Online Resources

 

The Internet offers unprecedented opportunities for people who would like to learn more about Canada. Web resources have become particularly important since the coronavirus outbreak, which has put a halt to international travel. How can we promote scientific cooperation and cultural exchange in the future?

We have put together a list of mostly open access online resources for those who do research on Canadian culture and society, or who wish to ‘travel’ to Canada from the comfort of their homes. Apply for an online course, browse through the latest issues of scientific journals, listen to Canadian music or watch Canadian films, discover the documentary heritage of Canada, read poetry online, or explore Canadian art through virtual museum visits!

 

Online Courses | Scholarly Resources | Digital Archives |
Literature | Radio, TV, and Cinema | Museums
 

Online Courses

Do you want to learn more about Canada through long distance E-learning? VCS focuses on Canada and Canadian issues in the format of interdisciplinary courses and provides easy access to resources on Canada worldwide. The courses are taught by specialists on Canada from different German universities. Participants have to pay a small course fee. Participants can earn credit points that can be used towards programs at home universities. Currently the range of interdisciplinary virtual Canadian Studies courses includes the fields of English Studies, French Linguistics, Geography, History, and Native Studies. The program is sponsored by the Association of Canadian Studies in German-Speaking Countries (GKS).

 

Mountains 101­­ is a 12-lesson Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) teaching a comprehensive overview of Mountain Studies. Mountains 101 will cover an interdisciplinary field of study focusing on the physical, biological, and human dimensions of mountain places in Alberta, Canada, and around the world. Take the online course for free or pay a modest fee if you want to receive a certificate of completion. 

 

 

Scholarly Resources

With more than 20.000 articles on all aspects of Canada, the bilingual online encyclopedia is an essential resource for Canadians and those who want to learn more about the country. The Canadian Encyclopedia is available free to anyone with Internet access. The website also provides resources for teachers and students on selected topics.

The online version of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography allows you to learn more about individuals that have contributed to the history of Canada. 

Statistics Canada, the national statistical office, provides data on Canada's economy, society, and environment.

The International Journal of Canadian Studies (IJCS) is a bilingual, multidisciplinary, and peer-reviewed journal publishing the latest research in Canadian Studies from around the world. The journal’s archives (2007-2012) are offered in open access here. 

Canadian Studies / Études canadiennes is a peer-reviewed journal founded in 1975. It focuses on the study of Canada and publishes papers by European and North American authors in both English and French. It is a multidisciplinary review published twice a year which invites papers from the large spectrum of social sciences, the humanities, the arts, as well as political sciences. Issues published before 2012 are available on the website of the Association Française d'Études Canadiennes. 

The Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien (ZKS) is a peer‐reviewed journal edited by the Association for Canadian Studies in German-Speaking Countries. Founded in 1981, it is published once a year. ZKS features contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including linguistics, history, literary and cultural studies, the social sciences, geography, and others, and it does so in either German, French, or English.

The Mitteilungsheft or annual bulletin of the GKS contains notes from the board and the advisory board and lists of Canadianist events and publications by GKS members. You will furthermore find a complete list of Canadian Studies courses taught at German, Austrian, and Swiss universities. The notes are published in digital format by the end of February.

  • Further Journals

The following journals are either open access for the general public or licensed by the library of the University of Innsbruck and thus available for students and employees of the University of Innsbruck: 

 

Digital Archives

The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library which archives and makes materials available for free. The Canadian Libraries digital collection contains over 600,000 texts sponsored by Canadian Library partners such as the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta.

LAC acquires, processes, preserves and provides access to our documentary heritage and serves as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions. The website provides access to an extensive collection of Canadian census records, a collection of Indigenous documentary heritage, historical military records, immigration records, as well as theses and dissertations from Canadian universities since 1965.

The website provides access to the full-text Canadiana collections, Canadiana Online and Heritage, free of charge. The digitized primary-source documents – books, magazines, and government documents – document Canadian history from the 1600s onwards. 

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) has adopted a wide-ranging digitization program that would cover the entire published and archival documentary heritage produced in Québec since the 17th century, or of foreign origin and related to Québec. All categories of materials are included: printed and handwritten material, photographs, sound recordings and so on. BAnQ's digital collection is developing on an ongoing basis and all these resources are available free of charge.

The Digital Archive provides free access to rare historical photos, maps, books and more from Toronto Public Library. In addition, the library has put together virtual exhibits available here. 

 

Literature

The open access journal Canadian Literature publishes peer-reviewed scholarly articles related to the field of Canadian literature, book reviews, poems, short notes, writings of importance that have been rediscovered in the archives, interviews with writers, and articles by writers about their craft. The website also houses an extensive archive of poems published in the journal. CanLit Guides is an open access learning resource that provides students with information, resources, and exercises addressing literary theory, Canadian literary history, and works of Canadian fiction, non-fiction, and drama.

The website (in French only) makes available biographies and bibliographies of more than 1 000 writers from Québec and 360 press releases. Search for authors' biographies here.

The Canadian Poetry Audio Archives is Canada's first online bilingual poetry audio archive. The database contains a sampling of audio recordings of Canada's most acclaimed poets reading from their works, transcripts of poems, and photographs.

Canadian Poetry is a collection of poetry from published contemporary and 19th century Canadian poets. The website by the University of Toronto Libraries provides biographies, lists of publications, and poems.

Le Montréal littéraire is a literary walk through Montréal, compiled and presented by students of the University of Innsbruck. The information texts and excerpts from the works of Quebec authors allow us to (re)discover this Quebec metropolis as a place of literary encounter and production.

 

Radio, TV, and Cinema

Radio Freirad broadcasts the monthly series “Fresh Maple Leaves” which focuses on the current music scene in Canada. Past episodes are available here. 

The online Screening Room of the National Film Board of Canada features over 3,000 films that can be streamed free of charge or downloaded for a small fee. 

Wapikoni Mobile travels to Indigenous communities with mobile studios providing workshops for First Nations youth. The aim of Wapikoni is to offer practical workshops tailored to their reality and their culture with a methodology that develops self-esteem, skills and resilience. The collection featuring over 1,295 films and 817 musical recordings is available online. 

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) makes audiovisual material from CBC coverage back to the 1930s on topics such as arts & entertainment, history, and sports available on its website. 

Every day, two to three archived radio broadcasts (in French) linked to current topics are made available in the archives section of Radio-Canada.ca.

 

Museums

Canada’s museums and heritage organizations offer virtual exhibits and allow you to discover Canadian history, art, science, and nature from the comforts of your home.

Québec’s museums provide access to numerous online collections, 360° visits, and virtual exhibitions.

The Canadian Museum of History’s Resource Centre offers a vast collection of artifacts and a searchable catalogue of book records, periodicals, electronic resources, photographs, sound recordings, films, videos, and textual archives. 

With Google Street View you can go into the museum and walk around through the exhibits. The museum also has an extensive online collection.

The Art Gallery of Ontario has an extensive online collection. Use filters to find artwork you are interested in.

With Google Street View you can go into the museum and walk around through the exhibits.

Online exhibitions by the Canadian Museum of History, for example a collection of Inuit prints from Cape Dorset or the exhibit “Morning Star – Gambeh Then”, a mural by Alex Janvier.

These virtual tours allow you to explore historical sights of Québec City, for example the Ursuline Convent.

  

If you would like to add further web resources to the list, please contact us at canada.centre@uibk.ac.at!

 

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