PROVENANCE: information origins, sources & destinations Canada and the Web
www.provenance.ca
2006
The "provenance" of Provenance the web publication at www.provenance.ca
Provenance as an idea, began in 1995, and earliest inspiration and moral support came from some senior staff at Canada's National Library and Canada's International Development Research Centre www.idrc.ca. Articles and materials for publication were provided by staff and students of the Library Technician program at Langara College, archivists and faculty from a number of universities in Australia, and the National Archives of Australia, staff from the South Pacific Center for Communications in Development, University of Papua New Guinea, and a group of "special librarians", freelance writers, authors and graphic designers mostly in the Greater Vancouver area, with some based in the Toronto area.
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| Electronic Magazine for Information Professionals - Vol. 1 - No. 1 December, 1995 |
The title "Provenance" (first - the electronic magazine, later - the web magazine) came from our managing editor, Guy Robertson. During the first years of publication provenance was supported by web hosting services donated with Internet Gateway Corporation ( www.intergate.ca ) in Vancouver, B.C. Canada and by BC1.com (www.bc1.com) a small internet services provider in Victoria, B.C. Canada. Intergate.CA has since been taken over by Uniserve.com and BC1.com was acquired by PacificCoast.net. PacificCoast.net (based in Victoria) after a major growth period of acquiring Internet/Web service providers in Britsh Columbia and Alberta in 2004 was acquired by Uniserve.com based in Vancouver.
Travel articles in Provenance came around the time of the International Conference of the Special Libraries Association of America, meeting in Seattle, Washington. We took the opportunity to showcase the Lower Mainland of B.C., the Gulf Islands, Victoria and the US Pacific North West - to convention delegates that might want to extend their stay to visit some of the most popular and picturesque vacation areas of the USA and Canada. Most of the early travel articles came from a group of "special librarians" who were members of the Western Canadian Chapter of SLA.
With the easing of regulations around acquiring Canadian dot.CA web domain names last year, we decided to apply for and received the "Provenance.CA" domain name.
In the late 1990's Provenance gained the distinction of being one of the first 10 web publications of its type on the world wide web. The "Ariadne" information project in the United Kingdom gave us honorary mention [see article referencing Provenance at www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue5/provenance ] and attempted to mirror our work in its archives. The Australian National Library did archive our initial issues on their web servers.
With the coming and going of the wild days of the "DOT.COM" craze which became what many call the "DOT.BOMB" business models - Provenance ceased publications for several years.
In 2002 we begin publication again, with many of the original contributors continuing to contribute to this volunteer venture. Our mission is share our content and skills in a modest ongoing web publication. So again we have the pleasure of presenting work by such writers as Teresa Murphy, Guy Robertson John Evans and Brian Buchanan new graphic creations from Tony Yau in Hong Kong, photo contributions from Zhang Juan in Beijing and Mona Chan, LLB and more. A new project for 2002 involves the promotion of the various "home towns-cities" of many of the contributors to this magazine -- go to www.MetroTown.info to see us promote our own areas of the world. In 2005 Mona became a Major Gifts Officer at UBC Library
Community Services Projects
- Papua New Guinea
You will note that Provenance is part of the non-formal support network for information and development projects in Papua New Guinea, work that Canada has formally helped with in the past through its International Development Research Corporation, ie. www.pngbuai.com Papua New Guinea Books Useful Articles and Information digital library
[see also www.manusisland.com Papua New Guinea's Province of Manus web site] - Law Students - Canons of Construction web magazine
Provenance.ca is a proud "corporate sponsor" of www.canonsofconstruction.com which is published by Mona Chan, for law students and the legal community at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Faculty of law.
[see also Vancouver Legal Services]
Thank you for visiting our web publication.
Neal Chan, publisher
publisher@provenance.ca
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Contact us by email publisher@provenance.ca
· Home page Provenance
· About Provenance web publication
· Media documentary resources
· Credits
See also
- MetroTown.info and see some of the home cities & towns of the writers/media creators of Provenance.ca