10
2018-19 Budget Request
1. Project
Working Title of Initiative / OCUL Sponsor (Committee, Community, Director) / Date preparedOpen Historical Census Collections / Data Community / September 25, 2017
2. Description
a) Description of new project initiative
Having access to long-term, open, downloadable, and linkable Census data and associated geography for early censuses of Canada, from 1665 to present, offers benefits for researchers, students and the general public.
Owing to the dispersity and complexity of the Census collections in Ontario university libraries and on other platforms, some groundwork is required for the development of this vision. Historical Census data can be difficult to find and reuse, with so many data types and collections dispersed across a variety of institutions, platforms, and research projects. In addition, while the Censuses of Canada are bilingual, not all collections are available bilingually.
OCUL universities hold large volumes of born-print collections in English and French in their libraries, and large born-digital collections of Census numeric information in English and French (and made available through platforms such as <odesi> and dataverse, through the OCUL Data Community). Similarly, OCUL universities hold large collections of historical Census geography files in Scholars GeoPortal. In addition, there have been several historical census research projects that aim to make census data more accessible for research, including the Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (CCRI), which will also be looked at for the scoping project.
b) Rationale for the proposed project
Since the 1990’s, Census materials, as a special library collection, have increasingly become difficult for researchers to navigate and for libraries to manage. Federal and provincial government cutbacks in the 1990’s contributed to the building of a complex mix of distribution channels and access rules, media, formats, naming conventions, diverse finding tools and platforms, which unwittingly accompanied the transition of print to digital.
Currently, libraries’ ability to provide open access to historical Census data and geography in Ontario university libraries relies on a labyrinthine combination of platforms, collections, formats, tools and diverse metadata practices. Therefore considerable knowledge and time are required for OCUL library specialists and researchers alike to navigate the full range of data types, born-print and digital data, and maps and geography.
i. Build on progress:
The OCUL Data Community has, out of necessity, begun evaluating current access to historical Census data and reference materials, largely for, but not exclusively, born-digital data. This work includes separate collection-specific inventory work, including for example Census of Canada 1971-today born digital census geography and aggregate data tables. The Census public microdata have been comprehensively curated and published to <odesi> in English and French through the OCUL MarkIt! Program since its beginning in 2009, as have the born digital aggregate data in Beyond 20/20 to complement the open Statistics Canada web site tables.
The OCUL Geo Community has, in turn, also gathered the best digitized Census of Canada geography boundary files going back to 1851, and includes born digital boundaries from the Data Liberation Initiative.
From 2010 to 2011, Statistics Canada Library digitized their print-only Census of Canada collections, and deposited the bilingual collection on the Internet Archive platform. It should be noted however full text of the digitized Census publications cannot be readily searched online nor are the print tables usable as numeric tables. Even as university libraries hold MARC records of the titles of tables for the microfiche collection, there are still many obstacles to finding the digital format material on the Internet Archive. The obstacles overlap a number of OCUL communities. For some further information on this collection and others (e.g., the digitized pre-Confederation Censuses, and the Canadian Census Research Infrastructure), see the Statistics Canada Library web site.
ii. Project philosophy:
Collaborate:
The OCUL Data Community (ODC) proposes a collaborative project to conduct a scoping project based on its development of a bilingual inventory of Canadian Census materials. This initiative will investigate how access to these resources might be provided through a single interface. The group will work to gather, inventory, and assess historical census data collections across OCUL libraries and beyond, to identify opportunities and gaps in access to historical census data. The group will identify available historical census data, as well as define collection types, including digital data derived from born-print and born-digital resources, and assess their level of accessibility for use by the broader research community.
In the lead up to a vision document, broad input and participation will be sought with other OCUL communities, with federal agencies, data providers and regional consortia over the course of this project.
Innovation benefits:
This proposed scoping project envisions a comprehensive bilingual interface to historical Census of Canada collections. This open Census of Canada interface can realize the following benefits:
· Allow researchers and students to engage in new methods of historical analyses and research, in both English and French;
· Promote Canada’s rich information heritage, numerically, geographically and conceptually;
· Promote innovation in teaching, outreach and dissemination;
· Provide for overall curation for enhanced access and usability;
· Provide for the long-term preservation of historical Census resources and information in English and French:
· Improve resource discovery, while removing access barriers, including official language support; and
· Improve professional Census expertise across OCUL libraries.
