History for the finding....

digital_launch
Originally uploaded by triviaqueen

Today I was happy to attend the Times-Colonist/University of Victoria launch of BritishColonist.ca, two years of collaboration resulting in the digitization and mounting of the first 52 years of the British Colonist (later Victoria Colonist) newspaper. The coverage starts with the first issue, published December 11th 1858 and runs through to June 1910. It is fully searchable (by keyword or advanced boolean searches) or you can browse by year/date.

While I didn't work on this project, I hope to work on projects that will support that site or grow from it.

The event included refreshments (drinks, light snacks, and a cake) provided by Feys & Hobbs and I was definitely the odd one out among the "bigwigs." The Libraries were represented by 7 librarians, two PEA (Professional Employees) members and me; the University was also represented by one VP, a Dean and an Associate Dean and a handful of other faculty. The remainder of the attendees were largely Times Colonist staff and others involved in the project at the management level. There were also a handful of local politicians in attendance including MP Denise Savoie and a few local mayors.

There were also special appearances by Sir James Douglas, Amor de Cosmos, and some of their contemporaries -- or rather by actors portraying them.