The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2001, Page 6

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 56 #3
Editorial
by Ryan Eyford
The United Icelandic Appeal, a sub-
committee of the Betel Heritage Foundation
is the steward of the Book of Life project.
The purpose of the United Icelandic Appeal
is to help assist The Betel Waterfront
Foundation, in the raising of 1.5 million dol-
lars of private funding necessary for the Betel
Waterfront Project.
The Book of Life was established as a
benefit to Donors who so generously sup-
ported the effort of the Betel Heritage
Foundation. As the Project Coordinator of
the Book of Life, I invite you to participate in
the Book of Life by submitting your family
histories. In order to sustain this mandate it is
necessary to continually appeal for dona-
tions. Your support will insure The Book of
Life continues to grow, change and become
the record, the saga, of generations now and
in the future. We gratefully accept your dona-
tions to The Book of Life and appreciate your
interest and passion for the maintenance of
our history.
Through my work on the Book of Life, I
continue to be amazed at the efforts individ-
uals and families have put into ensuring that
their history will be preserved for future gen-
erations.
I asked myself the questions: What will
distinguish the Book of Life from histories
that have been written earlier? How can the
Book of Life add to the already vast amount
of material that is out there? After consider-
ing these questions, I came to the conclusion
that computers and the internet are the great
strength of the project.
People, especially young people, are
increasingly turning to the internet as a
source of information. In a May 2000 study
conducted by Opinion Research Corp. it was
found that 84% of Americans surveyed
between the ages of 18-24 said that they are
more likely to check the internet for informa-
tion before going to their public library.
University libraries around the world are
aware of this phenomenon and are increas-
ingly making their catalogues available online
for people to search. Some academic journals
are abandoning the print medium altogether
and publishing their journals exclusively
online. What does this mean for the preserva-
tion of the Icelandic presence in North
America? Clearly, we must embrace the new
medium as a way of preserving our culture
and heritage.
This is a lesson that has quite clearly
already taking root. Many Icelandic cultural
groups in Canada and the US already have
their own websites, and the INL mailing list
fosters lively email discussions on a variety of
topics as well as facilitating links between
people scattered across the continent.
The great strength of the Book of Life is
its use of the new medium. The website, at
www.bookoflifeonline.com
<http://www.bookoflifeonline.com/> , can
be constantly updated and added to, creating
a living historical record of families and com-
munities across North America who share a
connection with Iceland. New stories and
new features can be added, and updates made.
The Book of Life does not go out of print,
and errors can be fixed with little effort. It can
be viewed from almost anywhere in the
world, an important feature for our highly
mobile society.
The Book of Life is, in short, the wed-
ding of the old traditions of genealogy and
family history brought from Iceland with the
new technologies that are fast becoming a
regular feature of our everyday lives. In my
view heritage is a reverence for history, for
knowing the saga of your family in both the
new country and the old.
The 12th century author of the Icelandic
Landnamabok (the Book of Settlements)
wrote:
People often say that the writing about
the Settlements is irrelevant learning, but we
think we can better meet the criticism of for-