|
CONSERVATION
First of all, documents with a patrimonial heritage
flavour are identified and gathered. For this initial
step, our partners’ cooperation is critical.
We are pleased to be associated with the Centre Mnémo
and the western Canadian organization ONIRIC. Through
their cooperation, we have acquired unique sound,
visual and written collections, as well as rich historical
and current Canadian French collections.
Whether we are dealing with old photographs, sound
recordings of olden days such as 78-rpm vinyl discs,
or any other type of documents on various media, these
components are digitized on standard digital files
to preserve their contents. The amplitude of our digital
audio files collection is considerable.
DOCUMENTATION
Next, we register and index the documents. Our work
would be futile if this great quantity of information
was not well organized. We created a specialized database
of sound resources which respects current standards
such as Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), SCORM
(for educational contents), and Université
Laval’s subject headings.
Effective information management allows us to respond
to the needs of specific groups, such as researchers
and professionals. However, effective information
management does not suffice to meet the needs of the
general public, nor those of educational clienteles.
Hence, other strategic interventions are deployed.
EDUCATION
This third step involves the educational facet of
our mission. Contrary to many researchers and professionals,
Internet users are often driven by general curiosity.
We interact with them to assess their information
needs, prompting them to make further use of the Website
contents. Users are guided through various strategies,
such as interactive quizzes, multimedia tools and
workshops, talking and sound learning objects and
applied units for instructors. These activities allow
us to fulfill our educational mission.
A web site in French to reflect Francophone culture
In this section we have presented our three part
mission to the English speaking community of Canada.
However, we must now stress that the English content
will be limited to this section of the portal only.
Our mandate is not to provide an English translation
of French Canadian heritage. It is much more along
the lines of presenting such contents in their original
language for the benefit of all Canadians. In the
same way that French immersion classes help English
Canadians grasp the “nuances” of Francophone
culture, our effort is to depict the francophone reality
as it is. Therefore, we hope you enjoy your visit
and leave the site with a better understanding of
French Canadian culture and heritage. In other words
as some might say: « Bienvenue chez-nous! ». |
