The following is a true story of technoheroism. I invented that word but I suspect we at the Salmon Arm Museum aren’t the only ones in need of such a specific, modern term. You see, behind the scenes, a pesky database glitch had been causing unknown chaos for years. Little did we know, a savior was about to step forward and rescue us from the headache of thousands of broken hyperlinks.
The story starts with the routine tasks of one of our dedicated volunteers. One day a couple of weeks ago, Lise noticed that the links were broken on a vast number of photograph records. Lise is one of our photograph specialists, and one of her many roles is assigning key terms to photographs. They’re like search terms. And how can you assign terms to an image you can’t see because the link is broken? Well, you can’t, and that was exactly what caught our attention.
Upon further investigation, we crestfallenly discovered that a glitch had been occurring for years and by now had scrambled over 5000 records. If the records needed to be fixed individually, well, you do the math and tell me how long we’d be in front of the computer. There had to be another way.
Now here comes the hero, Ken. 
Like a detective with a keen eye for detail, he uncovered the source of the issue. Ken whipped out his metaphorical superhero cape and implemented a solution that magically untangled the mess in one fell swoop.
The relief in the air was palpable. Thanks to Ken, our database was reborn, free to live at least until the whole thing is migrated to new software later this year. It's a story that reminds us all of the power of community and the invaluable contributions of volunteers who dedicate their time and expertise to the places we hold dear.
Three cheers for the technohero!
(Who ran into the night before we could take his photo. Pictured: Lise happily back on track.)
Tags: database, archive, salmon arm museum, community museum