CIDL News

CIDL was a sponsor of Access 2004 Halifax ( http://library.acadiau.ca/access2004/ ) where CIDL Chair Brian Bell presented the concept of Digital Canada numérique. Bell also presented Digital Canada at the January 2005 Ontario Library Association conference. In April 2005 Bell brought the Digital Canada vision to the Saskatchewan Library Association annual conference. Bell reported that he received positive feedback and interest at each event.

On April 11, 2005 CIDL Chair Brian Bell met with representatives from Canadian Culture Online (CCO), Canadian Heritage (Ruth Bacon, Director of Content Policy & Programs and Michel Murray, Manager of Content Programs) to discuss current mandatory education requirements for national digitization project applications.

Bell introduced CIDL and the Digital Canada vision. On behalf of CIDL members, he advocated for a separation in present CCO grant criteria between digitization projects and educational tool-building work. The meeting demonstrated that Bacon has an expressed interest in and strong agreement with CIDL on the importance of metadata standards and interoperability in the national vision.

According to Bacon, the CCO focus is moving away from content-building and moving towards resources built upon or capitalizing on the content previously supported by the program, and toward the ease of one-stop searching of the existing content and services through educational portals. She said that Canadian Heritage must now spend funds on helping people to find the digital resources more easily.

The meeting underlined the next focus for CCO which is to build educational portals. A new program description is currently being finalized, and CCO wants to work with key players from across the country. CIDL will now be on the list of groups to work with.

CIDL lends its support to canadiana.org
Letter sent to Canadian Heritage Minister the Honourable Liza Frulla

Canadiana.org launched a letter-writing campaign this spring after receiving word that Canadian Culture Online refused its grant application for the sixth and final year of the Canada in the Making project.

John Teskey, President of canadiana.org (previously Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions) stated, "The effort that has gone into this project has been enormous and we believe it would be a disservice to Canadians to deprive them of access to their parliamentary heritage, when we are so close to completing this national, bilingual-bicultural initiative. We believe that Canadians would be particularly disappointed to find out that of all the supporters of the project after five years it would be their own government that would pull its support in the final year of the project."

In his letter to the Honourable Liza Frulla, CIDL Chair Brian Bell wrote, "CIDL calls on you to support the completion of Canada in the Making in this upcoming fiscal year. CIDL considers the work of canadiana.org to be exemplary. The canadiana.org goal for Canada in the Making is to place 1.5 million pages of Canada's documentary heritage online and to complement that collection with learning resources on Early Canadiana Online (ECO) at www.canadiana.org by spring 2006. This government documents project is currently (end of March 2005) 83% complete at an amazing 1.25 million pages and is one of the most significant digitization projects of its kind. The current CCO decision places the completeness of this work in jeopardy."

CIDL is currently helping the Library and Archives Canada with preparations for the 2005 Canadian Metadata Forum. The forum, "Metadata: A Reality Check," is slated for September 27 & 28, 2005 at the Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa. CIDL has also supported the Metadata Forum with a $500 sponsorship. Watch the Library and Archives Canada Metadata Forum web site for details as they become available: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/metaforum/index-e.html

The CIDL 2005 travel bursary program totals $1,500. In three competitions CIDL will award $500 each towards travel costs to attend any one of: Digital Humanities/Humanities Computing Summer Institute in Victoria (June 11-14 web.uvic.ca/hrd/institute/ ); Electronic Text Centre Summer Seminar Series, University of New Brunswick (August 2-13 www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/SGML_course/2005/ ); Access 2005 Edmonton (October 17-19 http://access2005.library.ualberta.ca/ ).

The CIDL bursary competitions are underway and are open to employees of CIDL's 55 members at both Full and Associate levels. Watch the ListServ announcements for details, or contact the CIDL coordinator at cidl-icbn@lac-bac.gc.ca.

Congratulations to CIDL vice-chair Frits Pannekoek! Currently Director of Information Resources at the University of Calgary, Dr. Pannekoek accepted the appointment to become President of Athabasca University effective June 1, 2005. "Given the commitment of the Premier of Alberta and the Minister of Advanced Education to a strong and new investment in post-secondary education, this is a good time to arrive as the president of Canada's fastest growing University," Dr. Pannekoek said. CIDL thanks Dr. Pannekoek for his valued participation with CIDL, and we hope to work with you again in the future!

