Jean Dryden

Jean Dryden's expertise in archives and the impact of law on archival practice has been developed over many years of experience as an archivist in the government, education, and nonprofit sectors in Canada. Her primary research interest is copyright; her doctoral dissertation(University of Toronto, 2008) investigated the copyright practices of Canadian archival repositories in making their holdings available online.

Upon completion of her doctorate, she taught archives and records management at the University of Maryland from 2008 to 2011. She was also the principal investigator for a comparative research study funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services that examined the copyright practices of American archival repositories and their impact on users. Her research looked at the copyright policies of nearly one hundred archival institutions; the findings revealed a wide range of practices that sometimes apply copyright in ways that impede use of archival material.

Her expertise in privacy law has been developed primarily in relation to teaching and consulting in the area of records management. She has held the Certified Records Manager qualification since 1995. She is currently a consultant and educator in Toronto, Her consulting practice encompasses the domains of copyright, records management, and archives, including training, needs assessments, and policy and procedure development. In 2015, she completed a Master of Laws degree in Intellectual Property at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.