The CIHM Monograph Collection represents an important part of our national story. It is a collection of publications dating back to the early 17th century that are about Canada, or written and published by Canadians. To facilitate access, users can easily browse through the collection by topic: Arts and Literature, History and Geography, Religion, Science and Technology, and Social Science; and can then narrow their search by language, place, subject, and other facets. Highlights of the collection include books and other documents relating to Confederation, prohibition, popular medicine, immigration, statistics, the war of 1812, World War I, Louis Riel, and the building of Canada’s national railway.

The items in this collection were originally gathered by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions (CIHM) from collections across the country and then made available through libraries using the best technology of the day, microfiche. Now, using high-quality digitization processes, new life has been breathed into these important historic materials.

A multi-year digitization effort was funded through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) National Platforms Fund with matching funds from 67 universities and provincial governments, in a project called the Digital Content Infrastructure for the Human and Social Sciences (DCI) project managed by CRKN. Canadiana.org provided master copies of the microfiche that the Internet Archive used for scanning onsite at the University of Alberta Libraries.

The University of Alberta Library recognizes that our catalogue and resource descriptions contain language that reflects the biases, norms, and perspectives of the time in which they were created. In particular, for resources about persons and groups, this language is often outdated and harmful. These descriptions also incorporate controlled vocabularies, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings, which include some headings (e.g., Indians of North America), that are offensive or inappropriate. We use international standards for description, but support and actively participate in efforts to update and change these practices as we strive for descriptions that are inclusive, respectful, and do not cause harm. We acknowledge the critical importance of community consultation in these efforts, and as residents on Treaty 6 territory and Métis Region 4, we commit to working together with our local communities to make these changes.

For more information about our Internet Archive collections, please contact digitization@ualberta.ca.