Canadian Library Consortia OCUL and COPPUL Join Forces with Archive-It to Expand Web Archiving in Canada

The Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL) and the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) have joined forces in a multi-consortial offering of Archive-It, the web archiving service of the Internet Archive. Working together, COPPUL and OCUL are considering ways that they can significantly expand web archiving in Canada.

A coordinated subscription to Archive-It builds on the efforts of Canadian universities that have developed web archiving programs over the years, and the past work of Archive-It with both COPPUL and OCUL members.  With 12 COPPUL members and 12 OCUL members (more than half the total membership) now subscribing to Archive-It, there is an opportunity to build a foundation for further collaboration supporting research services and other digital library initiatives. In addition, participation by so many libraries helps lower the barrier of entry for additional member institutions to join in web archiving efforts across Canada.

“OCUL is very pleased to be able to offer Archive-It to our members,” said Ken Hernden, University Librarian at Algoma University and OCUL Chair. “Preservation of information and research is an important aspect of what libraries do to benefit scholars and communities. Preserving information for the future was challenging in a paper-and-print environment. It has become even more so in the digital information environment. We hope that enabling access to this tool will help build capacity for web archiving across Ontario, and beyond.”

“Tools like Archive-It enable libraries and archives of all sizes to build news kinds of collections to support their communities in an environment where more and more of our cultural memory has moved online. We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with our OCUL colleagues in this critically important area,” said Corey Davis, COPPUL Digital Preservation Network Coordinator.

“Archive-It is excited to ramp up its support for web archiving in Canada. The joint subscription is a strategic and cost-effective way to expand web archiving among Canadian universities and to encourage participation from smaller universities who may not have felt they had the institutional resources to develop a web archiving program without the support of the consortiums.” said Lori Donovan, Senior Program Manager for Archive-It.

OCUL is a consortium of Ontario’s 21 university libraries. OCUL provides a range of services to its members, including collection purchasing and a shared digital information infrastructure, in order to support to support high quality education and research in Ontario’s universities. In 2017, OCUL commemorates its 50th anniversary.

Working together, COPPUL members leverage their collective expertise, resources, and influence, increasing capacity and infrastructure, to enhance learning, teaching, student experiences and research at our institutions. The consortium comprises 22 university libraries located in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, as well as 15 affiliate members across Canada. First deployed in 2006, Archive-It is a subscription web archiving service from the Internet Archive that helps organizations to harvest, build, and preserve collections of web-published digital content.

Additionally, the recently created Canadian Web Archiving Coalition (CWAC) will help build a community of practice for Canadian organizations engaging in web archiving and create a network for collaboration, support, and knowledge sharing. Under the auspices of Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and in collaboration with Library and Archives Canada (LAC), the CWAC plans to hold an inaugural meeting in conjunction with the Internet Preservation Coalition General Assembly this September at LAC’s Preservation Centre in Gatineau, QC.  For more information about the CWAC, including how to join, please contact corey@coppul.ca.

For more information on the consortial subscription, contact carol@coppul.ca or jacqueline.cato@ocul.on.ca or lori@archive.org.

One thought on “Canadian Library Consortia OCUL and COPPUL Join Forces with Archive-It to Expand Web Archiving in Canada

  1. IMSLP

    This actually has some fairly significant ramifications about what can be archived. Most Americans are blissfully unaware if it, but Canada’s copyright laws are generally more reasonable – and way easier to understand once you absorb the basic principle – than those of the US. This is even true for sound recording copyrights, despite the Disney cartel’s recent backdoor extension of the term to 70 years from publication (which at least was not retroactive). Basically, recordings published 1964 and before are fair game as long as the underlying music is. The term for most works, including musical compositions, is life plus 50 years of the last surviving contributor. The Canadian severs would be a safe place to host archive.org’s excellent 78 presevation project should the Disney cartel and its Happy-Birthday goons show up.

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