An interesting project proposal

Back in 2001 Mike Ridley and I planned a province-wide summit on the concept of an Ontario Digital Library. Things have progressed since then.
The Ontario Digital Library (ODL) is a vision of how publicly assisted organizations in Ontario can collaborate to create and sustain a partnership that will provide seamless services and resources to all the citizens of Ontario. While recognizing the unique responsibilities of public libraries, school libraries, college and university libraries, museums and archives, the Ontario Digital Library envisions a digital network of information resources and services that will inter-link and inter-operate to enable province-wide access to high quality information resources.
Knowledge Ontario is the public face of the Ontario Digital Library and unites ODL initiatives into a single service point and set of projects. You cna view a powerpoint about it here.
I think that the following is a eloquent and simple statement of principles.
10 Guiding Principles of Knowledge Ontario Digital Services
1. A sensible collection reflects a knowledgeable collections policy
2. Libraries are a sensible infrastructure for mediating community access to licensed content, and Knowledge Ontario is well positioned to promote the creation and dissemination of free content
3. Authentication and authorization mechanisms must be within reach of all Knowledge Ontario partners, regardless of available systems and systems expertise
4. Knowledge Ontario partners will retain some level of branding even when providing access to remote content
5. A digital collection must be accessible and discoverable to all of its target audiences
6. Preservation is fundamentally a commitment rather than a technology
7. The best digital collections play well with others
8. Virtual Reference, digital collection building, and many other technology-fueled initiatives have established enough of a track record to make the effort of identifying best practices worthwhile
9. A framework of “social software” has emerged to facilitate communications and interactions with the communities served by Knowledge Ontario partners
10. A URI/URL is your contract with the world, persistent and sensible web addresses are what gives you the ability to leverage the web to tell your stories
The Knowledge Ontario proposition is now with the my provincial government. I do hope it goes well since Ontario will be a better more competitive place with it is enabled.
However, no matter what becomes of it, Ontario libraries are in a much better place for having had the discussions about uber-levels of cooperation and collaboration. Things will happen as a result. Sometimes people criticize visions as lacking substance. The ODL and Knowledge Ontario history, process and work shows how to put meat on the bones of bigger visions that impact the wider community.
Stephen