Submission by Alexandra Hook, Aurora College (Librarian)

Hook, Alexandra

Aurora College (Librarian)

November 2014

Northwest Territories

English

Georgraphic distance between libraries and users is a key issue in NWT (materials are mailed and this is costly); Bandwidth is another critical issue in the north; rapid changes in technology are difficult to keep up with, especially for small, northern libraries; the services of LAC are much needed (ILL, cataloguing standards, digitization of the nation's historical documents), and ought to be readily available to all Canadians; challenges of the digital era include incompatability of new and old formats, cost of migration, heavy investment of time, personnel, and money to adopt each new format; standard electronic licensing model seems wrong, we must work with vendors to keep costs of digital resources and delivery manageable

Royal Society of Canada’s Expert Panel on The Status and Future of Canada’s Libraries and Archives