After the discouraging news in July about budget cuts at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) that suspended digitization projects, there is a positive story.
Today, BAnQ is collaborating with Wikipedia’s annual conference, Wikimania, to host a scan-a-thon at its centre in Old Montreal. The scanning event is open to all. Participants are invited to help scan negatives, photos and centuries-old manuscripts for them to be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files, and used to illustrate Wikipedia articles about Quebec’s history.
This photo of the Linton Apartments and Church of the Messiah on Sherbrooke Street in Montreal was among more than 1,700 BAnQ and Wikimedia scanned in 2014. Photo by Conrad Poirier, July 1947. Source: Bibliothèque et Archives du Québec via Wikimedia Commons.
According to an article in the Montreal Gazette, the items to be scanned will be pulled from five archival fonds. “The event is focusing on the lives of First Nations communities living in Quebec, a topic organizers say is in need of bolstering on Wikipedia.”
The oldest collection, the Picard family fonds, dates back to 1762 and documents the history of the Huron-Wendat Nation near Quebec City for more than 200 years.
This is not the first time BAnQ has collaborated with Wikimedia. In the summer of 2014, more than 1,700 photos by Conrad Poirier were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
The Wikimania conference, is being held in Montreal from August 9 to 13.
The scan-a-thon takes place today from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at BAnQ, 535 Viger East.
