Provenance

Provenance, the Electronic (Web) Magazine, started as an idea in May 1995 at a Preconference Workshop of the British Columbia Libraries Association conference. The workshop was "Networking the Pacific" and was convened by Stan Skrzeszewski and the 60 plus participants can from throughout the Pacific Rim. The actual idea of a newsletter was refined over a beer with Carol Joling, IDRC who has continued to be a guiding spirit, for the magazine.

The magazine is totally run on volunteer time and efforts. Our primary corporate sponsor Internet Gateway Corp. continues to be generous in its support of hosting our site.

We currently developing a mirror site with a new Internet Service in Victoria, B.C. As with most volunteer organizations, at this stage of our development we are still refining our "Model" of what we are "becoming" as an online magazine.

Certainly, we publish articles that might not be included in traditional library journals/publications ... partly because many of our contributors come from a Special/Corporate Library environment, and partly because we seek to have some "fun, pleasure reading... articles included e.g. travel articles by Teresa Murphy.

After a relatively quiet summer, as is evidenced by little work done on our site, other than a core group of articles -- we plan to have a fuller bodied issue in the next few months.

I would like to acknowledge the special contribution of Adrian Cunningham, of the Australian National Library for his contributions and recruitment of writers from Australian libraries and archives.

The many contributions of the Australians, combined with work of our advisors in the Canadian Arctic circle to Eastern Canada (Stan Skrzeszewski and Carol Joling), and not to forget John Evans, at the University of Papua New Guinea--- have had times given me the feeling that we are a part of the old "Commonwealth".

The magazine has been a testing ground for those of us that have been involved in the html coding and trying to keep up to some degree with the technology.... an unending process.

It has been heartening to get email from librarians and archivists from around the world from the Azores to Russia and the Eastern U.S., with comments ranging from "spelling and coding problems" to enjoying what they see. In February 1996 we were given an honorable mention in "THE CYBERSKEPTIC'S GUIDE TO INTERNET RESEARCH".

The National Library of Canada has sought to archive us, a project that due to our time restraints we have yet to be able to implement. We hope to rectify this this coming year. We continue to be encouraged by by the network of advisors that have offered advice, help and moral support. I can't mention all the names of the people involved, they are on our masthead...

I would like to thank everyone for their participation during this past 12 months and look forward...