A New Database for Mhist

The Mhist – Sherbrooke History Museum is proud to announce the launch of a new database, accessible directly through its website at https://mhist.zetcom.net/.

“The museum team has been working for nearly two years to modernize its archival database and, most importantly, to make local heritage accessible. It’s quite a task to find and develop a tool that not only protects image rights but is also easy to access and offers a shopping cart for researchers,” says David Lacoste, Director of Mhist.

Database specialists for museums are rare. Therefore, the museum turned to the European company Zetcom to develop a tool that will facilitate the work of the Mhist staff, allow online browsing, and enable pre-ordering of rights for the use of photographs.

“Zetcom has an enviable reputation and a business relationship with many European clients. They have just renewed their agreement with the Louvre Museum. Museum needs, whether internal or external, are similar, on different scales! They had to adapt… and so did we, especially after working with the same software for over 15 years. Throughout the process, our main goal was to simplify access for researchers,” adds David Lacoste.

History enthusiasts and curious minds alike will be pleased with this new tool. The visual aspect is more modern, of course, but the main attraction is that Mhist will be able to enhance the content, something that was impossible due to the obsolescence of the previous database.

“We preserve these archives to showcase our history, to make them accessible to the public. We have over 500 archival fonds in our collection, and only a small portion is online. Currently, nearly 40,000 records of archival documents are available, including about 22,000 iconographic documents. With this new tool, we will be able to increase this number, notably by adding records of photographic and textual documents, as well as objects from the collection,” says Vicky Shank, Mhist’s curator.

For those interested, Mhist will offer a training session for researchers on September 28, 2024, as part of the Journées de la culture.

This project was made possible through the financial collaboration of Patrimoine Canada and 0/1 Hub numérique.