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Volume 2, Number 7, November-December 2006 
Message from Ian E. Wilson
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 Ian E. Wilson Librarian and Archivist of Canada Source |
This December 5 and 6, key decision-makers from across the Canadian information environment will converge at Fairmont Le Château Montebello in Montebello, Quebec. For two days, they will help shape a strategy to strengthen Canada's digital information environment. For the first time, libraries, archives, museums, and information managers will come together with digital creators, producers, rights and licensing bodies, funding agencies, users and academics. Each of these groups plays an important role in the spectrum, from information creation to consumption, and each has a stake in building a stronger information environment.
The summit aims to achieve agreement on a collaborative agenda to advance production, preservation and access to Canada's cultural and scientific digital assets. Why? There are at least three reasons. First, to stay in the forefront of technological developments, Canada must keep pace with and embrace the new digital realities. Second, to improve its scale of outputs and outcomes, Canada must reduce fragmented activity. Third, to increase our current capacity, we must eliminate gaps in different areas, such as in digital preservation. By acting now, we will ensure that the digital record of today and tomorrow will still be available in 10, 20 or 100 years' time.
Delegates to the national summit will be looking to our digital future and determining what needs to be done now. By its close, we plan to have the broad parameters for a strategy that will address digitization and digital preservation within a national network. We will also have had rich discussions on access issues--such as the reusability of information assets, national licensing, access services, and equitable access for all Canadians.
I believe it is always prudent to first define where you want to go, then seek ways to get there. We need to agree on a national vision that includes our federal, provincial, municipal and territorial partners. We need to ensure that government, creators and other stakeholders work together and think as creatively as this evolving technology demands. And we need to self-organize to advance this vision. The national summit will be a key step in this process.