Presentation - IATUL

Towards a Canadian 

digitization strategy 

Janine Schmidt, Trenholme Director of Libraries, 

Louis Houle, Associate Director, Client Services, Sciences, Health 

and Engineering, 

McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada 

April, 2008 IATUL 1

The Canadian view of New Zealand 


Overview 

Digitization? Nationalization? 

The context 

The role of libraries 

Collaboration/competition 

The Canadian way 

Future success 


National perspectives 


More national perspectives 


Digitization 

Digital libraries – seen as different from 

print libraries 

Purchase of digital content – CD-ROM 

databases, multimedia, licensed access to 

content – databases, e-journals, e-books, 

data sets (census, geospatial, numeric) 

Access to digital content? E-resources in 

general? Data resulting from research 

findings? E-research, e-science, e- 

humanities? Open access? 

Creation – from original artefacts e.g. 

book, manuscript, picture – “born digital”? 


(http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/tutorial 

-images/diglandscape3.jpg) 


Why digitize? And for whom? 

Universal access to knowledge 

Preservation of artefacts and also web content 

Enhancing research outcomes for academic 

institutions 

Adapting to new research methods 

Support of new learning opportunities – digital 

learning objects 

Today’s/tomorrow’s generation of users – local, 

global – any place, any pace, any time 

Commercial interests 

Heritage/le patrimoine 


Print vs digital content 


The artefact vs information content 

Magna Carta 

1 copy in private 

hands sold in New 

York December 

2007 for US $21.3 

million to an 

individual collector 


Mass digitization approaches 

 

 

 

Google 

• Little cost to Library 

• Access to digitized items made available via Google search 

engine. Items may not be discoverable via open access 

harvesting. 

• Library usually required to give up rights to digital items 

• Reputation for poor scanning practices – quantity/quality? 

Open Content Alliance - Yahoo, Microsoft 

Digitized items exposed as open content on web 

Library does not give up rights to digitized items 

• Contributors must arrange and pay for own scanning 

Work on library’s part would be required to identify items 

in public domain 

Amazon 

• Profit sharing Amazon/Library/Kirtas 

• Library arranges for own scanning 

• Library retains ownership of items/can sell print copies 

• Work on library’s part would be required to identify items in 

public domain (http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jan08/Ashmore_Grogg.shtml) 


The Google way 

Universal search, Google Scholar, Google Research – 

 

 

 

 

 

scientific data 

Online 

• Currently words, images, music, - Future - films, TV 

shows, video/radio broadcasts, books, academic papers, 

pamphlets, government documents, music, maps, charts, 

blogs, in all languages 

• “organizing all the world’s information and making it 

universally accessible and useful” 

• Finding objects, people – RFID tags, URLs to people 

IGoogle - personalized search, monitor search and 

surfing history – who we are, age, jobs, marital status, 

holidays etc 

Gmail, Google Maps and Google Earth on our mobile 

phones, data 

Cloud computing, GoogleApps - store on remote servers, 

vast super computer 

Big Brother, hostile to privacy OR map of human 

knowledge to enable others to find trade routes in the 

new information economy, information democracy 


Nationalization/Globalization 

 

 

 

 

 

National initiatives 

• Wales, Australia, New 

Zealand, Canada 

Non-English language projects 

e.g. French, Arabic 

The European Library 

World Digital Library (L.of C., 

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 

National Library of Brazil, 

National Library of Russia, 

Russian State Library, 

UNESCO) 

Réseau francophone des 

bibliothèques nationales 

numériques 

(BiblioDoc.Francophonie.org) – 

(Canada, Quebec, Belgium, 

Luxembourg, Switzerland, 

France, Alexandrina) 



A digital library? 


Digitization (a working definition) 

Conversion/transformation of existing 

artefacts from print/handwritten/pictorial/photographic 

versions to 

online/disc formats 

Where no copyright exists 

Of in-house collections 

Working cooperatively with others to 

ensure no duplication and the 

Creation of the distributed national 

collection contributing to 

Global knowledge 


Canada 

CIDL (Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries) – 

integrated into Alouette 2007 

CHIN (Canadian Heritage Information Network) 

CIHM – Canadiana.org –combined with 

Alouette 2008 

Alouette Canada – CARL initiative 2006 

Synergies (collaborative university project) 

Canadian Digital Information Strategy (LAC) 

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec 

(BAnQ) 

Various other initiatives including provincial 

e.g. OurOntario.ca 


CIDL – dissolved in 2007 

integrated into Alouette 


Canadian Heritage Information Network 



ECO– digital library access to 2,689,094 pages of Canada’s printed heritage. First 

European settlers up to early 20 th century. Produced by Canadiana.org 



Alouette Canada 

CARL (Canadian Association of Research 

Libraries) initiative – funds provided by each 

library 

Imagine a country… 

Vision: That Canadians will be able to know 

themselves through their heritage and that the 

world will have the opportunity to better know 

Canadians. Our common aim is to provide online 

access to the extraordinary wealth of written and 

other records by and about Canadians 

Merged with CIHM April 2008 using the name 

Canadiana.org 


Synergies 


Erudit 




Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec 

 

 

Own collections 

• Personal diaries 

• Postcards 

• Exhibitions 

• Newspapers 

• Canada/France portal 

Work with others 

• Libraries and archives 

• Universities 

• Museums 

• Cultural organizations 

• Major cooperative 

projects with 

universities, Laval, 

UQAM, Toronto, Calgary 


Artefacts Canada 



Réseau Info-Muse 

25,000 digital images created from the collections of the Quebec 

museums. Database is subdivided in two sections: humanities and 

natural sciences. 




