[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Cdn_publishing.jpg” caption=”Judy Donnelly, project specialist, Rick Stapleton, archivist librarian, Nick Ruest, digital strategies librarian, and Carl Spadoni, research collections librarian, pose with some of the artifacts that will be available on a website about the history of Canadian publishing. Photo by Susan Bubak. “]Canadian literature has always been a hallmark of our cultural identity. With authors such as Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, Farley Mowat or McMaster's own writer-in-residence Lawrence Hill achieving international popularity and critical acclaim, Canadian stories are shared all over the world.

Behind many great Canadian books lies an equally interesting, but usually untold publishing story. The William Ready Division of Research and Archives is hoping to make these stories more readily accessible.

McMaster's team will be working with the libraries of Queen's University and the University of Toronto to create a state-of-the-art website on the history of Canadian publishing. This project is made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Canadian Culture Online Program, run by Canada Heritage.

Its main purpose is to use Web 2.0 features to make vast archives of publishing history not only easier to access, but fun. The website will resemble an online museum exhibit, displaying artifacts in an attractive way to draw visitors. The articles will link to media displays of the archive's articles, many of which have never been displayed publically before.

The website is designed to be useful and appealing to those with a casual or academic interest.

“Every article on the website will have metadata (i.e. sources, links to further references) which will make the site suitable for research purposes,” says Carl Spadoni, research collections librarian and one of the leaders of the project.

However, Spadoni stresses that the website is for the education of the public at large. “The project is meant to provide a window to publishing in Canada in the 20th century,” he says.

The project will need volunteer support, and they will be relying on student interest for much of this.