Library and Archives Canada Survey on Digital Preservation Activities

A researcher by the name of Kathleen Shearer is conducting a survey of digital preservation activities in Canada on behalf of Library and Archives Canada (LAC):

"The Canadian Digital Information Strategy (2007) identified preservation as one of the major digital challenges for Canada. This survey is directed to Repository Managers to learn about the current digital preservation capacity in select Canadian organizations and to gain an understanding of the collections being preserved, how they are being preserved, and what resources are being devoted to preservation. The survey is divided into six sections: (1) Introduction, (2) Information about the repository, (3) General policies and practices, (4) Preservation practices, (5) Preservation resources, and (6) Challenges."

Ms. Shearer explained in a post to a library listserv: "Details of individual repositories will not be disclosed. Aggregate results will published in a report that will be made available on the LAC website in spring/summer 2009."

If readers know of any Canadian digital repository or collections managers, and/or database managers, they are being asked to forward the survey URL to them.

Earlier Library Boy posts about Canadian digitization projects include:

• Digitization of Early Canadian Government Documents Continues (November 21, 2005): "The non-profit organization Canadiana.org has just received another grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage's Canadian Culture Online program to help it complete its Canada in the Making digitization project (...) Canadiana.org will be able to add a further 250,000 pages ... These will include selected Acts, Debates and Sessional papers from the Colonial period to Confederation, and from 1867 to 1900" [the description page for this project has moved]
• CALL 2007 Pre-Conference: Managing Digital Collections (May 5, 2007): "The 2007 conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries begins this weekend in Ottawa and continues until Wednesday, May 9, 2007. Today, there was a pre-conference session on Creating and Managing a Digital Collection Project: From policy to technical requirements."
• Canadian Digital Information Strategy Issued for Comments (October 31, 2007): "Over the past 2 years, LAC [Library and Archives Canada] consulted with over 200 organizations: publishing and media producers, creators, rights bodies, academics, provincial and federal officials, and heritage institutions. The strategy being proposed is based on the following vision: 'Canada's digital information assets are created, managed and preserved to ensure that a significant Canadian digital presence and record is available to present and future generations, and that Canada's position in a global digital information economy is enhanced' (...) The draft strategy document highlights a number of current digitization projects in Canada and contains an extensive bibliography on international strategies, preservation, and digitization."
• Responses to Draft Canadian Digital Information Strategy (February 16, 2008): "Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has issued the Canadian Digital Information Strategy in draft form for comment. Comments are due by Nov 23, 2007 (...) Responses from individuals and organizations have now been posted on the Library and Archives Canada website."