators are identified, further research into these creators results19in plans for how to approach them and successfully acquire records. Anacquisition strategy for the class of creators defined as environmental non-government organizations in Greater Vancouver would target Greenpeace,the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, and many others. Research intothese organizations would then assist in the formulation of tactics to beused in approaching each one.The National Archives of Canada is currently developing anacquisition strategy for non-institutional records similar to the conceptdiscussed above. 22 A development plan was established in 1989, whichaside from the necessary approaches to developing acceptable definitionsfor certain issues, delineated three basic steps: developing a strategicacquisition model, undertaking strategic acquisition research, andidentifying the strategic acquisition targets. 23 Strategic acquisition researchis taking place for both public and private records. Research intogovernment functions has produced the Government-Wide Plan for the Disposition of Records, 1991-1996. The Private Sector AcquisitionResearch Strategy Working Group has also outlined a model for the22For a summary of the developments in strategies at the NationalArchives, see Richard Brown, \"Records Acquisition Strategy and ItsTheoretical Foundation: The Case for a Concept of ArchivalHermeneutics,\" Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92): 34-56. The developmentplan is documented in National Archives of Canada Acquisition Strategy: ADevelopment Plan, 1989-1993, (Ottawa: National Archives of Canada,1989).23National Archives of Canada Acquisition Strategy, 33-35.20\"systematic and planned approach to the development of an acquisitionstrategy. \"24Table 1, on the following page, summarizes the approach model of thePrivate Sector Working Group. 25 Careful examination shows this to be aNational Archives of Canada configuration of the same factors outlined bythe Canadian Council on Archives for defining non-institutional collectingfields within an acquisition policy: \"fields may be defined by a combinationof the following: institutional or geographical boundaries; language;chronological units; cultural groups; professional or occupationaldisciplines or themes.\" 26 The National Archives' strategy for private recordsmust include such details as recommended for an acquisition policy sincethe essence of its policy is simply \"to develop a broad and comprehensivecollection by acquiring records of national significance in a planned andintegrated manner, according to predetermined appraisal criteria.\" 27Records of national significance are defined as \"those which document theCanadian experience\" in ways such as recording the national orinternational recognition of individuals or organizations, events and trends24\" Report of the Private Sector Acquisition Research StrategyWorking Group\" in National Archives of Canada, Historical ResourcesBranch, Preliminary National Archives Acquisition Strategy, (Draftdocument, January 1992), 1.25Ibid, Appendix A.26Canadian Council of Archives, Guidelines for Developing an Acquisition Policy (Ottawa: Canadian Council of Archives, 1990), 1.27National^Archives^of Canada,^Acquisition^Policy/Politique d'Aquisition, (Ottawa, 1988), s.2.21Table 1.— The approach model of the Private Sector Acquisition ResearchStrategy Working GroupSOURCE/CREATOR Who are the sources/creators?What are their interrelationships?What are their inherent biases or perspectives?FUNCTIONS/ACTIVITIES What functions and activities do we want to document?How do these relate to the functions and activities ofCanadian Civil Society?How do they relate to the functions and activities of theCanadian Federal Government?SUBJECTS/THEMES What are the broad subjects and themes of CanadianSociety?What subjects and themes of Canadian Society do wewant to document?SUB-THEMES/ISSUES What issues and events within these subjects/themes dowe want to document?GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS What is the relationship between geographical focusand national significance?PERIOD What is the relationship between period and nationalsignificance?What chronological frameworks can be used to view thedevelopment of Canadian Society?GOVERNMENTLINKAGESWhat is the relationship between the federalgovernment and the private sector in Canadian Society?What aspects of Canadian Society are best documentedin private as opposed to public archives?MEDIUM What is the relationship among media in documentingCanadian Society?What aspects of Canadian Society are best documentedfrom a multi-media perspective?22of broad, national scope, and documentation of the physical environment. 28Since the National Archives of Canada acquisition policy becomes no morespecific than this, it is necessary for the first steps of the acquisitionstrategy to clearly determine where the records of national significance areand then to use that strategic acquisition research to target specific classesof creators for acquisition. Environmental organizations working topreserve nationally significant areas of Canada could be targeted by thestrategy of the Private Sector Working Group. Further research wouldassist in developing plans for actually acquiring these records.The idea of a national acquisition strategy as described by theCanadian Council of Archives Acquisition Committee is different from theNational Archives' acquisition strategy and might be better termed acooperative interinstitutional strategy. In defining the concept, Chris Hiveswrites that \"a national acquisition strategy would allow us to reduce theareas of overlapping institutional collections policies ... [and] help identifymaterial currently 'falling through the cracks' in our collective acquisitionprogram.\" He lists a number of elements that the Committee's vision of anational acquisition strategy might include:concluding agreements on the repatriation or reproduction of certainholdings; distributing information on the value of archives and publiceducation; improving and developing legislation in the areas oftaxation, copyright, cultural property, access to information, etc., tohelp preserve archives; planning regional acquisition programs;developing a national publicity campaign; creating a bank ofconsultants; establishing a financial assistance program; use offoundations and other new sources of funding; publishing variousbrochures on topics such as creating acquisition networks, formulatingan acquisition policy, etc.28Ibid, s.4.2.23This lengthy list of ideas clearly illustrates that the Canadian Council ofArchives intends a cooperative interinstitutional strategy when using thephrase \"national acquisition strategy\". This is recognized at the end ofHives' article when he calls the CCA's strategy a \"national cooperativeacquisition strategy. \" 29Whatever its name, this type of archival strategy attempts to reducecompetition and increase cooperation among archival repositories in theformation of society's documentary heritage. When only one repository hasa policy directing interest in a fonds, donors are less likely to split theirarchives and donate to several repositories. The integrity of the fonds ispreserved. Without overlapping policies, newer repositories will berequired to examine other possible collecting areas, filling in the gaps ofthe documentary heritage. The ultimate goal of a national cooperativeinterinstitutional acquisition strategy is to strengthen the infrastructure ofarchival acquisition.A cooperative interinstitutional strategy for the records of theenvironmental movement would require a careful consideration of thegeographical influences on the creators. Environmentalists might work outof one location, but all of their activities might be focused upon another.For example, one of the driving forces behind saving the Tatshenshini areain the northwest corner of British Columbia is the Vancouver organization,Tatshenshini Wild. If a Toronto group fights to save British Columbianforests, should the records be acquired by a Toronto repository or one in29Chris Hives, \"The Canadian Council of Archives and theDevelopment of a National Acquisition Strategy,\" AABC Newsletter 2, no.2 (Spring 1992), 3-6.24British Columbia? Other possibilities to consider are organizations thatmight first gain local significance for their activities, but the momentum ofthe issue carries the organization to a level of national or internationalsignificance. Some organizations have branches across the country andaround the world. Cooperation among repositories is needed to determinewhere best to preserve the records of these organizations, withoutinstitutions fighting to acquire them and meanwhile losing them altogethershould the organization disband and its volunteers disappear with therecords. An interinstitutional strategy would ensure the documentation ofthe environmental movement by preserving environmental archives in themost appropriate locations.The key to the implementation of any strategy is knowledge.Documentation strategists gather information on the topic to bedocumented and the level of documentation that currently exists. AsSamuels writes: \"With a knowledge of the phenomenon and anunderstanding of the documentary problems, goals can be formulated toensure the documentation of the topic.\"\" An acquisition strategy, on theother hand, requires knowledge of creators and their records. RichardBrown summarizes his view of the distinction between documentationstrategies and what he calls records acquisition strategies along these samelines:\"The former concentrates on a selection process determined by thecapacity of records to recall or reflect certain pre-ordained subjectivecategories and qualities; the latter concentrates on a objectivedetermination of archival value emerging from an analysis of records\"Helen W. Samuels, \"Improving Our Disposition: DocumentationStrategy,\" Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92), 126.25creators and indigenous patterns of records organization andadministration. \"31Cooperative interinstitutional strategies require a knowledge of otheracquisition policies, what has been acquired, or where a sphere of contactsis being made by various institutions.Without an awareness of creators and record keeping practices,acquisition can be \"a selection process so random, so fragmented, souncoordinated, and even so often accidental.\" 32 All acquisition involvesappraisal considerations. Victoria Blinkhorn, in her thesis on appraisingartists' records, discusses the \"education\" of the archivist in the fourphases of appraisa1. 33 Her analysis regarding appraisal education and non-institutional records applies to all acquisition. The first phase concerns aneducation \"about the society in which the records to be appraised weregenerated.\" 34 When defining an acquisition policy and developing strategiesfor the acquisition of non-institutional records, an archival institution orprogram must next learn about the classes of records creators falling withinthe scope of the policy: \"The life, activities, ideas, spirit, and any otherelement that may shed light on the personality and work of the person who31Brown, \"Records Acquisition Strategy,\" 36.32Ham, \"Archival Edge,\" 326.33Victoria Blinkhorn, \"The Records of Visual Artists: Appraising forAcquisition and Selection,\" (Master of Archival Studies thesis, Universityof British Columbia, 1988), 42-46.34Ibid, 43. Blinkhorn is in agreement with Hans Booms who writesabout \"measuring the societal significance of past facts by analysing thevalue which their contemporaries attached to them\" in \"Society and theFormation of a Documentary Heritage,\" Archivaria 24 (Summer 1987),104.26created the records.\" 35 When the creator concerned is an organization, theeducation extends to mandates, organizational structures, and functions.The third phase of appraisal outlined by Blinkhorn involves thedevelopment of an understanding of \"the activities which generated therecords and the types of records these activities produce.\" 36 These firstthree phases run in concert with the knowledge and understanding thatneed to be acquired before any records are. Knowledge in these areas is theblueprint for developing an acquisition strategy. This study aims to providethe knowledge needed to acquire records from environmental non-government organizations.The end of acquisition education is the acquisition of archival records.The knowledge that is acquired about society, creators, and records istranslated into the receipt of materials in the repository. The developmentof a strategic approach to the acquisition of records from environmentalorganizations needs a stronger base of knowledge upon which to stand.Despite the importance of these organizations to today's society, fewrecords have been acquired by archival repositories. 37 As the environmentalmovement continues to gain political and social momentum, archivists willwant to acquire records which document the organizations behind it.Patrick M. Quinn notes that acquisition policies change only after\"significant shifts in prevailing societal values.