The Old Montréal Heritage Inventory Database: Toward a Renewed Collective Memory

Transcription

1 The Old Montréal Heritage Inventory Database: Toward a Renewed Collective Memory Léon Robichaud Paper to be presented at the XVI th International Conference of the Association for History and Computing Amsterdam, The Netherlands September 15 th 2005

2 Table of Contents Introduction...1 Objectives...1 Content and Structure...3 Navigation...4 Scripting, Editing and Usability...6 Results...6 Conclusion...7 Brief Curriculum Vitae...8

3 1 Introduction The computerisation of heritage inventories has facilitated updates and improved access for heritage information around the world. In the case of Old Montréal, the development of a computerised heritage inventory has also stimulated research and created a core tool around which knowledge about Montréal's historic district can be attached. 1 Through the use of a web-based database-driven inventory, we were able to resolve several issues which had plagued previous endeavours: updating the information, improving access for a broader range of users, integrating academic research, linking the inventory with other knowledge projects for Old Montréal and bringing our content into the collective memory. As with any project of this size, our success rests upon the work of several people, bringing together expertise in historical research, heritage management, information management and information layout. 2 In this paper, I will summarize the main components which have made this web site a model in its field. Objectives Before the computing era, heritage inventories were often static documents, designed to provide a snap-shot of a collection of objects or buildings at a given point in time. Created primarily to assist professionals in the management of the collection and to provide general information for experts in the field, traditional inventories were hard to maintain and offered limited access to the general public. In 1997, the City of Montréal and the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec wished to replace an architectural inventory of Old Montréal created in early 1980's with a new database which could be shared by the two instances responsible for the historic district through the Entente sur le développement culturel de Montréal. 1 The Old Montréal web site can be found at the inventory itself is at 2 This project was initiated in 1997 by Gilles Lauzon of the Société de développement de Montréal, for the City of Montréal and Madeleine Forget, of the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. The system was developped by Léon Robichaud and Alan M. Stewart of Remparts-RS. Graphic design and maintenance is handled by Denis Tremblay. Many others have contributed to the project, for the complete list, see

4 2 The new database was to be a knowledge repository and a base from which the information could be disseminated to the public. The main users would still be professionals from governmental agencies with occasional users from universities and other researchers. Eventually, this database would be made available to the public. Given its broad objectives and the technical obstacles to sharing data between two very different systems, it became clear that the best solution to these general objectives was to move right away to a database driven web site. As a result, the public gained access to the data sooner than originally planned. As far as information was concerned, different types of information had to be included in the inventory: buildings, public works of art, biographies, events, streets and squares, as well as a bibliography of documents on the historic district. Although the buildings were to be a major focus of research, the overall inventory had to reflect the many aspects of the history of Old Montréal.

5 3 Given the project's general objectives, the Old Montréal heritage inventory was not to be a hierarchical system centered on the building. While the buildings remain at the core of the inventory, the system had to offer a broader approach with multiple points of access. We had to be able to query the database from any of its components (buildings, public works of art, biographies, events, streets and squares, documents). Futhermore, related components had to be linked together to provide transparent navigation to the user. The structure had to be flexible enough to incorporate later additions. Finally, apart from a variable-based search engine, access points would be created to provide a semi-structured form of navigation based upon space (sectors of the district) and time (major historical periods and key years). Content and Structure The database offers information on 584 existing buildings. 3 We also offer information on 230 individuals and 132 institutions or corporations. The database contains 441 events (brief notice), records for 17 public works of art and information on 78 streets, squares and wharfs. The extensive bibliography contains over 1770 records on publications and archival collections related to Old Montréal. The data is stored in a MySQL database, using a very broad relational structure. There are 7 main components to the structure : buildings, people, groups, events, works of art, public 3 The total number of buildings in the district has remained close to 585. Since the creation of the database in 1997, 11 buildings have been destroyed by fire or were demolished for safety reasons. There have been nine new buildings, some of which have replaced those destroyed by fire. The information on the 11 lost buildings remains in the system but is not available to the public.

6 4 spaces and bibliography. Each of the components has a main table and a number of dependent tables in a one-to-many relationships. Different elements from different components (buildings and people) as well as different elements from a given component (people and people) are linked together via linker entities in many-to-many relationships. As a result, the database, including reference tables, includes over 80 individual tables. Navigation When a user enters the heritage inventory, 4 several modes of access are offered, with spatial navigation being at the forefront. A flash version and a text with images version of this portal are available, depending on the browser configuration. With spatial navigation, users can click on a sector of the district to an image-map of the sector (with hyperlinks to buildings, streets and works of art) as well as a list of all buildings, people, groups, and works of art associated to the sector, grouped by period. A click on the the hyperlink for an individual element leads the user to an individual record. Two modes of temporal navigation are available, by period and by key year. Using the same underlying data, the page for a period will offer a list of events, people and groups, as well as buildings, streets, works of art and documents associated with the period. For buildings, we indicate those which were erected during the period and those which were significantly transformed during the period. 5 When users click on a key year, information is focused upon the key events, people and buildings associated with a year which was significant in the history of Old Montréal. For example, 1785 provides a snap-shot of the situation following the American War of Independence, during which Montréal was occupied by rebel troops. During the year 1849, the Parliament buildings were destroyed by fire while 1873 is at the heart of Montréal's industrialisation and the beginning year of an economic depression. For users who have more specific requirements, several modes of querying are available. Buildings can be searched by name, by street address, by historical and functionnal criteria and by architectural criteria. People and groups can be searched by period and by role in the Our definition of a building, of the date of construction and of a significant transformation, as well as several other expressions, are presented in the glossary.