Correspondents in this issue:

Brian Bell, Chair, CIDL (Director, E Services Development, Halton Information Network) on New Directions for CIDL: Digital Canada
Kathryn Harvey, Archives Specialist, Dalhousie University Archives, Killam Memorial Library on Encoded Archival Description. Electronic Text Centre, University of New Brunswick, 2004 Summer Seminar Series
Profile @ CIDL: Mark Jordan, Acting Coordinator Library Systems and Leanne Denis, Advancement Officer, Simon Fraser University on Multicultural Canada: Our Diverse Ethnic Heritage Online
OCLC Canada (CIDL Sponsor 2005) on OCLC Canada preserves Canadian heritage through digitization projects
IBM Business Consulting (CIDL Sponsor 2004) on IBM helps Die Deutsche Bibliothek to develop digital long-term archives
Announcement: 2005 Summer Seminar Series, Electronic Text Centre, University of New Brunswick

New Directions for CIDL: Digital Canada

As the library world considers its prospects in the wake of the recent library digitization announcements from Google Print www.google.com/press/pressrel/print_library.html, it's a good time for CIDL to take stock of its successes for 2004 and to look ahead at strategies for 2005.

The CIDL Open Meeting held in Winnipeg kicked 2004 into high gear! Forty-three participants from Canadian libraries and cultural organizations with an interest in digitization spent a day in enthusiastic debate about CIDL's future objectives. Discussion focused on the need for a national digitization strategy as outlined in the key document Digital Canada: Toward a Common Infrastructure for Canada available on the CIDL Web site www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cidl/040021-404-002-e.html. The clear mandate from the 2004 Open Meeting is that CIDL take practical next steps to promote the vision of a "Digital Canada." The working sessions outlined a broad set of needs and application strategies that concluded with implications for the future of CIDL.

The first call from the Open Meeting is to facilitate cross-cultural sector connections - so much so that CIDL members present at the Open Meeting stated the critical need for an evolution in identity. We can no longer think in terms of library initiatives alone. Libraries today are reaching out to work collaboratively with partners in other memory institutions. CIDL also recognizes that the smallest of libraries or memory institutions cannot afford to build and re-build the expensive digitization infrastructure needed to support their projects, nor do they necessarily have the budget or skills to develop sophisticated indexing tools to digitize their unique collections. Given these resource restrictions, cross-cultural sector cooperation and collaboration on common collection types are a strategic must.

… Libraries today are reaching out to work collaboratively with partners in other memory institutions. …

Open Meeting participants stated they want a renewed focus on the consumer of our digitization efforts. Our users need seamless search tools, and this can be answered with system and metadata design that provide comprehensive "one-place-to-look" tools to bridge the gaps of cross-sector and format boundaries. The Open Meeting recognized the need for metasearch services to aggregated Canadian collections by format, so as to provide simultaneous access to multiple collections, best demonstrated by the hugely successful Images Canada www.imagescanada.ca/.

… An innovative example of such a metasearch portal is the new national project Multicultural Canada that CIDL endorsed in 2004. …

The call for metasearch portals that create cross-links among digital resources at object, collection and institution levels was also earmarked. An innovative example of such a metasearch portal is the new national project, Multicultural Canada www.multiculturalcanada.ca/ that CIDL endorsed in 2004. Three CIDL members Simon Fraser University, University of Calgary and the Vancouver Public Library teamed with a number of cultural organizations in Canada. According to a project press release the goal is to "provide a portal to Canada's multicultural experiences, both those digitized by the project and others located elsewhere. Not only will they form a basis for research, but an opportunity for the creation of learning modules that in turn can be catalogued and linked from the portal for use by other students."

