A history enthusiast would like to see the Summerland Museum post its photos online.
Rick Selinger, who runs the Summerland B.C. Hometown Memories Facebook page, plans to put forward a motion at the museum’s Annual General Meeting next month.
The motion calls on the museum to make its photographs available in a digital format.
“Currently generations are passing away without ever seeing the amazing old photos in the museum’s collection,” he posted on the Facebook page. “Let’s get these photos to the people!”
While museum staff and board members want Summerland’s history made available, they say there are factors to consider when posting historic photos.
“There are some legal ramifications,” said Sandy Nicolson, chair of the museum board.
She explained some of the photographs in the museum’s collection have copyrights attached and cannot be distributed without permission.
Amy McCroy, curator of the museum, said considerable time is required to scan the photos and upload them to a website.
She said around 100 photos are on the museum’s website and 9,000 are available on a database at the museum.
In addition, there is a backlog of photographs which have been received, but not yet processed.
When the photographs are in an electronic format, the originals are still retained at the museum.
The museum’s Annual General Meeting will be held Saturday, March 11 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the upstairs of the former library building on Wharton Street.