Canadian Digital Information Strategy 

Draft consultative document Oct. 2007 

Digital information and networked 

technologies are key drivers of economic 

growth and social well being 

Needs of all Canadians must be met – 

fundamental values, bilingualism, 

multiculturalism, inclusiveness, equity are 

reflected in digital reality 

2005 – discussions with stakeholders 

Seminar 2006 



Vision: Canada’s digital information assets 

are created, managed and preserved to 

ensure that a significant Canadian digital 

presence and record is available to present 

and future generations, and that Canada's 

position in a global digital information 

economy is enhanced 

Strengthening content 

Ensuring preservation 

Maximizing access and use 



 

 

Strengthening Content 

• Mass digitization 

• Conducive digital production environment 

• Improved digital production practices 

• Diversity in digital content production 

Ensuring Preservation 

• Selection and capture of digital conent fo rlong-term 

retention 

• Distributed digital preservation repository network 

• Preservation-related research 

• New workplace skills 

• Increased public awareness of digital preservation 

issues 



Toward maximizing digital access 

• Mechanisms for democratic, ubiquitous and 

equitable access 

• Seamless access and global visibility 

• More open access to public sector information 

and data 

• Effective communication and management of 

copyright 

• Increased user research 

Inclusive coordinated and distributed 

approach involving stakeholders from all 

sectors of the information environment 


Today’s users 

 

What is it that motivates, even inspires, millions of 

users to spend hours online, not searching for 

information, but creating information, building content 

and establishing online communities? What drives 

users to not only contribute information, but to 

contribute “themselves”, creating detailed personal 

profiles on social sites and sharing that information to 

establish new relationships with hundreds of new 

virtual friends? No longer…”information consumers”, 

internet users are becoming “information producers” 

and will soon be the primary authors, producers and 

architects of information on the World Wide Web. 

OCLC. Sharing, Privacy and Trust in our Networked World. 2007. 

http://www.oclc.org/reports/sharing/default.htm 


Future of digitization? 

At the institutional level 

• Digitize uniquely held materials 

Heritage/le patrimoine only? 

• E.g. at McGill - Voyageur contracts, Early plans of 

Quebec, Diaries etc. 

Limited extant copies 

• Assume responsibility for locally produced 

content to ensure access via metadata tags and 

long-term preservation 

Theses, e-prints, data, e-research 

• Access all via initiatives like Second Life? 


McGill Digitization Projects 


McGill Second Life 


Future of digitization? 

At the collaborative level 

• Inter-institutional, provincial/state, national, 

regional, language, disciplinary/subject/topic, 

international 

• Role of commerce/entrepreneurs/publishers 

• Follow agreed standards 

• Development of agreed appropriate standard 

ontologies/thesauri 

• Single portal? Integration of access into what 

used to be the “national union catalogue”? 

• Changing roles of National Libraries – and other 

libraries…OCLC and Worldcat? 


Can we do it? Today’s libraries are 

Client-focused/self-centred 

Innovative/conservative 

Change-oriented/risk-averse 

Future-focused/historically dominated 

Format-driven/information conscious 

Proactive/reactive 

Optimistic/pessimistic 

Encouraging/fault-finding 

Self-confident/wimpish 

Collaborative/competitive 


The challenges 

Everyone has to give up control 

Win/win solutions are possible! 

Leadership and vision are essential 

Knowledge and skills must be developed 

Keep the momentum going 

Start small – KISS principle 

Perfection is not possible in this life… 

Just do it! Aiming to lead in every way. 


Success 

Strategies and plans without implementation or 

actions are worthless and useless 

Don’t let lack of money get in the way of a 

good idea – reallocate funds from acquisition to 

digitization 

Kill a few sacred cows and reallocate staff to 

digitization and metadata tagging – 

Roles have shifted, introducing new 

ambiguities and gaps in the chain of 

responsibilities – so what? 

Fill the current vacuum – or someone else will 

– and charge us for it e.g. newspapers, out of 

copyright material 


Future success 

Digitization activities will be 

successful 

Use the social web 

Invite user participation 

Chaos and anarchy may well create 

the most exciting venues for 

collaboration, creativity, community 

building – and transformation – right 

on mission. 


Successful teamwork 

(www.vanderbilt.ed 

u/.../clubs/photo_ro 

wing1.jpg) 


Thank you for listening 

Danke 

Tack 

KIA ORA 

Questions?

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