Digital archive to secure city's history

ARCHIVE: Palmerston North City Library heritage assistant Heather Glasgow looking at the new Manawatu Heritage website. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Palmerston North City Library has created a new digital archive that allows you to submit your own items for collection from your home computer or mobile device, wherever you are in the world.

The online digital archive called Manawatu Heritage went live last week and allows people to contribute to the history of the Manawatu and wider region. Created by the council's Libraries and Community Services Unit and Auckland-based website designers My Tours, manawatuheritage.pncc.govt.nz is open to anyone to add items of significance to them.

Palmerston North City Library Heritage team leader Lesley Courtney said they were excited about the project.

"The archive allows people to upload images of scanned photographs, documents, maps and plans - they can even write their own illustrated articles. People will also be able to comment on items and tag them.

"It allows the community to interact and participate directly on the site, and allows us to capture the community stories directly from the individuals."

The material does not have to be decades old to be relevant to the collection. They want to see material that is current because as they say, today's content is tomorrow's history.

The new interactive site replaces Pataka Ipurangi: Manawatu Memory Online which was based upon earlier technology. All collections previously available on Pataka Ipurangi can now be found on Manawatu Heritage along with recently added content.

"It is going to be worth visiting the site again and again because new material will be coming on stream all the time," Ms Courtney said.

The archive will also allow people to download off it and is the nation's first archive that has built-in mobile access.

"We are looking forward to working with the community to develop the site over the next two years and add more features to enhance the experience of our visitors and contributors," Ms Courtney said.