HERITAGE Accessing and preserving the past
Researchers of New Zealand’s past know all about Papers Past , the National Library’s newspaper preservation project. i Information that was only previously available by peering at microfilms or turning over increasingly fragile pages is now able to be searched online. The immediacy of reports about Christ’s College cricket games, prize lists, educational achievements, Old Boys and advertisements are now as clear as the day they were typeset. This same site also has magazines and journals, letters and diaries and another source that is very useful for researching College’s past – Appendices to the Journal of the House of Representatives (known as the A to J’s), under the heading Parliamentary Papers. One of the earliest mentions of Christ’s College relates to its affiliation to the University of New Zealand through the Canterbury Collegiate Union ii . Section E09 contains reports on secondary schools and from time to time contains considerable detail about the College curriculum. Another site, that places Christ’s College in its wider Anglican context, is Church Papers Online Nga Pepa Hahi a Ipurangi iii . This source is coordinated through the John Kinder Theological Library and has
placed Anglican and Methodist papers online for all to use. An image based software that converts scanned text to optical character recognition(OCR), so it can be searched, is used. The Diocese of Christchurch has made available The Church Quarterly Paper (1861–1866), The Church Magazine (1876–1878) New Zealand Church News ( 1870– 1888), Church News (1911–1946), and these can be searched now. The gap in New Zealand Church News (1889–1910) is about to be scanned, so it should be searchable by the end of the year. The national Anglican newspaper Church and People (1946-1976) and Anglican Taonga (1999-) also contain Christ’s College references. Creating these sites involves considerable cost by scanning and the careful handling of original fragile items to create a digital format which is accessible. So when Christ’s College decided to have some items digitised, their current physical state and importance to the College were carefully considered. College now has two ongoing projects with a possible third waiting to be given the green light. The Minutes of the Board of Governors are a vital source, as they record decision making since 1855. They have been well thumbed over the years and so they were considered a priority. To date two volumes have been finished (1855–1864 and 1864– 1878) and a third (1878–1910) is partially complete. Although they
Scan of advertisment for Christ's College.
Christ’s College Canterbury
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