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Section II: Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

This section presents the resources and results for each of the three program activities plus internal services under our single strategic outcome in 2010–2011:

Current and future generations of Canadians have access to their documentary heritage

Information in this section compares LAC performance to the Planning Highlights that were set out in the Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP) and the expected results, performance indicators and targets in the Performance Measurement Framework that LAC revised after the RPP was completed. These expected results, performance indicators and targets were used throughout 2010–2011 and provide a more meaningful and measurable basis to assess LAC’s goals and results achieved than those in use at the time we developed our RPP.

The Performance Analysis describes the strategic approach taken under each program activity during the year and notes any significant developments after the RPP was developed, particularly those related to Modernization. This section also indicates lessons learned under each program activity.

Program Activity 1.1: Managing the disposition of the Government of Canada records of continuing value

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Program Activity 1.1: Managing the disposition of the Government of Canada (GC) records of continuing value

2010–2011 Financial Resources ($ thousands)			2010–2011 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending8	Planned	Actual	Difference
$ 6,915.6	$ 7,269.8	$ 10,537.2	162	189	27

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status
Relevant GC information is managed by federal institutions in a manner that is coherent and that demonstrates accountability to support the rights, obligations and privileges of Canadians.	Proportion of institutions that receives or maintains an "acceptable" or "strong" in the information management report card	40%	Exceeded 70% received or maintained an "acceptable" or "strong" rating in their information management report card

Performance Summaries by RPP Commitment	Performance Status
Recordkeeping training, awareness building, support and guidance activities	Met all
Recordkeeping training, awareness building, support and guidance activities	Met all

⁸ Financial variances are detailed in the explanation of variance tables at: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/about-us/012-3002-e.html

Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity

Our progress on this program activity in 2010–2011 was in line with our projections in the RPP and under MII-3.⁹ Since 2006, we have worked with the Treasury Board Secretariat and many departments and agencies to define and implement a new Government of Canada recordkeeping system. It is improving information resources management by establishing ways and means for organizations to effectively capitalize on corporate information as a key public business asset and to ensure the accountability of public administration.

⁹ MII-3: By spring 2011, LAC will apply a modernized framework and tools to its work with all Government of Canada institutions to ensure the effective management of government information.

We continued to play a leadership role in government-wide recordkeeping. This included development of a recordkeeping methodology with a supporting guide and more than 30 tools. The guide and tools will be launched in 2011–2012 to help federal departments take on their responsibilities under the new Directive on Recordkeeping.¹⁰ To support federal departments, we took part in information events of many kinds and promoted digital and recordkeeping innovations. Awareness was increased through the Assistant Deputy Minister Task Force on the Future of Federal Library Service as well as through the “Information Management Senior Official Days” that allowed us to connect with information management senior officials across the government. The launch of Digital Office Pilot Projects with three small institutions are enabling us to test new approaches to recordkeeping effectiveness and disposition; the use of portable devices linked to recordkeeping systems; digitization of information resources; and establishment of strategies for email recordkeeping.¹¹

¹⁰ Some of the tools include a diagnostic tool, a Value Statement of Intent, a data collection tool and a Recordkeeping Accountability Instrument.

¹¹ The three small institutions are the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada (OCL), the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor).

Lessons Learned

With substantial progress in supporting Government of Canada departments and agencies as they implement the Directive on Recordkeeping, our lessons learned concerned the necessity to engage and collaborate with federal departments and agencies for disposition and recordkeeping projects. For example the lessons learned with our pilot project with Natural Resources Canada served the elaboration of the guiding principles and various steps of the recordkeeping methodology.

Program Activity 1.2: Managing the documentary heritage of interest to Canada

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LAC acquires documentary heritage material for our holdings in many ways. LAC staff describe and manage this material to ensure its long-term preservation and accessibility.

