An interview with the U of G’s new head

ARTS & CULTURE

11 | POETRY: DOWNTOWN STREETS 14 | PANDEMIC LESSONS 16 | ST. PATRICK'S DAY

U of G’s new head of Archival and Special Collections, Curtis Sassur, has worked in the archival industry for over a decade. He believes that the most crucial part of his role will be to advocate for digital archiving, and looks forward to reaching a wider audience with the creation of a robust digital archiving program. CREDIT: CURTIS SASSUR

An interview with the U of G’s new head of Archival and Special Collections

Curtis Sassur talks finding love for archival records, from big, dusty archives to digital documents

AMANDA ETCHES | ASSOCIATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN (RESEARCH)

Q: Welcome to the University of Guelph, Curtis! We’re thrilled that you’re here. Tell me, what made you go into Archives?

A: I did my undergraduate degree in philosophy at U of G in the ‘90s, which was sort of right at the end of the period where kids were still undertaking four-year university degrees without the A: I had such an overwhelmingly positive experience during my undergraduate time at Guelph, where I probably spent more time in the McLaughlin Library than anywhere else on campus.

Once I decided to pursue a graduate degree in archival science, the good folks at the archives in Guelph even allowed me to spend a few months working in the repository in order to gain valuable experience before grad school.

For the past 12 years, while my archival career has allowed me to work at some wonderful institutions including U of T, the CBC, and Ryerson University, I always knew I would jump at the chance to move back to Guelph should the right opportunity come along. The combination of the campus, the people who make up the library team, and A&SC’s collections made this position far too attractive to pass up. A: Part of me wishes I could steal my predecessor Kathryn’s answer from The Ontarion’s last archivist interview, because the Phoenix Theatre Company Collection Hamlet skull is pretty tough to top, but I am actually really excited about the Stanley Thompson fonds (documents) and Stanley Thompson Society Collection. As a result of spending 15 years working outside on golf courses, golf course architecture has long been a personal interest, and many of Mr. Thompson’s course designs are among my favourites.

I’d also give a mention to our CFRU collections as I think Guelph has had such an important campus radio station for so long, and those records have the capacity to convey such a vivid and robust picture of campus life throughout the decades.

A: I believe that the most crucial aspect of my role as our inaugural digital archivist will be my advocacy for digital archiving and for increasing our whole team’s capacity to work in this area.

I see it as my role to make sure we set up a successful platform for a robust digital archiving program going forward. The exciting thing is that it has never been easier or more possible to reach a wide (even global) audience with our digital collections, and I know the A&SC team and I are all looking forward to the outreach and storytelling possibilities.

slightest clue of what they wanted to do with their lives.

Sufficiently confused and relatively directionless after four years of philosophy education, I moved to the mountains of British Columbia and spent the next six years focusing on a career in turfgrass agronomy.

When the charms of 24 hour on-call snow removal duty and rising before the sun every day wore off, I had to decide between pursuing further philosophy education or library school, and the call of a tangible career path finally won out. Around this time, I attended U of T’s Information School open house, and immediately became drawn to the idea of working in an archive.

There was certainly something appealing to me about the idea of spending long quiet days underground processing huge, dusty, and presumably important archival records. At that time, I was specifically interested in becoming a music archivist, and throughout my career I have had the chance to work with some amazing music, even though my career path has led me to university and digital archives.

Q. What made you want to work at the U of G? Q. You’re probably still getting to know the collection but, from what you do know, what do you think is the most interesting or surprising item in our collection?

Q. You are the department head in Archives, but you’re also appointed as the digital archivist. Tell me more about digital archives and what digital archives work is all about.