Arca is a collaborative initiative to support the development and implementation of digital repositories at BC post-secondary institutions. Foundational to the creation of the proposed Provincial Digital Library, Arca is a province-wide network of institutional repositories that:

• provides access to faculty and student research output across multiple post-secondary institutions via a cross-repository search layer
• supports the management of institutional digital assets
• showcases BC as a hub for knowledge creation across Canada and around the world.

Arca is built on Islandora, a Canadian-developed open-source platform currently in use at over 100 public and private institutions worldwide. This shared platform provides post-secondary institutions with open-access repositories for research, theses, and any other digital assets they wish to make available to the wider community.

Arca is made possible by a partnership between the BC Electronic Library Network (BC ELN) and Charlottetown, PEI-based software firm discoverygarden.  Implementation was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Advanced Education.

For more information about Arca, including project timelines, announcements, annual reports, etc. please visit the BC ELN website.

Questions? Contact the Arca Administrative Centre.