Since the 1950s debate has raged 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 response to these realities, the Royal Society of Canada is establishing an Expert Panel on “The Future Now: Canada's Libraries, Archives, and Public Memory”.

"The Panel recommends that:

69. librarians with an interest in education, formal and informal, explore opportunities to participate in the growth of open educational resources by producing, or supporting faculty who produce, open course materials and open textbooks and by helping time-pressed educators or selflearners find high quality, relevant OER by building collections or discovery tools" (p.206)

Keywords

archives · digital access · digital resources · government policy · OER · open textbooks · removing barriers