Blogs

Ontarians are jealously proud of their local and family history, but this history remains largely inaccessible to scholar and folklorist alike, hoarded in small libraries and archives from one corner of the vast province to the other. In response to member feedback, Canadiana.org has substantially bolstered collection efforts in this area, providing and enhancing access to materials that chronicle the rich historical texture of settlement, industry, culture and local government in Upper Canada and early Ontario.

It's been some time since we shared with you future plans for our digital projects. So we are excited to be able to tell you that over the next several months Canadiana will be adding several new collections: Genealogy and Local History; the First World War, and The Cookbook collections.

Digitized materials are not always easily indexed by Google and other search engines, meaning that in the past, users had to visit each individual website to find content related to their research- a very time consuming process.

The Municipal World (CIHM 8_06700) has the distinction of being the oldest continuously published monthly municipal magazine in the world. It is also one of only a handful of Canadian magazines that has been publishing throughout three centuries. Indeed 120 years after its inception, it is still going strong, and a perusal of some of the fascinating articles found in the 108 issues currently available on Early Canadiana Online (ECO), quickly explains its exceptional longevity.

Family Tree Magazine, a US based publication, has named Canadiana.org as one of the top 101 websites for genealogy research. The magazine provides articles and guidance for amatuer genealogist on how to "discover, preserve and celebrate their roots". Although most of the websites listed are housed in the US, they have a "Canadian Cousins" section which include six Canadian websites - one of which is Canadiana.org.

The Canadiana Discovery Portal has been in operation for about a year now. Over the course of that year, we have changed the Solr index schema numerous times, experimenting to find what works best.

In a recent article published by the Stratford institute, I argue that in order for Canada to remain competitive in the “knowledge economy”, we must invest more heavily in creating and preserving our digital heritage resources.

Over the last 15 years, we have digitized approximately 13% of Canada’s text based documentary heritage and less than 1% of all other multi-media. While this represents significant progress, we must do better. Canada is falling behind other nations in providing access to our national heritage