Nova Scotia Rainbow Seniors Archive

Story

In 2017 the Prime Minister apologized in the House of Commons for discrimination carried out by or condoned by the federal government and its agencies against LGBTQ individuals. Now is the time to preserve the stories, experiences, and histories of individuals affected by this time in our history.

The goal of the Nova Scotia Rainbow Seniors Archive is to create a digitized and publicly accessible archive to help preserve the various social, economic, and artistic contributions that LGBT individuals have made to Nova Scotia. Preserving these stories serves a variety of purposes from creating an accessible archive for researchers, to encouraging original research on the LGBT community, to providing context for younger LGBT individuals who may be struggling with their identity or feeling accepted.

Strategy

The Nova Scotia Rainbow Seniors Archive is a small operation of three individuals – a primary investigator and two part-time research assistants. Currently, the two part-time positions are funded through the Age Friendly Communities grant which will fund these positions for two years.

However, an archival project of this magnitude will take years to gather and create. This projectDal campaign will help raise essential funds for a position to ensure the work we start is completed. Funds raised will employ a student archivist from Dalhousie’s Master of Information program upon the completion of the grant funding.

Creating a sustainable archive takes both time and money. Materials must be collected, assessed, processed, preserved, and made available. The cost of preserving one individuals material is roughly $100, which covers the cost of assessing, processing, and storing the materials. Along with materials, oral histories will also be collected form willing donors in order to further enrich the archival record and provide context to collections. The cost of conducting an oral interview is roughly $75, which covers the cost of conducting the interview, as well as processing and preserving the recording.

Impact

The Nova Scotia Rainbow Seniors Archive is a small operation of three individuals – a primary investigator and two part-time research assistants. Currently, the two part-time positions are funded through the Age Friendly Communities grant which will fund these positions for two years.

However, an archival project of this magnitude will take years to gather and create. This projectDal campaign will help raise essential funds for a position to ensure the work we start is completed. Funds raised will employ a student archivist from Dalhousie’s Master of Information program upon the completion of the grant funding.

Creating a sustainable archive takes both time and money. Materials must be collected, assessed, processed, preserved, and made available. The cost of preserving one individuals material is roughly $100, which covers the cost of assessing, processing, and storing the materials. Along with materials, oral histories will also be collected form willing donors in order to further enrich the archival record and provide context to collections. The cost of conducting an oral interview is roughly $75, which covers the cost of conducting the interview, as well as processing and preserving the recording.

We are asking for $15,000 to hire a student archivist to help with these tasks. Each gift is eligible for a tax receipt and will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Dalhousie – doubling the impact of your support!