
Controversy continues to swirl around Library and Archives Canada. The latest scandal is a secret deal negotiated with
Canadiana.ca, a private high-tech consortium, to give away millions of publicly-owned books and documents to Canadiana.com which, in exchange, will get a 10-year exclusive license to sell the books and documents in sophisticated digital formats.
The deal was reached in secrecy with no public hearings or even announcements. Critics say the deal amounts to selling back to Canadians what they already own. In the House of Commons, NDP heritage critics Andrew Cash and Pierre Nantel again challenged Heritage Minister James Moore, who agreed that Canadians shouldn’t pay to access their own archives.
You can read more in an article by Chris Cobb in the Canada.com web site at
http://goo.gl/gjED8.
UPDATE: Ian Wilson agrees that this is a very bad idea. Wilson is Canada’s former chief librarian and archivist. He says it smacks of “desperation” by the federal government. Details may be found in the Ottawa Citizen at
http://goo.gl/nIS4U.
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