You have spent the morning paddling around the glassy lake, relaxing and enjoying the sunshine of a delightful summer day. Slowly, midday hunger starts to creep up. You excitedly return to land to join friends and family. You know that an enticing summer picnic of seasonal treats awaits.

You are excited to share your own blueberry cobbler made from a recipe you found in the 1960 Joy Circle cookbook. Fortunately, instructions for this delectable treat were available online in the Newman Western Canadian Cookbook Collection (NWCCC).

The NWCCC includes titles from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, and Northwest Territories. The most recent additions to the collection include 42 titles from the public domain, all related to British Columbia. These titles make up Phase 2 of the BCHDP-funded project to digitize the NWCCC print collection of about 2000 titles and make these valuable resources publicly available online. To date, about 12% of the 2000 titles have been digitized. This collection is one of only two significant cookbook collections in Canada.  

This image comes from the British Columbia Women’s Institutes centennial cookbook, a title featured in the NWCCC. The NWCCC is hosted in HarvestIR - Arca partner University of the Fraser Valley’s institutional repository. 

Enabling access to these resources online provides unique opportunities for academics like researchers and students, as well as the wider community including heritage organizations and patrons of the public library system. Users who interact with these materials are invited to witness evidence of community values, question whose materials are included in the cookbook and what’s missing, and learn from the marginalia left by people over time.  

Work is underway preparing for the Arca migration! The migration will involve transitioning 30+ Arca sites to the new Islandora 2 platform, along with over 29 terabytes of repository content. In addition to a searchable repository with robust metadata and a modern look and feel, expected outcomes of the migration include a faster and improved user experience, training materials for Arca admins, materials available for members to train end-users, and a more flexible and scalable underlying infrastructure that will support Arca’s continued growth far into the future.   

The timing of the migration is driven by the growth of the service as well as technological necessity. Arca’s membership has grown significantly over the years, and new, scalable architecture will ensure Arca is sustainable for years to come. On the technology side, Arca’s current platform, Islandora 7, has an expected-end-of-life in 2024, and the Islandora developer community’s focus has shifted to the new platform. Moving to Islandora 2 will provide more opportunities to take advantage of new developments and reengage with the Islandora community.  

The migration initiative will be supported by $500,000 in capital funding from the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills. This funding supports the BC post-secondary sector’s interest in preserving and sharing digital content in a collaborative, cost-effective way.   



Currently, Arca Manager Brandon Weigel is leading the team of Arca Administrators through proactive metadata amelioration and preparation of current repositories to support a smooth migration. For Brandon, the most exciting aspect of the migration is the opportunity to rebuild Arca with a focus on the future. He has worked hard to design a system that can grow along with the service, while ensuring the best possible performance and service for all existing members. He is also excited to start working in the modern platform, and to be able to once again contribute new, innovative modules to benefit Arca and the larger Islandora community.