Delete. Delete. Delete. All family historians and genealogists fret about what will happen to their research once they are dead. Before the digital age, they worried about their research being chucked in the garbage or, more recently, tossed into the recycling bin. Now they worry about the word DELETE.

Those of us who post our research on web sites and blogs know that once the domain no longer exists, our research will also disappear. Quebec’s national library, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) has put an extraordinary initiative in place, the Archivage Web. This is a wonderful collection of Quebec web sites. Its objective is to preserve Quebec’s digital heritage and Quebec’s presence on the web. Quebec has harvested Quebec-centric web sites since 2012 and these sites can be accessed using a specialized web archiving interface. This initiative responds to the mission of the BAnQ to gather, conserve, and disseminate Quebec’s documentary heritage.

Here is the link to this extraordinary collection:

https://www2.banq.qc.ca/collections/collections_patrimoniales/archives_web/?language_id=1

This link brings you to a thorough explanation of the program:

https://www.banq.qc.ca/notre-institution/bibliotheque-nationale/programme-de-collecte-de-sites-web/

With this collection of archived web sites, the BAnQ desires to create a representative portrait of Quebec society through its digital presence. It selects web site to archive using the following criteria:

• Of interest to the general public
• Is well known and recognized in its area of interest
• Has a current and historical value
• Has original content and is compatible with the content of the BAnQ’s collections
• Has a quality site

Genealogy Ensemble applied to the BAnQ to become part of its archived collection and we are delighted to announce that we have been accepted. The BAnQ uses a data-collection robot to collect the sites that are part of its collection.

Genealogy Ensemble is honoured to be chosen to be part of the BAnQ’s digital heritage collection. While not yet part of the collection, we are looking forward to being included. Soon members of the public will be able to access our web site through Archivage Web. As this is a permanent collection, our blog articles will survive us and will be available to genealogists and historians for years to come.