"Best Practices" 2000:
Innovative Internet Use in Canadian Public Libraries

• Community Partnerships
• Supporting Local Economic Development
• Electronic Service Delivery
• Content Creation

Prepared by Danielle Pilon for LibraryNet, June 2000.

Last year, Canada became the first country to connect all of its public libraries and schools to the Internet. Many libraries and library organizations in Canada have moved beyond simply providing basic public access, to designing and initiating wide-ranging projects. Libraries are able to use the Internet to connect their communities to the wider world, encourage local economic development, support lifelong learning and deliver programs in the most convenient manner possible. Whether the applications used are leading-edge technology or plain and simple, their aims continue to evolve in sophistication.

The Internet enables libraries to network with the communities they serve, both literally and figuratively. Partnerships with other community organizations and government departments allow even small public libraries to make a big impact on the Internet, while using scarce resources to the fullest. Library web pages can promote their communities world-wide through tourism material, or contribute to local economic development.

The Internet also allows even the smallest library to expand its services by adapting traditional library functions for delivery through the Internet. Libraries can offer interactive quizzes, improve distance services, and answer reference questions online. Some libraries use digital media to encourage traditional literacy by promoting new material and reader's resources online. Many libraries use their staff's expertise in evaluating and cataloguing materials to select and organize the web resources their patrons will find most valuable.

Community Partnerships

• The Oxford County Library (ON), in partnership with the County Board of Health, developed the "Services 4 Children" web site to support families, particularly low-income ones, in its community. A searchable database makes information on over seventy programs and services that are available to families in the county easily accessible, and the success of the project has led to interest from other Boards of Health across the province.
• Windsor Public Library and the Essex County Library (ON) are two of the leading partners in a consortium of over twenty local organizations building the WEConnect project. WEconnect is intended to serve as an online "Information Utility," bringing together the area's most advanced technological projects and new developments under a single interface which will allow Windsor-area residents access to a wide variety of on-line government and community programs and services, training and educational resources, health and lifestyle information, and more.
• The Hamilton Public Library (ON) is a major partner in the Hamilton-Wentworth Public Information Centre website. The Public Information Centre is designed to help users easily locate a service, no matter which agency or level of government offers it. Some of the features available are information on attractions and activities, education and health-care services, and a searchable directory of local employers.
• A community group led by the Vancouver Public Library (BC) became the Western Regional Operating Partner of the Canadian Health Network (CHN), a national Internet-based service that provides information on health promotion, disease prevention, and the performance of the health system. As a CHN operating partner, the Vancouver consortium will identify a network of health information providers in Western Canada, and create links with existing provincial, territorial and local networks to ensure that CHN addresses particular regional health information.

 

Supporting Local Economic Development

• The Western Counties Regional Library (NS) has put together an impressive collection of material on the history of the Town of Yarmouth. Their Collins Heritage Conservation District web page gathers a photograph of and detailed information on every house in the District, including architectural notes, historical context, and the ownership registry of the home.
• The Brantford Public Library (ON) is a major partner in the Brant Business Information Network, a gateway to business and career information in Brantford and the surrounding county. It includes information on local businesses and human resource organizations, as well as links to the best Canadian and international business websites.
• The Prince George Public Library (BC) created a database of employers to help local teenagers find jobs. It gives information on which local businesses and organizations hire youth, positions available, and job requirements.

Electronic Service Delivery

• The Bibliothèque Adélard-Berger (QC) has designed a wonderful web scavenger hunt and quiz for kids eight to twelve, "Les aventuriers de l'espace Internet." Children navigate five different websites, answering questions which test their knowledge of Internet navigation and safety issues. After they complete the scavenger hunt, they can mail in their answers to be declared a "cyberspace cadet."
• "Ask Us!" is a pilot project operated cooperatively by Saskatchewan public libraries and the Provincial Library. Reference questions submitted through the clear and detailed online form are answered by staff from one of the seven participating library systems.
• The Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library (NS), with assistance from the Community Access Program, the Nova Scotia Technology and Science Secretariat, LibraryNet, and the Nova Scotia Provincial Library, launched a Rural Library Access pilot project to integrate the library's Books By Mail service with local Internet access sites. Existing CAP sites in two remote communities were modified to include direct links to the Library's services. Now rural patrons in these locations can sign up for library cards, check out and return their own items from small on-site deposits, and request other materials from the Library's on-line catalogue.
• The library's so big.
  There are so many books!
  How will I find the right one?
  Where do I look?
  Dewey the Dinosaur offers rhyming help for children on how to search the Wheatland (SK) Regional Library's Catalogue. They can click on a "dinosaur egg" to begin a subject search, or use a simplified word search interface.
• The Bibliothèque Dr Marguerite-Michaud (NB) keeps its patrons up-to-date with its annotated new books list, "Nouveautés." New videos and CDs are also included.
• The B.C. Virtual Reference Desk is a collaborative project of the British Columbia Library Services Branch and provincial public libraries. The easy-to use electronic reference provides annotated, searchable links to web sites that have been recommended by librarians as sources of quick and reliable information. Volunteers from public libraries around the province review new sites for the Virtual Reference Desk - the database currently holds over a thousand records, and more sites are being added every day.
• With "What Have You Done For Me Lately?," the Saskatoon (SK) Public Library demonstrates how citizens can use electronic resources to check up on their elected officials and representatives. Suggestions for searching indexes, minutes and proceedings are included along with links to the library's electronic indexes (accessible only with a local library card).

Content Creation

• Parry Sound Public Library and the Seguin Township Libraries (ON), together with local historical organizations, are responsible for the Parry Sound & Area History Digitization Project. Essays on aspects of Georgian Bay history such as logging and shipping are now online, along with dozens of digitized images, catalogued so that they can be searched by keyword.
• Early Canadiana Online is a joint project of the National Library of Canada, the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, and other academic libraries and organizations which makes early works of Canadian literature, native studies and women's history accessible on the Internet. Currently more than 3,000 books and pamphlets documenting Canadian history from the first European contact to the late 19th century are available online in full-text - including editions of the Jesuit Relations, the memoirs of Captain Joseph Brant, and Susanna Moodie's Roughing it in the Bush.
• The Calgary Public Library (AB) organized a fascinating virtual tour of historic Calgary including detailed columns on individual heritage buildings, historical trivia, and a "cyber-stroll" down Stephen Avenue. There's even a short quiz to test your knowledge with after finishing the tour.
• Browse a virtual gallery of historic photographs from northwestern Ontario at the Thunder Bay Public Library's Digitization Project web site. The photos have been selected from the collections of the project partners, which include the Red Rock Public Library and the Thunder Bay Historical Museum. Perhaps you will be able to identify one of the "mystery" photos posted on the site.
• To commemorate its fortieth anniversary, the Boissevain & Morton Regional Library (MB) published Heritage Stew, a cookbook with a local history twist. The recipes included cover the wide range of cultures that compose the community, and each one is accompanied by an appropriate story from oral tradition or archival photograph.
• The Cape Breton Regional Library (NS) has created an online history of the McLennans of Petersfield from family documents, pictures, and paintings, which outlines the vital contributions made by the family to the community of Cape Breton, and especially to the development of the Fortress of Louisbourg as an historic site.