Archival documents have become a point of distinction between Canadian universities, where the privileging of electronic resources had led to a homogenization of materials available across institutions. Unique research collections laden with primary source resources are points of distinction between universities and form an important part of the research landscape in higher education.

University-based repositories work to build unique collections that respond to the needs and interest of student and researchers, and they play a pivotal role in ensuring the preservation of archival resources that serve to document the contributions of individuals and groups that have, in one way or another, both big and small, impacted the communities within which we live. However, budgets, space constraints, and staffing, among other factors, require institutions to make difficult decisions about what archival materials are acquired. Repositories are unable to acquire everything proposed, in all areas of potential interest.

Acquisition decisions have important consequences, and it is critical that the archival profession reexamine how acquisition decisions are made and who has the power to make them. University-based repositories – or at the very least, their parent institutions – seem for the most part to be the primary stakeholder responsible for deciding what is acquired, and therefore preserved. Is this the predominant way decisions are made, or have university-based repositories begun moving away from this model and allowing for more collaborative approaches to acquisition? Calls for implementing participatory practices across the archival realm have been discussed in the literature for years, and while they are popular when it comes to description and increasing access, it is not clear whether these calls have moved to action when it comes to acquisition within academia. How, exactly, do Canadian public universities make acquisition decisions when it comes to adding private archives to their collections?

In early 2024, the survey ""Archival acquisition in Canada: Decision making practices at University-based repositories that collect private archives"" was conducted to help provide insight into acquisition-related decisions at public universities across Canada. This study aimed to determine how acquisition decisions are made; whether acquisition practices are collaborative; whether institutions work with community-based consultative bodies to build collections; what role internal and/or external contributors play in the decision-making process; and why repositories choose to involve these contributors in the decision-making process. This presentation will provide a first look into data collected as part of the survey to help unravel the often mysterious and usually bespoke and institutionally specific process of acquiring private archives. A particular lens will be placed on the question of whether these repositories have implemented participatory practices, and what impact these practices might have had on the acquisition of private archival materials. This presentation will also consider how institutions can implement participatory acquisition strategies that bring together universities, users, creators, collectors, and community groups, to ensure that collections are representative, varied, and serve to ensure that a diversity of histories are preserved and made available to the widest possible public.