Leviathan North: Long-term Access to Government Information in the Digital Era
As you well know, libraries, archives, and other memory institutions ensure that government information – vital for historical research and informed policy-making – remains accessible for current and future generations of researchers. Yet, the vast scale of the information that governments produce and collect today, together with the inherent fragility of digital media and the complexities and costs of digital stewardship, threaten the survival of key information resources. The long-term preservation of digital government information was recently raised as a concern in reports from a Royal Society of Canada expert panel, the Auditor General of Canada, and a Canadian Council of Academies expert panel.
Leviathan North: Long-term Access to Government Information in the Digital Era, to be held in Toronto May 14th-15th, will convene a range of stakeholders in the long-term preservation and use of government information, providing a forum to explore the dimensions of the challenge, and collaborative opportunities for the future.
Attached is more information on the event. I very much hope that a number of representatives of large public libraries, which truly play such a vital role in public dissemination of federal and provincial government information, will be able to attend. Please feel free to share information about this event with your CULC/CBUC members.
The event begins with an opening keynote address by Dr. Janice Stein on Thursday, May 14th at 4:00 p.m., followed by a reception. A full day of presentations and discussions will follow on Friday, May 15th.