Grant helps Oliver deal with backlog in town archives

OLIVER – The Town of Oliver’s heritage society archives just received a big boost of support from Library and Archives Canada.

Oliver and District Heritage Society executive director Manda Maggs says the town recently received a $79,000 grant from Archives Canada, has allowed the municipality to hire two contract archivists for a year.

Maggs says there's a significant backlog of archival materials, including maps, scrapbooks, photos and original documents that need to be assessed, conserved and archived.

"Every archives and museum has a backlog of items waiting to be added to the collection, sitting in limbo. We are extremely lucky to be given this opportunity to have ours dealt with,” says Maggs.

She says the town’s archival collection is in pretty good shape, but there's a backlog of materials — estimated to be 15 metres long — that needs to be dealt with.

Interesting notes, stories or information uncovered in the backlog will be posted in The Lamplighter, the heritage society’s newsletter.

The public is welcome to access the resource library, located at 430 Fairview Rd., from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday to Friday. 

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