Digitizing History

I recently wrote this article for my school's paper: http://www.thecord.ca/?p=9148

I'm also a History major. While I did my best not to show any bias in the article, I think this project is fucking brilliant. Not only will it preserve (for as long as the internet is around) extremely valuable primary documents, but it will allow both academics and the general public to educate themselves. There really aren't many resources of such high calibre that the public can utilize to educate themselves regarding such intensive topics, so I'm really glad these are being made available. Hopefully it will pique some interest in our country's history and allow for more funding to go towards such projects. Lately, the government has been slashing funding to museums and archives, but maybe this will help shed some light as to how important it is to preserve the past in order to better the future. The pictures are also just straight up awesome.

As a History student, I'm also stoked because it will allow valuable primary documents to be accessible from remotely anywhere. I can't tell you how many times I have been unable to locate specific information on a given topic because no primary documents from that particular event were saved. This digitization project will, however, not only make these documents (potentially) free to everyone, but make them available at the press of a button. If that doesn't make research one million times easier, then I don't know what will. It's also awesome because they are photographs, which can be analyzed by anyone, despite language barriers. There have been countless times where I began to celebrate upon finding a document, only to find it only available in a foreign language I can't speak. Photographs, however, can be interpreted by anyone, despite their native tongue, or even age, for that matter.

So basically, I'm really happy this is being done, and even more excited to see the finished project in the next few years. The LCMSDS was extremely lucky to have acquired this collection of photographs, and it is not surprising that they have put them to such good use.