There was agreement at the Open Meeting that for small memory organizations such as public libraries, regional museums, historical societies and archives to contribute their unique local content to the growing web-based Canadian collection CIDL should identify existing, inexpensive software tools for the job and find a way to make them readily available. Inexpensive, easy to use tools will facilitate the efficient input of content from all levels down to the smallest contributors. To do this, CIDL will help with the collaborative building of open source toolkits of web-based software. The tools, together with digitized content and metadata, can reside on shared regional servers where expertise and support exist to ensure cost effective security and accessibility. This will help partners, who otherwise could not afford to participate, to build their digital content in a standards-based way.

To facilitate this work, CIDL and staff at Library and Archives Canada are developing an interactive bilingual CIDL web forum to foster communication and idea sharing among Canadian digital collection creators. As well, CIDL may be in a position to provide a forum to assist developers from across the country to meet regularly to brainstorm and do joint work.

CIDL recognizes that metadata standards must work hand in hand with tool building to ensure interoperability. In September 2004 the Steering Committee approved the formation of a Metadata Working Group to review the metadata technical guidelines for 2005 national project submissions to the Canadian Culture On-line (Canadian Heritage) program. The 2004 Metadata Working Group was led by David McKnight (McGill University) and included: Alan Burk (Electronic Text Centre, University of New Brunswick), Mark Jordan (Simon Fraser University), Walter Lewis (Halton Hills Public Library), and Chris Petter (University of Victoria). On receipt of the CIDL report, Pierre Dulude (Senior Cultural Content Standards Officer, Canadian Heritage, Canadian Culture Online - Access and Environment Directorate) described the CIDL recommendations as comprehensive and professional. "Hopefully this will lead to further discussion between CCO and CIDL that will allow us (CCO and fund recipients) to benefit from the expertise provided by working group members. I can already tell that the document will be much improved as a result of your input," reported Dulude.

In February 2005 the Steering Committee approved a second Metadata Standards Working Group also led by David McKnight. Members include Guy Teasdale (Université Laval) and Deane Zeeman (Library and Archives Canada) together with Mark Jordan and Chris Petter. This working group will promote the awareness of standards for the description of resources, the exchange of metadata among institutions and the use of metadata in digital tool sets.

The Google Print Library Project http://print.google.com/googleprint/library.html, a mega library digitization project announced in December 2004, will see selected American library collections digitized. This prospect has excited and intrigued library administrators and politicians internationally. Initial public reaction is that this type of digital project will save libraries the tremendous effort and expense of digitization. Will Google-style mega-digitization projects impact Canadian libraries, and Canadian digitization efforts? The work of Google Print, while a significant opportunity, is only a partial solution for any total national digital library.

More recent reaction to the Google Print Library project from respected thinkers in the field, like Roy Tennant (California Digital Library), has been mixed. In his February 15, 2005 article, "Google Out of Print" [Library Journal www.libraryjournal.com/ , Tennant mused about the mixed blessings for researchers at having a preponderance of pre-1923 imprints on the web.

Jean-Noël Jeanneny, President of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), has been quoted widely with his concerns about the Google Print Library project and the possible English language [American] weighting to the eventual output of Google's digitized content (Le Monde January 23, 2005, "Quand Google défie l'Europe" - Tr. "Google challenges Europe.") On March 4, 2005 Le Monde reported Jeanneny's responses to several questions about his resistance to the Google Print Library project, "Jean-Noël Jeanneney: 'L'intelligence, l'innovation ne sont pas seulement outre-Atlantique!'" -- Tr. "Intelligence and innovation are not found solely across the Atlantic!". To the question: "Pourquoi êtes-vous hostile au projet Google?" - Tr. "Why are you so hostile to the Google Project?", Jeanneney replied in part,

(Tr.) "…however, their selection and their hierarchical organization in the lists will inevitably be defined from a singular perspective: the American perspective. …I would simply like to see another point of view in the future, which shows another sensitivity - European - with a view of the world that is undoubtedly just as fractional, and even biased, but different. I support a multipolar vision."

