As part of our digitization services, CRKN partners with universities, libraries, and archives to scan and make available collections of Canadian documentary heritage. Below are examples of projects carried out by our digitization team for member and partner collections.
To learn about digitization projects our team has completed for Canadiana, see our News section.
In 2023, CRKN partnered with the Esther Clark Wright Archives at the Vaughan Memorial Library and the School of Education at Acadia University to digitize a selection of materials from the Luke Elwood Family fonds. The project’s aim is to create a digital archive detailing Luke Elwood’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms landmark court challenge for disability rights within the Canadian public education system that documents the historic context around disabled learners' contested participation in schooling.
The fonds contains material relating to the Elwood family’s fight in 1986-87 to keep their son Luke, who has an intellectual disability, in his neighbourhood elementary school instead of being placed in a segregated Special Education program. The Elwoods prepared to go to trial but a court ordered settlement was reached at the 11th hour that quietly affirmed Luke’s right to attend and be educated in his community school.
As part of this project, CRKN staff digitized 258 folders of archival material, including personal correspondence, photographs, schoolwork, newspaper clippings, and more. CRKN also performed Optical Character Recognition (OCR) processing on the digitized images where applicable. The images are now available to view online through the Esther Clark Wright Archives online portal.
CRKN thanks staff at Acadia University for the opportunity to be a part of this meaningful project.
From left to right: a handwritten letter from one of Luke Elwood's classmates supporting Luke's wish to remain in his neighbourhood school; a photograph of the Elwood family captioned "This is my family. This is Daddy, Mommy, Melissa, and me;" and an excerpt of a Supreme Court of Nova Scotia document relating to the Elwood case.