New URL for original "Camera Workers" site

Due to the impending closure of the Shaw.ca web space on which I had hosted since 1999 Camera Workers: The British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Photographic Directory, 1858-1950, I have integrated the original site with the newer version. The integrated site, based on the design of the original Shaw-hosted site, uses HTML frames coding.

The integrated site is at http://cameraworkers.davidmattison.com/cw1858-1950

As of March 3, 2017 I had transferred all data from volume 1 of the original site to the integrated site. When you click on the New Site link in the contents menu on the left, the new version of Camera Workers appears in the centre or main frame.

I will continue to migrate data from volume 2 and once that is completed the URL will change again to the newer version as a standalone application.

You can access the newer version as a standalone application at http://cameraworkers.davidmattison.com

The newer version runs on The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG) by Darrin Lythgoe.

Death in the archives

Distressing news from Thailand where eight people died at a bank as the result of a accidental release of fire extinguishing chemicals. Where did this tragedy occur? In the basement archive room of the Siam Commercial Bank's headquarters in Bangkok. Contractors were working on the system and tripped it. The chemical is called Pyrogen.
Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/thailand-8-dead-after-lethal-pyrogen-spray-mistakenly-released-bangkok-bank-1549457

Colonial North American Project at Harvard University

Harvard University has embarked on a remarkable multi-year project to digitize and make freely available all 17th and 18th century archival records and publications from all its campus repositories relating to life in colonial North America. This ambitious enterprise is called the Colonial North Amercian Project at Harvard University.

In addition to the collection itself, there are also a series of thematic essays which provide deeper insight into the contents of this digital library and archives.

It appears that the public interface is powered by the Omeka open source software.

BitCurator Consortium launches website

The BitCurator Consortium (BCC) has launched its website at http://bitcuratorconsortium.org/. The website contains numerous information resources about the BitCurator Consortium, digital forensics, and more.

The BCC is an independent, community-led membership association that supports the curation of born-digital materials by libraries, archives, and museums. Members of the BitCurator user community founded BCC in 2014 to enhance, promote, and explore this growing area of professional activity.

The BitCurator environment is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that includes open source and public domain digital forensics tools, as well as unique reporting mechanisms and user interfaces, designed to assist libraries, archives, and museums with the curation of born-digital materials. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the BitCurator project has developed, packaged, and documented open-source forensics and data analysis tools to create forensic disk images, analyze files and file systems, extract file system metadata, identify and redact sensitive information, and identify and remove duplicate files.

The BCC operates as an affiliated community of the Educopia Institute, a nonprofit organization that advances cultural, scientific, and scholarly institutions by catalyzing networks and collaborative communities to facilitate collective impact.

Source: edited from ARCAN-L, "Announcement: New BitCurator Consortium Website!", 020150903

Digital Library Federation DLF Forum meeting in Vancouver, BC, Canada, October 02015

The Digital Library Federation is holdings its DLF Forum in Vancouver, BC, Canada from October 26 to 28, 02015. The call for paper proposals is open until June 22, 02015 and the program will be announced in August. This is the first time the meeting has been held outside the United States.