When asked by Le Monde, "Google suggère à la BNF de les rejoindre. Pourquoi ne pas accepter la proposition?" -- Tr. "Google suggests that the BNF join the project. Why would you not accept the proposal?" Jeanneney said in part,

(Tr.) "…however, it is urgent that we improve at the quantitative and qualitative levels, which will protect us from de facto control, both in the hierarchical organization of works and in the validation of scientific research. The assumption is that we, as citizens, would accept to pay for the required costs, not as consumers through advertising (which has a clear impact on our choices), but as taxpayers to ensure another categorization…"

In the same spirit of concern as expressed by Jeanneny, CIDL reasons that Canadian memory institutions will benefit more in the long run from a made-in-Canada vision such as developing a Digital Canada approach. Initiatives like the very successful www.OurRoots.ca local histories project, now entering its fourth year, although largely funded by Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online program, have only been made possible through the collaborative effort of a number of centres of expertise in Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. This collaborative approach reflects the fact that in Canada much of our unique documentary heritage is held by regional memory institutions.

Based on the views expressed at the 2004 Open Meeting, CIDL plans in 2005 to move to a new identity and a new name, "Digital Canada numérique," to reflect a more active advocacy mandate and the inclusive nature of an expanded membership base. Digital Canada isn't a single mega project. It's not a massive grant program from the government. Rather, it's a vision - a 5 year plan. It's a call for dialogue and collaboration among libraries of all types and sizes and their other memory institution partners at all levels. It includes a unique and significant role for Library and Archives Canada.

As we grow, we will continue to seek even more effective ways to enhance our ability to advocate and fine-tune the Digital Canada strategy. Digital Canada will only be made possible through collaborative participation from Canadian libraries and memory institutions of all sizes, and made successful by its focus on a balanced Web collection.

To advance the Digital Canada vision, CIDL members have identified the need to expand our advocacy on behalf of libraries to funding bodies like CCO. Digital Canada could become more involved in funding issues on behalf of the digital library sector to exert influence on funding agencies and streamline funding criteria.

Since its beginning, CIDL has tended to appeal to the larger academic libraries across Canada. To be a strong voice and advocate for digital libraries, CIDL needs to be more broadly representative by connecting to similar memory institutions. CIDL will launch its 2006 membership campaign to reach other types of libraries and to expand its corporate members/sponsors as well.

CIDL has the potential to play an advocacy role pertaining to digital issues with LAC and government bodies at the federal and provincial levels. CIDL will connect with as many memory institutions as possible with its vision of Digital Canada as a common base from which to collaborate, and we will take part in public discussions in as many forums as possible.

As part of its outreach activities, CIDL was a sponsor of Access 2004 in Halifax where CIDL Chair Brian Bell presented the concept of Digital Canada http://library.acadiau.ca/access2004/speakers/bell.html#digital. Bell also presented Digital Canada at the 2005 Ontario Library Association conference. Spring 2005 the Digital Canada vision was presented by the CIDL chair to the Saskatchewan Library Association annual conference. In June 2005 CIDL chair Brian Bell will attend, by invitation, the annual meeting plenary session of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. CIDL is also currently involved in preparations for the Library and Archives Canada Metadata Forum II, September 27-28 2005 in Ottawa www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/metaforum/index-e.html.

CIDL will continue to promote awareness of Canadian digitization efforts through its Inventory of Canadian Digital Initiatives www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/initiatives/index-e.html. The Nova Scotia Digital Collections Initiative (NSDCI) in partnership with CIDL uses a specialized view of the Inventory to list projects with Nova Scotia content. The NSDCI benefits from a full listing of sites that originate from Nova Scotia as well as other Canadian projects that have Nova Scotia content. CIDL urges all its members to submit their digital projects (whether in development or completed), and we also encourage provinces to take advantage of our Inventory service. Contact CIDL at cidl-icbn@lac-bac.gc.ca.

There's room for everyone within the Digital Canada blueprint, and the scope for all types of formats and content to be digitized for easier access by our users. Help CIDL to spread the word and make Digital Canada a reality!

Profile @ CIDL: Multicultural Canada
Our Diverse Ethnic Heritage Online

Leanne Denis, Advancement Officer, Simon Fraser University Library
Mark Jordan, Acting Coordinator Library Systems, Simon Fraser University Library

Simon Fraser University Library, University of Calgary, Sien Lok Society of Calgary, Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO), University of Victoria and Vancouver Public Library have partnered to provide online access to new and existing multicultural collections that capture the histories of multicultural groups in Canada: www.MulticulturalCanada.ca.

