Fade to Play

On June 3rd I attended an announcement by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (Congress 2008) to present the results of a project. Through funding from the government of Canada, $47 million was invested in new digital scholarly content for research and innovation, primarily for the humanities and social sciences.

According to the media release:

Thanks to a joint $47 million investment by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), eight provinces and 67 universities, nearly 900,000 researchers, scholars and students in Canadian universities will gain desktop access to an extensive body of national and international material.

With the click of a button, researchers and students in Canada will be able to access, search, sort and consult a rich digital collection of scholarly content, ranging from books, letters and historical documents to music scores, maps, artworks and visual materials. Many of these were not previously accessible to Canadians, or were only offered with limited access in print version.

This investment is the work of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), a consortium of universities dedicated to expanding digital content in support of the academic research enterprise in Canada.

Social sciences and humanities researchers and students at 67 Canadian universities will have access to the new content by Fall 2008.

About CRKN: The Canadian Research Knowledge Network is a partnership of Canadian universities, dedicated to expanding digital content for the academic research enterprise in Canada. Through the coordinated leadership of librarians, researchers and administrators, CRKN undertakes large-scale content acquisition and licensing initiatives in order to build knowledge infrastructure and research capacity in Canada’s universities. For more information on CRKN visit our website at www.ResearchKnowledge.ca.

I interviewed Dr. Noreen Golfman, President of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, about what this announcement means for Canadian students. Below is her response.

Dr. Noreen Golfman

Deb deBruijn, CRKN Executive Director, opens the DCI event

Distinguished Speakers: Dr. Mona Nemer, Dr. Eliot Phillipson, Mr. Brent Sauder, Dr.Noreen Golfman and Dr. Ron Rensink

Dr. Mona Nemer, University of Ottawa VP Research & CRKN Board Member

Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO, Canada Foundation for Innovation

Mr. Brent Sauder, Assistant Deputy Minister, Research Technology & Innovation Division, Ministry of Advanced Education, Province of British Columbia

Dr. Ronald Rensink, Professor of Computer Science and Psychology, Visual Analytics research, University of British Columbia

Mike Baida – Micromedia/ ProQuest & Kim Isaac – University College of the Fraser Valley

Erik Moore – University of New Brunswick & Michael Eberle-Sinatra – President of Synergies

Martin Dee – Photographer, Public Affairs, University of British Columbia. (photography on right)

Waiting for the reception


Relevance: An example of what Canada is doing to remain current in the areas of digital media and innovative research through partnerships between governments (federal/provincial) and our university system.