A handful of First Nations projects and the first out-of-province initiative are among the successful recipients of the 2010/11 B.C. History Digitization Program (BCHDP) awards.
The digitization program, an initiative of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, was launched in 2006. It provides matching funds that help libraries, archives, museums and other organizations digitize unique historical items, including images, print and sound materials.
In 2010/11, the Learning Centre provided nearly $200,000 for 25 projects. Altogether, BDHDP funding has totalled more than $650,000 for 76 projects throughout British Columbia.
Grant funding requests for 2010/11 significantly exceeded available resources and this meant that the adjudication committee had to make some difficult decisions. This year marked the first out-of-province grant, made to the United Church of Canada, which is headquartered in Toronto. It is one of three approved projects involving records relating to First Nations groups in British Columbia. The project will result in the digitization of visual and documentary records relating to Methodist and United Church missions in B.C.
In addition, grant funding has been awarded to eleven photographic digitization projects around the province as well as five applications that featured the digitization of local newspapers.
During the past four years, projects have included photographic collections, community newspapers, oral history recordings, city directories, medical artifacts, three-dimensional fossil specimens and more.
For a complete list of grant recipients and project descriptions, please visit here.