LIBRARY & ARCHIVES CANADA Canadas Knowledge Institution for the 21 st Century Presentation to the Ontario Library Association February 4, 2005.

LIBRARY & ARCHIVES CANADA Canada’s Knowledge Institution

for the 21st Century

Presentation to the Ontario Library Association

February 4, 2005

Our transformation into Library and Archives

Canada as a new knowledge institution

ensures more awareness and better

understanding of, and easier access to,

Canada’s rich documentary heritage, the

unique record of our experience together.

This is critical to respond to the needs of

Canada as a successful knowledge society.

The TransformationA Leading-Edge Knowledge Institution

The TransformationA Leading-Edge Knowledge Institution

Canada be served by an institution that is a source of enduring knowledge, accessible to all,

contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada as a free and

democratic society

The Road TravelledLAC Legislation - Part of the Advancement of Canada

Unparalleled access – in breadth and depth – to

information about Canada and sophisticated

information architecture and systems to support it

Client focus – meeting the needs of Canadians with

multi-channel service – reaching them where they live

(digital content, virtual reference, digitization on

demand) with individualized content

Innovative programs to make known and interpret our

heritage (youth & school material, genealogy, Portrait

Gallery)

Fostering life-long learning – customized learning

experiences tailored to the needs of the learner

Our GoalA Leading-Edge Knowledge Institution

Our GoalA Leading-Edge Knowledge Institution

Partnerships with libraries, archives and museums

across Canada to provide access to all of Canada’s

documentary heritage

Risk management – sustainable solutions to

challenges of preservation of the ever-growing

documentary heritage of Canada

Our GoalA Leading-Edge Knowledge Institution

Our GoalA Leading-Edge Knowledge Institution

19 million books, periodicals, newspapers,

microfilms, government publications

156 km of unique textual records

21 million photos; 350,000 works of art

Portraits of Canadians since 1710

Canadian theses and dissertations

Gigabytes of electronic publications & official

records

Outstanding collections of Canadian

Maps and architectural drawings

Film, video, sound recordings & broadcasts

Music, stamps, editorial cartoons, posters & pamphlets

Both traditional and new media

Extraordinary Consolidated Collections

Extraordinary Consolidated Collections

For Library and Archives Canada (LAC), the

dissemination of knowledge is a priority; the vast

documentary heritage preserved by the institution

must be made available for all Canadians to enjoy to

its fullest.

LAC uses several means to make its collection

accessible to Canadians throughout the country.

Library and Archives CanadaA Presence Throughout the CountryLibrary and Archives Canada

A Presence Throughout the Country

Our national outreach

Our Web site Theses Canada Dictionary of

Canadian Biography Canadian Genealogy

Centre

Our exhibitions across Canada

Our public programming

Our loans

We reach all Canadians

Youth The Aboriginal

community Publishers The academic

community Researchers Genealogists Persons with

disabilities

We shareour expertise

Bibliographic data

Reference services

Preservation techniques

Canadian Book Exchange Centre

Workshops and conferences

Library and Archives CanadaA Presence Throughout the CountryLibrary and Archives Canada

A Presence Throughout the Country

Our National Outreach Web Site

Our National Outreach Web Site

In 2003–2004, there were over 9,100,000 visits to our Web site

The most popular online resources included:

Census records

First World War records

Virtual exhibitions on Confederation, Prime Ministers and Canadian Women

AMICUS (Over 28 million bibliographic records)

Read Up On It (Guide to children’s literature)

Web site

Interlibrary Loans—Where the requests came from

Ontario(outside NCR)

24%

National CapitalRegion (NCR)

20%Prairies

18%

Quebec(outside NCR)

15%

Atlantic

12%

BritishColumbia

9%

Northern Territories

2%

Our National OutreachLoans

Our National OutreachLoans

Loans

75,000 requests received in total (fiscal year 2003–2004). From these:

42,000 were filled with loans or copies from our collections

27,000 received responses with alternative locations

Loans

Yellowknife

Edmonton

Wanuskewin

Regina

Toronto

Windsor

Stellarton

Halifax

Fredericton

In 2003–2004, some

200 original documents

were lent to institutions

for exhibition purposes.

Calgary

WinnipegMontréal

Québec

Joliette

Our National OutreachLoans

Our National OutreachLoans

Trois-Rivières

Miscouche

We Reach All CanadiansYouth

We Reach All CanadiansYouth

Read Up On It / TD Summer Reading Club

The only bilingual national program designed to increase literacy and promote an increased awareness of English and French Canadian children’s literature.

40,000 copies of Read Up On It are distributed throughout the country.

10,000 Web site hits in September 2004 alone.

Youth

The summer reading club is designed to help children develop a taste for reading, and TD Bank asked LAC to extend the program’s activities throughout Canada.

In the summer of 2004, the program reached 45,000 children.

We Reach All CanadiansThe Aboriginal Community

We Reach All CanadiansThe Aboriginal Community

Project Naming

The project connects Inuit youth with Elders and bridges the cultural differences and geographic distances between Nunavut and the more southern parts of Canada.

