茄子直播

Retired academics Ken Rea (left) and Alexander Gregor are spearheading creation of an online 茄子直播 Encyclopedia, a project of the Senior College. (Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Capturing 茄子直播's history online

Retired academics begin work on a 茄子直播 Encyclopedia

Move over, Wikipedia, 茄子直播鈥檚 Senior College is creating an online University of Toronto encyclopedia.

The college, a group of retired academics and senior administrators working out of the on McCaul Street, organizes seminars and promotes academic research among retirees. The idea for an grew out of Alexander (Sandy) Gregor鈥檚 interest in higher education history and policy.

Gregor, a former academic and administrator from the University of Manitoba, retired to Toronto and joined the Senior College in 2009, its founding year. In pursuing his research interest, he realized there was 鈥渘o easy access to a system of coherent information about university acts, public policy related to the university, and general institutional history.鈥 He believed such information was important to all of the university鈥檚 constituencies, and a project was born.

鈥淭he University of Toronto is special for a number of reasons,鈥 he said, explaining why it is so important to capture the university鈥檚 history. 鈥淪o much that became a part of Canadian higher education began at 茄子直播. In a sense, it is the centre of what became the English language Canadian education system.鈥

With that in mind, he believes it鈥檚 important to know how undergraduate and graduate education evolved here. The computer seemed to be the perfect medium for capturing information from a variety of sources, and that鈥檚 where Ken Rea stepped into the picture.

Rea, a retired 茄子直播 economist, is the project鈥檚 technical editor, focusing on the online platform while Gregor oversees the content, each volunteering hours weekly to the effort. The project is supported by a committee that鈥檚 part of the Senior College council,  and an advisory board is currently being established.

The encyclopedia uses MediaWiki, the same program used by Wikipedia, provided by the 茄子直播 library system. It allows members of the community to enter information and update and link existing entries.

鈥淭here was some difficulty initially convincing people that using MediaWiki was appropriate,鈥 said Rea. 鈥淲hen we started, people were still suspicious of Wikipedia. They were afraid this could become a medium for uncontrolled information.鈥

Such fears were unfounded. The  academics overseeing the project don鈥檛 allow anonymous entries or editing, relying instead on  a group of Senior College members who vet and edit the content.

A sampling of the information on the site reflects the eclectic and wide-ranging nature of its creators鈥 interests: entries about former faculty and staff; university-related legislation such as the Federation Act of 1887; edited Medieval texts; and information about  the Steacie Prize and other awards.

One aspect of the encyclopedia Gregor is keen to develop is the personal reminiscences of retired academics.

鈥淭he members of the Senior College are almost the corporate memory of the university,鈥 said Gregor. 鈥淭he opportunity to have their experiences recorded systematically is something we don鈥檛 want to lose. It鈥檚 an ephemeral, fleeting body of knowledge and experience that we have to capture quickly.鈥

Both men have high hopes for the encyclopedia鈥檚 potential.

鈥淚 hope this becomes part of an electronic version of university history and is continuously updated,鈥 said Rea. 鈥淭his sort of medium provides the opportunity to create a constantly updated, dynamic history very much in keeping with the current thinking about information management. I see it as a kind of pilot project leading to something larger.鈥

Whatever its future, it鈥檚 clearly a labour of love.

 

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