Projects

Canadiana provides support for a vibrant community of memory institutions through a number of key services such as Early Canadiana Online and Canadiana Discovery Portal as well as tools, and projects.

Canadiana's current projects are:  

Early Canadian Periodicals to 1920

The Early Canadian Periodicals collection is being developed over a six-year period from 2006-2012. Each year, Canadiana.org adds 250,000 pages of rare materials to the collection. Many of the titles and/or issues being added are completely new to the Canadiana.org research collection, having never been filmed during our Periodicals Microfilming Project in the 90s. These new additions are coming from organizations across Canada, as well as from Great Britain and the United States. The collection contains digitized pre-1920 Canadian periodicals. It includes titles on a wide range of topics pertaining to agriculture, religion, medicine and health, as well as popular publications. These early periodicals offer a remarkable record of the development of thought and opinion on diverse issues of the nation in its formative years and even brings online the first magazine published in Canada, The Nova Scotia Magazine (1789-1792). Many of Canada's initial prominent poets, novelists, scientists and great minds were first known through their works published in periodicals.

Further development of the Canadiana Discovery Portal

Canadiana.org is committed to continually improving the functionality of the Canadiana Discovery Portal. As technology evolves, Canadiana.org will implement new and innovative features to meet the needs of its diverse communities of users, including the academic researchers, genealogists, amateur and professional historians, and the Canadian public.

Ongoing enrichment of the Canadiana Metadata Repository

Canadiana.org maintains a repository of metadata for the digital collections made available through the Canadiana Discovery Portal. As collections grow and new organizations contribute their content, Canadiana.org will regularly add new metadata to the Canadiana Metadata Repository.

Planned enhancements to the Digital Collection Builder

The Digital Collection Builder (DCB) is free and open-source software developed by Canadiana.org that makes it simple for individuals and organizations to provide access to their own digital collections. Canadiana will continue to develop the Digital Collection Builder software- building in new functionalities, such as support for the Open Archives Interface protocol for metadata harvesting.

Participation in the establishment of a Preservation Network in Canada

Each year the volume of born-digital and digitized documentary heritage grows. One of the key challenges and priorities of Canada's major memory institutions is to ensure that this heritage is preserved for future generations. Canadiana.org is working with other stakeholders to establish a network of Trusted Digital Repositories across Canada to support the long-term preservation of our nation's valuable documentary heritage.

Development of the DigiMobile Community Collections

Program One of the future aims of Canadiana.org is to launch a community-based digitization project whereby individual and smaller institutions can scan their content, such as old family documents and photographs, describe the items scanned, and upload to the web. This project will offer a mobile scanning service that will enable Canadians to digitize their local heritage and make it available online to others.