Organic Digital Library Aboriginal Studies Internet Librarian International March 18, 2002 Darlene...

Organic Digital Library Aboriginal Studies

Internet Librarian International

March 18, 2002

Darlene Fichter, Data Librarian

University of Saskatchewan

library.usask.ca/~fichter/

The Need

• Growing demand for material about First Nations to support:– undergraduate, graduate and professional colleges

– other users external to the U of S

• Two major problems1. Preservation (material goes out-of-print)

2. Access - many people at the same time from many locations & many collections

The Solution

• Digital collections

• One place to look

• Tools to promote research, analysis, use, collaboration and community of scholars

Pilot Phase: Digital Content

• 1993 – Asked to put native law cases on the campus network

• 1994-1995 – grant for a pilot project to proof and clean up cases and digitize other content

The Web Site

library.usask.ca/native/

New Partners

• Native Law Centre

• University of Saskatchewan Archives

• Saskatchewan Archives Board

• Poundmaker First Nation

• Saskatoon Public Library Local History Room

Results

• Better access to photos, full text searching

• Digital content is used / wantedJuly 2000 – June 2001

– 84,641 native law cases– 25,392 archival photographs

• Everywhere- 6000 different computers or hosts per month

- University of Saskatchewan is #1 for usage

Directory of First Nations, Métis and Inuit Collections

Beyond

the

Pilot

library.usask.ca/native/directory/

New Partners

• Dept. of Indian and Northern Affairs Library

• Library and Information Needs of Native People's Interest Group of the Canadian Library Association

Results

July 2000-June 2001

• 57,133 uses of the directory

Northwest Resistance

• Photos

• Journals

• Broad sheets

library.usask.ca/northwest/

Results

• Protected rare materials in Archives & Special Collections

• Improved access to actual item vs. collection

• Very high usage - 780,507 pages in one year with University of Saskatchewan as #1 site accessing the material

Our Approach

• Partnerships– very successful, could not do it alone

• Testing – useful - shows what is needed and is not

needed, develop best practices

Next Stage: New Demands

• Digital content was not enough.

• Strong desire to have “one place” to look on campus for everything aboriginal

• Major undertaking– Beyond the bounds of “traditional library”– Similar to demand for “one catalogue” in

1990’s

Fall 2000

Proposed Solution

• Multi-phase project

• “Portal”

Next Stage: Aboriginal Portal

What is a portal?1. Information and Content

2. Community

3. Tools

Information/Content

• Search

• Topical directory organization of content, usually hierarchical

• Daily (hourly) news and updates

• Full text repositories

• Finding aids

Community

• Community of interests, in our case focused on scholarly work and teaching

• Discussion, chat, expertise finders, collaboration opportunities, critiques, announcements, events

Tools

• For scholars to personalize communication & information seeking tools

• For publishing and editorial review.

• For course creation and supporting teaching/learning environments for students

Research & Analysis

• There is a definite need for this type of portal and none exists

• Can only be built with partnerships and through collaboration

• Know from past experience it would be used and used locally

Partnerships

• Libraries

• Scholars

• Publishers

• Users

What do we have to offer?

• Tools, technology, expertise and keen interest

What we’d like to find?• Partners

• Champions

• Support and funding