Multicultural Canada was formed to address an urgency to capture and preserve the first-hand accounts of first-generation immigrants and to allow them to share their early Canadian experiences. The project will digitize and provide enhanced access to this unique, culturally significant material. Canadian educational and research institutions now have the technical, educational, and cultural expertise to synthesize the information and learning tools that have developed in the last decade. Our research and education consortium will be able to define new and innovative ways of communicating and learning, especially on the topics of Canadian culture, history, and languages.

Portal: www.multiculturalcanada.ca provides seamless access to the content of Multicultural Canada, as well as that of related web sites:

Primary Content: consists of each individual online collection (group of family papers, newspapers, audio tapes, etc.)

Educational Resources: consists of the collection of information and educational components which use the resources of Multicultural Canada that can be catalogued, stored as learning objects, and linked from the portal for use by other students.

When complete, Multicultural Canada will be a portal that gathers together searchable multicultural Canadian newspapers, local histories, speeches, photographs, letters, oral histories - such as histories, political speeches, and aboriginal lore in the original language with vernacular, English, and French search engines - and interactive, educational tools to enable students to explore their own and other communities through cross-cultural projects and experiential studies. These materials will form not only a basis for research, but also an opportunity for the creation of learning modules, which in turn can be catalogued and linked from the portal for use by other students.

Multicultural Canada is an open-ended initiative to make primary cultural and historical collections available on the web to a variety of audiences. Its growth will in many ways parallel the growth of new communities. Some of the goals identified for the project include:

The success of Multicultural Canada depends on the diversity of communities that are represented in the project and on the benefits those communities, students and researchers gain from it.

The partners welcome feedback on how Multicultural Canada can grow to reflect the vibrant life of all cultures and Canada as a whole. Contact: Lynn Copeland, University Librarian, Simon Fraser University copeland@sfu.ca.

Encoded Archival Description

Electronic Text Centre, University of New Brunswick 2004 Summer Seminar Series

Kathryn Harvey, Archives Specialist, Dalhousie University Archives, Killam Memorial Library
CIDL 2004 Bursary Recipient

As someone who has read about and created finding aids using Encoded Archival Description (EAD) for the past two years, I eagerly registered in the course called "Intensive Introduction to Encoded Archival Description" taught by Daniel Pitti, Project Director, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia as part of the University of New Brunswick's 2004 Summer Seminar Series www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/SGML_course/Aug2004/.

How could I not enrol? In the fall 2003 I quite self-servingly suggested, in an interview about the reorganization of the summer seminars, that I would enrol if the Electronic Text Centre offered a course on EAD. So when August 15th, 2004 rolled around, I found myself on a bus from Halifax to Fredericton to attend the 5-day workshop. Others like me were making similar journeys, some from farther flung places than Halifax - such as Illinois and Maryland.

What all participants had in common was the desire to learn more about electronic publishing, and the workshops sponsored by the Electronic Text Centre (ETC) on the UNB Fredericton campus well served these interests. Three courses were offered. The "Fundamentals of Digital Imaging" taught by Marc Bragdon, Electronic Services Librarian at UNB kicked off the series; then two other workshops ran simultaneously: "Essentials of Electronic Publishing" taught by David L. Gants, Canada Research Chair in Humanities Computing at UNB; and the EAD workshop taught by Daniel Pitti, one of the standards' authors.

Day One began with a caution and an apology from our instructor Daniel Pitti. The caution was that we should not expect to become experts by the end of the course, but that we would obtain a solid, practical understanding of EAD history and utility within archives. The apology concerned the instructor's sartorial choices - or lack thereof -- since the airlines decided his baggage would be happier to take a more exotic route to Fredericton. Despite the jeans and runners (which happen to be my standard attire for the rough and tumble of archival work), Daniel provided us with a glimpse of the wit, humour, and thoughtfulness that carried us through the week.

