A Vision for the Archives Online
For over seven decades the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has become a prime observer, recorder and player in the country's cultural and political landscape.
Thanks to the foresight of CBC radio and television archivists, funding from the federal government and a cutting edge web team, recordings which had been inaccessible to the general public are now available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection.
During the summer of 2001, the Department of Canadian Heritage approved a joint proposal from the CBC and its French counterpart, Radio-Canada, to create a Web site which would highlight selections from its radio and television archives and make them available online.
In a few short months, technical, editorial and archival teams in Toronto and Montreal, along with assistance from CBC's regional archives across the country, were operating in high gear. Together, they auditioned thousands of hours of programming dating back to the creation of CBC's predecessor, CN Radio, in 1927 and the birth of CBC Television in 1952.
With the launch of the CBC Digital Archives website - and its French counterpart, les Archives de Radio-Canada - you can listen and view generations of journalists, technicians, performers, politicians, artists and people from every walk of life who have left their mark on programs and broadcasts recorded somewhere among the millions of tapes, discs, films, documents and artifacts that fill the CBC/Radio-Canada archives.
Although Canadian Heritage funds the project, the CBC and Radio-Canada have absolute editorial independence.
The CBC/Radio-Canada Digital Archives Web site project was founded on three principles - to inform, to enlighten and to educate Canadians about their past. Though the primary audience is educational, the site was designed and built with every Canadian in mind. Everyone who visits will enjoy its unique perspective on Canada's history.
A key factor in the evolution of the site is feedback from users from teachers and the general public. If there's a person, event or topic that you'd like to see included on the site, please let us know and we'll see what we can do.
Please direct inquiries and feedback to our e-mail address.