Program Activity 1.2: Managing the documentary heritage of interest to Canada

2010–2011 Financial Resources ($ thousands)			2010–2011 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending12	Planned	Actual	Difference
$ 64,370.2	$ 68,221.2	$ 48,021.2	492	497	5

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status
The management of our holdings are improved to enhance long-term access and to better reflect the Canadian experience.	Effectiveness of the collection management strategy as measured by the extent of development and implementation of a more strategic approach to our acquisitions	100% of acquisitions, excluding legislated acquisitions	Mostly met Reduced intake of non-regulated published works An acquisition framework was applied to 100% of archival and special collection acquisition proposals

Performance Summaries by RPP Commitment	Performance Status
Use of a new acquisition orientation instrument	Mostly met
Use of a new preservation orientation instrument	Mostly met
Implementation of the first phase of the Trusted Digital Repository	Mostly met
Progress on digitizing items in our holdings	Mostly met
Progress on a new Collection Storage Facility	Met all
Completion of the new Nitrate Film Preservation Facility	Met all

¹² Financial variances are detailed in the explanation of variance tables at: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/about-us/012-3002-e.html

Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity

This Program Activity was a focal point of much of the Modernization agenda during 2010–2011. In practice, we began to pursue many of the key commitments in the Report on Plans and Priorities, as those were based on Modernization. However, many were altered when we established our MIIs, particularly related to documenting Canadian society and holdings management.

Our more strategic approach to acquisition activities reflected Modernization. For example, we applied a formal acquisition framework to all proposed acquisitions of private archives. That framework enabled us to provide our Major Appraisal Committee with the detailed evaluations it needed to make its decisions. In line with the framework, we declined to acquire approximately 300 potential acquisitions offered because they did not align with our 5S value criteria of Significance, Sufficiency, Sustainability Society, and Suitability. In many cases, we referred the individuals and organizations offering the holdings to other institutions that seemed more likely to enable Canadians to benefit from them.

Under MII-2, we started to develop new control mechanisms and decision criteria to guide the appraisal processes that we intend to develop to help us manage our acquisitions.¹³ This initiative responded to recommendations from an internal audit review of LAC acquisition processes for our holdings that was approved by the Departmental Audit Committee.¹⁴ LAC also began to examine approaches for the systematic review of the relevance of our existing holdings under MII-4¹⁵, taking into account the 5S value criteria noted above. We expect that this work will inform our future strategic approach to acquisitions and preservation. It will allow LAC and our partners across the pan-Canadian network of documentary heritage institutions to develop an integrated, representative and collaborative collection of Canada’s documentary heritage.

¹³ MII-2: By 2015, LAC will have fully implemented an approach that allows it consistently to appraise and preserve documentary heritage of all kinds and determine where they should be best placed.

¹⁴ Recommendations in the internal audit review include the development of “acquisition procedures that define the various steps of the acquisition process and clarify the selection criteria for informed decision making”, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/about-us/014/012014-316-e.html

¹⁵ MII-4: Beginning in spring 2011, LAC will review the relevance of its holdings based on its mandate and a modernized appraisal approach.

Among our preservation initiatives, we implemented collection storage strategies and moved our Rare Book Collection to the Preservation Centre. The on-time completion of the new Nitrate Film Preservation Facility allowed us to move our nitrate-based media, such as motion picture films and photographs there in February 2011. The new facility pictured below ensures the ongoing safety and sustainability of these highly flammable holdings¹⁶. We also received approvals to begin contracting for our new Collection Storage Facility, with the year-long construction to begin in 2012.

¹⁶ To view pictures taken during the opening of the facility, please consult LAC’s Flickr page at www.flickr.com/photos/lac-bac/sets/72157627022868964/with/5860613527/

We created a Risk Management Framework for our holdings not already in a digital format. To address one of the significant risks, we continued our audiovisual migration strategy under which we are transferring old obsolete audio and video recordings to modern digital file formats. While we made slightly less progress in some parts of this work than expected, we ensured that 10,518 hours of audio and video were digitized (Target: 12,759 hours). That work has now succeeded in digitizing all our holdings in five obsolete audio and video technologies, ensuring their availability for future generations.

Consistent with our commitment to collaboration, we launched discussions with our partners in provincial and territorial archives to assess the preservation expertise across Canada, and specifically audio-visual preservation capacity.

Our progress under MII-7¹⁷ focused on determining how best to modernize our traditional photocopy service into a digital scanning operation. By offering clients access to digital copies, rather than photocopies, we can meet both the immediate need of the client requesting the copy and the longer-term needs of future clients by enriching our website with these digital copies.

¹⁷ MII-7: By spring 2012, LAC will be shifting how it makes and provides copies of its holdings to digital reproduction and storage, which also will facilitate putting content online.

