Creston Archives, Creston, British Columbia

Unpublished documents on all aspects of local history, from organisations and individuals, to industries and politics, can be found in the Archives. These documents are supplemented by thousands of photographs, mostly black-and-white, showing images of the Valley's development.

The Archives holds back-issues of the two local newspapers: the Creston Review from 1909 to 1983, and the Creston Valley Advance from 1958 to the present. These are available in both paper copies and on microfilm.

Birth, death, and marriage indexes have been completed from 1909 to 1973, and from 1990 to the present. The Creston Review is partially indexed from 1909 to 1975, and the Creston Valley Advance is thoroughly indexed from 1990 to the present. Unpublished materials are catalogued and cross-referenced by subject. Card files and paper indexes provide finding aids for locating specific documents and photographs.

The Archives also holds a number of published works that either focus on or touch on local history. These include locally-written histories such as Forests to Field; Kitchener: The First One Hundred Years; and Memories of West Creston Volumes 1 and 2. More general books that touch on elements of local history include Ted Affleck's publications on steamships.

Research services $10.00 per hour
This fee is applied to all research conducted by our paid or volunteer staff. Generally, we ask only a donation for requests that take less than half an hour to complete. These fees help us cover the costs of maintaining the archives collection, and do not include costs of reproducing photographs or documents

Microfilm use (newspapers only) $2.00 per hour
This fee is applied to researchers who use the microfilm machine themselves; the $10.00 per hour research fee does not apply in these cases. If Archives staff use the microfilm on behalf of researchers, the $10.00 per hour fee is applied.

Document Reproductions
Archival material is reproduced only in accordance with Canadian copyright law, and only if no restrictions have been placed on the use of the material by the donor. Copies will not be made of especially fragile documents. Purchase of reproduced archival material does not give the purchaser permission to make additional copies of the material, or to publish it in any way. Fees for materials to be used in publications are negotiated on an individual basis. Taxes and shipping costs will be added where applicable.

Newspapers, Photographs, and Documents up to 11" x 17" ⁽²⁾
	Typed Transcriptions ⁽³⁾	Newspapers and documents that cannot be photocopied	$10.00 per hour plus $0.50 per page if printed $1.00 if PDF format requested $2.00 per CD if requested
	Photocopies	Colour or B&W, up to 8-1/2" x 11"	$0.50 each
	Microfilm Printouts	Newspapers only, or from microfilms borrowed from other libraries/archives	$0.50 each
	Laser Copies ⁽⁴⁾	Colour, up to 8-1/2" x 11"	$2.50 each
		Colour, up to 11" x 17"	$3.80 each
	Photographic Reprints	Colour or B&W, 4" x 6" only	$5.00 each
	Digital Copies	Images captured by Archives staff, JPGs delivered via email, up to 250 dpi	$2.50 per image
		Images captured by Archives staff, JPGs or TIFFs delivered via CD, up to 600 dpi	$2.50 per image plus $2.00 per CD
		Images captured by Archives staff, PDFs, delivered via CD or email	$3.50 per image plus $2.00 per CD if requested
	x	Images captured by researcher via own digital camera or scanner	$0.50 each

Important Notes:
(1)	Reproduction costs stated above reflect actual costs to the Archives, and are subject to change without notice.
	A minimum $2.00 shipping charge will be added to all copies sent via regular mail. Copies requiring special packaging, additional postage above Canadian lettermail rates, international shipping, or priority shipping will be charged actual costs.
(2)	Reproductions of larger documents and maps may be available. Reproduction methods, quality and costs will vary; please discuss your request with Archives staff.
(3)	Some documents are too fragile to be copied. In addition, Creston Valley Advance newspapers from 1991-1998, inclusive, are only available in bound volumes that cannot be separated. Articles printed along the inside column of the pages, nearest the spine, will not photocopy clearly. Typed transcriptions may be the only reproduction method available for these articles. Archives staff will advise you before making the transcriptions if this is the only reproduction method available.
(4)	We recommend colour photocopies and laser copies, even of black-and-white photos. The colour process results in much clearer detail than the black-and-white process.

Why do you charge research fees? Don't you have volunteers doing the work?

Yes, we do have some wonderful volunteers who do research work for the public. We also receive grants to cover part of the wages for summer students, who also do research work. But these people need a place to work, and they need materials to work with. We also have costs related to preserving the collections so that they are available to you - proper storage containers, for example, can be very expensive. Then there's the cost of preparing catalogues and indexes, so that we can find the information you're looking for as quickly as possible. Research fees help us offset some of these costs, and the support we get from grants and volunteers lets us charge far less for the service than it actually costs us to provide.

The reproduction fees we charge when a researcher requests copies, are what it actually costs us to make a copy of the item. Some things are done here in our office, and others have to be done off-site. Taxes are added where applicable.

Why do you charge more for digital copies? Don't they cost less than paper copies?

It's true that there's no paper or ink involved in digital copies - but they take much longer to make than photocopies. 99% of our collection is not digitised; the newspapers are actual newspapers, and the photographs are real prints. When a researcher requests a digital copy of something, we either scan it or take a digital photo of it, then download it, edit it (cropping, adjusting brightness, etc) if necessary, and finally email it or save it to disc. That extra time is reflected in the reproduction costs.

I'm just researching my family history. It's a hobby, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. Do I have to pay fees?

Reproduction costs can't be waived. The cost of making copies is very real, and our budget is very limited - it will get eaten up pretty quickly if we don't pass the costs of your copies on to you. That's why we try to offer a variety of quality options, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs and your wallet.

Research fees are a little more flexible. If your request only takes a few minutes, or if you can come in and go through microfilms and photo indexes yourself, we'll probably suggest a donation instead of charging an hourly rate. But if you want our staff and volunteers to spend a lot of time finding the information for you, hourly research fees will apply.

What if I don't have the time to spend in the Archives, going through documents? Can I borrow some documents to read through at home, make notes, and bring them back when I'm done?

No, sorry, we don't loan out the collection. In fact, even when copies need to be made off-site, we take them and bring them back. It's not that we don't trust you - it's the other guy who might lose them, spill coffee on them, or forget to bring them back.

In Person:	219 Devon Street Just across the highway from the Creston Valley Mall

By Mail:	Creston & District Museum & Archives 219 Devon Street, Creston, BC V0B 1G3


By Phone:	Phone (250) 428-9262 Fax (250) 428-3324
	Phone (250) 428-9262 Fax (250) 428-3324
By Email:	mail@creston.museum.bc.ca