OTTAWA, May 22, 2015 – The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is pleased to be amongst more than 140 organizations around the globe that have signed the Hague Declaration on Knowledge Discovery in the Digital Age.
The Hague Declaration, spearheaded by LIBER (the Association of European Research Libraries), aims to foster agreement about how to best enable access to facts, data and ideas for knowledge discovery in the digital age. By removing barriers to accessing and analysing the wealth of data produced by society, we can find answers to great challenges such as climate change, depleting natural resources and globalisation.
“The rapidly changing digital environment, increased computing power and the sheer quantity of data being produced makes it essential for researchers and society to be able to use modern techniques and tools to help them make new discoveries. Research practices could be revolutionised and lives could literally be saved, if we can achieve better access to the knowledge contained within Big Data,” said Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen, President of LIBER.
“We share the view that today’s expanding digital landscape provides unprecedented opportunities for researchers to utilize masses of data in order to make new discoveries that advance knowledge and benefit society,” said new CARL President Martha Whitehead, Vice-Provost and University Librarian, Queen’s University. “The proper framework and policies must be in place to support researchers in that endeavour. The vision, principles and roadmap for action outlined in the Hague Declaration speak to CARL’s interests in enabling broad access to information and supporting the possibilities afforded by the global networked environment.”
A new approach to knowledge discovery and sharing is critical at a time when the world grapples with a data deluge. The digital universe, or the data that we create and copy annually, doubles in size every two years and is anticipated to reach 44 trillion gigabytes by 2020.
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CARL members include Canada’s twenty-nine largest university libraries as well as Library and Archives Canada and NRC Knowledge Management. Enhancing research and higher education are at the heart of its mission. CARL promotes effective and sustainable scholarly communication, and public policy that enables broad access to scholarly information.
For more information:
Susan Haigh
Executive Director
Canadian Association of Research Libraries
