Library and Archives Canada’s new website goes live — and it’s good

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) yesterday launched its new website, library-archives.canada.ca, and I like what I see.

The objective of the re-design was to make the website simple, intuitive and more accessible.

The launch of the new website is a major milestone in LAC’s efforts to re-centre its online presence on the needs and expectations of users.

For this first stage, LAC focused on the following:

  • Findability: consistent and intuitive design
  • Navigation: based on themes, topics and tasks
  • Themes: collection, services and corporate
  • Plain language: easy to understand

Genealogy
Genealogists will want to scroll down the home page to the Most requested section and click on the Help with your research link under Collection. Note there’s also a link for Census search under Most requested.

In Help with your research you’ll find LAC’s three most popular collections: Genealogy and family history, Indigenous history, and military history, along with A to Z tools and guides.

The Genealogy and family history section is easy to navigate.

Also take a look at the many research guides provided on the section’s first page. Browse through the lengthy list or use the filter to do a quick search.

The Indigenous section is also worth exploring — even if you don’t have any Indigenous heritage.

The website will continue to be a work in progress that constantly evolves based on metrics, analysis, innovation and user feedback. The Improving your online experience page will keep users informed as new tools and features are added to the website. The page also lets users know how they can provide feedback.

Change your bookmarks
The only downside to the new site is that we now need to update our bookmarks because the URLs have changed. In the next day or two, I plan to update the LAC links in the Genealogy Research Toolbox on this website.

Well done, LAC!

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