Presentation to LAC’sToward a Content Strategy:

Digitization on a National ScaleThematic Meeting - April 6, 2006

Digitization in Alberta

Characteristics of Alberta’s Digitization Landscape

• A culture of digitization is emerging • Considerable content being developed• Some experimentation • Fractured approaches• Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library will

provide more cohesiveness, inter-operabilityPre LHCADL vs. Post LHCADL

Why the long name?

The Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library (LHCADL) was created by Alberta Advanced Education in tribute to a great patron of education and libraries – Lois Hole; in recognition of the power of collaborative activity – Campus Alberta; and to acknowledge that the 21st century means ubiquitous and integrated information resources – the Digital Library!

The Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library (LHCADL)

• announced in the 2005 Speech from the Throne

• building on the Campus Alberta vision• taking advantage of the Alberta SuperNet• bringing 1000’s of electronic resources to

post-secondary institutions across the province

• connecting to First Nations colleges

The LHCADL VisionDramatically expanding the digital resources and services available to Alberta learners by:

• licensing resources in support of programmatic needs

• identifying and digitizing material of interest to Albertans

• creating a robust technology infrastructure• establishing electronic repositories• developing information literacy programs

Current Digitization Initiatives at Alberta’s Universities

What’s happened up to now?

University of Alberta• Peel’s Prairie Provinces http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/

Dedicated to exploring the history and culture of the Canadian prairies. Contains over 7000 searchable titles. Additional full-text documents are added regularly.

• Alberta Folklore http://folklore.library.ualberta.ca/A collection of about 1000 items of Alberta folklore and local history, including manuscripts, reminiscences, stories, plays, poems and photographs.

• Ukrainian Folklore Archives Photo Collectionhttp://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~ukrfolk/Resources.htmExtensive collection of photos and other material celebrating Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Canadian life. As well as photos the collection contains books,manuscripts, audio and video field recordings, commercial sound recordings, posters, printed ephemera, artifacts and other material.

• Where Wonder meets Wisdom http://www.museums.ualberta.caArt, artifact and specimen collections at the University of Alberta

• Atlas of Alberta Railways http://railways-atlas.tapor.ualberta.ca/cocoon/atlas/A graphic approach to the railroading history of Alberta

University of Calgary• Our Future, Our Past: The Alberta Heritage Digitization Project

http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/Ongoing project providing a diverse range of personal, community, business and governmental perspectives on Alberta’s history. Includes Calgary Exhibition and Stampede archives.

• Our Roots/Nos Racines http://www.ourroots.caUnique materials concerning the cultural and social heritage of Canada. Local histories representing the nation’s history from the perspective of those who helped shape it.

• Institutional Repository http://dspace.ucalgary.caA new initiative to preserve and make publicly available the University’s record of scholarly information.

• ASTIS (Arctic Science and Technology Information System)http://www.aina.ucalgary.ca/astis/Contains over 58,000 records describing publications and research projects about northern Canada.

University of LethbridgeSouthern Alberta Digital Library Centre

http://www.sadl.uleth.ca• in collaboration with the new Zealand Digital

Library Project. Uses open source software (Greenstone). Contains images from U of L Art Gallery, several collections rebuilt from CD-ROM

• various initiatives in development – not publicly accessible

• Problem of inter-operability

Athabasca University• Alberta Women’s Memory Project

http://www.athabascau.ca/wmst/awmp/index.html. A website designed to promote acquisition and preservation of women's records.

• Digital Reading Room (DRR)searchable database provides access to library and other digitalresources that have been selected for participating courses.

• Digital Thesis and Project Room (DTPR)online repository of student theses and projects

• Athabasca University has recently purchased DSpaceand Contentdm data management software as well as equipment to increase their digitization capacity.

Other Provincial Digitization Initiatives

The Glenbow Museumhttp://www.glenbow.org/collections /search/

• Over 80,000 photographs, cartoons and posters available online

• Beginning to digitize art and three dimensional artifacts.Archives Society of Alberta

http://www.archivesalberta.org/• Alberta InSight – growing database of visual images• Alberta InWord – growing database of textual records –

currently over 70,000 scanned.• Allows smaller institutions and projects to contribute • ASA hosts themed virtual exhibits each year

Royal Alberta Museum• Creature Collection

http://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/vcollects/index.aspThis site provides direct access to information on 50953 records of 1699 different species of animals from collections of the Royal Alberta Museum.

• working on consolidating their data bases and making more of the collection available online before construction of new facility. Will include links to GIS.

Royal Tyrell Museum• Creating an image database of specimens• Participated in HERMIS pilot project through Alberta

Community Development

Alberta Community Development

Heritage Resource Management Branch• Ministry-wide initiative to consolidate data bases of

Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Royal Tyrell Museum, Historic Sites Branch, Provincial Archives, Royal Alberta Museum – HERMIS (Heritage Resource Management Information Systems) Distributed search system will allow website visitors to seamlessly search multiple data bases. Uses GallerySystems data management software.

Calgary Public Library • Home Sweet Heritage Home – biographies of famous

Calgarians and their homes http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/calgary/hshh/index.htm

Edmonton Public Library• Pictures of our Past – a collaboration between City of

Edmonton Archives and Edmonton Public Library http://www.epl.ca/EPLPhotos.cfm

CKUA (Canada’s first public broadcaster – founded 1927)• Sound archives online – over 900 hours of streaming

audio http://66.244.199.219/CKUA_Archives/eng/index.aspx

The Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library will help build digitized content

• Lead institutions for digitization:– Athabasca University– University of Alberta– University of Calgary– University of Lethbridge

• Content of interest to or required by Albertans• Recognizing National Digital Information

Strategies • adhering to National standards

LHCADL Principles for Digitization• some projects will be done on a province-wide basis –

may embrace other institutions• some will be institutionally or regionally based• open access material will be preferred• Alberta material or of interest to Albertans• attention to best practices (metadata, standards)• avoid duplication• some elements may be handled centrally; e.g. copyright• sustainability addressed in a pan-Canadian context• capitalize on existing expertise

Content Under Consideration for the LHCADL

• Expansion of current initiatives (Peel’s Prairie Provinces; Our Future, Our Past)

• U of A’s Circumpolar Library (U of C has Arctic Institute holdings – possible collaboration?)

• Athabasca U has been offered material from Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS)

• Fragile audio and video from Native Elders• Botanical and Architectural Collections• Rare, Surviving Runs of Alberta Newspapers• Local histories/materials

Digitization Strategies for the LHCADL

A Combination of:

• Building on Existing Onsite Capacity• Outsourcing to Commercial Agents• Developing Mobile Digitization Capacity

LHCADL Objectives and Outcomes

• an increased number of relevant digital resources• digital resources are used to enrich the learning

experience and the research enterprise• equal and consistent access for learners and faculty

at participating post-secondary institutions• collaborative licensing and use of technology to

maximize the leverage of the investment• integrated with national initiatives, i.e. CRKN,

AlouetteCanada

Questions?

“If I can help people to understand the enormous educational resource each citizen represents, if I can help the parents of today realize the dream of a better life for the children of tomorrow, I feel I will have done my job as Lieutenant Governor.”

The Late, The Honourable Dr. Lois E. Hole