Remembrance Day in a Digital World

Each year it seems that the amount of material available to commemorate remembrance day and Canadian soldiers, grows tenfold. The mass amount of information available makes it easy to get lost while looking for relevant information. Below is a list which compiles some of the more educational and historically relevant sites I have come across.

The Veterans Affairs Canada site includes a wide variety of information on Canadian soldiers and commemoration. Some of the more noteworthy parts of this site include:

• Heroes Remember--a video archive of personal recollections of various war efforts. This archive is searchable by both name and hometown.
• The Canadian Virtual War Memorial--a registry of information about the graves and memorials of more than 116,000 Canadians who served. The interesting part of this being that the site also digital images of photographs and personal memorabilia about individual Canadians. Users can also contribute photos or information they may have about family members who served.
• Diaries, Letters, and Stories--This is a collection of WWI and WWII solider diaries and letters, all of which have been transcribed and made available to the general public online. These first hand account of the potential to be used by students as primary sources.
• Books of Remembrance--Many community libraries still house traditional books of remembrance. This archive features digital copies of many of the Books of Remembrance in the Memorial Chamber on Parliament Hill, and contains the names of many of those who participated in WWI and WWII.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) also features a number of online resources relating Canadian presence in various wars. These resources include:

• A selection of War diaries, featuring excepts from soldiers diaries from WWI.
• A virtual exhibit on WWII, "Faces of War." The exhibit also allows users to explore photos from both the LAC collection and the collection held by DND.
  
• Military Personnel records are also searchable via LAC. These records can be searched via names, location, military medals, war diaries, and war graves.

The Canadian Military History Gateway also features a number of interesting resources and ways of exploring Canada's military history.

• Canadian Military Reference Book--available in full text online, simple resource for anyone looking to gain a basic background in Canadian military history.
• A number of lesson plans and educational suggestions relating to Canadian military history.
  

Lastly, From Colony to Country: A Reader's Guide to Canadian Military History is a great resource for anyone looking for a comprehensive guide to the written material on Canadian military history. The site is divided up by military campaigns, and then each military campaign is divided into thematic subsections. The guide has been compiled by LAC and noteable military historians.