Construction crews at work paving a new section of Highway 97. 1982. Kelowna Capital News photographic fonds. Item no. OSC ARC 14/P00170
The British Columbia Regional Digitized History (BCRDH) project is a UBC Okanagan Library initiative that connects Okanagan Special Collections & Archives with community repositories in the pursuit of creating a shared digital portal that compiles a wide range of historical resources. Now in its ninth year, the project has fifty community partners across three geographical regions.
The BCRDH online portal operates through Arca, the BC Electronic Library Network’s collaborative repository service, which is undergoing a comprehensive migration to a new version of the Islandora platform.
In preparation for this platform upgrade, Okanagan Special Collections & Archives has completed an enormous amount of work. Rigorous checks and edits were performed to over 140,000 records to support this migration.
We’re pleased to announce that the migration is complete! As a way to celebrate and recognize this upgrade, Okanagan Special Collections & Archives is unveiling a new collection from Trail Museum and Archives through the BCRDH portal as an illustrative achievement.
Trail Times Collection
First called Trail Creek News, The Trail Times has provided local and international news coverage to the city of Trail, BC since 1895–just a year after the town was first settled.
The Trail Museum & Archives worked with MicroCom (recently acquired by Consentia) to digitize 15,676 newspaper issues spanning from 1896 to 2022. All issues up until 2022 are now openly accessible through the BCRDH.
Covering Trail’s extensive development, labour issues, and world events, the digitization of this historic newspaper provides a snapshot into the life and times of the population of Trail, BC and the West Kootenay region.
Trail Museum & Archives is grateful to Black Press Media for granting permission to make these items available and for the generous support of the following funders, who ensured this project was completed in one phase:
- City of Trail
- Trail Historical Society
- Teck Trail Operations
- FortisBC
- LeRoi Community Foundation
- Kootenay Savings Community Foundation