Welcome to "CCI and CHIN: In Our Words," a podcast for museum and heritage professionals who want to a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the work of Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) and the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN). In this introduction to the show, your hosts, Nathalie Nadeau Mijal and Kelly Johnson, interview the Director General of CCI-CHIN, Jérôme Moisan.
Welcome to "CCI and CHIN: In Our Words," a podcast for museum and heritage professionals who want to a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the work of Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) and the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN).
In this introduction to the show, your hosts, Nathalie Nadeau Mijal and Kelly Johnson, interview the Director General of CCI-CHIN, Jérôme Moisan.
Send us an email with your comments, questions, or suggestions for future interviews at pch.ICCservices-CCIServices.pch@canada.ca
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More about CCI-CHIN:
CCI, a Special Operating Agency within the Department of Canadian Heritage, advances and promotes the conservation of Canada's heritage collections through its expertise in conservation science, treatment and preventive conservation. CCI works with heritage institutions and professionals to ensure these heritage collections are preserved and accessible to Canadians now and in the future.
CHIN, a Special Operating Agency within the Department of Canadian Heritage, offers valuable collections management resources to the Canadian museum community and online public access to millions of collections records. CHIN assists Canadian museums in documenting, managing, and sharing information about their collections, which in turn ensures that this information is accessible now and in the future.
Credits:
Thank you to our guest, Jérôme Moisan.
CCI and CHIN: In Our Words is a production of the Canadian Conservation Institute, Department of Canadian Heritage
Nathalie Nadeau Mijal, Producer and Co-host
Kelly Johnson, Co-host
Pop-Up Podcasting, Production assistance
Music by Lee Rosevere
Duration: 00:04:54
[Music: “We Don’t Know How it Ends” by Lee Rosevere from the album “Music for Podcasts 6.” Style: Electronic Minimalism]
Nathalie Nadeau Mijal (NNM): Somewhere in the Nation’s Capital, there is a rather nondescript, two story converted warehouse, with nothing to distinguish it other than a mysterious sculpture of a captain keeping watch above the front door. Inside this building are some of Canada’s greatest treasures and the people charged with their protection—the staff of the Canadian Conservation Institute and the Canadian Heritage Information Network.
This is CCI and CHIN: In Our Words.
Let me start by introducing myself. I'm Nathalie Nadeau Mijal. My co-host, Kelly Johnson, has been in charge of learning and development at the Canadian Conservation Institute since 2015. The goal for today's episode is to tell you a little bit more about the Canadian Conservation Institute and the Canadian Heritage Information Network otherwise known as CCI and CHIN for short. So Kelly and I thought who better to tell you about these two organizations than the
Director General himself. His name is Jérôme Moisan.
[Music fades.]
Kelly Johnson (KJ): Thank you for taking the time to meet with us this morning. Could you please elaborate a little on what the mandate is for both CCI and CHIN and maybe explain what the acronyms stand for as well?
Jérôme Moisan (JM): Yes, so the Canadian Conservation Institute, or CCI, is an agency whose role it is to support museums and heritage organizations and the conservation of their collections. So, it's about conservation science, preservation services, and also the treatment of artifacts. In the case of CHIN, which is the Canadian Heritage Information Network, the purpose is really to help museums manage their collection and provide them with tools so that those collections can be consulted by Canadians, accessible to Canadians through the web, through the internet, so databases and so on and so forth, so that individual Canadians don't have to go to individual museums to see all the artifacts. They can do research and consult the databases as they see fit.
KJ: Great! And how do both organizations fit within the Department of Canadian Heritage?
JM: So, by virtue of their mandates they are special operating agencies within the Department of Canadian Heritage. What that does is that it provides both organizations with additional administrative freedoms or abilities to do a number of things to better serve their clients. In this case, the client and the clients are museums and heritage organizations and the kind of things that we can now do is to charge for our services or sometimes develop in a different way certain tools for our clients.
KJ: So as you know Nathalie and I have both been tasked with the oral history project for both organizations. Could you please give us a perspective of what that looks like?
JM: The project is really a great project to pass on the knowledge and the wisdom of all the people that have spent a lot of their careers in both organizations and have for one thing a perspective about the history of the organizations but also what was the purpose behind them, what have they learned, and all this wisdom we can collect and share with the public. We can share with our employees current employees and maybe share with the next generation of our employees who may be interested in joining us in the wonderful world of conservation and collection management.
[Music: “Where Was I?” by Lee Rosevere from the album “Music for Podcasts 6.” Style: Electronic Minimalism]
NNM: Thank you to Jérôme Moisan for joining us today.
CCI and CHIN: In Our Words is a production of the Canadian Conservation Institute, Department of Canadian Heritage.
Our music is by Lee Rosevere.
Production assistance provided by Pop-Up Podcasting.
Who would you like us to interview as a part of this podcast? Find us on Facebook at Canadian Conservation Institute and let us know.
Next time on the podcast: “You know it's just incredible the you know the intelligence and the focus that that the staff have on the work that they're doing. On a daily basis when you walk in and see what people doing, I'm gobsmacked by what they can achieve.”
[Music fades.]