Three collaborative projects receive 2017 OCUL Outstanding Contribution Award

  • Posted on: 19 July 2018
  • By: Anika

July 19, 2018, Toronto, Ontario - The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2017 OCUL Outstanding Contribution Award.

 
Breaking the Colour Barrier Team (University of Windsor)
This community digitization and open scholarship project is a partnership between the Harding family, the University of Windsor's Department of History, the Leddy Library’s Centre for Digital Scholarship, and the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame. It documents the impact of race in Southwestern Ontario in the early 20th century through the story of the Chatham Coloured All-Stars, an African Canadian baseball team. In doing so, the project highlights the valuable contributions that libraries, working in collaboration with the local historical society and school boards, can make to the stewardship of local historical materials.
 
More information: http://cdigs.uwindsor.ca/BreakingColourBarrier/
 
Keep@Downsview Project
Keep@Downsview is a partnership between five Ontario universities: University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Western University, McMaster University and Queen’s University. The innovative approach of this initiative goes beyond shared basic storage of libraries legacy collections to a focus on their preservation. With 47 individuals (plus a host of entire departments) across five institutions actively involved in the project, OCUL recognizes that Keep@Downview is an excellent example of how collaboration can help ensure the preservation of the scholarly record for future generations.
 
More information: https://downsviewkeep.org/
 
OCUL Geo Community Historical Topographical Map Digitization Team
This project demonstrated significant innovation in its commitment to digitize, geo-reference, and make publicly available an important collection of early-to-mid 20th century historical topographic map sheets covering Ontario at the 1:25000 and 1:63360 scales. When the project concluded in 2017, over 1,000 maps had been added to OCUL institutions’ collective digital holdings thanks to the work and contributions of 18 separate institutions and organizations and over 40 individual participants.
 
More information: https://ocul.on.ca/topomaps/
 
 
 
The OCUL Outstanding Contribution Award was established by the OCUL Directors in May 2008 to recognize the outstanding contribution of an individual or team of individuals within the OCUL consortium.
 
 “On behalf of the OCUL Directors, I would like to congratulate this year’s award recipients,” said Wayne Jones, Chair, Ontario Council of University Libraries and University Librarian, Carleton University. “Each of the these initiatives epitomizes the principles at the core of OCUL’s work as a consortium: collaborating to provide a world-class learning experience for Ontario students; preserving academic resources essential for teaching, learning, and research; and expanding shared digital research infrastructure. These are remarkable achievements that embody the value OCUL places on networking, collaboration, and community.”
 
“OCUL is excited to award three initiatives this year,” commented John Barnett, OCUL Executive Director. “This is indicative of the breath of collaboration and innovation occurring across Ontario university libraries. The projects demonstrate how our member libraries are working together to add value to their local communities (on campus and off campus) as well as to Ontario’s knowledge economy as a whole. Congratulations and thanks to all involved.”
 
Awards will be presented to recipients at a future date.
 
 
More about the OCUL Outstanding Contribution Award at ocul.on.ca/ocul-award