RSC Expert Panel-The Future Now: Canada's Libraries, Archives, and Public Memory

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 10, 2014) - The Royal Society of Canada will release the Expert Panel Report on The Future Now: Canada's Libraries, Archives, and Public Memory in Ottawa on November 13, 2014 at 07h00 EST.

The Expert Panel was set up by the Royal Society to address the many overlapping obligations of Libraries and Archives throughout Canada. Additionally, digital technology is transforming our knowledge universe and there is much debate about the impact of new technologies on print culture in the broadest sense and on the publishing industry, libraries, and archives in particular. Succinctly put, "The Death of the Book" has been both proclaimed and denied. Meanwhile, notions of what constitutes a library or an archive have been challenged and transformed by new communications competencies and needs.

In their report, the Panel addressed three key questions:

• What do Canadians expect of these cultural institutions in the 21^st century?

Libraries and archives are now hubs of community, centres of social learning and inquiry, and outlets for creativity. This new reality undergirds our 70 recommendations-to LAC/BAC, to professional organizations, and to academic institutions.

• Why do we care about libraries and archives?

In a networked knowledge society with an increasingly diverse population, they strengthen the connective tissue of our society by reminding us of what has made us Canadians.

• What needs to change?

We address issues of inequitable access, the need for organizational restructuring, and outline the benefits of a much-needed national digitization program.

The report will become publicly and freely available for download on November 13, 2014 on the website of the Royal Society of Canada.

Established in 1882, The Royal Society of Canada is Canada's senior collegium of distinguished Canadian scholars, artists and scientists.