The British Columbia Digital Library: North America Collections: Canada

The British Columbia Digital Library

North America Collections: Canada

The focus of this set of links is on collections of electronic texts (not individual titles) preserved through libraries, archives, museums and corporate or private initiatives. Listings here are therefore primarily for the written word as expressed in manuscripts, books and periodicals, including newspapers. A few non-book digital library collections are included. Readers wishing further leads to non-book digital content should consult one of the directories or guides.

Unless indicated, access to these Web sites is free and open to the general public.

National Collections

The national digital library collections of Canada and the United States contain material relevant to both countries.

Canadian Heritage Gallery Online Books. As of January 2001, under construction with partial versions of two titles by J.M.S. Careless.
CanText Library: Canadian Documents Collection (Nelson Canada). Chronological and subject-based list of selected documents in HTML format dating from ca. 1000 BCE to the present day.
The Champlain Society Digital Collection. Hosted by the University of Toronto Library. Digital facsimiles of over 30 books published by the Champlain Society. Date updated: 2008-01-10.
Early Canadiana Online. Full-text searchable/browsable collection of monographs (books and pamphlets) about Canada published up to 1920. The collection is primarily based on microfilm produced by the Canandian Institute for Historical Microreproductions (CIHM). For a related national project, see Our Roots: Canada's Local History Online. Date updated: 2003-02-07.
Library and Archives of Canada, Digital Library of Canada: Music, History, Literature. These three pages contains links to digital content produced by the library in these subject areas. Date accessed: 2002-10-09. Date added: 2004-04-19.
Library and Archives Canada, National Library of Canada Electronic Collection. Date updated: 2004-04-19.
Library and Archives Canada, Positioning the National Library of Canada in the Digital Environment: Strategic Directions contains links to some of the library's multimedia digital content. Date updated: 2004-04-19.
Our Roots: Canada's Local History Online (University of Calgary and Université Laval). Search or browse by author, title or subject for local history publications digitized from Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions (CIHM) microfiche and original publications. Publications selected for Our Roots are not part of the Early Canadiana Online collection. Date added: 2002-08-27. Date updated: 2004-07-07.
TAPoR (Text-Analysis Portal for Research) Project. Hosted by the University of Alberta and based at McMaster University, TAPoR " consists of a network of six of the leading Humanities computing centres in Canada: McMaster, University of Victoria (in collaboration with Malaspina UC), University of Alberta, University of Toronto, Université de Montreal (law) and University of New Brunswick." Date added: 2002-09-08.
VisuNET Canada Digital Library (Canadian National Institute for the Blind Library). Designed for visually impaired Canadians, VisuNET Canada includes links to free online libraries of books (VisuTEXT) and serials (VisuNEWS). Full access to the VisuNET Canada service is restricted to CNIB Library clients.

Provinces and Territories

Alberta

Alberta InWord. Edmonton, AB: Archives Society of Alberta. A database of selected, digitized textual records held in Alberta's archival institutions. Parent URL: http://www.archivesalberta.org/general/database.htm Date accessed: 2004-09-22. Date added: 2004-0-22.
The Alberta Library (TAL). " ... a province-wide library consortium that works collaboratively with its members to promote universal, barrier-free access to the materials and resources in Alberta's diverse libraries." The Alberta Library Online (TAL Online) site is where service points and implemented projects are available to the public. Among its projects are the Alberta Virtual Library and the Alberta Public Library Electronic Network (APLEN). Date accessed: 2003-02-10. Date added: 2003-02-10.
Southern Alberta Digital Library Centre. Lethbridge: University of Lethbridge in collaboration with the New Zealand Digital Library Project. Powered by Greenstone Digital Library software. Date accessed: 2007-08-09. Date added: 2007-08-09.
SunSITE Alberta: University of Alberta Digital Collections. Multimedia collection sourced from various University of Alberta departments and offices, including the University of Alberta Archives. Date accessed: 2004-12-11. Date addsed: 2004-12-11.
University of Alberta Libraries, Peel's Prairie Provinces. This database version of Bruce Peel's (1916-1998) Bibliography of the Prairie Provinces (1956 and later editions) includes links to full-text versions of selected texts. Date accessed: 2002-11-05. Date added: 2002-11-05.
University of Alberta, Faculté Saint-Jean, Bibliothèque virtuelle. This collection consists of transcriptions in Rich Text Format (RTF) files of various literary works by several French-Canadian authors.
University of Calgary and others, Our Future, Our Past: The Alberta Heritage Digitization Project (Hosted by Canada's Digital Collections, Industry Canada). Search and browse digital facsimiles of local history books, historic newspapers, and other published and archival records documenting Alberta's history.