After the introductions and summary of the week's agenda, we got down to business. Daniel offered a brief description of XML and some of the different types of XML software - i.e., parsers/validators; authoring, editing, and management tools; Internet- and print-publishing tools; and browsers. For the benefit of those not attending for the full five days, Daniel engagingly packed an overview of EAD into Day One. With lightening speed he lucidly whizzed through an explanation, for the benefit of systems programmers and other non-archivists, of what is meant by archival records and finding aids, then moved on to explain what EAD is (an encoding and structural standard for finding aids) and what it is not (a content standard, a data value standard, an archival management system). The discussion wrapped up with an outline of EAD semantics and structure.

Days two through five did not continue at such a furious pace; however, they presented their own challenges as participants received instruction on the nitty-gritty aspects of encoding finding aids and hands-on experience doing mark-up. Although reeling from the volume of information we'd absorbed, by week's end we had all come together in common cause: getting our documents to validate. Cries of glee and disappointment punctuated the intense silence surrounding obsessively focussed taggers.

Lunches and dinners were casual occasions. The lunch room overflowed with animated conversations as participants from both ongoing workshops came together to compare notes on their sessions. Evenings were spent by many of the "from-aways" enjoying local dining establishments and lounges. After long, gruelling days in computer labs trying to grasp the difference between the intellectual and the physical arrangement of archival material, the proper usage of a <controlaccess> element, or the use of Cascading Stylesheets to present entirely different screen displays of one encoded document, the evenings of eating, drinking, and socializing provided a perfect balance. Mid-week, ETC director Alan Burk bravely hosted a party in his newly renovated and, he modestly claimed, still-not-completed home, though few could spot any evidence of the mess that always accompanies such projects. ETC staff and participants descended on his home and enthusiastically dug into the desserts and beverages, spun into elaborate tales, and engaged in frivolous banter.

Overall, the workshops provided a healthy mix of intellectual and social stimulation and an opportunity to make connections with others of similar interests. My only complaint about the trip was that I didn't have more time to explore Fredericton's beautiful walking trails and visit the Beaverbrook Gallery, but that was partly my own fault since I took work with me that I had to fit into my evenings. A sincere thanks goes out to the ETC staff, particularly Alan Burk and Susan Oliver, for organizing such a fulfilling roster of courses.

OCLC Canada preserves Canadian heritage through digitization projects

The advent of digitization services is helping Canadian libraries share a wealth of resources with local and worldwide user communities, including resources that previously may have been difficult for library users to access. Special collections, newspapers, microfilms and many other resources find new life through digitization services that make access as easy as a few mouse clicks.

OCLC Canada, based in Chambly, Quebec, is taking an active role in bringing digitization services to libraries in Canada www.oclc.org/ca/en/default.htm. "Staff at our digital studio in Winnipeg brings great skill and expertise to their assigned projects," said Daniel Boivin, Director of OCLC Canada. "Demand for digitization projects is increasing enough that we're now recruiting for another digital technician to join our Winnipeg staff."

OCLC expansion into digitization and preservation services is good news for Canadian libraries and their users, as OCLC Canada has several initiatives under way to expand access to digital resources across Canada.

Manitobia: Life and Times will use various lenses to magnify the early history of Manitoba and Canada. OCLC Canada is digitizing approximately 105,000 pages of microfilmed newspapers, capturing the images at 300dpi to create TIFF image files. The images undergo post-scanning processes to prepare them for successful distillation through Pipex™ to create an ActivePaper Archive™ XML repository, which will be made available online.

Significant content for the Manitobia project comes from the newspaper holdings of the Legislative Library of Manitoba, covering the period from 1859 to 1919. The Manitoba Library Consortium, Inc. (MLCI), a group of government, public, school and academic libraries is leading the project which is funded by the Canadian Heritage Partnerships Fund.

OCLC Canada has digitized 3,580 pages of microfilm from the Archives of Manitoba as part of the Archives Society of Alberta 'Prairie Populism' project (under construction). Funded by Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Council of Archives and Library and Archives Canada, the project content includes records from the Winnipeg General Strike Trial.

For libraries and information repositories like museums that choose to digitize special collections in-house, OCLC offers CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software (developed by DiMeMa, Inc.). Canadian institutions (like the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta) are doing just that, using CONTENTdm to digitize special collections. Here are a few other examples.

Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) uses CONTENTdm to support a new Digital Archives Initiative (DAI: http://www.mun.ca/ ) that's managed jointly by the Faculty of Arts and the Libraries on behalf of the university. The initiative focuses on the preservation of Newfoundland culture through the digitization of a variety of multimedia collections (audio, video, image and print). These collections are currently housed in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Maritime History Archive and MUN Folklore and Language Archives.

While the digitization project continues, access to the collections will be available through the CONTENTdm Web interface, Z39.50 search and retrieval, and via search engines using the Open Archives Initiative Metadata Harvesting Protocol (OAI-MHP).

Meanwhile, Windsor Public Library is using CONTENTdm to build a collection of 1,500 images culled from the collections of Windsor's Community Archives, Windsor's Community Museum and the library's own local history collection. These images will become part of the Images Canada database, which provides centralized search access to thousands of images held on the Web sites of Canadian cultural institutions. The Windsor project is funded by the Canadian Heritage, Museum Assistance Program.

In the future, the library hopes to add images from the Heritage Planning Department and other local heritage organizations that lack the resources to create a similar digital collection on their own.

Looking ahead, Boivin sees a larger role for OCLC Canada in helping Canadian libraries expand access to their special collections through digitization services. "Indeed, we are planning for additional specialized services to be offered from our Canadian digital studio," he explained. "We expect delivery of additional equipment in mid-2005 that will allow us to provide on-site digitization services, digitization of microcards and more."

The digitization of more and more resources in Canadian libraries means that library users across Canada-and around the world-will benefit from the vast knowledge these resources provide. OCLC Canada looks forward to playing a leading role in helping that to happen.

IBM helps Die Deutsche Bibliothek to develop digital long-term archives
KOPAL project aims at preserving the German cultural heritage for future generations

La Gaude, France, October 13, 2004 - The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) selected IBM together with Die Deutsche Bibliothek (DDB), the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB), the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung (GWDG) to develop a long-term digital archive . The aim of this project, named 'KOPAL', is to create a long-term preservation archive to allow better access to digital publications and the preservation of cultural heritage in a system designed to adhere to international and open standards.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is contributing EUR 4 million towards project KOPAL which will allow partners DDB and SUB to preserve digital documents into the future. KOPAL will be based on the IBM DIAS solution (Digital Information Archiving System) which IBM set-up jointly with the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of The Netherlands. In a development project scheduled to take three years, IBM will ensure a professional adoption of the software components and provide long-term support.

"KOPAL integrates from the start several partners at different locations", said Dr. Elisabeth Niggemann, Director General of Die Deutsche Bibliothek. "The project offers an opportunity for academic, business and administrative use that extends beyond libraries. IBM's proven experience and capabilities in existing long term preservation projects will be essential to the success of our partnership", Dr. Niggemann concluded.

In recent years, the number of 'born-digital' publications, where no paper copy exists, has increased rapidly, creating new and different data formats. Each format may need specific programs that run only on a specific hardware and a specific operating environment. As a consequence, older digital files run the risk of no longer being accessible or readable by the latest programs. The KOPAL Project is aimed at creating the necessary new procedures, based on international and open standards, to ensure future generations' access to culture and data over the long term.

"Digital preservation is an area that needs attention in all industry with requirements to maintain information for fiscal or commercial reasons over long periods", said Eberhard Armbruster, Partner, IBM Business Consulting Services, Public Sector Central Region. "Many companies are not aware of the fact that they already have difficulties in accessing digital information which is not even five years old", Armbruster added www-1.ibm.com/services/
us/bcs/html/bcs_index.html.

IBM's high quality digital media solution, DIAS, is based on IBM Content Manager as well as Websphere application server and Tivoli storage management software, using IBM disk and tape storage products. KOPAL will allow flexible data import and export based on the USA's Library of Congress "METS" (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard). The archive will be operated by the computing centre partner Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung Göttingen (GWDG), enabling other institutions to use the archive in the near future.

