The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) recently announced a few updates to the user interface of the Canadiana and Héritage websites and other collections it hosts.
These updates include the following new and improved features:
- Pan and zoom: Smoothly pan and zoom across images, which is especially helpful for viewing maps, newspapers, and other large-format materials.
- Full size image option: View or download each image on Canadiana at its full size and original scanned resolution.
- Single-page PDF downloads: Download single-page PDFs (an individual PDF file for each image) for any document that has Optical Character Recognition (OCR) data. Multi-page PDF download options are available for some documents and, in the coming months, will be available for all documents with OCR data.
- Updated layout: Easily use tools like text search and image download from the new taskbar integrated at the bottom of the image viewer. Item metadata can also be more easily accessed underneath the image viewer.
These updates will also be applied to collections hosted by CRKN, including the Library of Parliament’s Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources database, the Global Affairs Canada Digital Library, the McGill University Archives and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries collection of student newspapers, The Student Voice.
In 2018, CRKN merged with Canadiana.org, an organization dedicated to the preservation and access of Canada’s documentary heritage since 1978. As a merged organization, CRKN continues its core licensing activities for scholarly journal content, while expanding support for the digitization and preservation of, and access to, Canadian heritage content.
