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Susan Haigh

Digital Library of Canada Task ForceFor JISC/CNI, June 2002

Toward a coherent digital information environment in

Canada: Limping, lurching and occasionally leaping

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Overview

What would be ideal? What do we have? What don’t we have? What might we do next?

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The Ideal

1. Robust funding

2. Coordinating body

3. Range of unique content

4. Jurisdictional content

5. Coherent access

6. Commitment to long-term access

7. Commitment to cooperate

8. Some experts

9. Some pragmatic decision-makers

10. Innovation

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Funding

Canadian Content Online Program (Canadian Heritage)

Canada’s Digital Collections & Aboriginal Digital Collections (Industry Canada)

CANARIE (Industry Canada)

Canada Foundation for Innovation Various provincial programs

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Libraries

Academic and public libraries under provincial jurisdiction

No provincial library system Two (or three) “national libraries” National Library and National Archives

increasingly joined up No JISC, UKOLN, Mellon Foundation,

Digital Library Federation, etc.

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Library Coordination

National associations for directors of: • research libraries • large urban public libraries • provincial and territorial libraries

Numerous regional networks Numerous consortia Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries

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Major Digitization Projects

Early Canadiana Online • pre-1901 books & government documents

(CIHM)

Our Roots • local and regional histories (5 universities,

CIDL, National Library)

Peel’s Prairie Provinces • Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba

imprints (4 universities)

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Major Digitization Projects (cont’d.)

The Virtual Gramophone • 78-rpm recordings (NLC)

Sheet Music from Canada’s Past• sheet music 1800-1921 (NLC)

Canadian Directories • Pre-1901 city, county, provincial & Canada

directories (NLC & CIHM)

1901 Census (National Archives) Paper of Record

• growing corpus of historical newspapers (ProQuest Micromedia/Cold North Wind)

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Born digital

Electronic collection of Canadiana

Considering broader archiving responsibilities

E-theses Scholarly e-publishing

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Licensing of Digital Content

Canadian National Site Licensing Project (CNSLP)

The Alberta Library The Ontario Digital Library Quebec Research Digital Library

(proposed)

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Alberta and Quebec: Provincial Digitization Models

Alberta digitizing: newspapers local histories folklore collections historical imprints royal commissions aerial photographs statutes, bills and

gazettes art

Quebec digitizing: posters maps and plans postcards sound recordings Quebec-imprint books sheet music images from historical

periodicals prints

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Aggregated Access AMICUS national union catalogue

• 25 million bibliographic records; 1300 libraries

Images Canada• DC metadata gateway to image collections

Artefacts Canada• Museum objects

Cdn. Archival Information Network• Archival collections

Inventory of Canadian Digital Initiatives• Digitized collections, exhibitions, reference works

CultureCanada.gc.ca

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Digital Preservation

No national strategy yet National consultations this fall:

1. digital newspapers

2. interoperability and preservation issues

National Library considering:• Preservation state of its own e-collections• Access and preservation responsibilities for

formalized decentralized repositories

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The Ideal

1. Robust funding

2. Coordinating body

3. Range of unique content

4. Jurisdictional content

5. Coherent access

6. Commitment to long-term access

7. Commitment to cooperate

8. Some experts

9. Some pragmatic decision-makers

10. Innovation

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Some strategies for Canada

1.  Learn from international research

2.  Adopt/adapt the best models

3.  Define minimal national standards

4.  Provide national access services

5.  Foster cooperation to build momentum

6.  Remind projects & funders of national responsibilities

7.  Brand good resources as part of a national whole

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Next up?

Digital newspapers strategy National e-theses program Increased interoperability

• images• e-prints• Texts

Digital preservation/national digital archive strategy

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Toward a national whole…

A “more coherent patchwork” of Canadian digital content

National collections Brought together in sensible

aggregation services Increased collaboration Canada-wide

National – provincial – institutional cooperation

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nlc-bnc.ca

Susan HaighManager, Program Development

Digital Library of Canada Task ForceNational Library of Canada

susan.haigh@nlc-bnc.ca