Last night, Burlington Public Library (BPL) launched its Burlington Digital Archive, an online repository for the Burlington Public Library’s local history collection, as well as that of the Burlington Historical Society, and the City of Burlington, from map and postcards to clippings and city directories.
The crowd of history-lovers browsed the display of documents and images from BPL’s own history, and were invited to choose a commemorative map to take home before listening to BPL’s Local History and Digital Archives Coordinator and project lead Marisa Purdy and Cody Vanderslot, manager of digital resources and collections, talk about the platform used for the archive and how it can be accessed. Attendees were also invited to place a red dot sticker on a large historic map of Burlington in the foyer to show where they live — and it is particularly interesting to see all of the dots in previously-undeveloped farmland.
Vanderslot was particularly excited about the robust platform, which allows users to search, transcribe text from documents, and download files. Purdy described some of the content, and is eager to continue “getting to know the collection,” as she continues the digitization process, which, she notes, is ongoing and will allow Burlingtonians to dig into the past from the library’s computers or at home.
“Burlington Public Library is committed to preserving local history and making our local history collection accessible to the public,” said Purdy. “By building our digital archive we hope the Burlington community will look to BPL as a central resource on Burlington’s heritage.”
The idea for this project began pre-COVID, in looking for replacements for the previous local history platform, which Vanderslot noted, “did not have great functionality.” The goal for the new platform is to “make as much of the content available to as wide an audience as possible.”
All of the digital content is meant to complement the physical local history collection that is housed in Central branch’s Burlington Room. Local history material has been at the library from the beginning, starting with clipping files of articles and photos, but the first archival material was donated to BPL in the early 90s in the form of the Tweedsmuir History Scrapbooks from the Aldershot and Nelson branches of the Women’s Institute.
The next major donation was the Ivan Cleaver Postcard Collection, whose images of old Burlington include the Hotel Raymond, Burlington Beach, the Lowville Mill, the Burlington Lacrosse Team, and other local scenery, businesses, and people.
These are now part of the digitized content in the Burlington Digital Archive. The Archive can be accessed via BPL’s website — you can search for it on the main page search box or go to the “Resources” page, click on “Local History Services” and access the Archive there.
Once you’re in the Archive, you can search across all of the material or browse by “repository” (BPL, the Burlington Historical Society, or the City of Burlington) or by “collection” (for example, the aforementioned Ivan Cleaver Postcard Collection, the City of Burlington Historical Photographs, or the Aldershot Women’s Institute). After you’ve chosen a way to browse, you’ll see a range of search subjects (underneath the option to filter by collection) on the left-hand side menu, which Purdy said may change as the Archive grows and as BPL becomes more familiar with the collection as a whole. Users can also sign up for a free account with their email address) — this allows you to bookmark particular resources so that you can resume your search another time.
The Burlington Digital Archive is going to continue to grow, and while Purdy is focused on digitizing the current Burlington History Collection, she anticipates that over time there will continue to be donations from the public, resulting in continual growth of the Archive.
Still on the agenda to be digitized is the Burlington Newspaper Index, which contains “over 72,000 descriptive data records,” says Purdy, as well as the ephemera collection, containing keepsakes and objects such as an old library card from library holdings, complete with return-date stamps.
Much of the work involved in creating digital records from documents and images comes from the processing: creating the descriptions and meta-data associated with each record that allows it be searchable on the Archive.
“Creating the Burlington Digital Archive has been an incredible investment of time and effort,” said Vanderslot. “We’re so grateful to everyone who has supported us, including the City of Burlington for a Burlington 150+ grant that enabled us to take this project to the next level.”
Start your own journey into Burlington’s past at https://digitalarchive.bpl.on.ca/ — and if you go to Central branch to do it, make sure you stop off at the big map of the city and place your own red dot on it!
