By MIKE PERRY

The University Archives is pleased to announce the launch of the new U of L historical timeline, available through the University Library (www.uleth.ca/lib) and archives home (www.uleth.ca/lib/archives) pages.

The creation of the new timeline was a group effort, with a prominent role played by a couple of current students and a U of L alumnus, all currently working in the library. The project began about a year ago with new media student Marcel Jepson, who was working as a student web application developer, and I sitting down to discuss what could be developed. When we decided on what we wanted, Jepson got to work building and developing the platform.

While he did most of the work on this website, he was expertly assisted by Shem Simmons and Bryson Duda. Simmons, a graduate of the new media program who is currently working as a multimedia artist in the library's information systems department, styled and created the graphics for the timeline. Duda, a system support specialist in the library, assisted with writing the computer code that makes the timeline more interactive and searchable.

While the website was being developed, second-year computer science student Krysti Bouttell-Bonnar (a student assistant in the library) helped research the University's history for suitable content. Bouttell-Bonnar spent many hours combing through the University's publications to find interesting highlights to add to the timeline.

Thanks to these four talented people, in particular, and the University Library, in general, for their contributions to this project.

The timeline is an ongoing project, so if you have any suggestions for content or improvements please contact mike.perry@uleth.ca in the University Archives.

The timeline is very dynamic and allows users the ability to search the digital copies of University papers and the Meliorist from the webpage. The University Calendars from 1967 to 1995 (the most recent are already completed) have also been digitized and will be uploaded to the timeline shortly.

Mike Perry is the University of Lethbridge Archivist

This story first appeared in the November 2012 issue of the Legend. To view the full issue online, follow this link.