| Library and Archives Canada Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
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| Type | National Library and National Archives |
|---|---|
| Established | 2004 |
| Reference to legal mandate | Library and Archives of Canada Act
English [1] French [2] |
| Branches | Administrative offices,
550, boul. de la Cité, Gatineau, Quebec Preservation Centre, 625, boul. du Carrefour, Gatineau, Quebec |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | Aboriginal Aboriginal Magazines; Albums and Scrapbooks; Architectural drawings; Art; Artifacts; Canadian children’s literature; Canadian comic books; Canadian newspapers; Canadian periodicals; Electronic publications; Electronic records; English-language pulp literature; Ethnic community newsletters; Ephemera; Fiction and non-fiction; Films; Globes; Government publications; Government records; Government websites; Hebraica and Judaica; Indian residential school records; Journals and diaries; Livres d’artistes; Manuscripts; Maps; Microfilms; Photographs; Poetry; Portraits; Rare Books; Sheet music; Sketchbooks; Sound recordings; Stamps; Textual archives; Theses and dissertations; Trade Catalogues; and Videos |
| Criteria for collection | Canadiana, documents published in Canada and materials published elsewhere of interest to Canada; Records documenting the functions and activities of the Government of Canada; and Records of heritage value that document the historical development and diversity of Canadian society. |
| Legal deposit | yes |
| Access and use | |
| Circulation | (Library) 175,724 total items 2007-2008 (Archival) 132,776 total items 2007-2008 |
| Other information | |
| Budget | CDN$64,859,355 Salary (2007-2008) CDN$45,223,934 Operational (2007-2008) |
| Director | Dr. Daniel J. Caron[3], Librarian and Archivist of Canada (2009-) |
| Staff | 1,104 FTE (2007-2008) |
| Website | http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca |
Library and Archives Canada (in French: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is a Canadian federal government department responsible for the collection and preservation of the documentary heritage of Canada through texts, pictures and other documents relevant to the history of Canada, the culture of Canada and the politics of Canada. Archival and library material are acquired from government departments, national groups or organizations, private donors, and legal deposit. Located in Ottawa, Ontario, its director with the rank of deputy head of a department is known as the Librarian and Archivist of Canada.
The department was created by the Parliament of Canada in 2004 (S.C. 2004, c.11), when it merged the Public Archives of Canada (founded in 1872) and the National Library of Canada (founded in 1953). After the merger there are now slightly more than 1,100 employees in Library and Archives Canada.
Contents |
Chronology
- 1872–Creation of the Public Archives of Canada
- 1953–Creation of the National Library of Canada
- 1987–Public Archives of Canada became the National Archives of Canada
- 2004–Merger of the National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada
Library and Archives Canada Building
The Library and Archives Canada Building is located at 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, near other significant buildings such as Parliament Hill, the Supreme Court of Canada and others. Built for a cost of $13,000,000, the building has five floors and covers 52,600 square metres. It was opened on June 20, 1967 by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson with 400,000 volumes of information which has grown to over 18,000,000. It is now designated as a heritage building.
The administrative units, including the sections responsible for acquisitions (gifts, purchases, and legal deposit), cataloguing, ISBN numbering, conservation and other matters, have long ago overflowed from the main building to several other venues on or around Wellington Street. Starting in autumn 2004 the 600 or 700 employees in these units have been gradually consolidated in a building in Gatineau, Quebec, across the road from the Gatineau Preservation Centre.
LAC Preservation Centre in Gatineau
The Preservation Centre in Gatineau, Quebec, opened on June 4, 1997 after years of planning. It is a massive hangar-like building with external glass walls and opaque internal cement walls housing specially constructed preservation vaults for some of the most fragile documents. It has three stories of windowless vaults with a top story for preservation laboratories and offices. The LAC Preservation Centre is located at 625, boulevard du Carrefour, about 12 km north-east of downtown Ottawa, in Gatineau, Quebec.
