The following is a press release (PDF) from the Canadian Government Information Private LOCKSS Network (CGI-PLN). Questions and comments should be directed to Amanda Wakaruk, amanda.wakaruk AT ualberta DOT ca.
Media Release – please forward
Libraries Work Together to Preserve Canadian Federal Government Electronic Publications
Librarians at eleven organizations have formed a partnership to preserve Canadian electronic government information.
This partnership, known as the Canadian Government Information Private LOCKSS Network (CGI-PLN), has established a geographically distributed infrastructure to preserve government information in a secure environment, helping ensure access to digital content in the future.
“The Canadian Library Association applauds the CGI-PLN initiative as an outstanding collaborative effort to make government information -increasingly available in only digital form – more accessible to Canada’s library communities and to Canadians nation-wide,” CLA president Pilar Martinez said. “CLA has been pleased to provide a forum where the beginnings of this work could take place.”
The Network’s first collection includes more than 111,000 PDFs produced by departments and agencies across the Government of Canada and collected by the Depository Services Program (DSP). This content was harvested in partnership with the Internet Archive’s Archive-IT service and will be updated by PLN members on a regular basis. The preservation of this content would not be possible without the cooperation of the DSP and its managers’ commitment to the stewardship of government information.
“It’s heartening to see Canadian libraries collaborating on such a critical mission. Future Canadians will laud the forward-thinking work of these librarians. Lots of copies do indeed keep Canadian documents safe,” said James Jacobs, LOCKSS-USDOCS Coordinator, Stanford University, and former Chair of the United States Depository Library Council.
While the CGI-PLN’s mandate is broadly defined, its current focus is on information publicly disseminated by the Government of Canada.
“This project illustrates how university libraries are finding new ways to contribute to the long-term preservation and access of important research resources,” University of Alberta University Librarian and Canadian Association of Research Libraries President Gerald Beasley said.
For more information, see:
- Canadian Government Information Private LOCKSS Network (CGI-PLN)
- LOCKSS Program
- Archive-IT
- Depository Services Program
CGI-PLN Participating Institutions (in alphabetical order):
- Dalhousie University
- McGill University
- Scholar’s Portal (Ontario Council of University Libraries)
- Simon Fraser University
- Stanford University
- University of Alberta
- University of British Columbia
- University of Calgary
- University of Saskatchewan
- University of Toronto
- University of Victoria
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pdf available at https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B13VrrzqeRbuaWFmWkhON3QyRk0/edit?usp=sharing
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*Amanda Wakaruk*, MLIS, MES
Government Information Librarian
University of Alberta Libraries
amanda.wakaruk@ualberta.ca
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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