The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) is an important nation-wide library consortium that has been instrumental in broadening access to social sciences and humanities (SSH) content in digital form.  [You may recall that CRKN was preceded by the former Canadian National Site License Program (CNSLP).  Launched in 2001, CNSLP was a project supported by CFI, provincial and university funds and directed to expanding science, technology and medicine (STM) electronic content (primarily ejournals).]  We have reported on earlier phases of the CRKN social sciences and humanities expansion efforts in previous newsletters. 

Currently, we are in the middle of Phase III. This phase differs in that under CFI, provincial and university funding will once again support the initiative as a result of a successful CFI grant application process earlier this year.  An initial call to identify potential electronic content went out to 67 institutions across Canada.  This resulted in a list of 260 products which were, in turn, winnowed down to 49.  RFP vendor bids will be accepted until October 25, 2007. This will be followed by a license negotiating phase. We look forward to reporting the outcome of this important initiative in our next newsletter.

— Article by Catherine Davidson, Associate University Librarian, Collections.
If you have questions or comments about this article, contact Catherine at cdavids@yorku.ca.