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Toward a coherent digital information environment in Canada: Limping, lurching and occasionally leaping. Susan Haigh Digital Library of Canada Task Force For JISC/CNI, June 2002. Overview. What would be ideal? What do we have? What don’t we have? What might we do next?. Robust funding
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Toward a coherent digital information environment in Canada: Limping, lurching and occasionally leaping Susan Haigh Digital Library of Canada Task Force For JISC/CNI, June 2002
Overview • What would be ideal? • What do we have? • What don’t we have? • What might we do next?
Robust funding Coordinating body Range of unique content Jurisdictional content Coherent access Commitment to long-term access Commitment to cooperate Some experts Some pragmatic decision-makers Innovation The Ideal
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
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.
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
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)
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)
Born digital • Electronic collection of Canadiana • Considering broader archiving responsibilities • E-theses • Scholarly e-publishing
Licensing of Digital Content • Canadian National Site Licensing Project (CNSLP) • The Alberta Library • The Ontario Digital Library • Quebec Research Digital Library (proposed)
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 Alberta and Quebec: Provincial Digitization Models
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
Digital Preservation • No national strategy yet • National consultations this fall: • digital newspapers • interoperability and preservation issues • National Library considering: • Preservation state of its own e-collections • Access and preservation responsibilities for formalized decentralized repositories
Robust funding Coordinating body Range of unique content Jurisdictional content Coherent access Commitment to long-term access Commitment to cooperate Some experts Some pragmatic decision-makers Innovation The Ideal
Some strategies for Canada 1.Learn frominternational 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
Next up? • Digital newspapers strategy • National e-theses program • Increased interoperability • images • e-prints • Texts • Digital preservation/national digital archive strategy
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
nlc-bnc.ca Susan Haigh Manager, Program Development Digital Library of Canada Task Force National Library of Canada susan.haigh@nlc-bnc.ca