Canadian Digital Information Strategy

The Digital Strategy

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Part I: Introduction and Background

Introduction

The types and sources of Canadian digital information are wide-ranging. Equally diverse are the users for whom such information has value. Industry, business, healthcare, government, the arts, education, scholarship, the justice system, individual Canadians in the course of their daily lives-every sector of society both produces and consumes digital information. Increasingly, in this era of MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, wikis, blogs, and Google Earth mash-ups, the lines between information creator and consumer are blurring.

On the production end, digital is ubiquitous. As of 2003, over 90% of information output was digital¹ and the volume of information is estimated to be increasing at a rate of 30% per year.² A recent Australian report noted that the "growth of digital information and the need to store, manage and preserve access is an issue of truly global proportions."³

On the consumption end, Canadians are online. We turn to the Internet as our resource of first choice for information, to obtain services and to access culture.⁴ Expectations are high: web generation users want the information they seek to be online, instantly available, and preferably free.⁵ And they want to interact with it, modify it, build personal collections, and adapt information resources to their own purposes. The challenge for users is to extract meaning from a world of information excess.

In addition to information creators/producers and information consumers, there are those tasked with managing and keeping information available for users over time. In the past, this role has often been the responsibility of 'memory institutions' such as libraries, archives, museums, and data centres. However, in the digital environment, the three roles are not as distinct: producers are consumers, consumers are producers, and information managers may be producers, consumers, or memory institutions. Roles have shifted, introducing new ambiguities and gaps in the chain of responsibilities. To compound this situation, the standards, processes and technologies for managing digital information over time are still emerging and will continue to evolve, challenging our human, technical and financial resource capacities.

Why a strategy?

To date, Canada has lacked a 'master plan' to guide its scientific, cultural, and education communities, businesses, and civil society in the production, use, sharing and preservation of its vast and growing body of digital information. While Canadian organizations and individuals invest substantially in the creation of digital content, it has become apparent through the consultation process and background research that the management of digital information in Canada is fragmented and inadequate. Our investment in digital content creation is not accompanied by a coherent national strategy for its access and preservation.

As the roles of information creators and consumers blur, we need to recognize that the social aspects of the web are growing in prevalence. Digital content will be more and more in the form of conversations between people, using many different media types. Access to and preservation of these conversations will enable broad engagement and will provide a window on our current society in the years to come.

As a nation, we do not yet have the capacity to assure long-term access to our digital resources. Indeed, all digital information is at risk. Yet digital preservation is not a high profile issue, despite some recognition that the early decades of the digital era may prove to be the "digital dark age"⁶ -the least permanently documented period of recent history. To increase our capacity to preserve digital information, we need a framework to strengthen, coordinate and better communicate our collective efforts.

In addition, we continue to overlook opportunities for collaborative innovation and new knowledge creation because digital access is not yet possible to many of Canada's information assets.

Canadian organizations involved in the production, stewardship, coordination, and funding for digital content and infrastructure recognize the growing urgency here. The issues, and indeed many of the recommended actions in this Strategy, are not new; many of the same ideas are found in shelved reports from as far back as 1997.⁷ Yet, both the risks and opportunities are growing, and we must accelerate our activities to address the significant financial, organizational, technical and legal challenges of the digital information environment.

Other nations are investing substantially in this area. In the United States, the Library of Congress administers a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is building a sophisticated electronic records infrastructure for United States Government records. There are national institutional archives of particular scientific datasets such as the NASA National Space Science Data Center, and federated collaborative archives such as the National Geospatial Digital Archive (NGDA). There are also a number of major public-private partnerships underway (including with Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft) to mass digitize the published collections of a number of major American and European research libraries.

In Europe, the European Union's i2010 initiative aims at "re-invigorating the contribution of information and communication technologies (ICT) to economic growth", and includes programs to address digitization, to make resources accessible over networks, and to preserve and archive digital resources. Many countries-among them Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, Australia, New Zealand, and China-have articulated some form of strategy and are putting robust programs and organizational approaches in place.⁸

Digital information and networked technologies are recognized worldwide as key drivers of economic growth and social well-being in the 21st Century. Canada cannot afford to be left behind. A digital information strategy is crucial to a strong Canadian presence, participation, and ability to compete in a global information market.

Furthermore, we must ensure that the needs of all Canadians-citizens, scientists, students, creators, workers-are met. A Canadian digital information strategy is essential if we are to reflect in the digital realm the fundamental values of our nation, such as bilingualism, multiculturalism, inclusiveness, and equity.

Background

Strategy development process

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is mandated by the Library and Archives of Canada Act, enacted in 2004, to be "an enduring and accessible repository of Canadian documentary heritage and Government of Canada information, and to facilitate cooperation among the communities involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge." In October 2005, LAC recognized that the most common and pressing challenge amongst stakeholders in the information sector is our collective transition to digital. To this end, LAC commissioned two reports: "Toward a Canadian Digital Information Strategy: Mapping the Current Situation in Canada"⁹ and an international scan entitled "Toward a Canadian Digital Information Strategy: A Review of Relevant International Initiatives."¹⁰

LAC then joined with more than 50 groups in an initial exploration of Canada's digital information issues. At this meeting, stakeholders urged LAC to take the lead in organizing a more inclusive and sustained dialogue reflecting the range of interests in the digital field, with the goal to frame a Canadian Digital Information Strategy (CDIS).¹¹

Further consultation was undertaken through a series of four thematic meetings in early 2006, held in four cities across Canada. The CDIS consultations looked at: (1) digitization on a national scale, (2) optimization of born digital production, (3) building a preservation infrastructure, and (4) fostering access and use within a rights framework.¹² A 'study day' to look at research and education needs drew participants from information studies faculties from across the country. Over 200 stakeholder organizations joined the discussion, with participation from publishing and media producers, creators, rights bodies, academics, provincial and federal officials, and memory institutions.

