This policy describes the standards for the first collection and the workflow to establish before accepting public contributions. Its aim is a history that readers can check and people can help improve.
Evidence and uncertainty
Factual claims should have a source close enough for a reader to find the relevant evidence. Newspaper citations include title, publication date, page, and a link. Archive citations retain the holding institution’s identifier. Book citations use printed page numbers, with scan page numbers added separately when they differ.
We distinguish a contemporary record, a later historical account, an attributed recollection, and an inference made by an editor. Sources can be mistaken. A newspaper report establishes what the paper reported; further evidence may be needed to establish exactly what happened.
Dates carry their actual precision. A year stays a year. A decade is not converted into January 1. Publication, capture, event, accession, and designation dates are different fields where necessary. Unknown information remains unknown.
Family and oral history
Contributors are identified as they wish, and their relationship to the material is recorded. A recollection is valuable even where no second source survives, provided it remains attributed. Differences between accounts can be preserved without declaring a winner prematurely.
Editing should improve readability without changing meaning. Materially edited personal narratives and interview transcripts should be shown to the contributor before publication when practicable. A family account is not treated as proof of every assertion merely because it appeared in a printed history.
Indigenous histories and knowledge
Indigenous-authored and community-authorized sources take priority for interpreting Indigenous histories, identities, and knowledge. We do not invent traditional names, assign a specific archaeological feature to a Nation without evidence, or imply consultation that has not occurred.
Contributors and appropriate knowledge holders determine what may be shared. Sensitive locations and restricted knowledge may be withheld even when a reference can be found elsewhere. A provincial register is evidence of a designation; it does not replace living knowledge or confer access permission.
Images, text, and rights
Each asset needs a creator or an explicit “unknown,” a source, a rights status, and a usable credit. Public access and permission to republish are separate. A museum’s acquisition source is not automatically the photographer or current rights holder. We do not present an unconfirmed rights status as public domain.
Externally held records can be described and linked while image permission is pending. When an asset has an open licence, retain attribution, the licence link, and a record of changes. For the initial Commons photograph, use the file’s stated CC BY-SA 3.0 terms and name Matthias Süßen. Original file record.
No full book, wholesale newspaper transcription, or bulk image collection is included merely because a copy can be obtained. Rights questions should be resolved for the actual proposed use and recorded with that item.
OCR, AI, and transcription
OCR is a finding aid. Preserve the original scan, raw OCR, and corrected transcription as separate versions. Check names, dates, numbers, headings, and page boundaries against the image. Unreadable text is marked, not guessed.
AI may help organize sources and draft original summaries. It cannot serve as the source for an event, a quotation, a family relationship, or an image identification. Generated historical scenes must not enter the documentary photo archive. No fictional quote should appear as a resident’s recollection.
Privacy and contributor choices
Private correspondence, contact details, intake forms, and unreleased files stay out of the public site and public source repository. Publication preferences are recorded separately from factual metadata. Living people and minors receive particular care; a detail’s presence in an old source does not require its prominent republication today.
The editor records consent and any limits on reuse. Corrections and removal requests need a working contact before the public submission programme launches. Contact details are not copied from unrelated institutions and presented as this project’s inbox.
Corrections and revision history
A reader should be able to identify a page or record and supply a correction. The editor checks the evidence, records the decision, and updates the review date. Substantive changes retain a dated note explaining what changed; ordinary spelling fixes need not become a public incident log.
Where a claim is disputed but unresolved, label it and link the available accounts. Never erase a genuine disagreement simply to keep a timeline tidy.
Preservation and scope
Use stable item identifiers that survive a change in title or website design. Preserve originals and working derivatives separately, keep more than one independent backup, and periodically check that files can be read and source links still work. The site is a catalogue and publication layer; it is not a substitute for secure storage of originals.
Last reviewed: October 28, 2026. Source register · Contribution process.