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The CBC Archive project adapts archival material for
viewing by the web. THis is one of the examples of
how Canadian Heritage's Canadian Culture Online
Program helps Canadaians improve their
understanding of themselves.
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Our Collective MemoryThe CBC/Radio-Canada Archives Project Provides Context for our Daily News
Have you ever watched a movie about the Roman Empire filmed in the 1960's? If so, you will understand what Albert Einstein meant when he said, "Memory is deceptive because it is coloured by today's events." Even though the characters are supposed to represent a culture 2000 years in our past, the hairstyles, manner of speech and values portrayed will tell you immediately the period in which the movie was created.
This is why the CBC/Radio-Canada Archives project represents such a special opportunity for Canadians to have direct access to more than 5000 archival television and radio news clips dating back to the 1930's. The online archives are accessible from the CBC and Radio-Canada web sites at www.cbc.ca and www.radio-canada.ca respectively. Each web site delivers current news and archival content in one of Canada's two official languages. Note that the news and archival content on each of these sites are developed independently, so as to best serve the unique interests of their specific target audience.
François Boulet the project director explained that the content for the online archive project is decided upon by an editorial board, in the same way they might decide on which stories are the most relevant for presentation on the evenings news. |
Every Canadian should be interested, young and old. Why? Because it gives back to all of us our collective memory.
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Once a topic is selected for the project, a collection of news clips relevant to that topic are chosen from the main archives for inclusion and then digitized for web presentation. These clips are presented on the web site within the context of the story they represent, accompanied by a summary explanation of their significance.
The project was initiated based on a proposal CBC/Radio-Canada submitted to the Canadian Culture Online Program. The Canadian Heritage program awarded the CBC/Radio-Canada proposal $6.6 M of funding over three years. CBC/Radio-Canada supplements this funding with an internal contribution bringing the funding to a total of $8M over the first three-year period.
When asked "Who should be interested in this project and why?", Boulet responded "Every Canadian should be interested, young and old. Why? Because it gives back to all of us our collective memory."
The CBC/Radio-Canada Archives project is only one of hundreds of online cultural projects funded by Canadian Heritage's Canadian Culture Online Program. (see: www.pch.gc.ca/ccop-pcce ) The program's goal is to ensure that despite the overwhelming amount of non-Canadian material being published around the globe, Canadians will continue to be able to find uniquely Canadian web content that helps us all better understand who we really are.
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