The IBM DIAS solution is already deployed at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of The Netherlands), which recently launched a comprehensive digital media system for storing and protecting millions of electronic documents, including digitized historic books and papers. The National Library of The Netherlands estimates savings of US $5 million per year, and the solution helps ensure large-scale storage and long-term accessibility of electronic documents, publications and images, thereby helping to preserve the country's cultural heritage. IBM DIAS is based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) standard, and is designed specifically to store, preserve and make available digital content over the long term. Other industries with the need for long term preservation of born-digital data and document include the pharmaceutical industry, insurance, finance, medical and health industries.

Die Deutsche Bibliothek (DDB) serves as the German national archival library and the national bibliographic center. DDB ensures a secure archive and the availability of all publications in Germany. The DDB's legal mandate covers all hand-held publications (including publications on floppy disc, CD-Rom, DVD, etc.). Networked electronic publications today are collected on a voluntary basis; a new legal deposit law is being prepared.

With consultants and professional staff in more than 160 countries globally, IBM Business Consulting Services is the world's largest consulting services organization. IBM Business Consulting Services provides clients with business process and industry expertise, and the ability to translate that expertise into integrated, adaptive, on demand business solutions that deliver bottom-line business value. For more information visit www.ibm.com/bcs.

IBM is the world's leading information technology company, with over 90 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Working with Public Sector clients around the globe, IBM provides on demand e-Government solutions to assist government agencies respond with speed to citizen demands, business needs, changing economic conditions and legislative priorities and policies. For more information about IBM Public Sector, visit www.ibm.com/industries/government.

Electronic Text Centre, University of New Brunswick

The Electronic Text Centre at the University of New Brunswick is offering its ninth summer seminar series of six workshops that explore issues in scholarly communication. The series will offer introductory and advanced level courses that balance technical components with theoretical and practical "hands-on" learning in state-of-the-art facilities. Participants will gain a greater understanding of the latest techniques, tools and standards while expanding their communities of practice.

Instructors and courses include Mark Bragdon (Digital Imaging), Daniel Pitti (Advanced Web Publishing), David Seaman (Advanced Topics in Building Electronic Texts), Lisa Charlong (Introduction to Text Encoding), and Diane Hillmann (Building Metadata Application Profiles).

The workshops will be held in state-of-the-art research and teaching lab facilities in the Harriet Irving Library on the UNB campus. A Windows PC will be available for each participant. Registration opened March 14, 2005. Contact Susan Oliver, Program Coordinator: suoliver@unb.ca

CIDL Bursary Challenge Announcement

$500 towards travel costs to attend:
Electronic Text Centre, University of New Brunswick
2005 Summer Seminar Series (August 2-13, 2005)

Requirements: Provide the CIDL Secretariat with your name, job title and contact info, your employer's name, work location. Send your reason/s why attendance at the ninth Electronic Text Centre Summer Seminar Series will benefit your work. Should you win the CIDL Bursary you will be required to submit a 600 word article to the CIDL newsletter to tell readers about your experience. It's easy!

Send your application to: Michelle Landriault, CIDL Coordinator
E-mail: cidl-icbn@lac-bac.gc.ca

Bursary Recipient Announcement: The name of the recipient will be sent out on the CIDL List-Serv on Thursday June 30, 2005 at 4:00 p.m.

CIDL News #11 May 2005

Editor: Michelle Landriault, CIDL Coordinator
This publication is issued twice a year by the Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries (CIDL). Published articles are copyright to the individual authors. Send queries or submissions to: cidl-icbn@lac-bac.gc.ca

Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries
550 boulevard de la Cité, Room 3-26
Gatineau, QC K1A 0N4

CIDL membership and sponsorship categories

Full members have voting privileges and are eligible for nomination to the Steering Committee. The current annual fee for full membership is $1,000.

Associate members can actively take part in working groups. The current annual fee for associate membership is $300.

Sponsors are invited to feature their logo on the CIDL website with a direct link. Sponsors are also invited to exhibit their products at the CIDL Open Meeting, and other CIDL functions held from time to time.


Created: 1997-06-01 Updated: 2005-05-31	Top of page	Important Notices

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