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National Library News |
 © 1999 Couvrette/Ottawa |
Librarians, publishers and booksellers have much in common. For all of us, books are our passion and our business. It is, therefore, fitting that we should celebrate Canada’s most successful cultural product through a Canadian Book Summit held in cooperation with the Association of Canadian Publishers, the Canadian Booksellers Association’s convention and trade show, and the Canadian Library Association’s annual conference.
It is my pleasure to direct this issue of the National Library News to book lovers of all kinds and to recognize the efforts of libraries, publishers and booksellers.
Libraries rely heavily on publishers as the suppliers of one of the library’s most important resources, just as publishers recognize the importance of the library market.
For the National Library of Canada, the relationship with publishers goes beyond the purchase of publications in expanding the national collection. Through legal deposit, as mandated in the National Library Act, publishers make a vital contribution to the development of a comprehensive national collection of publications in all formats, while ensuring that their products are made known, preserved and available to future generations.
In the interests of ensuring the long-term survival of print publications, the National Library has been a strong advocate of the use of permanent paper and has worked with publishers and paper manufacturers for more than a decade to promote the use of permanent paper in Canadian publications. This significant aspect of its role in the preservation of Canada’s published heritage has expanded with the burgeoning of electronic publishing. The Library is once again moving to ensure the preservation of intellectual content by advocating the development of publication standards and the retention of electronic publications as publishers originally presented them.
Making published material accessible to researchers is also a central part of the National Library’s mandate ¾ indeed of the mandate of libraries everywhere. The rapid expansion of technology and the availability of so many publications on-line undoubtedly affects copyright, intellectual ownership, and fair use of digitized material. With the introduction of CD-ROM products, publishers moved from sale to licensing. With on-line electronic publications, licensing is becoming the norm. While this is a new facet of our relationship with publishers and producers, the underlying objectives of preservation and accessibility remain the same. However, the shifting sands of electronic publishing mean that it is in all our interests for publishers, authors and libraries to work together even more closely than in the past.
The National Library’s Publishers’ Window is one of the ways through which we try to do this. A series of organized links to federal government information for and about the Canadian publishing industry, the Publishers’ Window offers information about such services as Cataloguing in Publication, International Standard Book, Serial and Music Numbers, and provides access to the national bibliography, Canadiana.
A different type of link is through the National Library’s public programming - concerts, readings, lectures and exhibitions. As a showcase of the nation’s published heritage, the Library makes the published word come alive ¾ on-site and on the Web.
It is in all our interests to heighten the profile of Canada’s published heritage. What better way than through this celebration of the written word? My congratulations to everyone involved.
Marianne Scott
National Librarian