The ongoing LAC commitment to implement the first phase of a Trusted Digital Repository (TDR) was deferred to later in 2011.¹⁸ However, we continued to test TDR elements such as one that allows federal departments to transfer electronic records to LAC. While the foundational work required to become a TDR has begun, the technology work associated with building a TDR proved to be more challenging than expected. This situation is consistent with the experiences of others who have undertaken similar projects including the National Archives and Records Administration in the United States and the Planets project in the European Union. LAC reviewed the existing TDR architecture model to determine how it can better align with the broader LAC digital strategy. Additionally, LAC began to work with select stakeholder communities on a cooperation preservation strategy. This will be an initial phase in the development of a collaborative network for digital preservation.

¹⁸ A trusted digital repository is one whose mission is to provide reliable, long-term access to managed digital resources to its designated community, now and in the future. It is organized to address challenges such as the volatile nature of digital objects and ongoing changes in the information technologies used to create and access them.

Lessons Learned

We understand that the creation and implementation of an integrated model for appraisal and acquisitions decision that is both in line with our mandate and engages other Canadian documentary heritage institutions will be complex. The model will require sustained effort and creativity and has required more time and effort than originally planned. Once this challenge is met and an integrated model approved, it will provide a cornerstone for our long-term work in building an institution for the 21st century and the digital world. We remain confident that we will reach this goal in 2011–2012.

On the preservation side, while the TDR remains a key element in our strategy to “go digital” we clearly see two challenges. First, we need to strike a balance between our internal capacity and the readiness of content creators to transition to digital. Second, content creators need the tools to ensure their compliance with TDR requirements.

Program Activity 1.3: Making the documentary heritage known and accessible for use

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LAC provides information and services to facilitate access to the collection and pursues initiatives to make known Canada's documentary heritage. LAC also provides information resources and standards for use by Canada's library and archival communities.

Program Activity 1.3: Making the documentary heritage known and accessible for use

2010–2011 Financial Resources ($ thousands)			2010–2011 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending19	Planned	Actual	Difference
$ 29,516.5	$ 30,773.5	$ 32,357.0	225	195	-30

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status
Canadians are aware of LAC as an authoritative, innovative source of content and expertise related to Canada's documentary heritage.	Level of client satisfaction with responses to their inquiries Percentage of clients who report being able to find what they are looking for	75% of clients who contact us online, or by mail are satisfied with their responses. 60% of clients find what they are looking for	Met Client satisfaction with online and mail responses was 83.5%. 66% of in-person clients and 61% of online clients reported being able to find what they were looking for.

Performance Summaries by RPP Commitment	Performance Status
Begin to implement a Resource Discovery Framework	Met all
Begin to implement a new services strategy	Somewhat met
Pursue the Portrait Gallery of Canada planning strategy	Somewhat met

¹⁹ Financial variances are detailed in the explanation of variance tables at: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/about-us/012-3002-e.html

Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity

While we continued to deliver many of our programs and services that enable Canadians and people interested in Canada to make use of our holdings, we also made progress in line with our Modernization direction. A key element in this progress was the development of an “orientation instrument.” It set out guiding principles, priorities and a clear vision of an end state for our resource discovery role. This instrument confirmed that we will respond to client needs and expectations and support the discovery of our holdings, while ensuring that it is presented within a national and international context.

While we began the planned work on a Resource Discovery Framework and a new service strategy model, we clarified our service priorities through many MIIs. For example, under MII-8 we created and validated a new service delivery framework.²⁰ The framework commits LAC to services that are client-centred, providing access to our holdings wherever the clients are, whenever they want it and however they want it. We have committed to supporting the broadest access to Canada’s documentary heritage with an emphasis on being digital, collaborative and user-centric. We developed pilot projects to test attributes of the new framework and determine how best to achieve our resource discovery goals. In co-operation with the Champlain Society, LAC began to create a collaborative, online platform for user-contributed content. It will enable the public to transcribe, share and contribute to holdings on Sir John A. Macdonald.

²⁰ MII-8: In spring 2011, LAC will have developed a new service model to provide Canadians with access to its documentary holdings.

Metadata is information about information resources, such as subjects covered in a website or the location a photograph was taken. It enables clients to find, retrieve and use content more consistently and easily. It is a key component of LAC’s Resource Discovery Framework and the focus of MII-12.²¹ In light of increased client expectations in the discovery of our holdings and in support of our new service model, we analyzed client search behaviours and drew on a research project to help us shape a new metadata framework. We launched pilot projects in support of the framework to explore issues and to help refine our client service approach. For example, we launched a crowdsourcing²² pilot project to explore how the public can contribute to our digital holdings and metadata.  The project enables clients to digitize materials on site at our Wellington Street location; this digital content is then added to our online resources. This pilot will run until the fall 2011 and then will be evaluated in order to determine whether this form of crowdsourcing will become part of our standard operations.