\" He continues,35Blinkhorn, \"Visual Artists,\" 43-44.36Ibid, 44313ritish Columbia Archives and Records Service, for example, holdsrecords from only one environmental non-government organization of thelast twenty years of environmental concerns.27in a period of nascent political or societal ferment, documentationgenerated by individual or organizational agents of change tends to beignored by general archives. When the movements for change reach a'threshold' and have sufficiently loosened the pervasive grip ofprevailing ideology and forcefully called attention to the importance ofpreviously scorned or neglected documentation, collecting oftenbegins. \" 38When archival institutions and programs reach this point and prepare todocument the activities of environmental organizations, they will need toeducate themselves about the creators and their records. Through a surveyof literature on the environmental movement and environmentalorganizations, and through strategic acquisition research in the form of asurvey of organizations in British Columbia, we may gain an understandingof strategic approaches to the acquisition of these records.38Patrick M. Quinn, \"Archivists Against the Current: For a Fair andTruly Representative Record of Our Times\" Provenance 5, no.1 (Spring1987), 3.28CHAPTER 2THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTPart of the success of the movement has been due to its skilful divisionof labour between different groups with different talents and interests,serving different functions on different levels with different techniquesand in different tones of voice.'To facilitate an understanding of the records of environmentalorganizations for the development of strategic plans for the acquisition ofthese records, it is useful to examine the historical development of themovement, its ideological or philosophical orientations, and itsorganizational makeup.The environmental movement can be viewed as another part of theongoing philosophical relationship of Homo Sapiens with the planet, anoutgrowth of the conservation movement of the late nineteenth century, orsomething new given birth to by a combination of events in the 1960s. Theheight of the movement is often declared to have been Earth Day 1970.Whichever history is ultimately attached to the current proliferation ofenvironmental organizations, they all bear examination for the developmentof an understanding of today's environmentalists.The relationship between mankind and nature has been evolving forseveral millennia and has been under the examination of scholars in several'Max Nicholson, The New Environmental Age (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1987), 73.29disciplines. 2 The current environmental movement is one of the manyresponses to wilderness along the spectrum of wilderness as a resourceunder our control, to being one with wilderness. Many of the stagesthrough which the relationship between mankind and nature have passedthroughout history remain as beliefs for various segments of modernsociety.The beliefs of radical environmentalists, removing the boundariesbetween humans and the natural world built by influences such as Judeo-Christian thought and the scientific revolution, harken back to theanthropological understanding of mankind's earliest relationship with thenatural world. Before the dawn of agriculture, nature was revered as theGreat Mother who nurtures all life. The Earth Mother was latertransformed into earth and vegetation goddesses of various pantheons. Shecontinues to exist in modern folklore as Mother Nature. Manyenvironmentalists have recaptured this sense of the planet as a living being.The Gaia Hypothesis, first discussed by James Lovelock, is evident inenvironmental literature through phrases such as \"raping\" the planet. 3With the move from hunter/gatherer societies into agriculturalcommunities, mankind's relationship with nature changed dramatically.Instead of a personified earth providing humans with food, mankind could2One of these examinations, and from which this discussion isprimarily drawn, is that of Max Oelschlaeger, The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology (New Haven: Yale University Press,1991).3Lovelock's works include Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth (New York: Norton, 1988), Healing Gaia: Practical Medicine for the Planet (New York: Harmony Books, 1991).30now force the earth to produce his necessary resources. From a wanderingof the sacred earth, mankind settled into a home which was distinct fromwilderness. Fields were planted which had been cleared by man for hispurposes.Mankind's relationship with nature continued in its development withan increasing dualism. No longer one with the earth, Western civilizationwas built upon beliefs that mankind was created as lord of the beasts torule and subdue them. Humans became further separated from nature byearly Christian thought, which preached a fallen world with God andheaven beyond it. Nature became a wilderness which required conquering.Modernism, arising in the Renaissance, built upon this Judeo-Christianfoundation. Max Oelschlaeger describes modernism as \"analogous toalchemy, for through science, technology, and liberal democracy modernpeople hoped to transform a base and worthless wilderness intoindustrialized, democratic civilization. \" 4At the end of this long line of thought regarding mankind'srelationship with nature and wilderness stands representatives of its stages,even within the scope of the environmental movement viewed as a whole.\"Resource conservationists\" view wilderness as a collection of parts in anecomachine. Under proper human control, resources will always beavailable to meet our needs. \"Preservationists\" approach nature holisticallywith the realization that human action can cause irreversible damage andthat wilderness areas \"ought to be preserved because future generationswill enjoy it.\" Beyond these two groups lie \"ecocentrists\", \"deep4Oelschlaeger, Idea of Wilderness, 68.31ecologists\", and \"ecofeminists\". Each circles back to early thought, humansas part of the natural world, not ruling over it, and the earth asfundamentally feminine. 5This cosmological spectrum of the environmental movement rangesfrom a primarily anthropocentric view of the world to an ecocentric viewof nature. Anthropocentrism is a world view centred on mankind. Natureexists for his use and is seen in terms of resources and economic benefits.Biocentrism views all life, not just that of Homo Sapiens, as the centralfact of existence. Ecocentrism takes biocentrism one step further andcentres its world view on natural systems, which contain both organic andinorganic components.Environmental organizations have been set up to meet the goals of allof these views. Resource conservationists are anthropocentric. The naturalenvironment is valuable and must be managed carefully to get the highestreturn possible for mankind. The phrase \"sustainable development\" isimportant to resource conservationists since development is a key factor inmodern industrial society. 6 Biocentric organizations tend to focus on thepreservation of endangered species without concern for habitatpreservation. Ecocentrically shaped organizations aim to preserve entirenatural systems and not just the species within them. What is beingpreserved through efforts supported by these world views, however, is notalways a clear indication of the beliefs involved. For example, one mightinterpret the preservation of the wetlands by Ducks Unlimited not as the5lbid, 286-316.6Others have noted that \"sustainable development\" is an oxymoron.They believe that one cannot sustain and develop simultaneously.32preservation of a holistic, natural system, nor the protection of endangeredwaterfowl, but rather as the preservation of duck hunting season formankind's pleasure.The environmental movement expanded and fragmented into a varietyof organizations throughout its development over the last century. It iscommonly believed that the current environmental movement is \"simply anextension of the 70-year-old conservation movement by another andbroader name,\" but Richard Andrews, a professor in natural resource policyand management, maintains that this is not so. 7The conservation movement began with the closing of the westernfrontier in the United States. A concern developed for the preservation ofland which still held the wild spirit of the frontier. Early conservationistswanted to keep some land for hikes and retreats from the busy world. Themove to establish national parks dates from this same time period. The endof the nineteenth century, however, already saw the movement fragmenting\"into warring factions of utilitarians and preservationists.\" 8 In the UnitedStates, the utilitarians were represented by the founder of the ForestService, Gifford Pinchot, who saw conservation as \"a comprehensive andwell-planned management of natural resources of every character, based on'Richard N.L. Andrews, \"Class Politics or Demographic Reform:Environmentalism and American Political Institutions,\" Natural Resources Journal 20 (April 1980), 225.8Stephen Fox, The American Conservation Movement: John Muir and His Legacy (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1981), 115.33sound ethical and economic grounds.\" 9 The preservationists wererepresented by people such as John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club.The modern environmental movement, by contrast, arose fromconcerns about pollution. The publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962 heightened awareness of the damage being done to the planet andfueled a response in the shape of the environmental movement.\") The notionof preserving wilderness was expanded upon with the understanding thathumans were in the process of actively destroying wilderness. Long-standing conservation organizations, like the Sierra Club, transformedthemselves into environmental organizations with new concerns to address.The differences between these two movements is best seen throughtheir approaches to solving their particular problems. The conservationmovement in the United States worked with the government on natureissues and saw new government agencies established, one after the other,to take care of arising concerns. The environmental movement, with itsnew set of concerns, sought \"changes in (and coordination of) the behaviorof existing agencies rather than merely the creation of a new one.\"\"Differences with the established and ongoing conservation movementincluded changes in the way in which the relationship between mankind andnature was to be viewed:The environmental movement's leaders differentiated themselves fromtraditional conservationists as being more concerned with the totalenvironment than with single issues, with the human environment9Nicholson, Environmental Age, 34.mRachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962).\"Andrews, \"Class Politics,\" 231.34(including health and urban issues) than with strictly outdoor and backcountry preservation, with grassroots organizing than with nationalinterest groups, and with challenging centralized business andgovernmental power than with working through that power system toachieve elitist goals. 12This last of the differences, challenging the system rather than workingwith it, is a theme which arises again and again in the literature onenvironmentalists.Environmentalists of all stripes are asking society to change variousaspects of its behaviour. The intensity of change requested varies and hasled to the notions of deep and shallow ecology. Shallow ecology,sometimes called reformist environmentalism, has been defined as \"severalsocial movements which are related in that the goal of all of them is tochange society for 'better living' without attacking the premises of thedominant social paradigm.\" 13 The term \"deep ecology\" originates in Norwaywith Arne Naess. It has also been called \"eco-philosophy\", \"foundationalecology\", and \"new natural philosophy\". 14 Deep ecology is not a\"pragmatic, short-term social movement\" since it \"seeks transformation ofvalues and social organization.\"\" Deep ecologists place those they view asanthropocentric environmentalists — the parks movement, the citybeautiful movement, resource conservation and development, zeropopulation growth advocates, and others — on the shallow side ofenvironmentalism. Deep ecologists maintain that people who try to solve12Ibid, 232.13Bi11 Devall, \"The Deep Ecology Movement,\" Natural Resources Journal 20 (April 1980), 302.\"Ibid, 299.\"Ibid, 303.35environmental problems by working within the current system areultimately only further contributing to the problem. For deep ecologists,the current system, which is the source of the problem, is shaped by theduality of modernism. Drawing upon elements of Zen Buddhism, NativeAmerican thought, and philosophers of nature such as Thoreau and Muir,deep ecologists challenge the very basis of the current social system by\"seeking a new metaphysics, epistemology, cosmology, and environmentalethics of person/planet.\" 16The separation of radical environmentalism, whose participantsembody the spirit of deep ecology, from the larger environmentalmovement occurred at the end of the 1970s. The same decade which beganwith Earth Day and the push for responsible actions towards theenvironment, ended with the birth of Earth First! and increasing acts ofecotage, sabotage for the preservation of wilderness. Radicalenvironmentalists view their counterparts as the reform environmentalmovement which \"entered the seventies as a vague critic of our society andexited as an institution, wrapped in the consumerism and politicalambitions it once condemned.\"\"Radical environmentalists separated themselves from reformenvironmentalists by spiking trees, destroying logging equipment, andpulling up survey stakes. Inspired by characters in Edward Abbey's novel' 6Ibid, 299.