The Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport has released its Annual Survey of Public Libraries and now’s the time to make your VITA collections count!
Library and Archives Canada are transcribing the Lady Agnes Macdonald diaries
We had so much fun, we’re doing it again. Library and Archives Canada are starting a second crowdsourced transcription project, after their success with the Coltman Report project using our custom-written transcription tool.
This time: the handwritten diary of Lady Agnes Macdonald from 1867 to 1869, microfilmed years ago but never before available in a searchable format.
Continue reading Library and Archives Canada are transcribing the Lady Agnes Macdonald diaries
Slides from #BCLC2017
ODW was represented at the British Columbia Library Conference at the end of April 2017!
An interview with Matt Barry, our Digital Library Developer
Matt Barry, our Digital Library Developer, has been working with Dan Sifton on the Provincial Digital Library Project, a collaboration between OurDigitalWorld and the British Columbia Library Association.
Continue reading An interview with Matt Barry, our Digital Library Developer
The Provincial Digital Library project will demo at the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries!
Earlier this year, we were able to get funding for a Digital Library Developer position to work on the Provincial Digital Library collaboration with the British Columbia Libraries Association. Our amazing DLD, Matt Barry, has been working with Dan Sifton of Vancouver Island University, on a proof-of-concept using Supplejack to ingest heritage content from a variety of institutions and platforms.
Twitter Cards for VITA
You may have noticed a few changes lately if you’re on Twitter. Linking to items hosted in VITA now expands to a beautiful full-sized image preview, or a small image preview with some descriptive text:
Slides from our presentations about cultural heritage licenses and labels
After we released our report on Creative Commons, Rights Statements, and traditional knowledge labels for digital cultural heritage, our practicum student Mark Fellin was invited to present on that information in front of the Ontario Government Libraries Council.
Continue reading Slides from our presentations about cultural heritage licenses and labels
ODW is on the map!
We’re delighted to finally get ODW into Google. Now when you search for our name, you can see our offices on Google Maps – and you can rate and review us!
Continue reading ODW is on the map!
Slides from our OLASC 2017 Sessions
We’ve uploaded the slide-decks from our two sessions at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference 2017:
When Things Get Personal: Privacy and Access in Online Community History
Speakers: Irene Robillard, Cindy Preece, David Bott, Melissa Redden
Bridging the Gap: Linked Open Data for Libraries, Archives, and Museums
Speakers: Stacy Allison-Cassin, Sheila Carey, Danielle Robichaud
Fugitive Voices: Black-run periodicals in Abolition-era Canada
165 years ago, on February 12th, 1852, Henry Bibb published an announcement in his newspaper, The Voice of the Fugitive, calling for donations to his Homes For Refugees Fund. This was the latest in a long line of advocacy and activism by Bibb; his most notable was the founding of the Voice in 1851.
Henry Bibb was born in 1815, in Louisville, Kentucky, into slavery. He married a free black woman named Mary Miles in 1848. He escaped when he was 22 and made it to Cincinnati, but returned for his wife Mary and was recaptured. He escaped again – with Mary this time – and they made their way to Detroit, crossing over to Windsor after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850. They immediately began taking in refugees who had arrived in Canada through the Underground Railroad.
On January 1st, 1851, the first issue of the Voice was published in Sandwich (now Amherstburg). Bibb had also self-published his autobiography by this time – Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave. The Bibbs’ Refugee Home Society was also set up in 1851, and during its tenure settled refugees of slavery in approximately 2,000 acres in the Sandwich area. The Bibbs were often available to greet and settle newcomers personally.
Continue reading Fugitive Voices: Black-run periodicals in Abolition-era Canada
Some updates on our Digital Library project
We’ve been working with our partners at the British Columbia Library Association for the past few years on a viable form for a Digital Library model. Eventually, we want a technology that can be deployed at both the national and provincial/territorial levels. Continue reading Some updates on our Digital Library project
We’ll be at the OLA Super Conference!
Come see us at our booth in the Expo, or attend the two sessions we’ve helped organize, featuring VITA member organizations!
The VITA Toolkit receives the 2017 OLA Archival and Preservation Achievement Award!
OurDigitalWorld is delighted to announce that we’re this year’s recipient of the Ontario Library Association Archival and Preservation Achievement Award!
Continue reading The VITA Toolkit receives the 2017 OLA Archival and Preservation Achievement Award!
The results of the Coltman Project are in!
OurDigitalWorld recently collaborated on a transcription project with Library and Archives Canada: the crowdsourced transcription of the handwritten Coltman Report.
What we’re up to at ODW!
National Digital Strategy
ODW Director Loren Fantin joined leaders from the National Library of the Netherlands, Library & Archives Canada and others at the Canadian National Heritage Digitization Strategy Foundational Assembly in October, to discuss the global digital collaboration strategies and to strike a National Steering Committee to guide Canada in implementing a much-needed national digital strategy.
