The Start of the Literature Review

The first part of the project involves a literature review.  Our open access bibliography and literature review is intended to promote informed public debate on matters of sustainability in the digital cultural and scholarly sectors. 

Drawing on previous work, including national and international research and white papers, we will consider what existing and emergent strategies, initiatives, funding structures, policies, and partnerships would be most suitable for sustaining digital scholarship and cultural heritage materials. We will assess the role that humanities scholarship has played in fostering digital content creation in and beyond Canada, the strengths and weaknesses of the various models used to date, and the potential of current and emergent models for fostering diversity of digital content. We will review the literature on the spin-off impacts of digital scholarship for cultural activities in a sector that employs 1.1 million people. Finally, we will consider what kinds of infrastructure investment are needed to sustain digital humanities scholarship in such a way that it can strengthen its role in promoting the arts in Canada, using emergent technologies.

By reading this post, you are a part of this process.

We want you to read, comment upon and suggest some of the literature that we uncover over the course of the next few months.

Here are some of the places that we are using as a springboard for our literature review:

The Methods Network
The UK's e-Science initiative is of primary strategic importance. It is aimed at developing new methodologies for research, and also providing a cohesive framework to support existing, advanced methods, as grid technologies are changing the way that researchers use, study and exchange arts and humanities data.

Our Cultural Commonwealth
"Our Cultural Commonwealth" is the report of the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Artmob
Artmob is a multisectoral initiative designed to build large, accessible online archives of publically licensed Canadian art, and to foreground the issues that this process raises for Canadian copyright and intellectual property laws.

Synergies Canada
A not-for-profit platform for the publication and the dissemination of research results in social sciences and humanities published in Canada.

Canadiana.org
It is vital to have a Canadian vision to present our cultural and scientific heritage in its bilingual and multicultural variety to our citizens and to the world, and to develop a comprehensive plan to provide Canadian Society with enduring digital access to that heritage. This is the mission of Canadiana.org.

Library and Archives Canada
LAC mission is to build Canada's cultural memory through their collections, then interpret those collections through programs, events and exhibitions.  Further, they provide access to Canada's documentary heritage, preserving it for the future.  This documentary heritage includes published works, archival records, sound and AV materials, photos, artwork and electronic publications.  Finally, LAC manages Canada's knowledge resources through its work with other archives, libraries and individual users through both electronic and traditional media.

The Canadian Heritage Information Network
 The Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) allows Canadian museums to engage their audiences through the use of innovative technologies.

SSHRC - The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Publications Archive
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is the federal agency that promotes and supports university-based research and training in the humanities and social sciences. Through its programs and policies, SSHRC enables the highest levels of research excellence in Canada, and facilitates knowledge-sharing and collaboration across research disciplines, universities and all sectors of society.

Welcome

Welcome to the Official Blog of the Sustainable Knowledge Project.  This is the public face of a SSHRC-funded project looking to examine the strategies for maintaining the vitality of humanities scholarship and the cultural sector by means of electronic scholarly activity, including archiving, editing, and dissemination.

Over the next few months, the project will develop in a few stages.

First is the literature review.  We will be asking for public input on the literature review, in the form of comments, suggestions and guidance.  The review of literature is one of the most important parts of this process, as it will form a bibliography for the white paper.

Second will be a summit, to be held in Guelph, Ontario on October 29-30, 2010.  The summit will be attended by leading scholars and members of Canada's digital creative community and will form the basis for the white paper.

Finally, the white paper.  The paper will address
  1) the state of knowledge about the impact of digital scholarship on arts activity in Canada;
  2) the implications of the changing relationship between scholarship and cultural activity resulting from digital innovation; and
  3) the challenges of sustaining both scholarship and the arts sector within a digital economy.

We sincerely hope that you will join us in surveying and assessing the current state of knowledge with respect to sustaining digital scholarship and, through it, the arts.