Friday, January 30, 2009

Our First Issue

I felt like I was living in a time capsule this week. I was going through a stack of old papers laying around the office, filing them accordingly in our office archive. Lo and behold, within that pile was sitting a copy of our very first issue. January 1979. Pages very yellow and brittle, typesetting very old-fashioned, and layout very bare bones. We found some other very old issues as well. I felt like I was holding the history of the community in my hands. I am hoping that eventually we will be able to put some of those classic issues online.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Finding Hidden Treasure

We've been in our current office space for over two years, and we still have some things in boxes. Most of it are old computer manuals or packaging that are not of real importance. Earlier this week I decided to investigate some of those boxes, and found one containing hundreds of old photographs, some dating back twenty years or more. Old photos of people, places, and events in the neighbourhood. What a find!

Unfortunately, the box was so damaged by water, the bottom of it was literally stuck to the floor. The envelopes of photos were carefully extracted. There is a lot of damage, as many of the photos are stuck to each other, but most are salvageable. Now comes the fun part: going through everything and seeing what we have.

This find is especially valuable since we have just entered our 30th anniversary year. I am trying to scan as many pictures as I can - this very well may be my personal project over the next while. At the paper, we are making and recording history. What an impact we can make when we try to protect and preserve these precious memories.