\"Christopher Manes, Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990), 65.36The Monkey Wrench Gang,\" Earth First! caught the attention of the publicby symbolically cracking the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona in 1981. Aroundthe same time in Canada, Paul Watson established the Sea ShepherdConservation Society to \"take direct action in defense of threatened marinemammals around the world without the bureaucratic restraints ofGreenpeace and the mainstream environmental movement.\" 19 Direct action,known as ecotage to its proponents and vandalism to its opponents, isdefended as a form of self-defense:If our selves belong to a larger self that encompasses the wholebiological community in which we dwell, then an attack on the trees,the wolves, the rivers, is an attack upon all of us. Defense of placebecomes a form of self-defense, which in most ethical and legal systemswould be ample grounds for spiking a tree or ruining a tire. 2°One of the potential benefits of the ecotage controversy for theenvironmental movement as a whole is that organizations like Earth First!\"make the mainstream environmental groups operate more effectively bymaking them appear reasonable in comparison.\" 21The environmental movement, as has been shown, is really composedof off-shoots which have grown in slightly different directions within theoverall context of preserving wilderness. These fragments, particularly thedirect action branch, have had an impact on the internal development ofenvironmental organizations.\"Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang (New York: Avon Books,1976)°Manes, Green Rage, 109.20Ibid, 177.21Ibid, 70.37The development of the internal structural dimension of environmentalorganizations is similar to that found in previous archival research onvoluntary associations. The general pattern of development has been thesame as the life cycle of many voluntary organizations. 22 Environmentalorganizations tend to begin at the voluntary, activist, grassroots level. Likeother voluntary associations, they gradually become more formalized, somereaching a stage of institutionalization where almost all of their voluntarynature has been lost.The ongoing bureaucratization of the environmental movement hasbecome a growing concern for some of its participants. Greenpeace is oftentouted as a prime example of an environmental organization which has losttouch with its activist roots. Over the twenty years of its existence,Greenpeace has transformed from a voluntary, primarily activistorganization into \"a multinational eco-corporation.\" 23 Greenpeacesupporters have countered these accusations:Direct action remains the central theme of Greenpeace operations. Thisneeds to be stated clearly because there is a current media cliché thatGreenpeace is turning its back on such tactics and is becoming a morebureaucratic, softer version of its earlier radical self. This isdemonstrably untrue; the number of direct actions continues in anupwards spiral. What is true is that, in recent years, such actions havebeen backed up by sophisticated political lobbying and scientificenquiry that have added strength to the organization's dramatic callsfor change. 2422 Susan Hart, \"Voluntary Associations,\" 22-25.23Paul Watson, as cited in Martin Dunphy, \"The Greenpeace Giant,\"The Georgia Strait (Vancouver, B.C.), 13-20 September 1990, 7.24Michael Brown and John May, The Greenpeace Story (Scarborough:Prentice-Hall Canada, 1989), 5.38This development of voluntary organizations into formal bureaucracies isnot always considered beneficial by members of environmentalorganizations for one prime reason. Paul Watson, founder of the SeaShepherd Conservation Society, a direct action organization that hasrammed whaling ships, maintains that \"his organization — and many others— gets more results for less money\" than the giant bureaucracy calledGreenpeace. 25Similar transformations have occurred in other Canadianenvironmental organizations, as membership lists grew and handlingbudgets required more administrative skills. Monte Hummel, co-founder ofPollution Probe in Toronto, current president of World Wildlife FundCanada, recalls an example of the bureaucratic development ofenvironmental organizations:I got more and more involved in organizational thinking; raising themoney; the budgeting; working with people; realizing that so-and-so isa nice person but is totally ineffective; that Probe wasn't just a club, wehad some sort of responsibility to our supporters to make progress onthe issues. 26As voluntary organizations grow, some degree of formalization isinevitable.The load of administrative tasks which develop with the formalizationof small organizations has led to at least three different responses forCanadian environmental organizations. The first of these is the collapse ofthe organization. Members see all of the money and time pouring into25Martin Dunphy, \"The Greenpeace Giant,\" The Georgia Strait (Vancouver, B.C.), 13-20 September 1990, 8.26Monte Hummel, interview by Farley Mowat, Rescue the Earth!, 34.39administrative tasks rather than saving wildlife and/or habitat. In the shiftfrom a voluntary nature to a formal structure, many groups lose theirsupport base because of increasing administrative costs, and consequentlyfold.Concern over administrative loads led to the formation of theInternational Wildlife Coalition (IWC), an effort to diminish the problem ofcollapsing organizations. Stephen Best of IWC in Canada summarizes thepredicament facing environmental organizations: \"Small organizations justget overwhelmed with the administration. That's what kills them.\" 27 IWCwas formed as an umbrella group to take the strain of administration offthe shoulders of struggling environmentalists, giving them the opportunityto promote their goals while IWC does the paperwork.The third response to bureaucratization which has been noted inCanada is exemplified by ARK II, a Toronto based animal rightsorganization. Like many other organizations which begin to grow, it had toput more time into \"becoming a Canadian environmental institution\" whilethe work for animals \"lessened in direct proportion to the growing size ofthe institution.\" 28 The response of ARK II was not that of simply falling bythe wayside. Vicki Miller summarizes how ARK II survivedbureaucratization:Eventually the really committed people began to drift away and ARKII started to break down. In order to revive it we had to abandon theoffice and spread things out among volunteers. Within three months theaction level was going up again. We were not sitting in the officetrading mailing lists and processing coupons and doing all that stuff.27Stephen Best, interview by Farley Mowat, Rescue the Earth!, 242.28Vicki Miller, interview by Farley Mowat, Rescue the Earth!, 123.40We were doing direct action. So we decided we would abandon thebureaucracy entirely. 29Rather than letting the evolution from grass roots activism to formalizationstifle it, ARK II chose to revert to its voluntary nature.The above examples illustrate a polarization which Eyerman andJamison noted developing in the environmental movement as it progressedfrom the 1970s into the 1980s.\" As the movement grew and moreorganizations were formed to deal with environmental issues, they becamemore specialized in their concerns. With a growth in the political dimensionof environmentalism, the movement split apart. Eyerman and Jamisondescribe this dichotomy as a split between \"value\" orientedenvironmentalists and \"success\" oriented environmentalists. The formerincludes the deep ecologists and those whose concern is over a change inthe cosmology of society, away from the dominant social paradigm. Thelatter type of environmentalist is generally more interested in alternatetechnologies and stopping environmentally harmful activities than inalternate value systems.Eyerman and Jamison illustrate this split in the environmentalmovement through its effect at the organizational level. Environmentalorganizations can be divided into the \"value\" oriented environmentalistswho have amateur groups with a \"grass roots epistemology\" and the\"success\" oriented environmentalists who have \"taken on the mantle of29Ibid, 123-124.\"Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison, \"Environmental Knowledge as anOrganizational Weapon: The Case of Greenpeace,\" Social Science Information 28, no.1 (1989), 102-103.41professionalism.\" 3 ' Greenpeace, for example, evolved from its grass rootsinto a highly professional organization that will not use volunteers in thekey positions of business, advertising, and media, or in the office. 32 ARKII, on the other hand, chose to retain the value direction and direct actionactivities not possible for them in a professional bureaucracy.A similar dichotomy among environmental organizations has beendescribed as a split between \"institutional groups\" and \"issue-orientedgroups.\" Like the success-oriented environmentalists described above,institutional groups have \"elaborate organizational structures, possess astable membership and have an extensive knowledge of the branches ofgovernment which affect their interests. \" 33 Issue-oriented groups,recognized by names such as \"Friends of ...\" when the issue is sitespecific, 34 deal only with one or two specific issues and tend to bevoluntary. Being \"generally not as well organized\" such groups tend not tobe permanent and expire when the key issue does. 3531Ibid, 103.32Ibid, 105.33W.R. Sewell, Philip Dearden, and John Dumbrell, \"WildernessDecisionmaking and the Role of Environmental Interest Groups: AComparison of the Franklin Dam, Tasmania and South Moresby, BritishColumbia Cases,\" Natural Resources Journal 29 (Winter 1989), 150-151.34Paul Griss, \"A Forester's Guide to the Environmental Movement\"The Forestry Chronicle 68, no.2 (April 1992), 241. Griss is executivedirector of the Canadian Nature Federation.35 Sewell, Dearden and Dumbrell, \"Wilderness Decisionmaking,\" 151.42The above discussion illustrates many of the complexities of theenvironmental movement and the organizations involved. Environmentalorganizations are both voluntary and professional. They are involved insuch a wide range of activities that, even at the voluntary level, it isdifficult to associate them with any one of Susan Hart's functionalcategories of voluntary associations. 36 While archivists may be inclined toapproach all of the organizations as one segment of society, they need toremember the context from which individual organizations arose. It hasbeen said that \"part of the success of the movement has been due to itsskilful division of labour between different groups with different talentsand interests, serving different functions on different levels with differenttechniques and in different tones of voice.\" 37 Nonetheless, all of thesedifferences comprise what is generally considered to be one largemovement to preserve the natural environment. When considering theacquisition of their records, archivists need to remember that eachorganization has its own history, philosophy, and organizational structure.Awareness of these dimensions can increase understanding of thecircumstances in which records are created and maintained. Thisknowledge, when coupled with baseline data regarding the records keepinghabits of environmental organizations and their understanding of archives,can aid archivists in the formulation of acquisition strategies.36Susan Hart, \"Voluntary Associations,\" 25-26. The overlappingcategories are (1) political action associations, (2) professional oroccupational associations, (3) research associations, (4) economicassociations, (5) religious associations, (6) service associations, (7) self-help associations, and (8) social associations.37Nicholson, Environmental Age, 73.43CHAPTER 3ENVIRONMENTAL NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS INBRITISH COLUMBIA AND THEIR RECORDSA survey was conducted in the spring of 1992 of environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs) in British Columbia to assist in thedevelopment of strategic plans for the acquisition of their records. Byexamining baseline data,' it was hoped that the foundational knowledgewould be captured for the development of acquisition strategies,documentation strategies, and cooperative interinstitutional strategies, andthat the possibilities for the implementation of these plans might berealized.The theoretical population for this study is ENGOs in Canada. 2 Thestudy population involves environmental organizations that are members ofthe B.C. Environmental Network. The Network, which has operated formore than ten years, is a network of \"public interest, non-profitorganizations in B.C. concerned with environmental integrity.