Digitization project brings old newsletters to life

Maecyn Klassen only has vague memories of UFV from when she was growing up. She recalls her mother taking her to a theatre production on the old Chilliwack campus as a child, but not much more than that.

These days Maecyn is a UFV alumna (with a BA in history and a Library and Information Technology diploma) and a UFV library technician who was enthralled by a recent professional assignment.

She was one of several people, including practicum students, tasked with digitizing Headlines, the UFV newsletter that was published in print form from the late 1980s through the early 2000s, when it was replaced by a web-based digital version.

You can find the digitized copy of Headlines on the UFV Library’s HarvestIR site here: https://ufv.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/ufv%3A47936

It was the perfect assignment for a history buff like Maecyn. She couldn’t help but read the old issues as she ran them through the scanner and uploaded them, and the experience revealed a plethora of UFV history for her.

“I loved learning about the history of UFV. That was my favourite thing about being involved in this archival project,” she notes. “By reading the old newsletters, it’s not a case of history being retold, but seeing the story as it was written at the time, along with photos. There is so much that I did not know about: new campus buildings opening, issues with old buildings, and a flood on the old Chilliwack campus, to name a few.

“You’d see the same story topics continue over several issues of the newsletter: budget cuts and their effects, plans for expansion on the Abbotsford and Chilliwack campuses, fears about Chilliwack becoming a ‘satellite’ campus, plans for a new Mission campus. Some of these are the same issues that the university faces today.”

The newsletters chronicle the successful but arduous quest to gain university-college status for Fraser Valley College in 1991, the announcement of major capital projects such as Buildings G and D in Abbotsford and new buildings on the old Chilliwack campus, arrivals and departures of presidents and other administrators, and other major milestones.

There were also features on innovative initiatives, such as the time when several Continuing Education program coordinators switched jobs and campuses for a semester, or when Barbara Salingre and Alyson Seale, both new mothers, advocated for job sharing. Human-interest stories included introductions to new employees, and a feature on Sandy Tait and two of her daughters, who were all students at the same time.

Each new theatre production received front-page treatment, and the successes of Cascades athletic teams were also celebrated.

New innovations such as the introduction of online learning and a spring-summer semester were also publicized.

In the era before social media, the newsletter was also the place for the celebration of the community: there were birth and marriage announcements, even a “grandparents gazette” where new births could be proudly announced by proud grandparents, since the original generation of Fraser Valley College employees were in their 40s and 50s by the 1990s.

“It seems like everybody knew everyone else, and that it was a much smaller place than UFV is today,” Maecyn notes.

Maecyn even got invested as she scanned the old newsletters, following a story arc that asked readers to fill in a survey about the newsletter in one issue (with a prize of Phantom of the Opera tickets as an incentive), then announced the winner, instructor Pat Gillespie, in a subsequent issue, and then conveyed thanks from Pat for the tickets in a third issue.

“It was all very personal and warm. I remember reading about a Christmas lunch hosted at Betty Urquhart’s house, where she cooked for 60 people.”

While the collection does not include every edition of the print version of Headlines newsletter, library staff were able to gain access to most copies.  Some were stored on library shelves, while others were donated from the personal collection of longtime communications manager Anne Russell, who worked on the newsletter in the 1990s and 2000s.

The digitization project was a partnership between the UFV Library and the UFV Community Engagement team.