‘Scan-a-thon’ to digitize archives
Participants invited to help scan negatives, photos and manuscripts
In the summer of 2014, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) collaborated with Wikimedia for one of their first projects together.
It involved uploading Montreal photographer Conrad Poirier’s photos into Wikimedia Commons, an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files.
Of the more than 21,000 photos found in Poirier’s archives — taken between 1932 and 1960 and often sold to newspapers like the Montreal Gazette and La Presse — some 1,700 were uploaded online. A pilot project, the BAnQ’s expectations for it were relatively low.
But one of Poirier’s photos stood out: a photo he took of two young women standing on Ste-Catherine St., reading the front page of the Montreal Daily Star.
The headline, “Germany Quits,” announced the impending end of the Second World War. Within months of being uploaded, it was viewed millions of times on Wikipedia.
“That’s when we really saw the potential,” said Frédéric Giuliano, archivist-co-ordinator with the BAnQ. “It was incredible.”
As Wikipedia’s annual conference, Wikimania, makes its way to Montreal this week, the two institutions are collaborating again. On Wednesday, they will be hosting a “scan-a-thon” of archives from three different BAnQ centres: Rouyn-Noranda, Sept-Îles and Quebec.
Open to all, participants are invited to help scan negatives, photographs and centuries-old manuscripts for them to be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and used to illustrate Wikipedia articles about Quebec’s history. Some of the documents are in danger of getting oxidized and they need to be digitized for the first time before it’s too late.
Pulling 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.
One of them, the Louis-Roger Lafleur collection (1936-1952), holds nearly 900 negatives and photographs, detailing the “lives of the Cree and Algonquins of the Abitibi, as well as the Montagnais and the Atikamekw of Quebec’s Mauricie region.”
Another, the Placide Vigneau collection (1842-1926), includes 1,400 pages of handwritten documents that shed light on activities ranging from the construction of villages to fishing trips and hunting expeditions. 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.
“It’s about digitizing them, but also making them available to the public,” said Wikimedia Canada president Benoit Rochon, adding that it could also help breathe new meaning into the photographs.
“With them being on Wikipedia, maybe someone who has information about them will come forward with it.”
Giuliano, from the BAnQ, described the collaboration as an “obvious marriage.”
By working together, Giuliano said, it not only gives the BAnQ a “base of passionate volunteers interested in Quebec’s history,” it also gives Quebec’s heritage an unprecedented audience.
“The mission of the BAnQ is to conserve and disseminate heritage,” he said. “Our website is very complete, but we don’t have the same audience and traffic as Wikimedia, which is (one of ) the most visited websites in the world.”
Wikimania, in its 13th edition, is described as a celebration of Wikipedia, its sister websites and the belief that “knowledge — verifiable, reliable information — should be freely accessible for anyone, anywhere,” said Juliet Barbara, communications director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Held in Montreal from Aug. 9-13 at the Centre Sheraton Montreal Hotel downtown, it will feature keynote sessions from experts (including Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales), workshops and meetups. Barbara said attendees from 70 countries are expected.
The “scan-a-thon” will be held at the BAnQ Vieux-Montréal’s GillesHocquart Building on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.