\" 3 The B.C.1Baseline data is data gathered at a basic standard level to gainfamiliarity with a phenomenon and to accurately describe characteristics ofa phenomenon. Baseline data becomes the foundation for further studies.2Theoretical population is the broader collection of things thatconstitute the focus of a study. A study population is a subset of thetheoretical population. It comprises the actual population from which thesample is drawn and from which data are gathered.3The British Columbia Environmental Directory, (Vancouver: BritishColumbia Environment Network, 1990), ii.44Environmental Network maintains a database of information aboutenvironmental non-government organizations, government departments andagencies responsible for administering aspects of the environment, nativeorganizations, and labour and industry associations. The study populationconsists of only the non-government organizations within the Network'sdatabase as of March 1992.In selecting the study population, the assumption is that onlyorganizations well enough established to have generated some recordsqualify. Being well established cannot be defined in terms of number ofyears, but rather is a factor of the organizational strength of the group.Some groups may become well organized within a few months and haveavailable a contact person and mailing address for the B.C. EnvironmentalNetwork database. Roughly estimated, there are some six hundredenvironmental organizations in British Columbia. Of this number,approximately four hundred are known by the B.C. Environmental Networkand included in their database of ENGOs, government agencies, and otherassociations; 196 of these are considered, for present purposes, to beENGOs. Not in the database are organizations slower to develop to a moreformal stage, or choosing not to develop in such a manner, and without amailing address or contact person. Groups excluded might be those whichare very short-lived working primarily on ad hoc direct action in responseto very specific short-term issues, small environmental committeesconnected to businesses, neighbourhood groups, and groups preferring aloose and informal structure with the belief that more will be accomplished45with such a setup. 4 These organizations may generate some valuablerecords, but they are difficult to locate.A questionnaire was designed to ask about the structure and activitiesof each organization, their record keeping practices, and their receptivityto archival preservation. It was felt that this set of questions would provideselected baseline data on environmental organizations in British Columbia,as well as an indication of the possibilities for the archival acquisition oftheir records. The questions used in this survey can be found in AppendixA.The questionnaire was mailed to all 196 environmental non-government organizations found in the B.C. Environmental Networkdatabase. A follow-up mailing to the non-respondents was performed onceto attempt to increase the number of returns. Of the 196 questionnairesmailed, 107 of those returned were acceptable for inclusion in this studyand are referred to as the respondents. This 54.6 percent response rateprovided an overall sampling error of ±6.5 percent at a confidence level of95 percent. For comparisons of two variables it was decided not to performa test of statistical significance on the available data because of therelatively small sample size and the large number of attributes for eachcombination of variables.The discussion that follows, therefore, is held with the awareness thatthe nature of the study does not permit the generalization of the results toa larger theoretical population, although it is possible to generalize fromthe sample to the study population. Further studies with larger sample4Telephone^conversation^with^Anne-Marie^Sleeman,^B.C.Environmental Network Coordinator, June 7, 1993.46populations are needed to arrive at statistically reliable conclusionsapplicable to the general population. Nonetheless, the study is valuable forthe development of conceptual acquisition strategies for the records ofENGOs. The results are considered in light of the analysis of environmentalorganizations presented in chapter two and the implications for acquisitionare discussed in greater detail in chapter four.Environmental OrganizationsThe results of the questionnaire provide a thumbnail sketch of thetypical ENGO in British Columbia. Data analysis shows that the structuraldevelopment of the organizations is largely in the voluntary stage,indicating a greater presence of Eyerman and Jamison's value-orientedenvironmentalists and Sewell's issue-oriented groups. 5 An examination ofthe functions and activities of the respondents verifies the prominence ofthese types of organizations in the province.The voluntary nature of most environmental organizations in BritishColumbia is clearly shown by the variables determining the number of paidemployees and the location from which the organization operates. Of therespondents, 70.2 percent have no paid employees and operate solely bythe grace of volunteers; 61.2 percent of the ENGOs have no formal officeand operate out of a member's home (see figures 1 and 2). Only a smallnumber have evolved from a volunteer format into a formal, more5 See pp.41-42 for a discussion of these terms.47professional organization of \"success\" oriented environmentalists wearing\"the mantle of professionalism\". 6None^1^2 to^6 to^More5 10^than10Figure 1. Number of paid employees6Eyerman and Jamison, \"Environmental Knowledge,\" 103.48v) 60c0ci; 50N_aR 40c-0o4- 30i r)20EZ 10Member's Shared Separate OtherHome^Space BusinessSpaceFigure 2. Location of \"office\"Some of the reasons for the high voluntary composition reported forthe environmental organizations might be the age of British Columbiangroups and the number of members in the typical group. Approximatelythree-quarters of the organizations are fewer than ten years old. About onein five of the organizations originated during the 1960s and 1970s in theearly days of the environmental movement. Only 4.7 percent are over 25years of age, and can be classified as arising from the older conservationmovement, although they may now hold the philosophical orientation ofradical or reform environmentalism. Figure 3 illustrates the ages of theoffice responding to the questionnaire and the age of the organization towhich it belongs.4970 -60 -Fewer than 2^2-10 years^11-25 years^26-50 yearsyearsFigure 3. Age of environmental non-government organizations and ofresponding officesBecause most of the organizations are relatively young, it isunderstandable that the number of members belonging to each is rathersmall. Figure 4 illustrates the responses given for membership size. Overhalf of the respondents, 56.2 percent, serve fewer than 200 members.Another 21.0 percent of the respondents have between 200 and 500members. Only 5.7 percent have a membership greater than 5000. Themembership of some of the environmental organizations is composed ofother organizations. These types of membership technically involve manymore individuals than indicated by the number of members. For example,one respondent reported a membership of 501-1000, but indicated that themembership includes 77 organizations which represent over 100,000individuals. For records management purposes it is the number of members,whether individuals or collective bodies, that has direct effects on recordskeeping. The organization mentioned above would not keep a roster of50over 100,000 members; it would only keep information about itsmembership in the range of 501-1000.1-200^201-500 501-1000 1001-^MoreMembers 5000 than 5000Figure 4. Membership size of B.C. organizationsThe relatively small number of members belonging to most of theorganizations is probably explained by their location in small communities,as shown by the data analysis. Of the environmental organizationsresponding to the questionnaire, 69.1 percent focus their attention on localor regional issues, 18.6 percent work provincially, and only 12.4 percentreach beyond British Columbia as part of their efforts. These figures reflectthe actual geographic locations of the organizations. Only 25.2 percent ofthem have a mailing address in the Lower Mainland area of British51Columbia. A further 7.5 percent operate from a Greater Victoria address. 7Organizations in these urban areas of the province have a greater potentialto grow and raise more money to support activities ranging farther afield.Table 2 supports the notion that organizations in larger urban centres havethe ability to act outside the local arena. Of the two-thirds of therespondents which are located in the northern and interior regions of theprovince, most are acting locally.Table 2.—Relationship between geographic areas of operation andgeographic location of organizations (percentage of organizations)Location LocalActivitiesProvincialActivitiesInter-provincialNationalActivitiesInter-nationalLowerMainland7.2 11.3 0 2.1 4.1Victoria 4.1 2.1 1.0 0 0Other 57.7 5.2 1.0 0 4.1N=97 respondentsA further indication of the number of site-specific issue-orientedgroups in British Columbia is the number of respondents with a geographicdelimiter in the organization's name. At least half of the environmental7The Lower Mainland includes Vancouver, Burnaby, NewWestminster, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Richmond,Surrey, Delta, and White Rock. The population of the census metropolitanarea of Vancouver in June 1992 was 1,626,800. Greater Victoria includesOak Bay, Saanich, Sidney, Esquimalt, Colwood, Langford, and Sooke. Thepopulation of this census metropolitan area was 288,700 in June 1992.Canadian markets 1992: Complete Demographics for Canadian Urban Markets, 66th ed.(Toronto: The Financial Post Publications, [1992]).52organizations responding use the name of a river, watershed, or othergeographic area in their name to indicate the focus of their activities.As might be expected given the large percentage of small, locallyoriented organizations, very few have more than one office location. Only23.1 percent of the study population indicated that their organization hasother office locations. However, a number of those indicated that theadditional offices are in members' homes. Multiple locations, as shown bythese instances, are not necessarily an indication of the formalization of theorganization's structure or of increasing professionalism in operations.While the majority of respondents are small organizations in ruralBritish Columbia involved in local issues, they are involved in a wide rangeof activities. Respondents were asked to select as many principal activitiesas applied to their organization from a list of eleven and to add any otherprincipal activity not covered by those provided. Figure 5 illustrates thenumber of ENGOs responding positively to each category of activity. Theactivities most frequently selected are environmental education and habitatand wildlife preservation. Activities not specifically on the list butmentioned by the respondents included recycling, pollution control, andwatershed protection and management.53Figure 5. Number of organizations involved in principal activitiesSome respondents selected only one category; one checked all twelve.Just over half, 53.8 percent, of the ENGOs reported involvement in four orfewer activities. A further 40.5 percent undertake 5-8 of the activitieslisted. The final 5.7 percent are involved in 9-12 of the activities. Thisproduces a mean of 4.5 activities. It should be noted that respondentsmight have interpreted the descriptions of activities in different ways.Wildlife and habitat preservation were intended to mean actually preservingwildlife and habitats, not simply being concerned about these issues. It ispossible, however, for an organization involved in educating the publicabout the decline of raptor populations to have selected both wildlife54preservation and environmental education. The mean of 4.5 activities fromthose provided may be slightly higher than it should be.In summarizing the structural and functional elements, data analysisshows that environmental non-government organizations in BritishColumbia are primarily small, issue-oriented voluntary associationsoperating in the smaller communities of the province. These factors willinfluence the procedures most likely to result in the successful acquisitionof an environmental organization's records.Records Keeping PracticesAn examination of the records keeping practices of the environmentalnon-government organizations in British Columbia shows some interestingresults regarding the extent of records and recycling practices.Even though 72.1 percent of the respondents are using computer disksas a storage medium for their records, they all continue to use paperrecords despite their concerns about recycling and the preservation offorest resources. Environmental organizations in British Columbia use ahigh percentage of recycled paper; 65.1 percent of the respondentsindicated that more than 75 percent of the paper in use was made fromrecycled stock. They are also busy recycling the paper records that theycreate and receive. All the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that byreducing, reusing, and recycling they are achieving some of their goals.Figure 6 shows the extent of each of these activities in more specific terms.The results show that the majority of the environmental organizationspolled are reducing the number of documents being created, reusing thematerials on which previous documents were created, and recycling thepaper containing documents no longer actively needed by the office. In55Always^Frequently Sometimes^Seldom^Never50 —0 40CuCuCu 30 —caO^ Reduce■ ReuseRecycleother words, only those documents absolutely necessary are created, andonce they are no longer needed it appears that they are reused and recycledwhere possible.Figure 6. Environmental organizations' adherence to the 3RsBecause of the largely voluntary nature of environmentalorganizations in British Columbia, it is to be expected that their filingsystems tend to be haphazard. A methodical filing system is in place andused consistently by 54.9 percent of the respondents. The remaining 45.1percent either have no filing system or are not using one consistently. AsSusan Hart noted, even if a voluntary association \"has an office and one ormore central filing systems, the quality of these systems may not be veryhigh, and good records-keeping may not be a priority for the association.