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Visit www.albertasource.ca - Alberta's Online Encylopedia

The Alberta Online Encyclopedia is developed and maintained by the Heritage Community Foundation. Search the over 70 Websites currently comprising the Encyclopedia and discover Alberta's rich historical, natural, cultural, scientific and technological heritage.

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Albertasource Newsletter - View PDF



Annual Report 2007 - View PDF

The Heritage Community Foundation is a charitable educational trust (87082 2541 RR0001) with the mandate to link people with heritage through discovery and learning. The Foundation brings heritage to the mainstream by creating dynamic digital resources that provide:

  • Authoritative information about Alberta’s historical, natural, cultural, scientific, and technological heritage
  • Educational materials
  • Virtual exhibitions
  • Heritage and cultural tourism materials
  • Online catalogues, searchable databases, and web tools

The Foundation is dedicated to the development of "born digital" online learning resources that make learning about heritage a fun and interactive experience. All Web sites are designed with curriculum linkages to the Alberta Program of Studies. Research and development are based on the highest scholarly and museum standards, including cultural memory and living tradition research. The Website development process includes content experts, educators, and members of the public in review of the site prototype, which tests content, site architecture, instructional design, and navigation.

Our Websites, which together make up the Alberta Online Encyclopedia - www.albertasource.ca, also draw on the resources of museums, archives, heritage organizations and institutions, and private collections. In addition to our museum and archival expertise, we work in the education sector, with community organizations, and with private-sector clients. Collaborative efforts include those with heritage organizations, the media, professional organizations, the Aboriginal and Francophone communities, as well as with a range of ethnocultural communities.

The Alberta Online Encyclopedia, the primary intellectual legacy project for Alberta’s centenary, exploits the full potential of the Web medium by placing issues, people, events, activities, and artifacts within a comprehensive context of historical, environmental, cultural, social, economic, and political meaning. The sites range from virtual books to virtual exhibits to online catalogues to teacher and student resources that facilitate discovery and learning.

In 2007, Albertasource.ca received over 1.5 million unique visitors and over 3.8 million actual site visits of up to half an hour duration. Our Websites currently comprise over 27,000 html/PHP pages, over 75,000 images, over 4,000 audio files and over 2,000 video files. The Alberta Online Encyclopedia comprises over $43 million in intellectual property.

The Foundation specializes in providing a number of services, including:

  • material culture research projects
  • development of original text content
  • Web site development
  • original videography
  • oral histories published as streaming video vignettes
  • marketing and communications materials
  • project design, planning, development, implementation, evaluation, and reporting

For further information, please contact:

Adriana Davies, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
Heritage Community Foundation
Suite 54, 9912 - 106 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T5K 1C5
Telephone: (780) 424-6512 x. 222

Nena Jocic-Andrejevic, BA, CFRE
General Manager
Heritage Community Foundation Suite 54, 9912 - 106 Street Edmonton, Alberta T5K 1C5
Telephone: (780) 424-6512 x. 235


Order Carving Faces, Carving Lives Now (PDF)

Carving Faces, Carving Lives Book Cover Carving Faces, Carving Lives: People of the Boreal Forest

The Heritage Community Foundation has launched its first print publication, Carving Faces, Carving Lives: People of the Boreal Forest. This remarkable book by author and photographer Terry Garvin promises to be a valuable resource for all who seek greater understanding of traditional Aboriginal life and culture.