Speakers: Irene Robillard, Cindy Preece, David Bott, Melissa Redden Clarington Public Library, St Catharines Public Library, Wilfrid Laurier University, the Federated Women's Institute of Ontario https://ourdigitalworld.net/2017/01/25/well-be-at-the-ola-super-conference/

1. When Things Get Personal:
Privacy and Access in Online
Community History
OLA Superconference 2017

2. Digitizing and making local history
collections available online brings to
light personal information that was
never intended to be shared and
distributed so broadly.

3. 1:
What collections are
publicly accessible online?

4. Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario
Virtual Archives

5. Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario
Virtual Archives
● Launched March 31, 2016
● Thanks to Government of Canada’s Documentary
Heritage Communities Program
● Just the beginning
● Original documents are spread across Ontario
● Originals remain within their communities, as intended
● Researchers can access them electronically in one place

6. Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario
Tweedsmuir Community History Collections
● Documents the history of a community
● Numerous awards for preserving local history
● Officially started in 1947 - named after Lord Tweedsmuir
● Estimate 1,300 collections across Ontario
● From a simple scrapbook to an elaborate series of
volumes
● Many created before there were privacy concerns
● Most still under copyright as closed < 50 years ago

7. Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario
Other Items Accessible Online
● Home & Country Newsletters
○ Complete series, from 1933 to present, fully searchable
● Minutes and Record Books
○ Includes the minutes of the first WI branch in the world
● Other - Various other scrapbooks or published books on WI History
● NEW - Community halls, buildings, and monuments
○ Using user contribution facility for a WI 120 project
○ Submit photos and information on the structures created by the WI in
their communities through the years across Ontario

8. St. Catharines Public Library
Birth, Marriage, Death Index Historic Images

9. Clarington Public Library

10. Wilfrid Laurier University Special Collections
Insert i

11. 2:
Deciding what to make
available online: ethical
and legal issues

12. Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario
● Tweedsmuir Community History Collections
○ Proactive - Each book reviewed for privacy issues before releasing to
public
○ Pages with private information not available to public
■ Minimal concerns found
■ Privacy sheet created for each collection - internal
● Home & Country Newsletters
○ No privacy concerns as always accessible to public
● Minutes and Record Books
○ less than 50 years old remain private due to membership lists
● Other - reviewed for privacy or copyright concerns

13. Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario
What is considered private
1. Contact Information of a living person.
2. Birth or marriage dates of a living person.
3. Biography of a living person or one who died within last 30
years
4. Membership list < 50 years old.
5. Photograph created after 1948 and either a copyright or
privacy concern.
6. Any other item the reviewer feels should not be provided to the
public.
NOT CONCERNED IF NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS

14. St. Catharines Public Library
● Birth, Marriage and Death Index
○ Not the complete notice - just names, dates,
locations, publication, page, etc.
○ 1830s through 1930 and 2005 through present day
○ 59,000 records
● Historic Images Collection
○ Rare photos, images, post cards from our Special
Collections department
○ 1,100 images

15. Clarington Public Library

16. Wilfrid Laurier University Special Collections

17. 3:
Dealing with the public:
policies and ongoing
management

18. Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario
● Complaints from Public
○ None received to date
○ Plan to remove item if a complaint received
● Bottleneck in Review
○ So far, 57 books available but many more waiting to be reviewed
○ Members seem to be unwilling to be the person to make decisions
● Tweedsmuirs
○ Guidelines have been updated to try and not put private items in the
Tweedsmuirs to start with

19. Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario
Ongoing Management
● Need to set up a schedule to review privacy reports and release items into
public as go past privacy date
● Working with libraries, archives, museums, etc. that wish to make
accessible Tweedsmuirs and other books in their collections
● Minutes and other record books < 50 years old
○ Do you digitize these now for preservation reasons while you are
doing the rest?
■ If yes, where do you store them? Some won’t be accessible for
40+ years.
■ If no, then need to return to location to do them at a later time and
could be lost over time

20. St. Catharines Public Library
● No formal policy
● We will remove upon written request
● Only a few requests to date (approx. half dozen)
● Have encountered issues with items being deleted
from our site, but not from OurOntario site

21. Clarington Public Library

22. Wilfrid Laurier University Special Collections

23. Audience questions

24. Further discussion
Community forum:
http://help.vitatoolkit.ca/about.asp?ID=4#!/personal-
information
Not all information wants to be free, ethical
considerations for digitization (talk by Tara
Robertson): http://tararobertson.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2016/08/code4libNYS.pdf

25. Thank you!
• http://collections.fwio.on.ca/search
• http://bmd.stcatharines.library.on.ca/en/searc
h
• http://vitacollections.ca/claringtonnews/searc
h
• http://images.ourontario.ca/Laurier/search