\" 8When questioned about the approximate extent of records currently inthe office, over forty percent of the respondents estimated that their paper8Susan Hart, \"Voluntary Associations,\" 129.56A few respondents indicated by their comments that they understoodthe primary value of records, but not all of them could see capitalizing onit. One respondent commented: \"Very rarely do we find it necessary torefer back to the thousands of documents, files, etc. we have stored as wemust initiate action immediately. Otherwise if it is put on the back burner itwill never get done.\" Another respondent indicated that the records of theorganizations were not valuable because \"everything changes: research, andthe battles.\" In other words, both these respondents doubted the recordscould serve the needs of the organization long after the action theydocumented. In contrast, the respondent for another organization wrote:\"Archived records (though disorganized) helped a lot in reactivating theanti-uranium struggle after a 7-year moratorium lapsed in 1987.\"Respondents were asked to select their preferred type of repositoryfor the permanent preservation of their records. Only 21.4 percent of theparticipating environmental organizations indicated that they would preferto have their records preserved in a local city or regional archives. Thebulk of the respondents, 57.5 percent, selected a dedicated repository forenvironmental organizations' archives. The remainder of the organizationschose either the British Columbia Archives and Records Service, auniversity archives, or an option not covered by the given categories. Someof the other options suggested a lack of understanding regarding the natureof archival preservation, such as a network database, while others indicatedthat the local museum would be their preferred location. One respondentsimply indicated that the repository in which their records would preferablybe preserved would be \"whatever works!\" Figure 8 illustrates the types ofrepositories preferred by the environmental organizations participating in66Other8%Environmentalthe study. None of the organizations indicated a wish to donate theirrecords to the National Archives of Canada.N=98 respondentsArchives58%Figure 8. Preferred repository for the donation of recordsSince a majority of the environmental organizations answering thequestionnaire operate only on local issues in remote areas of BritishColumbia, one might have assumed that more of the organizations wouldprefer to preserve their records locally. This logic is supported by thecomplete lack of preference for the National Archives of Canada.Obviously preservation in British Columbia is preferred. Some of the67records would occupy less than one four-drawer, letter size filing cabinet.Only 10.6 percent indicated that their records would occupy more than fivefiling cabinets. Figure 7 illustrates the complete responses.C 350cu 30N*E-CUm., 25--004— 2045E=ZLess than 1^2 to 3^4 to 5^More than 5Number of Filing CabinetsFigure 7. Extent of recordsThe fact that many of the organizations accumulate few recordsmight be assumed to explain why they do not have a filing system. Table 3illustrates that this is not the case for the respondents. The extent ofrecords has no direct relationship with the use of a filing system.57Table 3.—Relationship between extent of records and use of a filingsystem (percentage of organizations)FILINGSYSTEMLESS THAN 1CABINET2-3CABINETS4-5CABINETSMORE THAN5 CABINETSYES 21.2 20.2 8.1 5.1NO 22.2 15.2 4.0 4.0N=99 respondentsThe responses about the extent of administrative and operationalrecords in the office should be taken as an approximation, since a largenumber of organizations are using computers in their work. The results area general indication that can be used in conjunction with other variables todevelop an understanding of influences on the extent of records inenvironmental organizations. The number of activities, the membershipsize, the office location and age, and the value attributed to the records areall likely factors affecting the extent of records in the office eitherpositively or negatively.The number of activities in which an environmental organization isinvolved does not seem to greatly affect the extent of records generatedand kept in the office (see table 4). The amount of records increasesslightly with the number of activities, but not proportionally to the increaseof activities. The most likely explanation of the only slight increase may befound in the kinds of activities in which these organizations are involved.Of the eleven categories of activities provided on the questionnaire, onlyhalf necessarily imply the creation of records. The preservation of habitatand wildlife, two of the most prevalent activities, do not require paperworkto be effective. Direct action oriented groups can protest against the58destruction of wildlife and habitat without the production of any records atall. An event, such as cleaning up a stream, may generate some paperworkin the organizational, promotional, and follow-up stages. However, theseorganizations often exist to motivate people into taking action, not toaccount for it. Environmental education, the activity category selected bythe most organizations, does not necessarily require records creation, oraccumulation, if it is performed through word of mouth and by examplerather than in conjunction with the publication of information circulars. Asone respondent commented, regarding the small amount of records inenvironmental organizations, \"I think you'll find that the majority of the'interesting stuff' (the lobbying, decision-making, etc.) which actuallycauses governments to take action is done verbally, with few good records.The behind-the-scenes discussion and persuasion may be converted to drywritten records which do not adequately reflect what happened.\" Anotheroffered the opinion that \"records relating to the internal functioning of theorganization such as minutes of meetings, committee reports, treasurer'sreports, etc. are generally minimal.\"59Table 4.—Relationship between number of activities and extent of records(percentage of organizations)NUMBER OFACTIVITIESLESS THAN 1CABINET2-3CABINETS4-5CABINETSMORE THAN 5CABINETS1-2 13.6 8.7 1.0 1.03-4 11.7 9.7 2.9 3.95-6 12.6 8.7 4.9 3.97-8 3.9 3.9 2.9 1.09-10 0 1.0 1.0 011-12 0 1.9 1.0 1.0N=103 respondentsTable 5 shows that the age of the office also does not appear to berelated to the extent of records. Even though approximately half of theorganizations are less than ten years old and the ranges of categories ofage are somewhat broad, it appears that for environmental organizationsthe extent of records does not increase dramatically with the age of theorganization. It is clear from the table that the younger organizations dohave fewer records than the older ones, but generally it cannot bedetermined that older groups have in fact preserved more records. It wasnoted earlier that some organizations have difficulties with theformalization process and will revert to a voluntary structure in order toremain active and effective environmentalists. Because formalization is notalways considered beneficial, and therefore does not necessarily occur asan organization ages, and because of the emphasis on recycling, the extentof records need not greatly increase as an environmental organization ages.60Table 5.—Relationship between age of office and extent of records(percentage of organizations)AGE OF OFFICE LESS THAN 1CABINET2-3CABINETS4-5CABINETSMORE THAN 5CABINETSFewer than 2years11.6 10.5 5.3 02-10 years 27.4 16.8 6.3 6.311-25 years 3.2 7.4 0 4.226-50 years 0 1.1 0 01\\1=95 respondentsThe location of the office of the environmental organizations studiedappears to have a marginal influence on the extent of records (see table 6).The logical assumption is that the more formal the office space, the morerecords that would be both created and kept on hand. As Susan Hart haswritten, \"the records created increase in formalization, types, and volumeat each stage\" in the development of a voluntary association. 9 Althoughmany environmental organizations remain informal, the volume of recordsdoes seem to increase as the organizations grow more formal. Despite anyemphasis on recycling, a business office indicates a growing formality ofoperations and a growing formality of records keeping. Formality permits agreater availability of storage space and a more permanent location for thestorage of the records. It also requires a greater accountability to thoseserved by the organization. Accountability is supported by a greater extentof records and by better records management.9Susan Hart, \"Voluntary Associations,\" 23.61Table 6.—Relationship between location of office and extent of records(percentage of organizations)OFFICE LOCATION LESS THAN1 CABINET2-3CABINETS4-5CABINETSMORE THAN5 CABINETSMember's home 29.7 18.8 6.9 5.0Shared space 3.0 5.0 0 4.0Separate businessspace4.0 8.9 5.9 1.0Other 5.0 2.0 0 1.0N=101 respondentsTable 7 shows that the size of membership served by an office doesappear to be related to the extent of records. A larger membershipgenerates a larger amount of records in basic administrative areas. Suchrecords might include membership mailing lists and a record of thecollection of membership dues. More members also generally mean moremoney and more specific activities in which an organization might becomeinvolved. While these activities may or may not generate records, theincrease in membership does.62Table 7.—Relationship between membership size and extent of records(percentage of organizations)MEMBERSHIP SIZE LESS THAN1 CABINET2-3CABINETS4-5CABINETSMORE THAN5 CABINETS1-200 members 33.3 17.7 3.9 2.0201-500 members 5.9 5.9 4.9 3.9501-1000 members 0 4.9 2.0 01001-5000 members 2.0 4.9 0 2.9More than 5000members1.0 1.0 2.0 2.0N=102 respondentsFinally, it is not possible to declare a relationship between valueaccorded to the records and the extent of records found in the office.'°That is, one cannot conclude that seeing records as valuable will increasethe extent of records maintained. Over 85 percent of the respondents feltthat their records held some value for future consultation, but as table 8indicates, one third of those respondents still report maintaining less thanone filing cabinet of records. The conclusion to be drawn from this table isthat value attributed to the records does not guarantee an increase in theextent preserved. The data do clearly show, however, that thoseorganizations that do not consider their records to hold any value forfuture consultation also do not have very many records.1°Value is discussed in greater detail later.63Table 8.—Relationship between value of records and extent of records(percentage of organizations)VALUE OFRECORDSLESS THAN 1CABINET2-3CABINETS4-5CABINETSMORE THAN5 CABINETSRecords valuable 33.3 29.3 13.1 11.1Records notvaluable7.1 5.1 1.0 0N=99 respondentsAll of these factors influencing the extent of records in environmentalorganizations, records which might be available someday for archivalacquisition, are important to know for developing strategic plans foracquisition.Environmental Organizations and ArchivesQuestionnaire recipients were asked about the value they ascribe totheir records, the preferred location for permanent preservation, and theirwillingness to donate records to an archival repository. Finally, they wereasked to evaluate the importance of preserving records in the context ofpreserving the environment.As mentioned earlier, over 85 percent of the respondents felt thattheir records held some value for future consultation. A number ofrespondents qualified their response with an indication that only some oftheir records would be worth preserving and a few went so far as tospecifically mention newsletters as being the only records worthpreserving. Some of those who qualified their response as to the value oftheir records exhibited a misunderstanding of archival value, the value ofrecords as evidence of an organization's structure, functions, and activities.64For example, as one respondent commented: \"Much of our other 'paper' ismundane workings of the group to keep our eye on things. Perhaps nothistorical nor worth keeping.\" Another felt that the incoming and outgoingcorrespondence of the organization \"would not have much significance forfuture generations unless properly collated. However, if grouped bysubject/chronological order etc. they could form the basis for a fascinatinghistory of how opposing land use agendas are set and fought over.\" Theevidential value of original order is unknown to this respondent, but theinformational value of the records for studies on land use is recognized.While the current order of the correspondence was not noted, theorganization in question did admit to having a methodical filing system thatis used consistently. Similarly, a respondent wrote that \"someone wouldhave to spend a lot of time editing our files before they would be suitablefor preservation.\" It is difficult to know what this respondent means by\"editing\", but clearly these respondents all have some difficulty perceivinghow others could effectively consult their records for one reason oranother. On the other hand, two respondents admitted to not knowing whatmight be archival and expressed a desire to learn. A lack of understandingabout the value of records and the work of archivists is not peculiar toenvironmental organizations. Susan Hart discovered similar attitudes in herstudy of the archives of voluntary associations, and Eva Mosley found acomparable lack of awareness of the value of records in voluntaryassociations of the women's movement in the United States.