Deliver:
To reach its desired goal, the project participants will collaborate to achieve the following:
· Define the scope for gathering historical census data including data types, such as numeric and geographic data, language (English, French) time period; topics (e.g. population, agriculture), access restrictions (e.g. confidential, public), etc.;
· Define collection types; including born-print and digital census data publications; as well as languages of collections;
· Identify existing census data platforms, including diverse web platforms, for access, media, and language and format types. This may include pointers, if not access points, to collections, such as the Canadian Century Census collections;
· Inventory existing historical Census data collections across OCUL libraries and beyond;
· Determine assessment criteria for data collections and platforms e.g. discovery, standards (metadata and data), interoperability, curation, accessibility, usability, for born-print, born-digital, and English and French, etc.;
· Conduct an assessment of known collections to identify opportunities and gaps for further data curation work by OCUL. It is expected that some outreach will be required, including but not limited to French-language collections;
· Further outreach and fostering of relationships to broaden Census expertise in OCUL libraries;
· Prepare a vision document for an open Census of Canada research platform, in consultation with various stakeholders, nationally and regionally, including the OCUL Data, Geo, Government Information, and Digital Curation Communities.
· This vision document may indicate the need for a future proposal for the implementation of a single interface open census project.
c) OCUL’s expected role
The Data Community is applying for funding to launch the scoping project from OCUL.
Scholars Portal’s role: Amber Leahey and Kathryn Barrett have indicated that they would be willing and able to work on this project during the course of their normal duties.
The project will seek the involvement of other OCUL Communities in realizing its goals.
d) Key partners
There will be a call for participation on the Historical Census of Canada Working Group to other OCUL groups in early 2018 to ensure input and participation from other OCUL communities, including, but not limited to, Government Information, Geo and Digital Preservation. The group will reach out to other stakeholders such as Statistics Canada, Portage, Library and Archives Canada, and other data providers or regional consortia, e.g., ACCOLEDS, Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI), COPPUL and CAUL.
e) Project timeline:
The proposed timeline for this project is to commence in Fall 2017, with the bulk of the work occurring in 2018-2019. Over the two years of the project,
Phase 1, 2017-2018: The OCUL Data Community (ODC) will commence work this year, to build on its existing web-archiving, web publishing and indexing of historical censuses, by building the inventory template of Census collections, including beginning to inventory, and establishing preliminary assessment criteria.
Phase 2, 2018-2019: The inventorying for French as well as English is completed, the assessment work.and a vision document.
Once the above work is nearing completion in 2019, this group may reformulate itself.
3. OCUL COMMITTEE(S) AND/OR COMMUNITY(IES)
The OCUL Data Community (ODC) will take the lead on this project. We anticipate it will be of interest to the OCUL Government Information, Geo, and Digital Curation Communities. In order to ensure that this initiative is of benefit to OCUL communities and promote collaboration, the working group will be reaching out to these communities to solicit their input and participation.
At the time of the launching of the working group, a co-moderator of the OCUL Government Information Community is a member of the Historical Census Working Group.
4. BENEFITS
a. Alignment with the OCUL strategic plan and annual work plan
This project aligns well, in general, with OCUL’s commitment to enhance information services in Ontario. Specifically, this project supports the following OCUL strategic plan goals:
· Ensure maximum discoverability and accessibility to digital library resources and services regardless of locations, preferences, and individual abilities;
· Contribute to building world-class digital library services for Ontario students; and
· Provide and preserve academic resources essential for teaching, learning and research.
This proposed project adopts OCUL’s core philosophy, Collaborate, Innovate and Deliver. For further information, see the Description section above, pages 3 to 4.
b. What are the expected benefits (qualitative and quantitative as applicable)?
