Agenda Item: 1
CITY OF SANTA CLARITA
AGENDA REPORT
NEW BUSINESS
CITY MANAGER APPROVAL:
DATE: September 13, 2022
SUBJECT: SANTA CLARITA VALLEY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE
INFRASTRUCTURE
DEPARTMENT: City Manager's Office
PRESENTER: Laurene Weste
RECOMMENDED ACTION
City Council discuss efforts to upgrade and sustain SCVHistory.com, a digital local history archive, and provide direction to staff.
BACKGROUND
At the Regular City Council Meeting on August 23, 2022, Mayor Laurene Weste raised the issue of SCVHistory.com and the need for technology upgrades in order to preserve the archival items saved on the site. The City Council agreed to explore the issue, and directed staff to bring back an agenda item. In addition, SCVTV, the 501(c)(3) operator of the City of Santa Clarita's (City) public television channel, submitted a letter to the City Council, further explaining the issue and requesting support from the City, including a $300,000 grant. The letter is attached to the agenda item for reference.
SCVHistory.com is a comprehensive digital history archive and repository for the Santa Clarita Valley, owned and operated by SCVTV. The site began in 1996 with a few dozen historic photographs and has grown in the last 26 years to house close to 100,000 archival items in various digital formats. It serves as a repository for historic artifacts, books, film, photography, documents, and oral histories of significance to the Santa Clarita Valley, documenting events such as the St. Francis Dam Disaster, the earliest gold discovery and oil production in California, and the beginning of the film industry. Groups that frequently visit the website range from the general public to academic researchers, filmmakers, educators, and public agencies. According to SCVTV, the site logged over 1.7 million views from January 2021 to October 2021.
SCVHistory.com is currently using an outdated programming language that existed in the early years of the Internet, but is no longer supported today. This is problematic for the future of the site, as the hand-coded HTML architecture is difficult to edit, read, and update. The outdated
code language poses a significant challenge for the long-term maintenance of the site and the experience for current and future visitors. SCVHistory.com is not compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and the design is not user-friendly. Site performance and stability is also negatively impacted as a result of the outdated technology.
SCVTV is seeking to upgrade its entire web platform, with SCVHistory.com as the first phase of the project. SCVTV conducted a discovery process, which entailed researching, soliciting bids, and interviewing several website development companies. They identified a firm that meets the project needs and have been working with them to develop a blueprint for SCVHistory.com. The chosen vendor quoted $300,000 for the SCVHistory.com portion of the project. Subsequent phases of the project entail upgrading SCVTV.com and SCVNews.com, which are linked to SCVHistory.com for historical video and other multimedia content.
As stated in the attached letter, SCVTV is seeking a financial contribution from the City in the amount of $300,000 in order to help fund the project and leverage additional grant funds.
SCVTV is currently applying for an Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant through the National Endowment of the Humanities, which is due September 27, 2022, and requires matching funds. SCVTV has additionally shared with the City its desired to transfer ownership of SCVHistory.com to the Santa Clarita Public Library (SCPL) once the upgrades are complete.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION
Other direction as determined by the City Council.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact at this time.
ATTACHMENTS
SCVTV Request Letter