\"\"Susan Hart, \"Voluntary Associations\"; Eva Mosley, \"Women inArchives: Documenting the History of Women in America,\" The American Archivist 36 (1973), 219.65respondents did indicate an understanding of the value of local preservationto keep their records accessible to them. The suggestion of anenvironmental repository, however, seems to have overridden the localnature of many organizations and the need or desire to keep recordslocally. Identity is a powerful force. This preference for an environmentalarchives is an expression of the sense of being part of a larger movement.For organizations who work together on many similar and overlappingissues, the idea of many environmental records housed together is desirableas a large resource and for direct networking purposes.In examining more closely the preferred type of repository fordonation against the area in which the organization operates an interestingdiscovery arises. Table 9 indicates that although few organizations areworking outside the province, none of them preferred local or regionalrepositories or the provincial archives. Even though the office has aspecific locality from which the organization operates, the greater thegeographic focus of the organization the more it is likely to prefer arepository dedicated to the preservation of archives of environmentalorganizations.68Table 9.—Percentage of organizations choosing archival repositories, bygeographic area of operationAREA OFOPERATIONLOCALARCHIVESBCARS UNIVERSITYARCHIVESENVIRONMENTALARCHIVESOTHERLocal 19.1 4.5 3.4 37.1 5.6Provincial 2.3 4.5 0 12.4 0Inter-provincial0 0 0 1.1 1.1National 0 0 0 2.3 0International 0 0 1.1 5.6 0N=89 respondentsOf equal importance in analyzing the preference for an environmentalrepository is the actual geographic location of the organizations selectingthis option. Table 10 indicates that the remotely located organizations areequally interested in an environmental repository, even though the mostlikely location for such an archives would be in the Lower Mainland.Table 10.—Percentage of organizations choosing archival repositories bygeographic location of officeGEOGRAPHICLOCATIONLOCALARCHIVESBCARS UNIVERSITYARCHIVESENVIRONMENTALARCHIVESOTHERLowerMainland5.1 3.1 1.0 15.3 1.0Victoria 1.0 1.0 0 6.1 0Other 15.3 5.1 3.1 35.7 7.1N=98 respondents69Both the geographic location of an organization and its geographicfocus play a role in the development of acquisition strategies andcooperative interinstitutional strategies. The respondents haveoverwhelmingly chosen a thematic response, but since such a repositorydoes not exist, the data must be carefully analyzed to determine itsimplications for existing archives.While an organization may prefer to donate its records to one type ofrepository rather than another, the potential to acquire records in any givencase depends upon the existence of records and the willingness of anorganization to donate them. Of course, taken as a whole, this picture ofpreference does not entirely resolve what an effective strategy would be forany given repository or among all of them in British Columbia collectively.The possibility of acquisition is a combination of the preference for therepository seeking the acquisition and the willingness of a body to donatetheir records to any archival repository. In this study, a large majority ofthe environmental organizations in British Columbia who responded to thequestionnaire indicated that they were willing in some degree to donatetheir records either now or in the future. Specifically, 49.5 percent werevery willing and 29.1 percent were somewhat willing to donate. Only 10.7percent had some reservations or were quite unwilling to consider thedonation of records to an archives. An additional 10.7 percent wereuncertain about donating.In comparing the attribute of according value to records and thewillingness of the organization to donate, an important factor fordeveloping strategic plans for acquisition of the records is realized. Astable 11 indicates, even those organizations that do not consider their70records to have any value for future consultation are still generally verywilling to donate their records to an archival repository.Table 11.—Percentage of organizations willing to donate by value ofrecordsVALUE OFRECORDSUNCERTAINABOUTDONATIONNOTWILLINGTODONATEHESITANTABOUTDONATIONSOMEWHATWILLINGTODONATEVERYWILLINGTO DONATERecords valuable 9.1 2.0 7.1 26.3 41.4Not valuable 1.0 1.0 1.0 3.0 8.1N=99 respondentsThe issue of willingness to donate was expanded upon by asking afinal question concerning the role and importance of archives in the\"turnaround decade\". 12 Environmental organizations in British Columbiaalmost entirely agree or strongly agree that society should be concernedwith preserving the records of human activity during the struggle forplanetary survival. Only five percent of the respondents disagreed witharchival concerns for preservation. These organizations would likely be infull agreement with one of the reflections of Hugh Taylor:As one example of our rapacity we are losing 20,000 species of plantand animal life a year irreversibly, which is like tearing that number ofpages from the book of life. We have irretrievably lost this information12The phrase has been applied by environmentalists to the 1990sdecade as meaning that individuals and society only have ten more years inwhich to turn around their attitudes and behaviour towards theenvironment. If radical changes are not made, then the environment will notbe saved.71which could be self-perpetuating and evolving. Is this not morevaluable than some forms of information which librarians and archivistsstruggle to preserve? ... In short, the influence of western civilization,of which libraries and archives have always been a part, is destroyinglife on the planet. 13One respondent concurred with Taylor's writings by commenting:Forests contain records. In forests are records of past weather,volcanic, aboriginal peoples and settlers' activities. Plant and life formrecords also are contained in forests. We feel our forests are essentialfor revealing our past and maintaining our future existence on planetearth.Those respondents disagreeing with the importance of archives cited acombination of reasons. The first is the establishment of society's prioritiesfor action. Second, that archives may be preserved, but that there will notnecessarily be any future generations to use them. The resulting opinion ofthese environmental organizations, as one respondent wrote, was thatarchives may be \"a luxury we don't have time for.\" As another respondentput it:Somehow with planet Earth's very survival at stake, preserving archivesfor future generations which may not happen can seem a triflesuperfluous. Are you sure your priorities are in order?Fortunately for the acquisition archivist, the number of respondentsfavouring the priorities of archives greatly outweighs the small voice ofprotest.°Hugh A. Taylor, \"The Totemic Universe: Appraising theDocumentary Future,\" in Archival Appraisal: Theory and Practice: Proceedings of the Joint Meeting of the Association of British Columbia Archivists and the Northwest Archivists Association in Vancouver, B.C. 26-28 April 1990, ed. Christopher Hives (Vancouver, B.C., ArchivesAssociation of British Columbia, 1990), 19.72The sample population of environmental non-governmentorganizations in British Columbia provides baseline data for ENGOs thatcan be used to develop strategic approaches to acquisition. Environmentalnon-government organizations in British Columbia are generally less thantwo years old, involved in an average of four and one half differentprincipal activities, and have less than one filing cabinet of records. Theyare willing to donate their records, which are considered to be of somevalue, and they would preferably donate to a repository dedicated toenvironmental organizations' archives. Having acquired this knowledge,archival repositories and programs can apply it to acquisition plans totarget specific organizations falling under their acquisition policy. The nextchapter is a discussion of the possibilities for success of various strategicapproaches which might be taken towards the acquisition of the records ofenvironmental organizations.73CHAPTER 4CONCLUSION: THE STRATEGIC ACQUISITION OFENVIRONMENTAL RECORDSThe data which have been gathered about environmental non-government organizations, in combination with knowledge of archivalpractices and resources, generates an understanding of the requirements forthe archival acquisition of environmental organizations' records. Specificquestions to be answered when planning acquisition in this arena include,first and foremost, with which among the plethora of environmentalorganizations will archival repositories and programs have the most successin acquiring records. Intimately connected with this is when to approach anorganization. In order to acquire these records, archivists will find that apro-active strategic approach will produce the best results. Cooperativeinterinstitutional strategies from the global to the regional level,acquisition strategies planned by a single archival repository or program,and documentation strategies developed by a team of concerned personsare three different approaches to consider. According to the data analysis,each will have a different degree of success.Different issues need to be considered in the development of acooperative interinstitutional strategy for the records of environmentalnon-government organizations. Environmental problems are tackledprovincially, nationally, and internationally by professional and voluntaryconservationists, environmentalists, and radical environmentalists in thesame manner that environmental issues are not limited by political74boundaries. Should an organization broaching issues from across theprovince have its records preserved by the provincial archives? Should therecords of a British Columbian group working on national problems end upin Ottawa, acquired by the National Archives of Canada for their nationalsignificance in the environmental arena? These are just a few questionswhich archival repositories and programs working on cooperativeinterinstitutional strategies must attempt to answer.Data analysis suggests that a global approach to cooperativeinterinstitutional acquisition strategies would be inappropriate. While someof the organizations polled work internationally, a large majority of therespondents focus on local and regional problems. The environmentalmovement is global, but at this time the wisest use of limited archivalresources would not be the development of cooperative strategies at theglobal level. For British Columbia, cooperation with European archivistsmay prove important in the future as more European environmentalists jointhe struggle to preserve old growth forests in British Columbia threatenedby logging practices. The archival repositories and programs of thisprovince, however, might find it more rewarding to begin with theenvironmental non-government organizations within the province who, forthe most part, are working in their own backyards.By the same token, the development of national cooperative strategiesshould also wait until regional and local initiatives are more firmlyestablished. National strategies might attempt to draw some of the recordsof higher profile British Columbian organizations out of the province. Therespondents favoured local and regional archives and no one selected theNational Archives of Canada for the donation of their records. Nationalsupport for regional plans, the sharing of specific plans, and the joining of75regional plans where they touch one another would gradually build anation-wide strategy for the acquisition of the records of environmentalnon-government organizations.Cooperative interinstitutional acquisition strategies at the regional orprovincial level will be the most valuable use of archival resources. Thestrongest links in a cooperative interinstitutional strategy forenvironmental records are government and university sponsoredinstitutions. In British Columbia, however, the respondents did notoverwhelmingly prefer either British Columbia Archives and RecordsService or the universities. Only 13.3 percent selected either of thesecategories. It is almost intuitive of the respondents that the categories leastselected are also the repositories least likely to actively pursue theacquisition of records of environmental organizations in the near futuredespite the institutional strength they might lend to a cooperative strategy.The British Columbia Archives and Records Service first serves itsinstitutional sponsor and then, resources permitting, acquires otherrecords.' It is possible that the university archives in British Columbia willhead in the same direction as the provincial archives — concentrating oninstitutional records, with few or no resources to spare for non-institutional acquisitions — with the implementation of information andprivacy legislation affecting universities and municipalities. If the costs ofinstitutional responsibility strike municipal archives the same way, theenvironmental organizations preferring local repositories may not find ahome for their records in government sponsored repositories. Acquisition'See Chapter 1 discussion of institutional responsibility.76of non-institutional records may become solely the realm of museum andhistorical societies.The impending doom of total archives in British Columbia, or thatfacet which includes the total realm of creators, augments the need forcooperative interinstitutional strategies. Strategies must draw upon allstrands of the archival network to see that the records of environmentalorganizations do not disappear. In her discussion of the problem ofhomeless archival fonds, Susan Hart coins the phrase \"street archives\":These are the would-be delegated archives, the records created by smallbusinesses, by families, by voluntary associations ranging fromhighschool soccer clubs to free trade protest groups. Their creatorshaven't the knowledge, stability, or resources to establish archivalprogrammes. Many of these fonds are extremely valuable to society,and some of them used to be sought out and welcomed at our majorarchival institutions. Not so much anymore, so now there are morestreet archives. 