The National Science Library (NSL), formerly known as the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information or CISTI, began in 1917 as the library of the

National Research Council of Canada The National Research Council Canada (NRC; ) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development. It is the largest federal research and development organization in Canada. Th ...

(NRC). NRC is the

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

's premier research and technology organization (RTO), working with clients and partners to provide innovation support, strategic research, scientific and technical services. The library took on the role of national science library unofficially in 1957 and became the official National Science Library in 1966. The National Science Library is located in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, and houses one of the world's most comprehensive collections of publications in

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

and

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

. It is part of NRC's Knowledge, Information and Technology Services Branch and provides NRC and Canada's research community with information and information services to accelerate discovery, innovation and commercialization. The

NRC Research Press Canadian Science Publishing (CSP) is Canada's largest publisher of international scientific journals. It started in 1929 as the ''NRC Research Press'', part of the National Research Council (NRC). In 2010, the organization spun off from NRC and w ...

joined the library in 1992. On September 1, 2010, NRC Research Press became a private company called Canadian Science Publishing and is no longer directly affiliated with CISTI or the NRC.

Partnership initiatives

Shared library services – The NSL works with other Government of Canada science-based departments on a number of collaborative initiatives to realize common goals and improve library and knowledge service delivery. The Library currently provides services to four federal departments/agencies, including licensing and acquisitions, cataloguing, reference, library website and document delivery. It also provides all technical library support services to Health Canada as part of a partnership that began in 2010. Federal Science Library (FSL) – A partnership of seven Government of Canada science departments/agencies implementing a common platform and processes to deliver information discovery and access services to clients. A three-year FSL implementation project was launched in October 2014, with the NSL serving as the project's technical lead. WorldWideScience Alliance – the Library has been a member of this global science search engine since June 2008.

DataCite DataCite is an international not-for-profit organization which aims to improve ''data citation'' in order to: *establish easier access to research data on the Internet *increase acceptance of research data as legitimate, citable contributions to ...

– NRC's National Science Library is a founding member of this worldwide consortium for allocating DOIs to datasets.

Scientific article discovery and digital infrastructure

In December 2013, the NSL implemented a digital repository that holds a number of collections, including the NRC Archives photograph collection of over 12,000 photos dating back to 1916. In June 2011 the library launched the CISTI Mobile website which provides location and search services to popular mobile devices including Android, Blackberry and iPhone platforms. The mobile website provides federated searching across several science and technology information sources at and beyond the National Science Library. The site was likely the first Canadian federal library mobile website. In April 2010 the library implemented a federated search system allowing the public to search its local and licensed resources together - including a combined search of NPArC, and the NSL catalogue and the

. NRC researchers are also able to combine searches with these and other publisher sites and databases that the NSL licenses on their behalf. In June 2009 the library launched the NRC Publications Archive (NPArC), an

institutional repository An institutional repository (IR) is an archive for collecting, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution. Academics also utilize their IRs for archiving published ...

providing a single place to search and discover the scientific publications of the National Research Council. It contains tens of thousands of freely available scientific articles, technical reports, book chapters and other NRC-authored publications.

Research data discovery and stewardship

The National Science Library is a leader and participant in a number of initiatives to support data stewardship and discovery in Canada, including being a founding member of both

and Research Data Canada. In May 2012, the library launched DataCite Canada, a data registration service that allows Canadian data centres to register research data sets and assign

Digital Object Identifiers A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; the ...

(DOIs).

Document delivery

From the late 1990s until 2010, the library was one of the largest providers of documents in the areas of science technology and medicine in the world. In 2009 the library announced that document delivery services would be provided in partnership with Infotrieve. As of June 2010, access to the National Science Library and Canadian Agriculture Library collections is provided by Infotrieve Canada Inc. (a Copyright Clearance Center Company) on behalf of NRC. Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) handles all aspects of registration, delivery, billing and customer service for all NRC, Canadian, US and international clients wishing to obtain documents and materials in the NRC National Science Library collection. They are also responsible for onsite access to the library collection at NRC's main library. To order documents, users must have a CCC account.

Organizational membership

NRC NSL is a member of * the

Canadian Association of Research Libraries The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) was established in 1976 and brings together thirty-one research libraries. Twenty-nine members are university libraries, plus Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and the National Research Counci ...

(CARL) * the

Canadian Library Association The Canadian Library Association (CLA) was a national, predominantly English-language association which represented 57,000 library workers across Canada. It also spoke for the interests of the 21 million Canadians who are members of libraries. C ...

(CLA) * International

Federation * International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) * Research Data Canada

References

External links

NRC National Science Library
{{coord, 45.44375, -75.61950, type:landmark_region:CA, display=title National Research Council (Canada) Libraries in Ottawa Scientific organizations based in Canada

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Research libraries in Canada Libraries established in 1924 1924 establishments in Canada Science libraries Libraries established in 1917 Federal government buildings in Ottawa