Library and Archives Canada (LAC) yesterday released its 2017-2018 annual report, featuring media guru Marshall McLuhan on the cover to recognize the inclusion of the Marshall McLuhan Collection, preserved by LAC and the University of Toronto, in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
The annual report focuses on the question, Who do we think we are? In his introduction, Librarian and Archivist of Canada Guy Berthiaume explains why: “In this way, readers are introduced to LAC’s multi-faceted identity, decoded through the reflections of our employees.”
No mention of 1926 census
Although there is no mention in the report about the release of the 1926 Canada census of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba and when it will be digitized, there are a few items of note for genealogists.
Between October and December 2017, LAC held three separate Twitter chats, with specialists and the Librarian and Archivist of Canada answering questions directly from the public. In 2018, LAC will host targeted chats on specific topics such, as genealogy, the military, and censuses. (I would expect at least one of the questions will likely be about the digitization of the 1926 Canada census.)
In 2017, the federal government allocated $14.9 million to LAC to help preserve and revitalize Canada’s Indigenous languages and cultures. As a result, LAC records related to First Nations, Métis Nation and Inuit communities, such as treaties, photographs and Indigenous language dictionaries, will be digitized.
LAC has more than 100,000 items in its rare books collection. One of the most fascinating books acquired in 2017-2018 is the first medical book published in Canada. Direction pour la guérison du mal de la Baie St. Paul, published in 1785. It is one of only four copies in Canada. The “mal de la baie St. Paul” (sickness of Baie-Saint-Paul) is believed to be syphilis, which was almost an epidemic throughout the St. Lawrence Valley in the 1780s.
Canada’s National Heritage Digitization Strategy was announced in June 2016, with the goal of coordinating Canada’s approach to digitizing the hundreds of collections found in its memory institutions. As of September 2017, 54 organizations had pledged their intent to partner with LAC, and initial funding has already enabled a pilot project to digitize three Indigenous newspapers.
The Canadian Expeditionary Forces personnel records of those who served in the First World War are among LAC’s most popular (and fragile) resources. As of March 15, 2018, 568,203 of 640,000 CEF files were available online. Adding new files every two weeks, LAC plans to have all the files available online by the end of 2018.
For the fourth year of the Documentary Heritage Communities Program, LAC will invest $1.5 million in 2018-2019 to support the development of Canada’s archival, library and museum communities, and the professional associations that represent them, by increasing their capacity to preserve, provide access to and promote documentary heritage. Since 2015-2016, LAC has contributed $4.5 million to support 140 projects in Canada.
Since its launch in March 2017, DigiLab has become one of LAC’s most popular signature programs. It enables clients to digitize entire files from LAC’s collection, based on their own interests and priorities, extending public access to our documentary heritage. So far, over 24,000 pages of textual material have been digitized, along with over 1,000 photographs. Highlights in 2017-2018 include:
- Second World War reconnaissance maps showing the location of enemy artillery
- A decade of early Ottawa meteorological records from the late 1800s
- Records related to the internment and dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.
One of the new acquisitions was the Sears Canada fonds that contains textual documents, photographs, scrapbooks, drawings, architectural blueprints, audiovisuals, plus 190 boxes (57 m) of published catalogues relating to the iconic department store.
LAC became home to more than 80,000 maps and documents from the historic Canada Lands Survey Records collection, including plans, field notes, diaries and correspondence. This important acquisition features the official survey records of Canada Lands and pre-Confederation survey records, which date back to the 1760s, and includes some of the first maps ever drawn for many regions of Canada.
More than 10 million images were digitized, 2017-2018.
To move closer to the public, LAC opened two service points at opposite sides of the country: one at Pier 21 in Halifax on June 19, 2017, and another one at the Vancouver Public Library on November 8, 2017.
The annual report is available on LAC’s website.
