Engagement Report

As part of the strategic planning process, the National Heritage Digitization Strategy (now the Coalition for Canadian Digital Heritage) produced the following Engagement Report describing the results of its community consultation. More details about the strategic planning process can be found in the section NHDS Strategic Planning Process 2021-2022 at the bottom of the page.

In early 2021, the National Heritage Digitization Strategy (NHDS) embarked on a strategic planning process in order to refine the mission and vision for the NHDS and to inform community-driven priorities and short-term and long-term projects and initiatives to be undertaken by the NHDS. The strategic planning process builds off of the 2018-2019 NHDS Business Plan, while also recognizing that the landscape of digitized heritage material in Canada continues to evolve. The strategic planning process will result in a new Strategic Plan to guide the activities of the NHDS. 

This Engagement Report, prepared by the NHDS Secretariat, presents a summary and analysis of community feedback collected through the first phase of the strategic planning process, during which the NHDS Executive Committee and Secretariat has gathered input from community members and stakeholders in several ways.  

• A survey was shared publicly from July 13 to September 7, 2021 and received 127 responses.  
• Four open community calls were held from September 13 to 21, 2021, with 62 total participants.  
• A presentation on the NHDS was given at the CRKN conference in October 2021, attended by 132 people, during which feedback was collected through poll questions.  
• Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and representatives from regional library consortia were consulted directly. 

Throughout the consultation, there has been consensus on key themes that can be used to drive the NHDS Strategic Plan: 

• When asked what respondents saw as the greatest opportunity for Canada by having a national heritage digitization strategy, increasing access appeared in the majority of responses (more than double the mentions of any other theme in the survey). 
• Community members see a role for the NHDS in the coordination and mobilization of digitization, preservation, and standards creation efforts. This will help to reduce duplication of efforts.  
• The NHDS has an opportunity to coordinate the sharing of resources that will assist smaller institutions that have valuable collections but limited resources.  
• There is an articulated need to connect local, institutional, and national capacity, expertise, and strategies.  Smaller organizations often have different needs and challenges than larger institutions, which should be taken into consideration in the development of a strategic plan. 
• It is critically important to the community that the NHDS fosters diversity in all its forms, which should be reflected both in its membership and in the projects undertaken. As articulated in one of the survey responses, “There is an opportunity to craft a subtle and effective strategy that is national in scale while based in and representative of communities and regions. The nature of the opportunity is to achieve broad awareness and ownership of a strategy that is authentically representative of the strength and diversity of Canada.” 
• There is a particular need to articulate the needs of Indigenous peoples, and, in so doing, advance the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples to transmit knowledges to future generations.  
• Funding is a major point of concern in the heritage community and seeking and advocating sustainable funding will play a key role in the long-term success of the NHDS.  
• There is an interest in bringing together digitized collections and heritage materials to make them more discoverable, however different ideas have been expressed in terms of what form this activity should take. There seems to be a lack of consensus within the broader GLAM community regarding the idea of a shared platform.

In addition to the priorities listed above, coordination, partnership, and working in collaboration were also articulated as part of the required strategy. With such a vast scope, the NHDS may wish to set forth a strategy that articulates ways of working in partnership to advance objectives.