How I helped preserve 50 years of history.
How I helped to preserve 50 years of Nanoose Library History…
The August issue of neighbours of Nanoose featured the Nanoose library celebrating 50 years, but my story goes back to last year. Each month I hold my photo organizing workshops in the library, it has great space, good Wi-Fi and is a reasonable cost while being the centre of the community.
One day last Oct while walking around the library, I noticed some old scrapbooks and magnetic albums on a top shelf out of reach. I pulled one down and sure enough it was photos that had been taken at the library from about 1985-90. as I continued to pull the albums down and look inside, it occurred to me that this was the photo history of the Nanoose library going all the way back into its inception in 1974. Over the years, library volunteers and user groups including a group called the Golden Agers had been gathering at the library over the past 50 years. There were also numerous newspaper articles, documenting the history of this fabulous resource to the community.
One album grabbed my attention, handwritten on the front of it was The Pioneers and Leaders of Nanoose Bay. Inside was a photo journal of 12 Nanoose residents who made a significant contribution to the community ranging from the early 1900’s. It was fascinating to read about and see photos of these leaders. I approached the Library Board and President with a proposal to historically preserve the photos and stories that were in these old albums in the library. My project was approved and soon began the job of dismantling the albums, scanning and digitizing all the photos, documents and newspaper clippings. Then the volunteer board stepped up to start organizing the collection and adding new digital photos to the library digital archive.
The photos and stories that were written in these albums have now been preserved in a permanent digital account that the library will be able to share with the community for generations to come. With this organization and preservation, the volunteers at the library will be able to continue to add photos and stories of the events and activities that happen at the library and in the community.
After hundreds of scans and many hours organizing the collection, with the help of the Board Members we were able to present the Nanoose library archives at the 50th birthday celebration in August at the library centre. In the coming months, you will be able to view the preserved library archives in their digitized form. You might just see some of your family and friends in these photos or read about them in the many newspaper clippings that featured the library throughout the years. This was a very special project for me as I really wanted to contribute to helping the community in some way since moving here in 2021 and establishing my photo organizing and digitization services in the community. The library and those that support it are a wonderful community and resource in Nanoose Bay. I feel very lucky to have moved here and been welcomed into this wonderful part of Vancouver Island.
If you are interested in digitizing and preserving your family memories and want to pass your stories down to future generations, this is what I specialize in.
Please reach out I’d love to help.
Deanna Johnson
Photo Coach & Digitization Specialist- Preserving family memories for generations to come.
