Windsor Public Library will soon be embarking on the Riverside Memories Project, our final event commemorating the centenary of the Town of Riverside.  The project will build – and digitize – a collection of Riverside memories including photos, documents, personal letters and family histories.  Residents will be encouraged to scan and preserve their old photos to share with family, friends and the WPL Local History collection.

“Preserving history and memories is fundamental to visiting our past and connecting us all to the community,” says Ward 6 Councillor, Joanne Gignac, who allocated close to $15,000 of ward funds to purchase a public digital book scanner to be housed at Riverside Branch.  “Old photographs, newspaper articles, recipes and stories define who we are – it’s vitally important that futures generations have a record of what went before them.”

The Image Access Bookeye® Scanner is designed to be self-service and user-friendly and deliver professional images in various formats.  Constructed to treat books and manuscripts with care, images can be saved on a flashdrive, emailed or stored in the cloud.  Users will be expected to provide a flashdrive but there is no charge for using the scanner and staff will be available to assist customers.

“We believe making technology available to the community is an important part of the WPL mandate.  Literacy – and technological literacy – touches us every day in everything we do.  Combining technology with the preservation of our past is a win-win for the community.  We couldn’t have done this without the foresight and generosity of Councillor Gignac,” says WPL CEO Kitty Pope.