The Bulkley Valley Museum is developing a digital archive so Smithers residents can use up-to-date technology to explore their past.
The Smithers facility has secured a $15,000 grant from Library and Archives Canada to create a searchable online database of its collection.
A Vancouver company has been commissioned to build the web search engine, which will consist of a keyword search that can find catalogued images, audio and artifacts.
About 4,000 historic photos will be searchable as soon as the website goes live after its completion in late March.
The museum is applying for a second grant from the same fund to hire an archivist who can digitize its collection and add them to the database.
Museum curator Kira Westby said the web archive, once completed, would enable the public to access parts of the collection that were in storage.
“It’s taking what we have and making it bigger than our four or five walls in here,” said Westby.
“That is a big thing for us because we don’t have a lot of physical space.
“They always say ‘museums only show 2 per cent of what they have; it’s very true and we have all this great stuff that is just sitting on shelves.”
Westby hopes the new web search will be used by schools, historical societies and researchers from outside the region who cannot go to the museum in person.
The search engine will also have a function to make it easy for people to share their finds on social media.
Westby said the project was also about staying relevant in a society that wants to use modern technology to explore its past.
“It’s going to make the museum future-relevant to the next generation that expects to be able to search this way,” she said.
“People are starting to expect that museums have their collections online and this is going to ensure that the Bulkley Valley Museum is remaining relevant into the future.”