In September 2006, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at the University of British Columbia Library announced the BC History Digitization Program. The focus of the program is to promote increased access to British Columbia’s historical resources, including providing matching funds to undertake digitization projects that will result in free online access to our unique provincial historical material. Below is a list of successful applicants for 2016.
Abbotsford Living History Project
Abbotsford Cultural Centre (dba The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford)
$10,000
The Reach’s Abbotsford Living History Project will digitize 5,000 history images from the collection donated by the Abbotsford News and provide them online for community use and education; allow for feedback and input from the community and share through social networking sites.
Digital Documentation of Works by BC Artists
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
$3,000
The project will support the digital photography of works by BC artists in UBC`s art collection and make the images available online. This initiative will contribute to the Belkin Gallery’s objective of making the University art collection more accessible for students, researchers and the public
Digitization of Vancouver Centennial Commission Photographs and Graphic Materials
City of Vancouver Archives
$9,956
A selection of photographs and a few graphic materials from the Vancouver Centennial Commission fonds will be digitized. Existing database metadata for these materials will be enhanced. The digitized images will be linked with their database descriptions, and the images will be viewable on the web in full resolution.
ECUAD Student Publications Archives Project
Emily Carr University of Art & Design
$6,862
Digitization of a collection of student publications that dates back to our beginning as the Vancouver School of Art in 1925. These publications give insight to student life at the art and design school over the years. Our goal is to provide access to this fragile and unique material by digitizing the collection and making it available through our institutional repository.
Capturing Our History Phase II: Esquimalt Archives Image Digitization Project
Esquimalt Municipal Archives
$6,500
The Archives will continue to digitize content for its award winning website during Phase II of its Capturing our History project. During this project we will add new photographic content and begin to upload textual content by selecting specific documents to help tell the stories inherent in the photographs themselves.
Digital Photographs of Haida Gwaii
Haida Gwaii Museum
$11,184
The project will help bring Haida Gwaii’s unique photographic collection into the public domain for the first time through its new website and on-line service where community members, visitors, and researchers will be able to access images, documents, manuscripts and audiovisual resources.
Digitization of BC Sessional Papers, 1933-1952
UBC Library (Humanities & Social Sciences Division é Digital Initiatives)
$5,688
This project proposes to continue work completed in the first and second phases of project by digitizing the next selection of the British Columbia Sessional Papers/consisting of 41 volumes. There are also accompanying fold out maps and charts.
Emanu-El: Laying the Cornerstone
Jewish Museum & Archives
$1,057
This project is an initiative to digitize six administrative books detailing the earliest history of Congregation Emanu-EI, including meeting minutes and financial ledgers; they cover a period from 1862 to approximately 1945. Congregation Emanu-EI is located in Victoria, British Columbia and is the oldest continually operating synagogue in Canada, having celebrated their 150th anniversary in 2013.
Nikkei Leaders circa. 1940s Digitization Project
Nikkei National Museum
$7,531
This project proposes to digitize approximately 2,000 photographs, artefacts, and other items from Japanese Canadians who were humble leaders in the community during the 1940s.
Prince George Newspapers Digitization Project
Prince George Public Library
$15,000
The Prince George Newspaper Digitization Project is a collaboration of the Prince George Public Library, the College of New Caledonia Library, the Geoffrey R. Weller Library and the Northern Be Archives at the University of North em British Columbia. With the consent and support of the Prince George Citizen publisher, the partners have been working together since 2007 to digitize the microfilin of the Prince George Citizen and six earlier newspapers. The Project goal is to provide digital access to all locally published newspapers from 1909 to the present day.
Salt Spring Island News: The Drift wood, 1995-1999
Salt Spring Island Archives
$4,387
These newspapers record the history of the island as it occurred, offering researchers a glimpse of life at the time. The Salt Spring Archives has back issues of the newspaper which are frequently accessed by researchers and the general public. Although 1960 to 1995 are now online, researchers must still physically come to the archives to access any further issues. Digitizing this information, which is searchable within each issue, will make the papers more accessible to a wider audience.
Thompson Nicola Historical Newspaper Digitization Project
Thompson-Nicola Regional District Library System
$15,000
A collaborative project between the TNRD Library System, Thompson Rivers University Library and Kamloops Museum & Archives, this project will result in the digitization of over 100,000 pages of a variety of regional newspapers published between 1985 and current day.
Changing Waters: Photographs of the Impact of Hydroelectric Development on the Landscape of British Columbia from the Ron Waters Collection
Touchstones Nelson Museum of Art and History
$2,000
This project will feature approximately 400 colour slides from the late 19S0s to the early 1980s of hydroelectric development in British Columbia. The broader dissemination of these images is important in light of the current renegotiation period of the Columbia River Treaty (2014-2024) and the development of the Site C Dam.
Abbotsford, Sumas and Matsqui News Local Newspaper Digitization Project
University of the Fraser Valley Library
$12,543
The UFV Library plans to digitize the 1922-1938 years of the Abbotsford, Sumas, & Matsqui News (ASMN) and make the content freely and openly available online via a dedicated portal of UFV’s recently launched institutional repository.
Digitization of the Slides of Ian McTaggart Cowan
University of Victoria Libraries
$13,444
The University of Victoria Libraries will digitization of the complete slide archive of BC environmental pioneer Ian McTaggart Cowan, which will augment and be uploaded and added to our existing digital collections, including the Ian McTaggart Cowan Field Journals.
Vancouver Historical Costume Digitization 2.0: Hanging Costumes
Museum of Vancouver
$12,000
MOV holds a significant collection of Vancouver related historical costumes recognized for its quality, size, and breadth of styles and periods represented. Through the digitization of a portion of this collection (approximately 800 pieces), MOV will increase the public’s access to this delicate and seldom seen portion of MOV’s collection.
The Artray Negative Collection: Photos of Vancouver and BC. 1943-1957
Vancouver Public Library
$12,078
This project proposes to digitize 2400 images by Artray, a former commercial photography company. The collection consists of photographs of Vancouver and BC from the 1940s and 1950s, and includes a wide range of subjects and activities.
Exploring Whistlers Transitional Years: The Whistler Question Negatives, 1978-1985 Digitization Project
Whistler Museum & Archives Society
$8,182
This project will aim to digitize the collection of the Whistler Question newspaper’s negatives currently held by the Whistler Museum and Archives. In this collection, there are negatives for all photos found in Whistler’s primary newspaper between 1978 and 1985.
For more program information please contact:
Mimi Lam
Coordinator
BC History Digitization Program
bc.historydigitization@ubc.ca
Bronwen Sprout
Head
Digital Programs and Services