BC History Digitization Program (BCHDP)

The British Columbia History Digitization Program promotes increased access to BC’s historical resources by supporting digitization projects that will result in free online access to unique historical material from around the province.

Click here to read the digitized Peninsula News Review

Peninsula News Review Digitization Project

Sidney Museum Moves to Digitize Newspaper Collection

  • Peninsula News Review Collection includes 46 rolls of microfilm.
  • Freely available and searchable online for public use.
  • Forty-six rolls of microfilm contain approximately 38,000 pages of newspaper.
  • Matching funds required to move through with grant application.
  • Collection is only accessible by appointment at the Museum’s sole microfilm reader.

Sidney, B.C., December 4, 2019 — Sidney Museum is thrilled to be announce their application of the proposed Peninsula News Review Digitization project has been accepted for consideration by the BC History Digitization Program out of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC. The program promotes increased access to British Columbia’s historical resources by providing matching funds to undertake digitization projects that will result in free online access to unique historical material from around the province. The Peninsula News Review (PNR) Digitization project will digitize, and make freely searchable online, 46 rolls of 35mm microfilm containing past issues of the PNR newspaper, which covered the Saanich Peninsula and surrounding Gulf Islands, spanning 1912 through 2002. The collection is greatly underutilized at present as it is only accessible in person by appointment on the Museum’s sole microfilm reader.

The Museum is seeking donations and receipts may be used for income tax purposes. The public launch of the project is projected for early 2021 to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Sidney Museum.

The Peninsula News Review (PNR) Collection contains unique materials that document the agricultural, cultural, economic, historical, political and social history of British Columbia; especially pertaining to the Saanich Peninsula and Gulf Islands. The PNR Collection includes increasingly delicate physical copies of the newspapers spanning 1912 through 2018, as well as archival copies on 35mm microfilm for 1912 to 2002. The newspaper recorded important social events, accidents, births, deaths, marriages, agricultural news, municipal developments, entertainment, business advertisements, and more for the local area, as well as economic, military and historical news at the provincial level.

For more information please contact Alyssa Gerwing at [email protected] or (250) 655-6355.

If you wish to donate towards this project, please follow the link below and indicate in the Fund field that your donation is for the Peninsula News Review Digitization Project.

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