The Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee National Archives (CJCCCNA) and the Jewish Public Library Archives (JPL-A) are proud to announce the launch of a new website, The Canadian Jewish Heritage Network, at www.cjhn.ca.

As two of the major organizations involved in Canadian Jewish historical research, both located in Montreal, CJCCCNA and JPL-A preserve the memory of Quebec and Montreal’s poets and politicians, its artists and activists, its builders and teachers, its families and philanthropists. Their users can now visit the collections from the comfort of their own desks, searching the online catalogue for archival collections dating from the 18th century onwards. Using the site's selection cart, users can select, e-mail, print or order archival material directly from the web.

More than 25,000 database records from these archival collections are currently online, as well as over 1,500 digitized historic photographs and archival documents. Many complete multi-page documents are available in PDF format. The digitized documents currently online include minutes, annual reports, anniversary publications, sermons, and ephemeral material.

Users of the site can also delve into the CJHN's genealogical research database, which already contains close to 50,000 genealogical records and over 5,000 associated images.

“What you see now on this website is a seamless blend of two repositories' holdings; actually a virtual ‘mind-meld’ of two institutions into a single functional entity helping researchers. Through designing the web site together it has now become natural for us to consult each other in areas of archival acquisition and even software and equipment purchases, sometimes acquiring a digitization tool in one location and trading services with each other.”

Janice Rosen, Archives Director, Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee National Archives

Andornot assisted with this project in many ways, including:

• creating the website using the Umbraco Content Management System;
• developing an archival database based on the Andornot Archives Starter Kit, as well as a separate genealogical database, to hold data from multiple different sources submitted by participating institutions;
• developing data import procedures to allow staff at each organization to keep the live databases up-to-date with their local collections; and
• hosting the website and databases and providing ongoing support and updates.

 

“Archives are not really about the past, rather we must constantly plan for the future: how will we preserve this for another five hundred years; who is going to use this archive fifty years from now; what will they need and why and so on. With this in mind we know that we will continue to push the limits of the CJHN site. With the help of Andornot's services we are assured that CJHN will grow not just in digital content but also in partners, in use, relevance and profile.”

 

Shannon Hodge, Archivist, Jewish Public Library Archives

“The CJHN is a model for honouring and preserving our history and traditions – not by locking it away in a dusty archive – but by celebrating, cultivating and sustaining our history for a stronger Canadian Jewish future. The core message of building directly on our communal memory to shape and improve our communal future is a truism that we all should keep in mind.”

Benjamin Shinewald, National Executive Director, General Counsel and Acting CEO of CJCCC

The Centre du patrimoine (Heritage Centre) of the Société historique de Saint-Bonifaceis an archive and research facility dedicated to the preservation, study, dissemination and development of Francophone and Metis history in Manitoba and Western Canada. The Heritage Centre holds more than 500 archival fonds documenting every facet of life from culture to commerce, education to politics and religion to the economy.

"The Centre du patrimoine - Heritage Centre decided to do a completely new web site two years ago. Our goal was to have a user friendly website both for the general public doing research and for the staff updating the various sections of the site. One of the main objectives was to use as much as possible the Web 2.0 features in the limits permitted by our budget and staff resources. We wanted to have those features integrated into the database search and results interfaces as much as possible," says Gilles Lesage, Directeur général of the Heritage Centre.

Archives Database

In the fall of 2010, Andornot merged and converted various archival databases to the latest version of the Andornot Archives Starter Kit – Desktop Edition. We then created a new web interface, in French, based on the Andornot Archives Starter Kit – Web Edition. The search results include images for some records, which are dynamically generated in several sizes by the Andornot Image Handler. A selection list allows researchers to mark records of interest, then email, save or print those records, or submit them to the Heritage Center to request additional information.

Although the database and web interface are hosted by Andornot, it appears to users to be seamlessly integrated into the Historical Society’s website, thanks to tight integration between the two systems. The search interface dynamically fetches the site header, footer and navigation menu from a blank page in the Drupal content management system used by the main website and wraps it around the database search and results pages. If the main website changes, the portion hosted by Andornot will always be up to date.

The new archival web interface is available at http://archivesshsb.mb.ca/search.aspx

Voyageurs Contracts Database

The Heritage Center also asked Andornot to develop a database and web search interface for a collection of 35,000 records of contracts between fur traders (Voyageurs) and companies engaged in the fur trade in Canada between 1700 and ca. 1822.

Further information and links to articles giving background information on the database is available here. The search interface is available in French at http://voyageurs.shsb.mb.ca/search.aspx

Search results are grouped by the name of the voyageur, showing the multiple contracts many voyageurs undertook. Additional information includes parishes of origin, hiring company, length of contract, destination(s), advances and wages, supplies, conditions of hire, date of signing, and more. Eventually the Heritage Centre hopes to be able to include digitized images of these contracts.

The database was created from a FileMaker database converted to a custom-designed Inmagic textbase.

As with the archives web interface, the Voyageurs interface is hosted by Andornot, but tightly integrated with the Heritage Center’s main website.

"We are very pleased with the quality of the database products, the special features Andornot was able to integrate, the successful seamless integration into our main website and ease with which we were able to upgrade from our previous databases to this new solution. In the short time since these applications were made available online, the comments have been very positive. We were also happy to work with the Andornot people and impressed by their efficiency, attention to our goals and objectives and courteous service." says Gilles Lesage.

We are delighted to have been able to assist the Heritage Centre to improve access to these important sets of historical records. Please contact us if you have any questions.

When initially installed, Genie is set up with an English-language interface. However, Genie can also be set up with French-language screens so that staff and users can work in the language of their choice.

Installation is fairly straightforward using Inmagic's instructions and localization files, but does involve editing some Genie .config files.

From your library home page, you can direct end users to the OPAC and have it start in either language, simply by specifying the language in the URL.

e.g. http://216.187.67.111/InmagicGenie/opac.aspx?Language=fr-CA will start the OPAC in Canadian French (this site is Andornot's Genie demo).

Library staff can also choose a language for working with the Catalog, Serials and other modules.

In both the OPAC and library staff area, a cookie is set to retain the language choice.

Contact Andornot or Inmagic, Inc. to obtain the French localization files and step-by-step instructions for installation.