CIDL Activities 2002

• Open Meeting Quebec City November 1, 2002

• Canadian Newspapers Online: National Consultation October 7-8, 2002 (National Library of Canada)

CIDL Open Meeting November 1, 2002

Toward a National Digital Library:
Interoperability and Digital Preservation Issues

The Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries (CIDL) invited its members, Canadian library directors and key technical staff to an open meeting held November 1, 2002 at the Fairmont Château Frontenac, Québec, QC

The meeting focused on:

• Sources and strategies for funding digital library projects;
• Strategies for increased standardization and appropriate forms of guidance;
• Interoperability possibilities, and the potential role of OAI;
• Steps needed to advance a national digital preservation strategy.

Over the past two years, an increasing number of Canadian libraries have obtained federal, provincial and local funding to provide collections of Canadian content online. Numerous high-quality and large-scale digital collections have emerged, and more collaboration is planned.

With this experience gained, a number of key issues of national importance are coming into clearer focus. It is timely to consider whether there are areas where increased adoption of standards, alignment of practice, and sharing of technical expertise is merited. Do we need to develop ways to aggregate collections to improve access, and thereby increase use by target user communities? Who is to take responsibility for the long-term accessibility of the materials being created or converted today, and how will this be assured?

• CIDL Open Meeting Agenda, November 1, 2002

• CIDL Open Meeting Summary Report, November 1, 2002 (Newsletter #8) [PDF 318 KB]

• Characteristics and Challenges of a National Digital Archive by Carole Moore, Chief Librarian, University of Toronto, November 1, 2002 [PDF 221 KB]

• Interoperability and Web Services by Thom Hickey, Chief Scientist, OCLC, November 1, 2002 [PDF 5,087 KB]

Agenda
Open Meeting, November 1, 2002

As part of CIDL's goal is information sharing, the meeting will also provide a number of workstations at which current projects can be demonstrated (facility dependent). These include:

Early Canadiana Online
Our Roots: Canada's Digital Local Histories
Peel's Prairie Provinces
Images Canada …and others.

Suggested Discussion Questions:

Increased Technical Standardization

• How significant are technical differences among projects produced to date?
• Is more guidance needed, and in what areas? Is Canadian Heritage's CCOP Program Standards and Guidelines document adequate for this purpose?
• Should there be recommended open source tools?

Increased Interoperability for Increased Access

• Could major existing digital collections be interoperated? How? By whom?
• What national aggregation services are needed? (e.g., as Images Canada aggregates image collections)
• What role could OAI play?
• Is there a need for a national repository of harvested metadata?
• Is there a need for a national "collection finder"?
• What should be the role of AMICUS?

Increased Commitment to Long-term Preservation and Access

• Who is monitoring international developments in technical approaches to digital preservation? Are there digital preservation activities happening in Canada?
• Are there key digital resources that are vulnerable? How and who should assume responsibility for their long-term accessibility?
• Are there key digital resources that should be branded as "national collections," part of a coherent national digital library for which the host institution has delegated preservation responsibilities?
• Does Canada need a national digital preservation strategy? How should this be pursued?
• What role(s) should be played by the National Library?

Canadian Newspapers Online: National Consultation October 7-8, 2002 (National Library of Canada)