Project History

Aerial view of Hamilton's industrial harbourfront

Since 1914, Hamilton Public Library has collected, preserved and curated historical materials, incuding, clipping files, archives, rare books, periodicals, historical memorabilia, pamphlets, photographs and topical scrapbooks on a wide range of topics about Hamilton. The collection includes more than three million images depicting the history of the city and surrounding areas dating from the mid-1800s.

 
The PreVIEW Digitization project started in October 2004 as a sustainable approach to digitization at Hamilton Public Library. Two-dimensional, non-textual historical images, including photographs, negatives, glass negatives, posters, maps, and postcards from the 1850s to the 1950s, were selected from the collection and targeted for digitization.

 
The project makes digital images accessible online, providing a resource for students, researchers, educators and the general public.  It raises public awareness of the library’s tremendous resources through online exhibitions and library programs and lead to substantially increased use.  Access is global, showcasing HPL's collection far beyond our traditional physical reach.  Digitization also enables the preservation and conservation of the library’s image collections, and affirms a responsibility to protect rare materials while making them publicly accessible.

 
Our focus in the coming years is to digitize more of the collection and increase access to more images with the use of online digital formats. More than 13,000 historical images are available online, with high-resolution copies.