In 2000, it was named by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada as one of the top 500 buildings produced in Canada during the last millennium.[1]
New Orientation and Service levels
Since 2004, under Ian Wilson, the merged institution took a radically different track, focusing on the digitization of its records through the private sector and other partnerships, and de-emphasizing on-site collections and services. Senior managers, who traditionally had been archivists or librarians, were replaced with career bureaucrats from other departments. The Canadian Library Association has publicly complained to the Clerk of the Privy Council about the lack of professional archivists and librarians on the senior management team. [2]
LAC Strategic Orientations 2006-2011
From the LAC Strategic Orientations for 2006-2011 as presented to the Services Advisory Board, [3] LAC wants to:
o Benefit from the opportunities of the digital information environment; o Increase accessibility of LAC collections and expertise to Canadians outside the National Capital Region; o Focus our role in GoC Information Management; o Develop collaborative arrangements and partnerships; o Use citizen/client research and make decisions on the evaluation results.
The new direction has resulted in the following changes:
- emphasis on digitization of archival records
- improved genealogy services through the Canadian Genealogy Centre
- de-emphasis on collecting books, periodicals and recorded music, particularly of foreign Canadiana (material published outside Canada)
- de-emphasis on subject cataloguing of books and periodicals
- atrophy of the national union catalogue (AMICUS) as most large university libraries like Toronto and York no longer contribute to it
- elimination or downgrading of many librarian positions such as Newspaper Specialist, Music Reference Librarian, Rare Books librarian
- reduction of on-site reference services to one reference librarian and one reference archivist at any given moment
- replacement of professionals with technicians with little subject knowledge or theoretical knowledge of library / archival science
- de-emphasis on maintaining or updating the book reference collection, to the point where almost no reference books have been added for the past five years, except in narrow areas like native studies
- reduced on-site services hours, partially restored after public protest[4]
- increased reference services to off-site clients
- increased retrieval times for records and published materials for on-site clients
- vastly increased security measures, with more security guards, more patrols, and more camera surveillance[5]
- elimination of the Canadian Book Exchange Centre, the only mechanism for ensuring the exchange of surplus materials between Canadian libraries[6]
- since the failure of legal deposit for microfilmed newspapers ca 1991, no money is allocated to purchasing Canadian newspapers on microfilm since that date except for major metropolitan dailies. There is now a 18 year gap (1991-2009) of missing microfilm for most newspapers.
- heavily used published material soon becomes unbound and fragile, and must be consulted as if it were a Preservation copy, since LAC has no mechanism or budget for binding working copies.
Former Deputy Ministers
Former National Librarians
- 1953–1967 William Kaye Lamb (1904–1999)
- 1968–1983 Guy Sylvestre (1918– )
- 1984–1999 Marianne Scott
- 1999–2004 Roch Carrier
Former National Archivists
- 1872–1902 Douglas Brymner (1823–1902)
- 1904–1935 Sir Arthur George Doughty (1860–1936) (A statue of Doughty is located on the north side of the Library and Archives building.)
- 1937–1948 Gustave Lanctot
- 1948–1968 William Kaye Lamb (1904–1999)
- 1969-1985 Wilfred I. Smith (1919–1998)
- 1985–1997 Jean-Pierre Wallot
- 1997–2004 Ian E. Wilson
Former Librarian and Archivist of Canada
With the merger of the National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada, the position of the Librarian and Archivist of Canada was created.[7]
- 2004–2009 Ian E. Wilson
- 2009–present Daniel J. Caron
Related legislation
- Library and Archives of Canada Act[4]
- National Archives of Canada Act (repealed)
- National Library Act (repealed)
External links
- Library and Archives Canada (English)
- Bibliothèque et archives Canada (French)
References
- ^ Cook, Marcia (11 May 2000). "Cultural consequence". Ottawa Citizen (Canwest). http://www.ty-a.ca/Citizen/top500.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
- ^ Letter to Kevin Lynch 21 April 2009 http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Position_Statements&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=7374
- ^ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/the-public/pcsab/005004-1002.4-e.html
- ^ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/the-public/pcsab/005004-1002.4-e.html
- ^ Toronto Globe and Mail 20 May 2009 National library says security concerns behind dust-up. http://lisnews.org/library_and_archives_canada_restricts_access_music_encyclopedia_workers
- ^ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cbec-ccel/index-e.html
- ^ http://canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/sc-2004-c-11/latest/sc-2004-c-11.html
Coordinates: 45°25′11″N 75°42′28.5″W / 45.41972°N 75.707917°W
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