Library and Archives Canada private deal would take millions of documents out of public domain

"Library and Archives Canada has entered a hush-hush deal with a private high-tech consortium that would hand over exclusive rights to publicly owned books and artifacts for 10 years. The plan is scheduled to be announced publicly on Friday and according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, a gag order has been placed on everyone involved in the project until then. Library and Archives Canada (LAC) staff and others told about the plan have had to sign non-disclosure clauses but it isn’t clear why the process has been wrapped in such a dark cloak of secrecy. LAC is partnering with Canadiana.org in what is being billed as The Heritage Project — digitizing 40 million images from more than 800 collections of publicly-held LAC material, much bought by Library and Archives over the years with taxpayers’ money. The documents and images includes personal papers, census data, central registries, church records, and First Nations, government and military documents. Under the agreement, digital images will begin rolling back into the free public domain — known as 'open access' — as the 10-year exclusive rights expire. Canadiana bills itself as a 'membership alliance dedicated to building Canada’s digital preservation infrastructure and providing the broadest possible access to Canadian documentary heritage'But according to documents, funding for the ambitious, $60 million Heritage Project remains uncertain and appears to be dependent on an initial $2 million fund in upfront contributions from organizations who want in on the ground floor.  'What if we don’t reach the $2 million goal?' reads the document. '… the project may be able to move ahead with less. The exact impacts of not reaching the goal will have to be determined based on the actual shortfall, should that occur.' But initial funders are promised 'premium access' to the digitized material along with other benefits including a say in how future projects will be handled. But according to an internal email seen by the Citizen late Tuesday, 43 Canadian university libraries have committed a total of $1.71 million in startup funds, a fact Canadiana wanted to announce this week — along with correcting 'misunderstandings' — but was prevented by the federal government from doing so. 'Unfortunately, the federal government has a media blackout this week because of a major announcement scheduled for a different department,' said the email. Canadiana, which has data centres in Ottawa and Montreal, says it will fund the project over the long term by charging for the material it digitizes but, given the federal government’s $10 million cut to LAC’s budget, is clearly sensitive to potential criticism ..."