Athabasca River basin images available to everyone
Did you know there are hundreds of digital images of the Athabasca River basin available to you?
The Athabasca River Basin Image Bank (ARBIB) is a collection of photographs, maps, and other digital files dealing with the Athabasca River basin, and are free to use for non-commercial purposes.
All the images are under a Creative Commons copyright licence, which means the images can be used by students in their assignments, faculty in their courses, and by non-governmental organizations—all that’s required is acknowledgement of the artist and of ARBIB.
There are currently 671 images in the image bank, making it the largest of the 33 digital collections in the Athabasca University Library Digitization Portal.
These images include aerial and on-the-ground photographs of landscapes, communities, and industries from the headwaters of the Athabasca River in Jasper National Park to where the river ends in Lake Athabasca in northern Alberta. There are also images of museum articles, buildings, plants, animals, and sunsets.
Professor Emeritus Dr. Robert Holmberg and Colin Elliot, a former librarian at Athabasca University (AU), created the image bank to make these images available for public use, both within the AU community and beyond.
“We hope this image bank will be useful to many people as well as encouraging interest in the Athabasca River Basin,” Holmberg said. “The Athabasca River Basin is important to Alberta and Canada not only for the oilsands but also for forestry, agriculture, mining, tourism, and various ecological services.”
Right now, the collection is overseen by Dr. Bill Geng, Associate University Librarian, Library Academic Services Support.
In the future, the image bank will grow to include digital drawings, posters, slide shows, and multimedia clips—including a wide range of formats.
“We look forward to working closely with Dr. Holmberg to expand this image bank repository to meet the needs of students today and beyond,” Geng said.
Holmberg said there may come a point where members of the public can submit images to ARBIB, as well.
