BC Archives Association

ACT has signed a contract with the Archives Association of British Columbia (AABC) to provide them with a copy of the Cinemage system, which means our system is being used to preserve B.C.'s archival past for the future. The three-year contract with AABC also provides for ACT to support AABC databases, services, and provide further upgrades as required for additional fees. (Please note an additional benefit: this contract gives our system a wonderful opportunity to showcase its abilities to a large body of potential clients around the world as governments and institutions look for electronic ways to preserve and present their history and heritage).

Since its formation in 1990 AABC has developed an impressive online database containing descriptions of archival records located at more than 165 institutions in B.C., as well as others in Western Canada, the Yukon and Northwest Territories. But its old software platform had limitations for both information seeker and information provider which Cinemage's system overcomes. The system will house AABC's British Columbia Archival Union List and give the public faster and easier access to online archival data. It will also allow the list to expand rapidly because it will give - for the first time - each one of AABC's 165-plus archival members the ability to input and maintain their own data.

The Cinemage system integrates the two parts of AABC's searchable online resources: the descriptions of archival records housed at more than 165 institutions and information about archival repositories around the province. It gives the general public vastly more search capability than the old system.