About Us

• The Virtual Library
• Community-produced documents: an important heritage
• Production Team
• Acknowledgements

The Virtual Library is a production of the Centre de documentation sur l'éducation des adultes et la condition féminine (CDÉACF), a resource centre specialized in adult education and in women's issues. The library gives online access to more than 5000 documents.

Roughly half of these documents were produced by community-based organizations from Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, published between 1960 and the present day.

More than 2000 of these documents are digital versions created and hosted by the Centre since 2003 :

• 2003 : Virtual Library and Collection F
• 2005 : Collection ÉducAction
• 2006 : Au rayon alpha
• 2009 : Collection Culture en mots

Textual documents are available in their entirety, in HTML or PDF formats

Selected video and audio recordings are available in flash and mp3 formats

Selected publications found on other web sites are also accessible

All these documents can be downloaded free of charge.

Community-produced documents: an important heritage

Grassroots and community organizations contribute to the creation of knowledge by producing documents and material. Their activities are accompanied and supported by a rich production of documents in many forms. This production bears witness both to the community groups’ collective and intellectual life and to the changing realities of society. Our heritage of community documents includes a broad range of documents (research, studies, instructional material, briefs, periodicals, etc.) published in printed or electronic form, and produced by community-based organisations whose mission is focused on social transformation and development. The heritage of community-produced documents is priceless.

Unfortunately, it is threatened by numerous factors: the great mobility of participants and practitioners, the precarious conditions and the vagaries of the groups’ existence, the lack of repository, generally limited dissemination, etc.

With its Virtual Library, the Centre collects and disseminates material from community organizations across Canada. It also contributes to the appreciation and recognition of community-based knowledge and know-how.

• Coordination : Julie Leclair
• Cataloguing and rights management: Céline Brunet and Josée Ruel
• Communications : Linda Lévesque (LCOM) and Véronique Tremblay (Verano)
• Pedagogical conception : Lorraine Cadotte, Jeanne Le Gal and Danielle Malenfant
• Web site design: Miriam Verburg
• Digital copyediting : Isabelle Rocheleau and Geneviève Haineault
• Web ergonomics: Sylvie Turcotte
• Administration of systems and networks: Alex Casaubon and François Dallaire
• Digitization : Trigonix
• Programming : Jean-Philippe Théberge
• Copywriting and proof reading: Jeanne Le Gal and Danielle Malenfant

Acknowledgements

This project could not have been carried out without the help of the Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Culture Online Program.

Advisory Committee Members, collection Culture en mots, 2009

• France-Line Carbonneau, Y des femmes
• Denis Chicoine, Tour de lire
• Hélène Deslières, Atelier des lettres
• Eric Giroux, Écomusée du fier monde
• France Jodoin, Centre FORA
• Marc-André Lalande, RECIT
• Ginette Richard, Regroupement des groupes populaires en alphabétisation du Québec (RGPAQ)
• François Rivest, RECIT

Advisory Committee Members, collection ÉducAction, 2005

• France Clavette, Centre de formation populaire (CFP)
• Serge Quinty, Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFAC)
• Bernard Vallée, L’Autre Montréal

Advisory Committee Members, collection F, 2003

• Maryse Darsigny, Association québécoise Plaidoyer-victimes (AQPV)
• Micheline Dumont, Université de Sherbrooke
• Nadine Goudreault, Relais-femmes
• Gisèle Marchand, Réseau national action éducation femmes (RNAEF)
• Françoise Viau, Fédération nationale des femmes canadiennes-françaises (FNFCF)