OTTAWA, March 14, 2007 - On behalf of the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, Royal Galipeau, Member of Parliament (Ottawa-Orléans), announced yesterday new funding of up to $328,600 for the AlouetteCanada Metadata Toolkit, a project of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. This initiative will lead to the development of software and standards to assist organizations in generating metadata for digitized collections. It will foster a level of cohesion and improve functionality within the growing body of digitized content in Canada.
"Canada's New Government is proud to support this project," said Minister Oda. "It will provide libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural heritage organizations with a straightforward toolkit for creating metadata for their digital collections, leading to more innovative content in Canada."
"This technology will further enable Canadians working with digitized content to create metadata for their digital collections that emphasize interoperability, reusability, persistence, verification documentation, and support for intellectual property rights," added Mr. Galipeau.
"This is terrific news," stated Carole Moore, Chief Librarian of the University of Toronto and Chair of the AlouetteCanada Steering Committee. "AlouetteCanada's vision is for anyone anywhere to be able to find comprehensive information freely available online, whether from an archive in British Columbia, a museum in Newfoundland, or a library in Nunavut. This support will bring us closer to the goal of seamless access to Canada's heritage online."
Canada's New Government is providing this financial assistance through the Department of Canadian Heritage's New Media Research Networks Fund. The fund is intended to strengthen Canada's research talent in order to advance innovation in digital content. A related goal is to develop digital cultural content in both official languages.
Information:
Véronique Bruneau
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women
819 997-7788
Donald Boulanger
A/Chief, Media Relations
Canadian Heritage
819 994-9101
