THE LAUNCH OF THE WEB
SITE -- March 17, 1999
HISTORY
IS WHERE YOU STAND
LAUNCH DAY REMARKS BY GERRY
CLARE, GENERAL EDITOR
- Good evening and welcome to the official launch of our local
history web site. I don't often have a captive audience anymore,
so I intend to take advantage of the opportunity!
- In just a few minutes Mary and I will cut the ribbon but
first I would like to say a few words about the information contained
on the site and about its origins.
- The web site on the Internet is just the latest in a series
of stages through which the material Dorthea Calverley collected
has developed into an ongoing project. I don't know just when
she started gathering information about the Peace, but it probably
wasn't long after she and her husband, Howard, arrived here in
1936.
- The first time I saw the Calverley Collection, it consisted
of books, magazines, tape cassettes, letters and manuscripts
piled on almost every flat surface of Mrs Calverley's home. At
that time she could see no practical or affordable way to make
the information available to the public and yet she felt it was
vital that she keep collecting our local history -- and so the
collection continued to grow.
- Early in the 1970's -- more than 25 years ago -- the Federal
Government made available some Local Initiative Project money.
Mrs Calverley began to work with the School District Resource
Centre to impose some order on the material that she had collected.
Other key people in that project were Dorothy Fast, Resource
Centre Co-ordinator at that time and Joanne Dahlen who did a
major part of the typing of manuscripts. Joanne is in Prince
George this week so could'nt be here with us this evening. The
project resulted in the preparation of nearly 30 bright orange
binders filled with hundreds and hundreds of articles about our
local history.
- This year, the Friends of the Library are funding a rehabilitation
project to replace the orange binders with new, stronger ones
with better covers. As the material is transferred to the new
binders, the lists of contents are revised to take into account
the changes (additions and losses) which have occurred since
the early 1980's.
- The web site which is being launched tonight does not replace
the sets of printed material -- it is an extension of that collection.
One of Mrs Calverley's wishes was that the information about
our region, which she had so carefully gathered, should be easily
available to young people in our schools. Today, of course, that
means through a web site on the Internet.
- The web site we are launching tonight has a history of its
own. In 1995, shortly after I retired, I began doing some organizational
work with the Calverley Collection in its crowded little cupboard
upstairs. Mary and I often remarked that we would like to "put
it on the Internet", but at that time there was no way the
Library could undertake such a project on its own.
- Then, in the summer of 1997, a Provincial Government program
called "Communities Connect" was funded through the
Library Services Branch to encourage communities to carry out
projects which made use of the newer communications systems --
the Internet, for example.
- By the end of the summer, a detailed proposal was ready,
supported by the School District, the City, the Peace Region
Internet Society, the Historical Society and the local branch
of the Retired Teachers' Association.
- In January of 1998 the funding was in place, I was named
as the General Editor and the project got underway. Finding two
typists proved to be a problem until I dropped off a Help Wanted
notice at the Business Education department at Northern Lights
College. Wendy Moore, senior instructor in Office Administration,
asked if her whole class could take on the contract as a fund-raiser.
I was delighted, of course, and the partnership worked very well.
The students here and at the Chetwynd campus typed 670 articles
(over 4000 pages) onto disk in a standard format for editing
and that part of the project was completed within 4 months. The
last files were handed over to me at the end of May.
- From this point on, I was kept busy writing new material
for the site, editing the items the college had typed and arranging
to transfer information to the site. John D'Amato at the School
District's Technology Centre introduced me to the delights of
web page management.
- Two of our university students -- Chris Mah and Shannon Pope
-- worked as Internet trainers and web site developers at the
Library for the summer. They were able to re-design the web site
and make it more attractive and useable and teach me some of
the finer points of site development.
- By late August Chris and Shannon were finished their job
and the process of transferring files to the main server was
left to me. Fortunately, it is not hard even though the idea
of being able to do it from home still boggles my mind when I
think about it.
- Both the Peace River Block News and the Mirror have given
me permission to add materials from their publications to the
site so that current developments will appear along with the
historical items and not have to be searched for in later years.
Both newspapers have also run articles about the project. CJDC-TV
produced a short segment describing the Calverley Collection
and the web site as part of the Heritage Week coverage.
- Negotiations with the BC Archives led to permission to add
60 historical images to the site. Some of these date back to
the early 1900's and add a very welcome dimension to the site.
Many other local photos have also been added to the package.
- Throughout the whole project, the Peace Region Internet Society
has been most helpful. The connection to the Internet is provided
free of charge by the Society through its agreement with the
Library. PRIS put a direct link to the web site -- About the
Peace Region of BC -- on its home page.
- Right from the beginning, Mary Toma has played a key role
in the project. She spotted the grant opportunities, prepared
the submissions and made sure that the Library was ready to do
the work. She dealt with the Library Services people, with the
City, with the School District
and
with a computer that sometimes proved to be balky. As Project
Director, she looked after the administrative side of the project,
leaving me to do the selection, editing and posting of material
for the site. I really appreciated being able to concentrate
on the history and leave the management and the worrying to her.
The project contract was finished on January 31, on budget and
two months ahead of schedule.
- I think Dorthea Calverley would have been pleased with what
has been done to continue her work and this web site is really
dedicated to her memory and to the Calverley Collection of local
history materials.
- And now I'll turn things back over to Mary for the final
official part of this launch party.
- Thank you.
-
-
-
-
-
-