CEISMIC facts for kids

The UC CEISMIC Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive is a special project that started in 2011. Its main goal is to save stories, memories, and experiences from people in the Canterbury Region who lived through the earthquakes. It's like a huge online library. It lets you find lots of information about the earthquakes. This information comes from many important groups in New Zealand.

What is UC CEISMIC?

UC CEISMIC is a project from the University of Canterbury. It's part of a group called Digital Humanities. This group uses computers and technology to study human culture and history. The project believes in sharing information openly and working together.

Professor Paul Millar from the University of Canterbury started UC CEISMIC. He began it after the big earthquakes in Canterbury in 2011. He was inspired by a similar project in the United States. That project saved memories from the September 11 events. The main idea behind UC CEISMIC is to keep earthquake-related information safe. This helps future generations, researchers, and other places that might face disasters.

UC CEISMIC is like a giant online collection. It brings together many different types of earthquake information. This includes pictures, videos, interviews, personal stories, and research. All this content comes from many different partners. A service called DigitalNZ helps gather all the information. It then feeds it into the UC CEISMIC search tool. This makes it easy for you to find things on ceismic.org.nz. Some of the groups that share content include UC QuakeStudies and Christchurch City Libraries. There are over 55,000 items available for everyone to see.

Who is in the UC CEISMIC Group?

The UC CEISMIC Consortium is a group of important partners. These partners add content to the archive. They also help manage the project. This group makes sure the project keeps going strong. They also ensure the digital archive meets international standards.

This group works under an agreement. This agreement says that sharing information openly and working together are very important.

Members of the Group

• University of Canterbury
• National Library of New Zealand
• Ministry for Culture and Heritage
• NZ on Screen
• Christchurch City Libraries
• Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority
• Canterbury Museum
• Te Papa
• Archives New Zealand
• Ngai Tahu Research Centre
• The New Zealand Film Archive

What is UC QuakeStudies?

UC QuakeStudies is the part of UC CEISMIC that focuses on research. It's one of the places where the CEISMIC search engine gets its information. It's a secure online storage place. The University of Canterbury built and hosts it. Its purpose is to save a digital record of the earthquakes and the rebuilding efforts. This helps with future research.

The UC CEISMIC team collects earthquake-related content. They get it from researchers, community groups, and other people. Then, they organize and describe this content. They store it in online collections. The team also adds useful details. This includes things like locations, dates, and categories.

The QuakeStudies archive has many large collections. These include content from Fairfax Media and Environment Canterbury. It also has information from projects like Gap Filler. It holds records of blog posts from Christchurch bloggers. Plus, it has many photos and videos shared by individuals and community groups.