INUVIK - The Inuvik Centennial Library is holding a photo contest and they want you to send in an entry.

The contest is open to anyone in Inuvik, with three categories to choose from.

Vicki Boudreau is one of the organizers of a town-wide photo contest held by the Inuvik Centennial Library. Entries are welcome until the deadline on June 20. - Dez Loreen/NNSL photo

The library is looking for pictures of Inuvik places, people and activities.

Organizer Vicki Boudreau said the contest is a way for the library board to contribute to Inuvik's 50th anniversary celebrations.

"We're looking for entries from all over the community," she said.

The photos don't even need to be new or recent to be eligible for prizes in the contest.

"You can also submit old photos that show development or are from community events," she said.

"They might be of the old laundromat or things like that."

Boudreau said the money offered as prizes is modest, but the true goal is to encourage budding photographers.

"We want to encourage people to take pride in their community," she said.

She added that by contributing photos to the contest, entrants are helping to document the development of the community as well.

Boudreau said she wants to keep all the entries catalogued in the library, for future reference.

"We have all sorts of old photos showing the growth of Inuvik," she said.

She said there are many old photographs of people in Inuvik with no names listed or dates.

"It makes it harder to identify people if there is no information with the photo," she said.

That is why she is encouraging all entries to have full information about the subject in the picture.

Boudreau said the idea for the contest came from herself and her partner in the project, Peggy Jay.

She said it was their combined passion for photography that started the notion of having a town-wide project like this.

"We know there are a lot of photographers in town," said Boudreau.

When thinking of subjects to capture, Boudreau had some advice for possible participants.

"Think of places that are memorable for people," she said.

The entries will be on display at the library during the homecoming week in July.

"We like to think of the library as an archive of the North," said Boudreau.

"We have the Dick Hill collection and other rare items."

In the end, she wants the contest to provide a new catalogue of photos for the collection in the library.

"We're trying to preserve the historical things in town," she said.

"We want to be a part of the future and to preserve the past."

The deadline for submissions is June 20.