“My participation in this project gave me a better understanding of the way in which we should organize our territory, Nunavut. I realized that our Elders had lost a large part of their culture, and I’ll never forget that they managed to solve problems much more

serious than my own.”

“My participation in this project gave me a better understanding of the way in which we should organize our territory, Nunavut. I realized that our Elders had lost a large part of their culture, and I’ll never forget that they managed to solve problems much more

serious than my own.”

The Aboriginal

community

We Share Our ExpertiseBibliographic Data

We Share Our ExpertiseBibliographic Data

AMICUS Database

Over $7M in savings to Canadian libraries every year:

AMICUS is Canada’s national catalogue, providing bibliographic information on books, periodicals, music documents, videos and other published documents in Library and Archives Canada’s collection, as well as publications held by other Canadian institutions.

AMICUS records are bilingual and meet international standards and norms.

Over 2,000 Canadian libraries and resource centres use the AMICUS Web services.

In 2003–2004, LAC catalogued 74,799 titles for the collection, all made available in AMICUS.

Bibliographic data

We Share Our ExpertiseReference Services

We Share Our ExpertiseReference Services

In 2003–2004, LAC responded to some 70,000 reference questions.

Nearly half of all Canadian inquiries came from Ontario.

In proportion to their population sizes, the smaller and more remote provinces and territories used the inquiry services more than the other provinces. This was particularly true for Manitoba, Nova Scotia and the Yukon.

756,103 photocopies were produced on request.

Reference services

Reference Services

The Road We’re OnImplementing LAC

THE HOW

A new kind of knowledge institution

A truly national institution providing Canadians with access to the whole of their documentary heritage

A prime learning destination

A lead institution in information and knowledge management

THE WHAT

Access is the primary driver

A clear focus on the client

Effective stewardship of Canada’s documentary heritage

Strategic approaches to description and metadata

Mainstream digital

Strengthened leadership and strategic focus

Integrated and holistic approaches

The Road We’re OnOur Directions for Change

The Road We’re OnOrganizational Integration

Integrated Reference services

Integrated Reference and Consultation

Rooms

One integrated lending service

Intellectual Management Office to guide

Description approaches for both archival and

library material

One Sector for the whole collection -

development, organization and care

Implementing our new organizational and

governance structure

Implementing our new legislation

Passing and implementing new legal

deposit regulations

Conducting 4 catalytic initiatives

Developing new programs to make known

the documentary heritage of Canada

Playing a strong role in designing and

implementing the government IM Program

Developing new partnerships with library

and archival communities

The Road We’re OnImplementing LAC

The Road We’re On4 Catalytic Initiatives to Take Us into the Future

Digital Collection – to focus on challenges of acquiring, describing, managing and preserving access to digital content

Metadata – to develop a metadata framework to facilitate delivery of content and services to users

Service Delivery Transformation – to focus on seamless, efficient multi-channel access to LAC services and content, and on profiling LAC content within the ‘Amazoogle’ environment

AMICAN – to improve access and provide the system for intellectual and physical management of our holdings

Supported by

LAC User study – to look at changing environment, clients, user needs and behaviours

The Road We’re On Toward a National Digital Strategy?

A need for a more strategic, national approach

We want to make more Canadian digital information available

We want to make sure we can preserve access to that digital information over time

Time to look toward a collaborative approach that will allow us to collectively do more

Comments requested from

communities on LAC Directions

document

Sessions held with several library

groups, and archival groups from all

provinces and territories

A rich source of community input as

we redefine LAC’s national role

The Road We’re On Stakeholder Consultations

Stakeholders Consultations Strong endorsement of LAC Directions for Change

LAC is urged to: Partner more with stakeholders to deliver service,

achieve national reach and access Strengthen national leadership roles Play a liaison/advocate role for libraries and

archives within GoC Share expertise, training, guidance more Continue focus on putting content and tools online Embrace digital but not lose sight of traditional

What we heard from you

In collaboration with partners LAC will

Develop national strategies for Canada’s documentary heritage and provide leadership in achievement of national goals

Contribute to building capacity in library and archival communities

Foster innovation and new approaches in library and archival communities

Deliver national programs and services in partnership with library and archival communities

Contribute Canada’s experience and expertise internationally and share international developments with Canadian library and archival communities

Position libraries and archives within government and community agendas and increase public awareness

Partnering LAC National Role

Advancing nation building – contributing to

a strong sense of identity

Making a real difference to the quality of life

of Canadians

Creating and sustaining a nation of learners

Contributing in a measurable way to a

cohesive, confident, creative, competitive,

democratic Canadian society

Ultimate Goals

“You get all steamed up about a problem and all excited about a grievance and you go and hear someone expound that topic and discuss the matter thoroughly, and you agree heartily. And you go home under the totally false impression that you have done something about it”.

George Bernard Shaw

“Now that is just a left-handed way, ladies and gentlemen, of saying to you that this mandate I have spoken about is not my mandate, it is our mandate for the future”.

W.K. Lamb

In Conclusion