2Where will the records of environmental organizations be preserved? Willthey be preserved? Without pro-active intervention by archivists, therecords of this predominantly voluntary sector of society will be lost to thedocumentary heritage. The solution lies in strengthening the network ofarchival repositories and programs, and building appropriate cooperativeacquisition strategies at the regional level.For the records of environmental non-government organizations, anappropriate approach would be to see that, where possible, local archivalrepositories take the initiative to preserve the records. This would be in thebest interests of the organizations, many of which prefer this approach and2Susan Hart, \"An Active Approach to Preserving Non-governmentArchives,\" unpublished paper presented at Association of CanadianArchivists conference in Banff, 1991, 1.77are operating at the local level, and of the archival network, by sharing theresponsibility for preserving this segment of the documentary heritage. AsHart suggests, the network approach might provide \"empowerment and re-orientation for its members, especially the smaller institutions.\" 3 The so-called \"important\" fonds would not remain the property of the largerinstitutions — institutions now caught up in responsibilities to theirsponsors. Taking a holistic approach to preserving the documentaryheritage, cooperative strategies will ensure that valuable records arepreserved somewhere rather than left to unknown fates. That somewhere ismost likely to be the smaller institutions of British Columbia dispersedthroughout the province where two-thirds of the province's environmentalnon-government organizations can also be found.Environmental records, as with any archival records, are bestmaintained within the context in which they were created. For manyenvironmental organizations, the context in which they were created is alsothe geographic context of the environmental issues they addressed. 4 Forother farther ranging organizations, the context of creation is equallyimportant. When a British Columbian environmental organizationapproaches national or international environmental concerns, it is with aBritish Columbian understanding of the environment. The fight to save theBrazilian rain forest is made with the awareness of living in the \"Brazil ofthe North\", as British Columbia is becoming known worldwide for itsforestry practices and treatment of its own rain forest. Persons and3 Susan Hart, \"Active Approach\", 8.4Table 2 demonstrates this fact for the respondents.78organizations operate from within a political, social and economic climate.The same climate affects records creation. The same climate will laterassist in archival and historical understandings of the records and theorganization itself.Because environmental organizations are of two basic types — inpursuit of local issues or attempting to heal the entire earth — and becausemost of the groups in British Columbia are locally oriented, it would beinappropriate for an acquisition strategy to target only larger, olderorganizations with more formal structures and the likelihood of morerecords. While most groups are small and informally structured, theirefforts are equally critical to society's environmental battles whetherworking as conservationists, reform environmentalists, or radicalenvironmentalists. The difference in a repository's acquisitional approachto these locally operating organizations is to make contacts with them atthe height of the issue when the extent of records being created and/orreceived is also at a peak. At this point, notification of archival interest inthe records and securing a contact person would increase the possibility ofacquisition after the issue is resolved and the organization disbands. SusanHart proposes that once a voluntary association has been carefullyresearched and contacted, the archivist should then draw up a contract withthe organization. The contract would specify \"that in the event of theclosure of the association, all its records would be transferred (by donationor purchase) to the archival repository.\" 5 It is extremely important to bepro-active with issue oriented groups since, as Sewell noted, they tend not5Susan Hart, \"Voluntary Associations\",134-135.79to be permanent and expire when the key issue does. 6 Once they haveexpired, \"their records will survive only by chance or with the help of avigilant archivist. \"7Larger, more formal organizations, on the other hand, can becontacted at any time since they are not as likely to disappear overnightalong with their records. Unfortunately for archivists in British Columbia,only a few of the environmental organizations polled fall into this category.Regardless of when an organization is approached, archivalacquisition will be strengthened by good relations between the repositoryand the organization. Elizabeth Knowlton enumerates the benefits ofcontact with gay and lesbian organizations:Good relations between an activist group and an established archivescan result in better record keeping, better conservation, and possibly ina collection for the repository. Groups that are short-lived orconstantly changing, that have no safe place for their records, willseriously consider an institution as a depository if it has provedinterested, helpful, and trustworthy. 8Archivists should adopt a similar approach to environmental activist groupswhen planning to acquire their records. Data analysis of their recordskeeping practices indicates that early archival interest may in fact lead tobetter records management and greater possibilities for acquisition.One difficulty which will arise in the acquisition of these records isthe emphasis that environmentalists place upon recycling. It is especiallycrucial with environmental organizations to contact them during their most6Sewell, Dearden and Dumbrell, \"Wilderness Decisionmaking,\" 151.7Susan Hart, \"Voluntary Associations\", 135.8Elizabeth Knowlton, \"Documenting the Gay Rights Movement\"Provenance 5, no.1 (Spring 1987), 27.80active phase to perhaps reduce the recycling of records with archival valuesand counteract the possible ill-effects of excessive recycling. Since thisstudy did not include any appraisal of extant records, any hypothesisregarding the degree of evidential or informational value which the recordsof environmental organizations may hold cannot be formed. It is alsounknown to what extent the records being recycled would be of interest toan archival repository. Further studies along these lines would be necessaryto prepare a better acquisition strategy for the records of environmentalnon-government organizations.Documentation strategists would view the data gathered by this studydifferently. Data analysis presents the opportunity for a documentationstrategy studying what records need to be created by environmentalorganizations or others to document the history of the movement,particularly those functions with a scarcity or absence of documentation.Documenting environmentalism, however, may prove to be a task beyondthe time and effort of archivists in favour of this strategic approach. Whilethe respondents were mostly agreeable to the donation of their records toan archival repository, archivists must be very aware of the type oforganization with which they are dealing and attempting to document.Radical environmentalists especially may find requests to create records forthe establishment distasteful. They may also find that records created byothers that document their activities are unwelcome for legal reasons. Asshown by the comments of a few respondents, archival priorities, which areless aggressive than the priorities of documentation strategies, are notalways the priorities of member of environmental organizations.Conservationists and reform environmentalists are more likely to assist thedevelopment of a documentation strategy which requires the cooperation of81creators, users, and preservers and \"includes not only archival andmanuscript but also published, visual and artifactual materials\" as potentialsources for documenting a phenomenon. 9 However, the insistence ofdocumentation strategists to fill in the gaps of the documentary record willlikely meet a lot of resistance from organizations of any kind which achievesome of their goals through reducing, reusing, and recycling materials. Halfof the respondents indicated that they always or frequently consciouslyreduce the number of documents they create. It is not reasonable to expectenvironmental organizations to create additional records to fill in any gapsperceived by documentation strategists.One of the most significant findings for archivists to arise from thisstudy is the strong preference among environmental organizations for adedicated repository for environmental archives. While such a repositorydoes not exist in British Columbia and the respondents may have beenunaware of this fact, the implementation of an environmental archivesraises a number of issues.Thematic archives have a certain practical appeal for researchers, eventhough the records may be severed from their context of creation. All ofthe records are related to a particular subject. The benefit is that \"withsuch in-depth coverage and focussed acquisition, access should be easiersince researchers presumably have a clearer idea of what is available in athematic archives than in comprehensive holdings with more wide-rangingmandates.\" 1 ° The trouble with thematic archives is that they are often9Samuels, \"Improving Our Disposition,\" 134.'°Marcel Caya, ed., Canadian Archives in 1992, 52.82created according to the whims of historiography and may lose theirfinancial support when the subject is no longer of interest. They do notsolve the problem of \"street archives\", being \"reactions to specificproblems of neglect, rather than being proactive solutions to removingneglect of marginalized archives altogether.\"\" An environmental archivescould be a proactive solution based on the creators rather than the subject,environmental non-government organizations rather than environmentalism.If established for the environmental organizations with the proactivesupport of archivists, such a repository might withstand the changing windsof secondary research by continuing to be valuable to the creators.The functions and activities of environmental organizations tend tooverlap despite the organizations' differences in philosophical approach. Bybringing the records of these organizations together, the potential forunderstanding the various branches of the movement may be increased. Forexample, all of the records concerned with saving various parts of awatershed would be together, records created by both voluntaryassociations and more formally established associations, conservationists,reform environmentalists, and radical environmentalists. The shape of theissue becomes more complete in seeing what efforts have been made by allorganizations, each doing their own part towards saving the whole. Thepossibilities for networking through an environmental archives would beappealing to creators who often work on the same basic issues but indifferent parts of the province. An archives for environmental organizations\"Susan Hart, \"Active Approach\", 4.83would permit a holistic understanding of the relationship between humansand the environment at the end of the twentieth century.An environmental archives in British Columbia would not, however,permit ease of access to many of the organizations donating their records.The most likely location to be suggested for an archives would beVancouver or Victoria, and two-thirds of the organizations are outside ofboth Greater Vancouver and the Capital Region. By bringing environmentalrecords together in the urban core where the resources to support arepository are greatest, a large number of organizations would suffer theloss of their own records.Given the geographic problems for a single environmental archives inBritish Columbia, an alternate approach for the records of environmentalorganizations in the larger urban areas like Vancouver and Victoria, mightbe to build upon the environmental network of resources. Throughoutreach and education, archivists could encourage some of theorganizations to preserve their own records. The majority of theorganizations are voluntary, but situations exist whereby the continuity ofthe environmental movement could provide a home not normally possiblefor voluntary