Who We Are

The Oil, Gas and Salt Resources (OGSR) Library is a geoscience research and resource centre that operates under the Ontario Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Trust, a non-profit organization established by the Ontario Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act to "provide information management relating to oil, natural gas and salt resources; funding of research, surveys; laboratory facilities; and operations relating to oil and natural gas exploration, production and storage in geological formations, and salt solution mining"^[1]. This mandate includes maintaining and improving access to information relating to oil, natural gas and salt resources.

The Library creates and provides access to geology databases and reports, houses well records and core samples, and digitizes well logs and other data. As part of that, documenting the history of oil and gas within Ontario is of great importance. The Brittain project increases public awareness of the oil and gas industry in Ontario and aids in current and future exploration and subsurface investigations. Geographic and well information from the Brittain collection will also be used to add to the Library’s other databases and linked to existing well records and other resources such as rock cores. As much of the material in this collection is original (e.g. hand drawn documents, maps with hand-drawn info and well points), it would not be available anywhere else.

What’s in the Collection

Contributions to Ontario geology and research by Brittain and his colleagues were extensive. Much of the collection is composed of original material, including handwritten notes annotated documents, and maps that do not exist elsewhere and have never been digitized. This offers a unique opportunity to explore the history of the Ontario oil and gas industry. The contents of this collection will be of interest not only to Ontario energy users, municipalities, environmental historians, archivists, geologists and university students/researchers, but to anyone looking to learn more about oil and gas in Ontario, particularly in past decades.

In total there are around 10,000 pages of documents and over 400 historic maps in the collection –when all the documents were lined up, they were over 4 metres long. Several documents were not digitized due to confidentiality, but the vast majority are available through this portal. Southern Ontario tends to be the focus for the majority of the documents, but other areas of Ontario and even other provinces are represented, with some correspondence with the United States. About 25% are tied to specific Ontario wells, many of which are now abandoned. Dates on the documents range from the late 1800’s to the 1980s, but most are from the 1940’s to 1960’s.

Almost all of maps are of areas in Ontario, with some larger ones showing larger areas of Canada. Some show large sections of Ontario, but a significant number show towns and the surrounding areas, and even smaller areas with visible lots and concessions. Most are resource maps showing locations of wells or outlining oil and gas pools. While a couple of maps are completely hand-drawn, several others have hand-drawn detail in ink or pencil added to existing maps, such as well points and other details. Many maps do not contain dates, but still offer valuable well and geographic information.

Digitization

The first aspect of the Brittain project was digitizing all the material in the collection. Both documents and maps were scanned using 300 DPI lossless imaging. A resolution of 300 DPI meant high quality scanned images with an image size that could easily be worked with. Scans were saved as PNG images, a format that uses lossless compression, meaning that no quality is lost, and is a preferred format for digitizing.

Scanning was done in greyscale or colour depending on the information on the page. Documents mainly contained black text so greyscale was used, while maps frequently used colour to show various features. Both sides of each page were scanned, even for blank backs (pages that did not contain any information were edited to be white to reduce file size). Before digitization all documents and maps were reviewed for confidentiality issues such as copyright or personal information.

The majority of collection’s documents are in relatively good condition, and care was taken to address any issues before documents were damaged. Pages with tears or rips or on thin paper were scanned on a flatbed scanner to prevent damage. Extremely faded or stained documents were addressed through post-scanning editing to maximize viewability. Multi-page documents were commonly held together by rusty paper clips, staples, and even straight pins, which were removed to avoid damaging the scanner and replaced with plastic coated paperclips to retain organization without further damaging the pages.

The condition of the maps varied more than for the documents as most had been rolled or folded for long periods of time. Many have damage of some kind including creases, tears, stains, animal damage, discoloration, tape, and brittleness due to being rolled tightly, or are overall quite fragile. Extra care was needed in digitizing these maps – we used a document carrier sheet (white backing sheet with a transparent top sheet) to keep maps flat during scanning a well as protecting frayed edges and other physical damage and protect the scanner from contaminants. Large maps were scanned by two people to support the map as it was scanned.

Before digitization, the maps were carefully laid out to slowly unroll them with map weights to minimize potential damage during scanning. As for documents, post-scanning editing was used to minimize the visual impact of stains and discolouration. Maps bound in map books were carefully unbound to scan individual maps flat and rebound after digitization.

Spatial Referencing

As part of cataloging the scanned images, maps were geo-referenced so that they can be overlaid onto a modern-day map. This step was one of the ways the Library added usability and value to the documents. Comparing the collection’s historic maps with modern-day maps allows you to see where abandoned wells are or changes in geography, like how a river has changed course.

Georeferencing was completed using Google Earth and the Library’s Px Tools Data layers for Google Earth (showing lots/concessions and the locations of all wells). Maps were visually compared to Google Earth and their location was verified using geographic information (such as lots and concessions on the map or landmarks such as the location of towns and rivers) to match points on the map to Google Earth. Since rivers and towns change over time, these markers were only used for initial matching or when no lots and concessions were given.

Resulting special coordinates (World Geodetic System 1984 – WGS84) were added to the catalogue and used to display the digitized maps on the portal’s web map. The web map will allow the public to compare historic geologic interpretations from scanned georeferenced maps to present day ones, all within a simple online web map. Though not georeferenced, any geographic information (i.e. county, township, lot, concession) mentioned on documents was also noted and included in the catalogue to allow documents to be linked to regions and activity within them.

Preservation

The third component of this project was preserving the documents and maps in the collection, through cataloguing digitized documents/maps and organizing/storing the physical copies.

Databases for both the documents and maps are intended to add functionality and meaning to the collection as a whole through metadata. Both the document and map databases include fields for title, author (or publisher for maps), date published, type of document or map, geographic information, and a longer description of the item. Document and maps that show or can be linked to Ontario wells were also marked.

Map metadata also includes cartographer and whether the map is under private, public, or government copyright. Geographic metadata for documents included country, province/state, county, township, lot, and concession. Map geographic metadata covered continent, country, province, county, township, municipality, and latitude/longitude.

Cataloguing was used to better preserve the collection, as simply scanning documents only provides a copy, while associated metadata results in better preservation and easier and more efficient access by the public. Simply scanning historic documents ¬takes away their potential for incorporation into ongoing, present-day research and education. To truly increase access and awareness of Canada’s local documentary heritage, it is important to create methods or products that add-value to the archive.

Physical documents and maps were kept in the order the Library received them from the Fairbank Oil Company. Documents are stored in hanging folders stamped with their respective folder number in a filing cabinet to prevent bending them. Most of the maps are stored in two horizontal filing drawers, while maps too large for these drawers are stored in a vertical cabinet.