Launch of the UC CEISMIC Consortium web site

The UC CEISMIC Consortium web site, www.ceismic.org.nz, which launches today, anticipates a decades-long voyage to collect, preserve and present the stories, images and media associated with the Canterbury earthquakes.

The CEISMIC project was inspired by the "September 11 Digital Archive" developed by the Centre for History and New Media at George Mason University. They showed that collecting material after a disaster is time-critical. Already Canterbury's stories are being lost as people attempt to move on, perhaps deleting their earthquake-related emails, texts, phone messages, images and movies in the process.

This site is the creation of a consortium, led by the University of Canterbury, and comprising the Canterbury City Libraries, the Canterbury Museum, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, the National Library, NZ on Screen, the Ngai Tahu Research Centre and Te Papa. Our consortium shares a commitment to memorialize the Canterbury earthquakes for all New Zealanders.