²¹ MII-12: Beginning in winter 2011, LAC will develop a single framework that it, as well as other creators, donors and users, will use to describe information in its holdings.

²² Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers

Consistent with our overall commitment to “go digital,” we continued to shift to digital services and increased digital content. These allow clients the flexibility of self-serve options such as downloading requested files from our server or printing the files themselves from wherever they are.²³ Online database updates included passenger lists (182,000 digital images), Orders in Council from 1914–1916, medals, honours and awards (113,000 images). When people request digital copies of First World War files, we place those files online for other clients to view, increasing our digital content.We also created new research guides to help clients, including an Aboriginal research guide, pre-Confederation official publications guide and a military abbreviations guide that helps people understand the 64,000 abbreviations in military files.

²³ Modernizing Textual Reprography Services at LAC, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/whats-new/013-492-e.html

We continued to facilitate access to our holdings through the Portrait Gallery program.²⁴ In 2010–2011, more than 500,000 Canadians in seven provinces enjoyed access to portraits through travelling exhibitions. A 2010 highlight was the first exhibition of the 300 year old portraits of the “Four Indian Kings” in an Aboriginal cultural centre. Another highlight was the event “Portraits in the Street: Cupids 400” where people in Cupids, Newfoundland agreed to mount reproduction portraits on various buildings to celebrate the 400th anniversary of English settlement in Canada. The exhibition was so popular that the community now intends to set up its own portraits program.

²⁴ Portrait Gallery of Canada – Current Exhibitions, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/portraits/009001-2100-e.html

Project Naming(PN), our collaborative photo identification project, is an initiative that invites individuals to identify people, places and other vital historical details depicted in digital photographs and other archival materials on LAC’s website. This valuable, user-contributed content enhances our holdings as part of a lasting historical record.Project Naming is recognized both nationally and internationally. The National Archives in the United Kingdom cited Project Naming as its model for its digitization of colonial photographs taken in Africa.

The initial focus of Project Naming was on photos taken in northern Inuit communities. We digitized nearly 1,300 photographs and a diary from the Rosemary Gilliat Eaton Collection and will upload the images with a new user-contributed content application when it is available. Members of our PN team assisted the Kitikmeot Heritage Society from western Nunavut with a photo identification gathering in Kugluktuk. It led to identification of individuals in 35 images. A three-day research visit by the Nanisiniq: Arviat History Project enabled Inuit youth and an Elder from Arviat to identify parents and grandparents in images.

The National Archival Development Program (NADP) is our only grants and contributions program, which we administer in collaboration with the Canadian Council of Archives. During 2010–2011, $1.1 million was allocated under NADP to 73 institutions for 93 projects that improved access to Canada’s documentary heritage. NADP was continued after the evaluation of the relevance and effectiveness of the program.

Lessons Learned

Client feedback has provided us with many lessons learned. In particular, clients tell us that they want more resources online to help them discover our holdings. In this context, our operations, plans and priorities continue to shift toward digital services and content models. LAC’s resource discovery professionals also continue to inform policy and procedural issues that will need to be addressed as we move forward on the organization’s Modernization objectives for resource discovery.

Program Activity 1.4: Internal Services

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Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of governmental organizations. In LAC these are: Management and Oversight Services; Communications Services; Strategic Research; Legal Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Real Property Services; Materiel Services; Acquisition Services; and Travel and Other Administrative Services. Internal Services include only those activities and resources that apply across an organization and not to those provided specifically to a program.

Program Activity 1.4: Internal services

2010–2011 Financial Resources ($ thousands)			2010–2011 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending25	Planned	Actual	Difference
$ 29,578.4	$ 32,377.2	$ 34,403.6	230	238	8

Performance Summaries by RPP Commitment	Performance Status
Better coordination of internal services roles including capital planning and information technology services	Mostly met
Develop and pursue talent management strategies	Mostly met
Enhance corporate planning, finance and reporting processes and tools	Mostly met

²⁵ Financial variances are detailed in the explanation of variance tables at: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/about-us/012-3002-e.html

Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity

Internal services functions have critical roles in support of all other aspects of LAC activity and Modernization. Accordingly, we focused substantial attention on the responsibilities and contributions of these key enablers.

