Accessing archive material from Oamaru's cultural facilities is now as easy as clicking a button.
More than 2500 item from collections housed at the Forrester Gallery, North Otago Museum and Waitaki District Archive are now available to view online under collections online at the Culture Waitaki website.
Waitaki District Archive collector of archives Chris Meech, who led the digitisation project, said about 2600 items had been uploaded.
They included a collection of historical photographs of Oamaru Harbour, the Steenson collection of architectural drawings of Waitaki buildings and residences from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, a collection of heritage artworks, and the Memorial Oaks plaque collection, dedicated to North Otago soldiers killed in World War1.
''There is a lot of research people could do using this collection,'' he said.
''We are super happy to have it online, and especially given the interest and talk about New Zealand history being in the school curriculum.''
With about 150,000 items in the archive collection, including reference and file material, it meant there was plenty of work ahead.
While online access could have been delayed so more detailed research could be done and more items uploaded, Mr Meech said it was more important to share the collection.
''We decided we would prioritise giving people access ... even though some of our dates might not be as accurate as we would like.''
Items can be searched for by colour, tag, classification and location.
The project was funded by the council as part of its 2018-19 annual plan, and has taken about eight months to establish to this point.