The following replicates the Benefits of Innovation (page 3) above.
o Allow researchers and students to engage in new methods of historical analyses and research, in both English and French;
o Promote Canada’s rich information heritage, numerically, geographically and conceptually;
o Promote innovation in teaching, outreach and dissemination;
o Provide for overall curation for enhanced access and usability;
o Provide for the long-term preservation of historical Census resources and information in English and French:
o Improve resource discovery, while removing access barriers, including official language support; and
o Improve professional Census expertise across OCUL libraries.
c. What are the risks incurred of not undertaking the initiative?
As described above, the project addresses the problem of at-risk Canadian Census collections found in OCUL libraries and elsewhere.
The risks are two-fold.
First, that the curated and original material not captured on a preservation platform becomes unavailable.
Second, because the statistics are not immediately available for access, the intensity of research is diminished. This is due to the risks of missing Census resources and the obstacles around unusable resources.
By extension, without such a project, the ability of Ontario researchers to do scholarly research of Canada’s bilingual Census heritage continues to be at serious risk.
d. Risk Assessment
The risks associated with this project are considered to be minimal. This is a scoping project, therefore copyright risks are minimal. This project will include consultation with Statistics Canada, Government of Canada Publications, Library and Archives, and the Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (CCRI) project and its successors regarding collections copyright and open access. This project will also capture licensing information.
5. RESOURCING ASSUMPTIONS
Operational capability capacity
The collaborative nature of this project (shared across OCUL Data Community institutions) helps ensure that the operational capacity of any single institution is not overwhelmed at any point during this endeavor.
Over the two phases of this scoping project, the University of Toronto will contribute in-kind student hours.
Project slippage & cost management
The collaborative nature of this project could make it challenging to set, monitor and meet the self-imposed deadlines. This will be mitigated by the creation of a detailed project schedule and detailed resource and cost requirements, which will be monitored regularly by the project management group. The cost and time estimates prepared for this proposal are based on real experiences in OCUL Data Community member libraries.
Project Coordination
The project will be coordinated by: Susan Mowers (U of Ottawa), Vince Gray (Western, to Jan. 2018), Leanne Trimble (Toronto, from Jan. 2018). Their contributions will be in-kind. These individuals will coordinate the work of the Historical Census of Canada Working Group, see Terms of Reference
Staffing for inventorying, assessing, testing, outreach, and preparation of a vision document.
Staffing for inventorying, assessing, testing, outreach, and preparation of a vision document has yet to be determined but all working documents will be standardized and shared for maximum usability and sharing. In preparation, a model template for inventorying and preliminary assessment criteria will be presented in Toronto at the Data Community’s face-to-face meeting for testing and approval. A web page will be created as well by January 2018, to ensure efficient and open communication with other communities stakeholders.
Owing to the unique discovery and availability issues for the French-language historical Census of Canada resources, the project will require the hiring of bilingual student staff to ensure equal inventorying, assessment and reporting for these resources.
Supervisors will contribute their time in-kind; this project seeks funds to cover the hiring of one to two student employees in 2018-2019. Additional operational capability will be provided in kind in 2018 by the University of Toronto Libraries through the hiring of a student who will focus on English-language.
OCUL Support
This project will require the use of the OCUL conference call line and wiki system.
Scholars Portal Support
Scholars Portal has indicated an interest in supporting this project, as discussed under OCUL’s Expected Role on page 4. The group will consult Scholars Portal on the collection and platform assessment criteria of a technical nature.
6. BUDGET
Incremental costs above current budget
Note, expenses below are shown in blue italics are one-time expenses, these are in phase 2: 2018-2019. All other expenses are ongoing over the two phases of this scoping project.
Funding proposalExpense category / Phase 1: 2017-2018 / Phase 2: 2018-2019
Inventorying of English existing collections, and item-level / In-kind (U of T, others) / In-kind (U of T, others)
Inventorying of French existing collections, and item-level / Preliminary, in-kind (UOttawa, others) / $3,500 (OCUL)
One-time expense
Assessment and preliminary curation, both English and French / In-kind (U of T, UOttawa others) / $7,500 (OCUL)
One-time expense
*Cost estimates are based on the cost of the Metadata Student for French language MarkIt! Program work at $15.00 - $28.00 per hour.