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Library and Archives Canada: A Core Partner of the Open Library Environment (OLE) Project

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce that it is participating in the Open Library Environment (OLE) Project joining other core partners, with Duke University as the project lead. 

With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the OLE Project will develop a design document for a next-generation open-source library automation system that fits modern expectations for library workflows and is built on a modern service-oriented architecture. This library system will be able to meet the changing and complex needs of modern libraries and library users.

The small group of core partners will be highly involved in all phases of the project, by participating in all the activities, by engaging other members of the library community in planning activities and by writing the final project design document. 

LAC’s contribution will be significant and inclusive, as our mandate is to facilitate in Canada co-operation among the communities involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge. Furthermore, because LAC is a national archive as well as a national library, this will bring an added perspective to the project, and will provide another opportunity to find innovative solutions to how both library and archival collections are managed and made accessible.

Currently, Library and Archives Canada is engaged in a multi-year project to evergreen and modernize its own legacy library systems and incorporate them with an OAIS-compliant infrastructure to ingest, store, manage, preserve and make accessible digital holdings.  LAC is embracing service-oriented architecture and Web 2.0 features as a fundamental basis for its target application architecture. 

“By reaching out to Canadian libraries and archives, LAC has the potential to contribute significantly to both the planning and build phases of an Open Library Management System, and to bring an additional expertise and insight to the project,” says Ian E. Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada. “We are confident that our joint efforts will lead to important national and international innovations that better meet the needs of today’s researchers and users.”

The OLE project is a collaborative, community-based venture and offers many opportunities for individuals and organizations to participate in the project. 

You are invited to visit the OLE website at http://oleproject.org or to contact Gillian Cantello at [log in to unmask] for more information regarding LAC’s participation in the project.


Ingrid Parent 						
Assistant Deputy Minister				
Documentary Heritage Collection			
Library and Archives Canada				

Zahra Pourjafar-Ziaei
Deputy Chief Technology Officer
Information Technology Branch
Library and Archives Canada