The National Library of Canada's Electronic Publications Pilot Project:

Abstract

From June 1994 to the summer of 1995 the National Library of Canada carried out the Electronic Publications Pilot Project. The objective of this Project was to identify and understand issues that the National Library of Canada and other Canadian libraries would encounter in handling electronic publications and on-line collections. A small number of formally published Canadian on-line journals were acquired, controlled, catalogued and stored permanently at the Library. Public access was provided on the Internet through Gopher and the World Wide Web. Several areas of the Library were involved in the three teams which were set up to pursue the Project's goals. The members of the Technical Services team received equipment upgrades and underwent a considerable amount of training in order to accomplish assigned tasks. Identifying appropriate titles and obtaining copyright clearance for those selected proved to be a very time-consuming exercise. The problems and issues encountered during the acquisitions, serials check-in and cataloguing activities confirmed that dealing efficiently with electronic publications was indeed a new challenge for the staff of the National Library. At the end of the project, recommendations from the Technical Services team were submitted and they will be incorporated into the Final Report of the Project which is expected to be available to the public in the fall of 1995.