Sherbrooke archive service doing well, looking for more

Record Staff

The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BANQ), Quebec’s provincial library and archive, recently increased its funding for the archiving services of Mhist, Sherbrooke’s history museum, in recognition of its excellent performance over the past two years.
Last year, the Mhist’s archive service responded to more than 1,000 historical requests by email or phone. The service also participates in the development of the institution’s exhibitions, with over 600 images highlighted in the new permanent exhibition Mémoires sherbrookoises. The elements of the collection are also highlighted in temporary exhibitions, various projects and publications.
In 2019, the Mhist archive collection was enriched thanks to major donations to the Jocelyn Boutin Fund, the Echenberg Family Fund, the Estrie Scientific Leisure Fund, the Société St-Jean-Baptiste fund and many others. Thanks to these acquisitions, the Mhist now preserves more than 113 linear meters of documents, 1.1 million images, more than 2,700 maps and plans, and more than 1,600 hours of audio and video documents.
Despite this positive report, the Mhist archive service still wants to outdo itself. In the context of the current health crisis, the Mhist is continuing its call for testimonies from the population. The team as also made efforts to acquire new funds in order to enrich its collection, but above all to preserve the local memory.
Before throwing away family photographs, archives of companies or organizations, the Mhist archive service asks people to think of donation to the collective memory. Sometimes the documents may seem trivial or irrelevant, but looking back, they are crucial for understanding a community. Think of old invoices or old photos of families or photos of past events.
The Mhist exhibition halls will re-open to the public on June 10 at 10 a.m., but the archives service remains closed, in order to respect government instructions.

For full story and others, subscribe now.

Share this article