The Northern B.C. Archives and Special Collections (NBCA), a division of the Geoffrey R. Weller Library at the University of Northern B.C. has formed a unique partnership with the UBC Indigitization Program that will offer professional assistance to northern First Nations communities managing their digital heritage resources.

Indigitization is a collaborative initiative between Indigenous communities and organizations, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (UBC), the Museum of Anthropology (UBC), the School for Library, Archival and Information Studies (UBC) and now the Northern B.C. Archives & Special Collections to facilitate capacity building in Indigenous information management.

“The objective of the program is to work with First Nations communities to identify issues and clarify practices in the digitization (converting information into a digital format) and management of Indigenous community knowledge that is recorded on outdated audio formats,” said Allan Wilson, University Librarian, UNBC.

“The Indigitization Grant Program provides funds for community-led audio cassette digitization projects through hands-on training workshops and the use of an Indigitization Tool Kit to convert recordings to a preservation digital format. The Archives hopes to assist those Indigenous communities in northern B.C. that are seeking to build capacity and effective in-house management of its digital heritage resources.”

In February, NBCA Archivists, Ramona Rose and Erica Hernández-Read undertake extensive workshop training facilitated by Gerry Lawson (Indigitization Technical Lead) and Sarah Dupont (Indigitization Project Manager) in analog to digital audio conversion, condition assessment and documentation, as well as how to offer grant writing support to program applicants.

The Indigitization team also engaged in community outreach events such as classroom presentations to both UNBC and CNC students, and through a meeting with local First Nations community organizations in order to introduce this capacity building program and its funding parameters and to inspire potential applicants.

For more information on the Indigitization Program and how it can support your community’s goals for the creation and management of digital heritage resources, visit the Indigitization website at http://www.indigitization.ca/ or contact the Northern BC Archives at archives@unbc.ca. You can also call Hernández-Read at 250-960-6602.