Sweeney is a charter member of the Academy of Certified Archivists and, with colleagues, wrote the first code of ethics for the Canadian archival profession.
Sweeney graduated from Alberni District Secondary School in 1977 and subsequently received a Bachelor of Arts in Latin from the University of British Columbia in 1981.
[6] Her thesis was entitled: "A Comparative Study of the Record Keeping Practices of the Anglican, Baptist, and United Churches in British Columbia.
[13][14] Responsibility for these two additional portfolios ended when the University's organizational structure shifted the FIPPA Office to the Vice-President Administration in 2008.
At the University of Manitoba Archives, Sweeney devoted a great deal of energy to “expand, make accessible and promote the collections that document Spiritualism and psychical research in Canada,” concentrating in particular on the Hamilton Family fonds.
[15] Once the bid was successful, she was appointed co-chair with Deborah Young to the Implementation Committee for the proposed National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation from 2013 to 2014, and was a member of the leadership team from 2014 to 2015.
[17][18][19] Sweeney taught sections on description, outreach, and advocacy and provided support by examining theses and supervising interns for the Master's of Archival Studies program in the history department at the University of Manitoba.