7 5 urban development of the district. Other tools are available to search events, public works of art, streets and squares and documents. Query results are presented as a list of hyperlinks to individual records. Building records offer current and historical images. In a few cases, elevations are also available. The following section presents the building name(s), the location (address and plan), the main physical features (with a link to a detailed list), and, if applicable, association to a building grouping. For most buildings, there is a text history, and for all buildings, the construction and main transformations are indicated with the building's function. There are also references to architects, builders, owners and occupants with hyperlinks to major figures. Heritage protections are also listed, indicating the level of government responsible for the type of protection. Individual biographical records indicate dates of birth and death, provide an image when available and offer a narrative of the individual (or couple) anchored in a key year. As a result, there can be more than one narrative for a given individual, providing windows into that person's involvement with Old Montréal at different points in time. There are also links to other individuals, to corporations, to buildings and to sectors, always with bibliographic references. Institutional and corporate records are also anchored to key years. They provide the dates of formation (and dissolution if applicable), a list of major members for the key year and a narrative. There are also links to individuals, to other corporations, to buildings and to sectors, with bibliographic references. When available, illustrations are provided. Records for public works of art offer an image of the monument in its environment as well as a detailed view. The record indicates the title of the work, author(s) and collaborator(s), date and location for the installation, as well as the current owner. The narrative provides a history, a description and an interpretation of the work of art. Links to authors or to persons represented are provided. For public spaces (streets, squares and wharfs), different views are presented from different periods with a narrative of the street's history and links to the different sectors which the street crosses in Old Montréal.

8 6 Scripting, Editing and Usability The database content is managed via online input forms, written in perl. The user name and password defines the level of access and the components which are available for editing. Content is validated on the form with javascript and before updates with perl scripting. All editing is performed online by our team of consultants spread across the Montréal region. Links between components are added manually by the consultants because links between a building and an individual are not always obvious and cannot be automated. All links are bidirectional and the consultant therefore does not have to repeat the linking process from the receiving end. When a large number of images need to be added, they are uploaded via FTP and the related information is added to the database via a batch script. Individual images are integrated via online forms. Our "internal" community of users has very different levels of expertise with regards to computing and the web. As a result, we obtained feedback very quickly on the site's usability. A few features were added in response to this feedback, namely the spatial mode of navigation. A user-survey form [accueil.htm puis Page enquête] was added to the site in 2004, which was surprisingly successful in providing us with more feedback on the site and on its usability from the general public. We work on maintaining ease of use while adding more powerful functionalities and are constantly updating its look. Our public interface was recently overhauled with both a new "2005" look and a switch from perl to php. We are also moving towards XHTML, but our pages do not yet comply with W3C standards. Results Compared with the few hundred paper inventory files previously consulted each year, there are now about 30,000 Web-based inventory pages viewed per month. In total, the site now welcomes over 80,000 users every month. Our broad user community includes heritage professionals, architects, developers, building owners and tenants, real estate agents, historians, students, genealogists, and people generally interested in Montréal's historic district.

9 7 On the academic side, new information resulting from the site has stimulated research. A collective work was published in 2004 on the history of the heritage district focusing on its surviving heritage. 6 Another research project was launched in collaboration with the Université du Québec à Montréal to provide more insight on a particular building type from the late nineteenth century: the magasin-entrepôt. This mixed-use building typically had a showroom on the first floor with warehousing and even light manufacturing on the upper floors and was the dominant form of new architecture in the district for a 30 year period. As new knowledge raises new issues, this site can serve as a base to explore other aspects of Old Montréal's history in the future. Conclusion We needed a powerful tool to manage a diverse content while providing easy to use tools for the public. The Old Montréal heritage inventories have successfully reached its original traget audience and has broadened its appeal to an even broader public. The site has become the reference for online information on Montréal's historic district and has stimulated new research. The investment of over half a million Canadian dollars over 8 years has significantly changed the face of heritage knowledge for Old Montréal. This major investment has improved knowledge, accessibility and visibility. A model for other projects, our database has also become the standard platform upon which the city's heritage section provides information for all of Montréal's heritage sites. 7 Since 1998, when the site was launched, a solid ressource is available to disseminate information about Old Montréal for the media, for guides, and for users in general. 6 Gilles Lauzon and Madeleine Forget, eds, Old Montréal: History through Heritage (Québec, Les Publications du Québec, 2004). 7 See

10 8 Brief Curriculum Vitae Léon Robichaud is a professor at the Université de Sherbrooke where he heads a master's programme in history and computing. His area of specialization is the social history of New France with current research on social and political networks in Montréal from 1663 to He has also been developping databases systems and interfaces for history, heritage and educational projects for more than a decade, with a special interest in the integration of different datatypes, from text to three-dimensional representations.