Exciting Digitization Project Updates!
We’re thrilled to share some fantastic updates on our ongoing, large-scale digitization project in the archives! Thanks to the hard work of our archives team (past and present) and support from our amazing funders, Library & Archives Canada, we’ve made some amazing progress in making the photographs and other materials held in our archive more accessible.
Over 2,000 images are now accessible online!
We’ve been releasing our newly digitized photo assets on our Community Portal, the online version of our collections database! Over the past two years, we have added over 2,300 photographs, negatives, and slides to our online offerings. We add new photos and objects every month, so there is always something new to look at! These images offer a fascinating glimpse into the past, preserving moments in history for future generations to explore.
We’re also closing in on finishing up our current digitization project - our slide collection! So far, over 1,000 of the slides we have been digitizing over the last year are available online, with the remaining 550 coming by the end of March. Stay tuned as we continue to unveil these incredible visual records!
Achieving a Major Strategic Goal
With over 2,500 items digitized through our Documentary Heritage Communities Program projects, we’ve completed a major goal in our current Strategic Plan! Over the last couple of years, we’ve been working towards the goal of having 5,000 items available on our Community Portal, and as of the end of January 2025, we have accomplished that! Five years ago, we didn’t even have a collections database; now there are over 5,000 items online that you can explore from home. From the Father Pat Memorial Ambulance to our organized archival collections/fonds to newly digitized images, we’re so pleased to be able to show you some of our collection and the history behind it. We invite you to browse through the online collections and discover the rich history captured there.
A Community Effort
None of this would have been possible without the support of the community, our dedicated volunteers, and the Library & Archives Canada’s Documentary Heritage Communities Program. The involvement of the Rossland community has been crucial - not only in supporting the project but also in helping us identify people and locations in the photographs. Without this help, so many images would remain anonymous and their historical significance would be lost. Your support and enthusiasm fuel our commitment to preserving and sharing Rossland’s dynamic history.
Thank you for being part of this journey! Keep an eye out for more updates soon!