Two golden flowers adorn John Cadman “Caddy” Norris’ sacraments of initiation card, hanging from interwoven cords to frame the dates each rite was received in St. Andrews over a century ago.
The artwork is beautiful. To see it last year, you would have had to book an appointment with our archivist and wait while she located the file for you to peruse.
Now we offer another option. Since September, the Charlotte County Archives (CCA) has worked on a digitization plan to bring the materials we preserve closer to you.
Digitization is the act of turning non-digital files, like handwritten letters, paper maps, or printed photographs, into digital ones viewable on a computer. The multi-step process begins with selecting the right materials and culminates in caring for the digital files long-term.
At CCA, digitization protects fragile documents by reducing handling. It also helps us better serve the public by offering remote access to select items. We hope that with the ability to more easily view these materials, you will reanimate them in new ways.
Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our volunteer photo team, thousands of our photographs are already viewable online. This new digitization initiative focuses on non-photo documents.
Our first upload over the course of this project, the Norris family collection is small (about 30 documents), and contains records of family births, baptisms, marriages, deaths–information you might find in a family Bible, which is exactly where the materials were stored before entering CCA’s care. It’s also CCA’s first collection with Black creators.
The rarity and smallness of this collection demonstrates how past choices shape the way we remember history. The sum of an archives’ holdings creates a story about who we are just as much as who we were. CCA’s collections tell a story about Charlotte County and the people, places, animals, industries, and ways of life that make this region unique. Knowing this, we digitized the Norris family materials first so their chapter is remembered.
Like engines of memory, archives are activated by us and they activate us. Digitization expands the potential for this with an Internet-based viewing environment, although it does change the experience.
Someone once asked me which was better: a handwritten poem, or the digital image of a handwritten poem.
They both have their benefits, I said. Reading a handwritten poem in person, touching the paper the author poured herself into, you channel an intimacy that a scanner cannot capture. Yet a digital image carries the author’s message to sometimes-unimaginable places, expanding its possible audiences and impact.
For archival materials, connection is a reanimating force. Digitization makes connecting with them, and our history, easier.
Archives store memories for future generations, but the deal only works as long as we in the present make use of them. So avail yourself of our digital collections; if something catches your eye, reach out. I speak for all of us at CCA when I say we are happy to help.
Madison Johnstone currently works at the Charlotte County Archives as an Archives Digitization Project Intern. She graduated from Ireland’s University College Dublin in 2023 with a Master of Library and Information Studies. Originally from Scarborough, Ontario, Madison hopes to stay in the Maritimes long-term working in heritage and information management. mca.johnstone@gmail.com
