I wrote last week about Ian Wilson's retirement (at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/04/ian-e-wilson-announces-his-retirement-as-librarian-and-archivist-of-canada.html). He is the national archivist of Canada and has had many years of experience in storing paper documents and making them available to researchers and to the public. In a recent newspaper interview, he offered insights as to why he led Library and Archives Canada into a major program to digitize records.
"What I am delighted about is that over the course of my career, I have seen us take these things that are fragile and couldn't stand that much handling and we have digitized them and put them out where everyone can see them.
"That said, only about 1% of Canada's documentary history is online where people can see it, and we have a whole generation who believe that, if they can't call it up on their computer or on their BlackBerry, it doesn't exist."
You can read more in an article by Ian Elliot in the Kingston Whig Standard web site at http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1537807.