associations. Some organizations are sharing resources andadministrative space to reduce overhead costs. With such close networkingand sharing of resources, the preservation of the archives of organizationshoused together would be possible. As organizations fold, their recordscould be preserved by other organizations, supported by the resources ofcontinuing and new organizations using the same office space. The recordswould be locally preserved in the appropriate context and available tothose who would most desire access. Data analysis shows the strongpreference for an environmental repository that this type of situation could84accommodate. When preserving their own records is no longer feasible, theorganizations could then donate them to the local archives.The problem with this idea is that even slightly more formalizedorganizations that share business space move around a lot. For example,where once there were at least half a dozen environmental organizationshoused together in Vancouver — a situation ideal for the establishment ofan environmental archives — one year later only two remain. Whenorganizations are on the move, it is difficult to know whether or not theywould want to leave some of their records behind in an archival repository.The key to the preservation of records from environmental non-government organizations by archival repositories and programs or by theenvironmentalists themselves is education and knowledge. Just as archivistsneed to build their own knowledge of acquisition targets, they also need tobuild a knowledge of archives among those targeted. Educating members ofenvironmental organizations will promote donations to archives, betterrecords management practices, and the preservation of their own recordswhere possible. Knowledgeable archivists will build better acquisitionstrategies planned appropriately for their targets. Sharing that knowledgewill increase the success of cooperative acquisition strategies built fromthe regional to the national level.The records of environmental non-government organizations documentan ever-increasing important facet of our society. The environmentalrecord is contained within the fonds of government agencies, scientificresearchers, and non-government organizations. None of these classes ofcreators can be ignored in building a fair and representative picture ofenvironmental concerns. This thesis has shown that only through strategicacquisition planning, within a repository and among institutions, can the85records of environmental non-government organizations be preserved aspart of the documentary heritage of society.86BIBLIOGRAPHYAndrews, Richard N.L. \"Class Politics or Demographic Reform:Environmentalism and American Political Institution.\" Natural Resources Journal 20 (April 1980): 221-241.Blinkhorn, Victoria. \"The Records of Visual Artists: Appraising forAcquisition and Selection.\" Master of Archival Studies thesis,University of British Columbia, 1988.Boles, Frank. \"Commentary.\" The American Archivist 51 (Winter andSpring 1988): 43-46.Bookchin, Murray. The Philosophy of Social Ecology. Montreal: BlackRose Books, 1990.Booms, Hans. \"Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage:Issues in the Appraisal of Archival Sources.\" Archivaria 24 (Summer1987): 69-107.The British Columbia Environmental Directory. Vancouver: BritishColumbia Environmental Network, 1990.Brown, Michael and John May. The Greenpeace Story. Scarborough:Prentice-Hall Canada, 1989.Brown, Richard. \"Records Acquisition Strategy and Its TheoreticalFoundation: The Case for a Concept of Archival Hermeneutics.\"Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92): 34-56.Burke, Frank G. \"Commentary.\" The American Archivist 51 (Winter andSpring 1988): 47-51.Canada. Canada's National Report. United Nations Conference onEnvironment and Development in Brazil, June 1992. [Ottawa], 1991.Canadian Council of Archives. Guidelines for Developing an Acquisition Policy. Ottawa : Canadian Council of Archives, 1990.Caya, Marcel, ed. Canadian Archives in 1992. Ottawa: Canadian Council ofArchives, 1992.87Cook, Terry. \"The Tyranny of the Medium: A Comment on 'TotalArchives'.\" Archivaria 9 (Winter 1979-1980): 141-149.Cox, Richard J. and Helen W. Samuels. \"The Archivist's FirstResponsibility: A Research Agenda to Improve the Identification andRetention of Records of Enduring Value.\" The American Archivist 51(Winter and Spring 1988): 28-42.Consultative Group on Canadian Archives. Canadian Archives: Report to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada by the Consultative Group on Canadian Archives. Ottawa: SocialSciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1980.Devall, Bill. \"The Deep Ecology Movement.\" Natural Resources Journal 20(April 1980): 299-322.Dunphy, Martin. \"The Greenpeace Giant.\" The Georgia Strait (13-20September 1990): 7-10, 40.Ericson, Timothy L. \"At the 'Rim of Creative Dissatisfaction': Archivistsand Acquisition Development.\" Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92): 66-77.Eyerman, Ron and Andrew Jamison. \"Environmental Knowledge as anOrganizational Weapon: The Case of Greenpeace.\" Social Science Information 28, no. 1 (1989): 99-119.Fox, Stephen. The American Conservation Movement: John Muir and His Legacy. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1981.Fraser, James A. and Harold A. Averill. Organizing an Archives: The Canadian Gay Archives Experience. Canadian Gay ArchivesPublication No. 8. Toronto: Canadian Gay Archives, 1983.Gordon, Robert S. \"The Protocol of S.N.A.P. Demarcation of AcquisitionFields.\" Canadian Archivist 2, no.4 (1973): 49-54.Griss, Paul. \"A Forester's Guide to the Environmental Movement.\" The Forestry Chronicle 68, no.2 (April 1992): 241-244.Ham, F. Gerald. \"The Archival Edge.\" In A Modern Archives Reader: Basic Readings on Archival Theory and Practice, ed. Maygene F. Danielsand Timothy Walch, 326-335. 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New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.Quinn, Patrick M. \"Archivists Against the Current: For a Fair and TrulyRepresentative Record of Our Times.\" Provenance 1, no.5 (Spring1987): 1-7.Reed-Scott, Jutta. \"Collection Management Strategies for Archivists.\" TheAmerican Archivist 47 (Winter 1984): 23-29.Samuels, Helen W. \"Improving Our Disposition: Documentation Strategy.\"Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92): 125-140.Samuels, Helen Willa. \"Who Controls the Past.\" The American Archivist 49(Spring 1986): 109-124.Sewell, W.R., Philip Dearden, and John Dumbrell. \"WildernessDecisionmaking and the Role of Environmental Interest Groups: AComparison of the Franklin Dam, Tasmania and South Moresby,British Columbia Cases.\" Natural Resources Journal 29 (Winter 1989):147-169.Smith, Wilfred I. \"'Total Archives': The Canadian Experience.\" Archives et Bibliotheques de Belgique 57, 1-2 (1986): 323-346.Taylor, Hugh A. \"The Totemic Universe: Appraising the DocumentaryFuture,\" in Archival Appraisal: Theory and Practice: Proceedings ofthe Joint Meeting of the Association of British Columbia Archivists and the Northwest Archivists Association in Vancouver, B.C. 26-28 April 1990, ed. Christopher Hives (Vancouver, B.C., ArchivesAssociation of British Columbia, 1990): 15-29.90Tokar, Brian. \"Exploring the New Ecologies: Social Ecology, DeepEcology and the Future of Green Political Thought.\" Alternatives 15,no. 4 (1988): 30-43.Watson, Paul, as told to Warren Rogers. Sea Shepherd: My Fight for Whales and Seals. Joseph Newman, ed. Introduction by ClevelandArmory. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1982.Wilson, Ian E. \"Canadian University Archives.\" Archivaria 3 (1976-1977):17-27.91APPENDIX AENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND ARCHIVESThis questionnaire is simply a method of obtaining your opinion on afew matters of importance to the archival community. Your answers willremain confidential and any information you supply will not be used as adirect means for the acquisition of your records by any archival repository.Please answer each question with a check in the appropriate box.YOUR ORGANIZATION1. What are the principal activities(Select all options that apply)[] wildlife preservation[] habitat preservation[] environmental education[] environmental research[] political activities[] direct actionin which your organization is involved?[] publishing[] litigation[] product sales[] fund raising[] social activities[] other ^2. Which of the following phrases best describes your organization's worldview? (One only please)[] wilderness should be preserved since it is a valuable renewable resourcewhich can be used by humans[] wilderness should be preserved for the intrinsic value of life contained init[] wilderness should be preserved for the intrinsic value of the naturalsystem as a whole, both the organic and the inorganic[] other ^3. Briefly describe the purposes or aims of your organization.4. Which of the following terms describe you organization? (Select all thatapply)[] incorporated^[] non-profit^[] registered charity925. How many years has your organization existed in its current form?[] fewer than 2 years^[] 26-50 years[] 2-10 years^ [] more than 50 years[] 11-25 years6. How many years has this office of your organization existed?[] fewer than 2 years^[] 26-50 years[] 2-10 years^ [] more than 50 years[] 11-25 years7. What is the geographic area of operation of your office?[] local/regional^ [] national[] provincial [] international[] inter-provincial [] other ^8. What is the approximate membership served by your office?[] 1-200^ [] 1001-5000[] 201-500 [] more than 5000[] 501-10009. Where is your office located?[] in a member's home[] in a member's home with another organization[] in space shared with another organization[] in separate business space[] other ^10. How many of the employees in your office are paid and not volunteers?[] None^ [] 6-10[] 1 [] More than 10[] 2-511. Does your organization have any other office locations?[] yes^ [] noIf yes, then what is your relationship to the other office(s) orbranch(es)?[] autonomous from[] head office of[] directed by[] reporting to[] other ^93YOUR RECORD KEEPING HABITS12. What media are used for running your activities and meeting youradministrative needs? (Select all that apply)[] paper^ [] video tape/film[] computer disks^ [] other ^[] audio tape13. What percentage of the paper used in your office is made from recycledstock?[] None [] 51-75%[] 1-25% [] 76-99%[] 26-50% [] All14. What percentage of the paper used in your office is permanent or acid-free?[] None [] 51-75%[] 1-25% [] 76-99%[] 26-50% [] All15. If you were to have all of your administrative and operational recordsin paper form, how much space do you think they would occupy in astandard, four-drawer, letter size filing system?[] less than 1 filing cabinet[] 2-3 filing cabinets[] 4-5 filing cabinets[] more than 5 filing cabinets16. Do you have a methodical filing system for your records that is usedconsistently?[] yes^ [] no17. How often do you think your office consciously reduces the number ofdocuments it creates?[] always^ [] seldom[] frequently [] never[] sometimes18. How often do you think your office reuses the materials on whichprevious documents were created?[] always^ [] seldom[] frequently [] never[] sometimes9419. How often do you think your office recycles paper containingdocuments which are no longer actively needed for running activities andadministering the office?[] always^ [] seldom[] frequently [] never[] sometimes20. Does your organization agree that reducing, reusing, and recycling is away of achieving some of your goals?[] strongly agree^ [] disagree[] agree^ [] strongly disagreeYOUR RECORDS AND ARCHIVES21. Do you think that any of the documents made or received in the courseof your activities hold any values for future consultation?ie. Are they worth preserving indefinitely?[] yes^ [] no22. Imagine for a moment that your records need to be properly preservedforever. Where would you prefer to have them taken care of? (One onlyplease)[] local city or regional archives[] British Columbia Archives and Records Service (Victoria)[] National Archives of Canada (Ottawa)[] university archives[] dedicated repository for environmental organizations' archives[] other ^23. Provided access restrictions to your records were established accordingto your specifications, how willing would you be to donate your records toan archival repository either now or in the future?[] very willing^ [] not willing[] somewhat willing [] uncertain[] hesitant24. Do you agree that society should concern itself with preserving therecords of human activity amidst the struggle for planetary survival?[] strongly agree^ [] disagree[] agree^ [] strongly disagree25. Please feel free to provide further comments regarding either yourorganization, your records, or your feelings about archives.95"@en ; edm:hasType "Thesis/Dissertation"@en ; vivo:dateIssued "1993-11"@en ; edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0086222"@en ; dcterms:language "eng"@en ; ns0:degreeDiscipline "Archival Studies"@en ; edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ; dcterms:publisher "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:rights "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en ; ns0:scholarLevel "Graduate"@en ; dcterms:title "Developing an acquisition strategy for the records of environmental non-government organizations"@en ; dcterms:type "Text"@en ; ns0:identifierURI "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/1656"@en .