The consultations culminated in a National Summit¹³ held in December 2006 in Montebello, Quebec. At this meeting, a broad consensus on the elements of this national Strategy emerged. This Strategy document was then developed by a national committee, whose members are named in Appendix III.

What is 'digital information'?

Digital information is created everywhere, stored everywhere, and consumed everywhere. Almost all Canadians now create digital content of one type or another as part of their daily lives, and there are as many types of digital information as there are reasons for creating it.

Most traditional media types are now available in digital formats, such as books, journals, and newspapers; government publications, documents and records; audio recordings; manuscripts, archival collections and their finding aids; genealogy resources; film, video, and broadcast content; photographs; maps and atlases; statutes, regulations and case law; theses and dissertations; reference works; educational resources and learning objects; museum/gallery exhibitions and works of art. In the sciences, information and data appear in the form of tables of data,¹⁴ maps, charts, remotely-sensed imagery, simulations, algorithms, models and software. Most of these forms of content have been significantly transformed, and continue to evolve, in the shift to digital.

To this diverse body of digital information is added a range of new forms of online-only content such as email, websites, web databases, blogs, wikis, webmaps, multiplayer online games, data portals, and user-created web profiles, photographs, and videos. Often this material is more ephemeral, more participative, more fluid, and inherently web-based.

The Canadian Digital Information Strategy defines digital information very broadly. Like the New Zealand Digital Content Strategy, the Strategy Development Committee (see Appendix III) has considered digital information to include all "digital material that is created, used, shared, accessed and preserved in a digital format."¹⁵ Information can be conceptualized as existing along a value chain with raw data at one end and packaged content, such as videos or scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals, at the other end. In this Strategy, the term 'digital information' includes all forms of digital material that fall along this value chain.

The scope of the Strategy

There are many ways of categorizing content and, as distinctions blur, none is wholly satisfactory. Nevertheless, the work to develop the scope of this Strategy identified four reasonably indicative, although sometimes overlapping, sources of digital information:

1. Public domain and civil society
2. Academic and research community
3. Government and public sector
4. Business and corporate world

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Although digital information is defined very broadly, the scope of the Strategy does not include all categories of digital information. The Strategy targets information and discourse of cultural, scientific, and unique value for Canada and Canadians, with the focus being on the first three sources cited in the table above, as well as commercial content industries.

In general, aside from public reporting such as annual reports and financial statements and the small percentage of records that have enduring archival value, corporate administrative records and transactional data do not enter the information flow in our society. Thus, corporate business records do not fall within the scope of the Strategy, nor does private consumer information such as data related to telephony, banking or commercial transactions. As well, personal records and non-aggregated data including those gathered by governments, such as tax, health, and employment records are examples of information that would fall outside the scope of this Strategy.¹⁶

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1. Lyman, Peter and Hal R. Varian. How much information? 2003
www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/

2. Ibid.

3. Collections Council of Australia. Summit on Digital Collections: Working Papers. August, 2006.
http://collectionscouncil.com.au/summit+2006+-+digital+collections.aspx

4. Canadian Internet Project (2004)
http://www.cipic.ca/en/publications.htm ;
Media Awareness Network, Young Canadians in a Wired World
www.media-awareness.ca/english/research/YCWW/index.cfm

5. See presentation by Mike D'Abramo, Youthography, at
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cdis/012033-601-e.html

6. For example, see "Coming Soon: A Digital Dark Age?" CBS News, January 21, 2003.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/21/tech/main537308.shtml

7. For example, see Towards a Learning Nation: The Digital Contribution. Recommendations Proposed by the Federal Task Force on Digitization, December 1997.
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/8/3/r3-407-e.html

8. See Appendices I and II.

9. McDonald, John and Kathleen Shearer, "Toward a Canadian Digital Information Strategy: Mapping the Current Situation in Canada." January 2006. Library and Archives Canada.
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cdis/012033-700-e.html

10. McDonald, John. "Toward a Canadian Digital Information Strategy: A Review of Relevant International Initiatives," March 2006. Library and Archives Canada.
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cdis/012033-800-e.html

11. Toward a Canadian Digital Information Strategy: Initial Exploratory Meeting, October 17-18, 2005,
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cdis/012033-602-e.html

12. Toward a Canadian Digital Information Strategy: Thematic Meetings,
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cdis/012033-600-e.html

13. Toward a Canadian Digital Information Strategy: National Summit.,
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cdis/012033-601-e.html

14. Scientific data are "numerical quantities or other factual attributes generated by scientists and derived during the research process (through observations, experiments, calculations, and analysis)." Distinctions are made between raw data and derived, refined, synthesized, or processed data. (CODATA Task Force on Archiving Scientific Data.
http://stardata.nrf.ac.za/COdata/CodataSouthAfrica.html

15. "Creating Digital New Zealand: The Draft New Zealand Digital Content Strategy": Discussion Document. November 2006, p.8.

16. Digital initiatives in such areas are in play. For example, Canada Health Infoway is an independent not-for-profit corporation whose members are Canada's 14 federal, provincial and territorial Deputy Ministers of Health. With a federal investment of $1.6B to date, its goal is to have interoperable Electronic Health Records in place for 50% of Canadians by 2009.

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