Because information technologies are important to so many of our plans, we made information technology (IT) the focus of MII-6.²⁶ Through MII-6, we are assessing how to ensure that our IT plans fully support our Modernization priorities. This began with a review to explore how LAC could leverage new opportunities, approaches and tools to enable Modernization. By reviewing LAC information technologies and information management against current and future needs, as well as comparing them to those of documentary heritage institutions in other countries, we gained a clearer sense of where we were and what we needed to do to get the most impacts from our IT investments. We intend to use the results in 2011–2012 to define, describe and align an updated corporate IT architecture. That architecture will guide our IT approaches and choices in a consistent manner across the organization, ensuring the best use of resources.

²⁶ MII-6: By fall 2011, LAC will have the framework in place to ensure that its information technology strategies, resources and investments are in line with Modernization priorities.

Also included under this program activity was our progress on MII-1.²⁷ It is focused on creating and implementing the communications strategy needed to build collaboration with all stakeholders with an interest in the work of LAC and the direction we are taking through Modernization. Much of this took place through LAC outreach. For example, the Deputy Head and Librarian and Archivist of Canada and senior management made many presentations at meetings and conferences.²⁸

²⁷ MII-1: In spring 2011, LAC will have implemented an emergent strategy to guide its external communications and its collaboration with stakeholders and partners, particularly in support of Modernization.

²⁸ For the latest speeches and presentations from the Deputy Head and Librarian and Archivist of Canada, visit the following link: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac/012007-1000-e.html

We built on this commitment to collaboration and external engagement through the first national meeting of the LAC Stakeholders Forum. The Canadian documentary heritage institutions that took part in the Forum reached a consensus that the task of managing Canada’s documentary heritage is too complex for any one institution to pursue in isolation. In order to coordinate their strategies and actions, there was agreement on the value of a pan-Canadian documentary heritage network. This networked approach was furthered by the organization of the academic forums in September 2010 and February 2011. Our work with provincial and territorial counterparts led to support for a common approach to trusted digital repositories. Collaborative projects such as a Franco-Canadian Archives Initiative also emerged from those discussions. All these actions helped clarify the environment in which our work to create an external engagement strategy began to take place.

As an organization that depends on skilled and highly specialized expertise, we made human resources (HR) another major priority, including work toward an LAC human resources strategy as part of MII-5.²⁹ When completed, the HR strategy will identify key competencies needed for the future of LAC, guide the modernization of our HR policies, address our ongoing staffing needs using modern, transparent approaches and support a talent management strategy as well as an employee engagement strategy.

²⁹ MII-5: In spring 2011, LAC will begin implementing a strategy to address its human resources priorities in support of Modernization.

In support of talent management, we addressed needs such as a new internal second-language training program for staff, as part of a larger draft action plan that also will address issues identified by the Commissioner of Official Languages. We tested new mandatory training for managers to help enhance management competencies across all functions. Managers became subject to a new performance management requirement, holding them accountable for the establishment of learning plans among their staff.

LAC also took measures to ensure that new staffing takes into account our need to improve the representation of employment equity groups. Other actions addressed needs such as the importance of university recruitment, new staffing guidelines and the introduction of generic processes to staff certain types of positions.

Effective internal communication characterizes a modernized organization and supports the effective human resources management that LAC intends to achieve as part of Modernization. Weekly email briefs from the Deputy Head and Librarian and Archivist of Canada as well as from Assistant Deputy Ministers were good examples of information sharing. In order to feed relevant and timely information into the decision making process at LAC, we also introduced a Web-based dissemination tool: the Strategic-Research Daily³⁰. Strategic research is essential to the long-term planning of the institution by providing evidence-based research on matters relating to the mandate of the institution, Modernization activities and the long-term relevance of the institution in the digital environment.

³⁰ The Strategic-Research Daily, Library and Archives Canada, http://paper.li/pdesrochers/strategic-research

We also pursued the other internal service commitments that we established in the Report on Plans and Priorities. For example, we revised our governance structure to clarify roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. A new finance committee was established to support stronger financial management and decision making. At an operational level, we launched pilot projects designed to apply technology and new approaches to the workplace environment. These included renovations to make an employee cafeteria more of a space for the exchange of ideas and pilot projects to test shifts from landline telephones to cell phones and from desktop computers to tablet computers.

Lessons Learned

The most significant lessons learned under this program activity related to our information technology activities. For example, we learned much more about how to use client and stakeholder needs to drive our choices as well as the importance of clarifying the business architecture in which IT is expected to work before we turn to engineering possible IT solutions in this climate of change that we must constantly manage.

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