Cape Town: The Environment and Heritage Resources Information Centre (EHRIC) of the City of Cape Town, completed 23,000 scans related to the history and development of Cape Town. This feat has been accomplished with the assistance of four students who helped with the digitisation of valuation records, as well as historical building plans, road surveys and survey sheets.
Reportedly, the work is being done at 44 Wale Street, Cape Town, where these invaluable City maps and documents can be accessed by appointment.
Considering this, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Corporate Services – Alderman Theresa Uys said that three months ago, the Human Resources Department of the City of Cape Town assigned four of its students to form part of the important digitisation project.
The team began with historical Valuation Records that was collected from Plumstead Storeroom of the city which digitised and indexed more than half of these. They have also digitised the historical building plans, road surveys and survey sheets.
Students, led by Willem Hutten, were absolutely fantastic and made excellent progress. Till now they have completed 23,000 scans and hope to do many more before the end of their six-month secondment. “I wish them all the best,” said Uys.
The students who participated hail from Langa, Khayelitsha, Strand and Blackheath. The majority of these students are Human Resource Management graduates, amongst which a holder of a Bachelor of Education Degree.
Notably, the Historical Map Collection of the City of Cape Town is maintained and developed as a function of the Environmental Management Department’s Metro Heritage Office. It is located at the 44 Wale Street offices in the Environmental and Heritage Resources Information Centre (EHRIC).
EHRIC was established from the disbanded old municipal reference library, which was initially built for the purposes of giving access to records and facilitating good heritage management. Since its inception in 2010, EHRIC has grown to include critical resources such as valuable historical map collection, Mayoral Minutes from 1890.
Mainly, historical photographs and negatives, official Planning Records and other records showing the development of Cape Town.