News Release

96-06

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA WORKING WITH SCHOOLNET DIGITAL COLLECTIONS PROGRAM

Ottawa, September 25, 1996  --  National Librarian Marianne Scott today welcomed Industry Minister John Manley and National Capital Region Members of Parliament to the National Library of Canada to experience a multimedia virtual Glenn Gould exhibition featuring some of Gould's recordings. This exhibition and three other digitization projects are now available on the Internet thanks to a cooperative effort between the National Library and Industry Canada.

Visitors also experienced the results of the other three summer digitization projects: "North: Landscape of the Imagination", which contains information from the Library's 1993 exhibition of the same name, and two unique online databases  --  the Index to Federal Royal Commissions and the Canadian Music Periodical Index.

These products were made possible through Industry Canada's SchoolNet Digital Collections Program, under which the National Library provided short-term employment for 12 students. The students were working on these four Library digitization projects that will make information on Canada and Canadians more accessible. The experience gained on these projects has equipped the students with technological skills that will make them more employable in the future.

"Young people need help to make the important transition into the working world. SchoolNet Digital Collections provides that crucial first-job experience to help them succeed in the knowledge-based economy of the future," said Industry Minister John Manley.

"This is a program that benefits everyone," said National Librarian Marianne Scott. "Digitization is an important means of making the Library's collections and indexes more widely accessible and of increasing Canadian content on the Internet. We are also delighted to enable these enthusiastic young people to gain technological skills that will help them as they build their professional lives."

The SchoolNet Digital Collections Program was implemented with funding from the Youth Initiative announced March 13, 1996 by the Minister of Human Resources Development. The mandate of Canada's SchoolNet is to work with provincial and territorial ministries of education to facilitate the linking of all 16 500 schools and 3 400 public libraries, as well as more than 400 First Nations schools across Canada, to the Information Highway by 1998. The SchoolNet's Digital Collections Web site is: http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections.

The four digitization projects will be linked to the National Library's Web site as well as being available through SchoolNet. The Library's Web site is: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/

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THE PROJECTS

Index to Federal Royal Commissions

Two students have digitized the information on 4 725 index cards that provide author, subject and keyword access to federal Royal Commissions and special committee reports. The resulting database makes a unique index available on the Internet.

Canadian Music Periodical Index

Four students have digitized the approximately 21 000 index cards of the pre-1993 manual Canadian Music Periodical Index (CMPI) to create a database, and its information was merged with previously automated post-1992 CMPI data. Digitization makes this comprehensive research tool, which provides access to articles in Canadian music literature, available worldwide.

North: Landscape of the Imagination

Three students have digitized the catalogue and selected materials from the exhibition, "North: Landscape of the Imagination", held at the National Library in 1993. This exhibition, which presented views and ideas of the Canadian North created by artists and authors whose works are in the Library's collections, sparked considerable interest around the world. It is hoped that further additions will supplement the Library's material on the Internet, and that this work will be carried out by people in the North.

Glenn Gould Archive and Virtual Exhibition

Three students have created a series of Glenn Gould Web pages, which are linked to the National Library's Web site. These pages feature a multimedia virtual exhibition based on the Library's renowned exhibition, "Glenn Gould 1988", together with a detailed chronology and links to related sites. The project also includes a discussion list for Gould aficionados, and a series of research tools such as a comprehensive database of the Library's complete Gould archive, a bibliography and a discography. This project is the first phase of a planned thematic digitization of the Library's Glenn Gould collection.