Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014

Do the archiving here in Hamilton

Hamilton Spectator

 Canada’s records

 Library and Archives Canada doesn’t know which departmental records should be disposed of or archived. And there is a backlog of 98,000 boxes of material waiting to be archived, some of it dating back to 1890, but no plan for how to deal with it.

It would be a shame to lose any of this and thus forget a lot of Canadian history due to lack of interest and knowledge on how to archive all the backlogged data.

The solution is to bring these boxes to Hamilton. At 276 Sanford Avenue North is a long time unused six-storey building that at one time belonged to Westinghouse. With minimal conversion it can be made into a climate-controlled environment for storage purposes. Archiving by digitizing the documents in the same building will offer an excellent opportunity for employment by capable persons.

The result would be beneficial for Hamilton and Canada, as the documents are saved for future generations and the current generation is employed by being the ones who digitize and archive these documents.

There is a wealth of new technology available that will make this venture possible. Let’s do it and make Hamilton the new home of Library and Archives Canada.

 Dez Miklos, Hamilton