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