The Santa Clarita City Council is scheduled Tuesday to weigh in on the fate of SCVHistory.com, the community’s online archive of local history images and documents.
SCVTV, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that owns and maintains the website, is seeking to donate SCVHistory.com to the city’s Public Library system once the site is re-engineered.
According to a city staff report, SCVHistory.com “began in 1996 with a few dozen historic photographs and has grown in the last 26 years to house close to 100,000 archival items in various digital formats. It serves as a repository for historic artifacts, books, film, photography, documents, and oral histories of significance to the Santa Clarita Valley, documenting events such as the St. Francis Dam Disaster, the earliest gold discovery and oil production in California, and the beginning of the film industry. Groups that frequently visit the website range from the general public to academic researchers, filmmakers, educators, and public agencies.”
According to SCVTV President Leon Worden, SCVHistory.com has no content management system, which would be needed before the library system would be able to operate it.
“The oldest coding is antiquated,” Worden wrote in a letter to the City Council. “Only one person has the know-how to manage it. When that individual is gone, SCVHistory.com dies – unless steps are taken now to fix it.”
To that end, SCVTV is seeking $300,000 in funding from the city to hire a qualified contractor for the conversion, which will additionally require “a substantial commitment of time and hands-on collaboration with the current operators of SCVHistory.com, which will be provided by volunteers at no cost,” Worden wrote.
The council meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Santa Clarita City Hall, 23920 W. Valencia Blvd.
Attachments:
Agenda Report
SCVTV Request Letter
Full City Council Agenda
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1 Comment
It would be a terrible loss if SCV history is lost. I grew up in Newhall, attended Newhall Elementary School from kindergarten through 6th grade, and Hart from 7th grade and graduated in 1959. I always look forward to seeing the history published daily.
The preservation of this valuable resource is very important, as is all history. You must do whatever is necessary to insure the maintenance of this incredible collection and future information.