University of New Brunswick, Harriet Irving Library, Archives and Special Collections. UNB Archives produces for public Web access digital facsimiles and transcriptions of selected records from its holdings. See also Digital Collections by Subject. Date accessed: 2002-05-15. Date added: 2002-05-15.
University of New Brunswick Libraries, Electronic Text Centre. A variety of SGML-encoded products, mostly related to New Brunswick and the Canadian Maritimes. See also Digital Collections by Subject.

Newfoundland and Labrador

Nova Scotia

Dalhousie University, Electronic Text Centre. See also Digital Collections by Subject.
Nova Scotia Provincial Library, Nova Scotia Digital Collections Initiative. Established in May 2002, the NSDCI is a cooperative effort to support the creation of digital collections. Date accessed: 2003-05-05. Date added: 2003-05-05.

Ontario

New Tecumseth Public Library, New Tecumseth Digital History. Multimedia content about New Tecumseth and neighboring communities in Simcoe County. Date accessed: 2002-09-16. Date added: 2002-09-16.
New Tecumseth Public Library, Sir Frederick Banting Digital Library. Date accessed: 2002-09-16. Date added: 2002-09-16.
Niagara Falls Public Library, Historic Niagara Digital Collections. Multimedia digital facsimile collection of documents, publications and photographs relating to the history of the Niagara Falls region. Date accessed: 2004-10-07. Date added: 2004-10-07.
Toronto Public Library, The Virtual Reference Library. Includes the multimedia Historicity: Toronto Then and Now and the Toronto Public Library Digital Collections. Among the text-based collections here are searchable and browsable digital facsimiles of selected 19th century York and Toronto city directories, and transcriptions of York Minutes (1797-1823). Date updated: 2008-04-18.
Ontario Library Association, Ontario Digital Library. " The Ontario Digital Library is a vision of how publicly assisted libraries in Ontario can collaborate to create and sustain a partnership that will provide seamless services and resources to all the citizens of Ontario. While recognizing the unique responsibilities of public libraries, school libraries, college and university libraries, the Ontario Digital Library envisions a digital network of information resources and services that will inter-link and inter-operate to enable province-wide access to high quality information resources." Date accessed: 2003-02-10. Date added: 2003-02-10.
University of Toronto Libraries, Digital Collections. Includes links to full-text collections developed at the University of Toronto Libraries, as well as links to Internet/Web electronic resources. See also Digital Collections by Subject.
University of Toronto Libraries, T-Space, University of Toronto Research Repository. Institutional/digital repository for scholarly work of the university's faculty and students. Date accessed: 2008-02-27. Date added: 2008-02-27.
University of Waterloo Library, Electronic Text Center. Includes links to licensed, restricted access full-text resources, as well as to public access Internet/Web sites.

Prince Edward Island

Quebec

Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, Banque images et sons: Livres et partitions musicales. Access digitized books and sheet music in Adobe Acrobat PDF files by author, title, subject or date. Other digital collections include over 7,000 illustrations (Revues d'un autre siècle) from selected Quebec periodicals (L'Opinion publique, Le Monde illustré et L'Album universel) a collection of photo albums assembled by Édouard-Zotique Massicotte (Les albums de rues Édouard-Zotique Massicotte) depicting Montreal life between 1870 and 1920 around 1,000 maps and plans (cartes et plans), chiefly of the Quebec area 2,000 sound recordings (enregistrements sonores) in the RealPlayer format 8,000 postcards (cartes postales) 6,000 art prints (estampes), and 1,500 posters (affiches). Date added: 2002-03-11.
Centre interuniversitaire d'études québécoises, Publications en ligne du CIEQ. Several publications relating to Quebec and international topics can be downloaded as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Date accessed: 2002-12-23. Date added: 2002-12-23.
McGill University Libraries, Digital Collections Program. See also Digital Collections by Subject.

Saskatchewan

University of Saskatchewan Library, Digital Collections. The Saskatchewan News Index includes transcriptions of selected articles from Saskatchewan newspapers. Date added: 2002-01-23.