ARCHIVED - RPP 2007-2008
Library and Archives Canada

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The world in which Canadians live is constantly changing. Economic borders are blurring, new technologies are more accessible than ever before, and new approaches for showcasing our heritage and culture are increasingly available. These changes bring with them new challenges and increasing opportunities. Through their activities, organizations in the Canadian Heritage portfolio enable Canadians to take advantage of all the possibilities open to them with regards to culture, heritage, and civic participation.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) plays an essential role as one of the key guardians of our collective memory. LAC puts Canadians in touch with their heritage and shares that heritage with the rest of the world.

In 2007-2008, Library and Archives Canada will be demonstrating its commitment to cooperation and diversity by hosting the third session of the International Council on Archives in Québec City. Flowing from the overall theme of Archives, Diversity and Globalization, the congress will focus on international cooperation, interdisciplinarity and professional identity, and globalization and diversity.

Library and Archives Canada's vision and objectives for the year 2007-08 are set out in this Report on Plans and Priorities. They highlight LAC's contribution to the vitality of Canada's cultural sector, and to building prosperous and creative communities throughout our country.

Beverley J. Oda

Message from the Librarian and Archivist of Canada

What is the value of the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) collection to Canadians and Canada?

The books, pamphlets and newspapers, the letters, diaries and official records, the films and broadcasts, the photographs, portraits and landscapes, the maps and the globes, which are just part of Canada's library and archives, maintain the voices, the images and the hopes of those who have gone before us. We add to them the documents of our generation, confident that the future will find these of significance for their time. The importance of Canada's documentary heritage is critical to the understanding of ourselves as a people, a society and a country.

The LAC collection offers a wide range of views and facts that permit a frank and open dialogue across the generations as we engage with past lives and explore the rich, diverse and complex Canadian experience first-hand through the eyes, voices and pens of those who lived it. We learn of successes and failures; we learn the strengths and weaknesses of our society, we discover the background to current issues and find insight into the continuing realities of Canada. We celebrate the past; sometimes we commemorate; at times we mourn and throughout we learn. As respected Canadian scholar Dr. T.H.B. Symons noted in his 1976 report on Canadian studies in universities, we come to know ourselves.

Only on this solid foundation can Canada's society plan its future. Only on this solid foundation can we truly seek to understand and address complex issues from our past.

In 2004, LAC articulated a comprehensive strategic vision to ensure that LAC makes the kind of contribution that truly enables Canadians to know ourselves. That vision, Directions for Change, has brought sharper focus to the work of Canada's newest knowledge institution.

At a time when government accountability is more important than ever, we have tackled the leadership issue of ensuring that the public record is accurately maintained and managed for future generations. Our collection is proving to be instrumental in addressing contemporary issues of past decisions that echo today: the head tax paid by Chinese-Canadians, the forced displacement of Japanese Canadians in the heat of war, First Nations' land claims and their residential school experience. The records of our borders, our constitutional development, environmental changes and the evolution of Canada's sovereignty eloquently demonstrate that in a modern society, the past remains current.

We are connecting with both traditional and new partners across Canada and around the world, building and enhancing networks that will ensure the greatest access to our collections and the broadest possible learning and research experience for our clients.

Now, Library and Archives Canada is at another critical turning point. We are making the strategic choices that are defining where we are going and how our institution will work to achieve its mandate. This Report on Plans and Priorities shows how we will address our ongoing responsibilities and move in new directions between 2007 and 2010.

It is important that we act for many reasons. For example, digital technology enables us to reach a national audience impossible just a few years ago. Our collections are rare, fragile, often unique and have substantial monetary value. Our growing web presence overcomes these limitations and allows people to enjoy and study our print manuscripts, large maps, films, stamp and Canadian music collection in homes, libraries and classrooms. Even so, we know we must do more to showcase the best of what our collection has to offer and make it accessible to all Canadians.

The downside of digital technology is that much of the recent digital record is already disappearing from our rearview mirror as governments, businesses, authors, scientists and photographers routinely push the "delete" button as they speed along the information highway. As this RPP demonstrates, we have made a major effort to establish our capacity to collect digital materials but we are struggling to allocate the resources and technology necessary to do as much of the job as is clearly needed. Investments in these and other areas are part of our plans to take on challenges such as improved security for our collection, increased preservation centre capacity to deal with a growing, fragile collection and the need to manage risks to our collection.

As we approach the 10^th anniversary of our world-renowned Preservation Centre, one of the largest and most sophisticated in the world, it seems a fitting time to review our progress and gear up for the future. Our corporate priorities are aligned with the initial vision we set out in Directions for Change when Library and Archives Canada was created. This RPP illustrates how we are ready and determined to take the next steps and make significant progress to demonstrate those results. It demonstrates how we intend to enable Canadians to meet Dr. Symons' call to know ourselves and our past, while providing the solid foundation for our society to plan its future.

Ian E. Wilson

Management Representation Statement

I submit for tabling in Parliament, the 2007-2008 Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP) for

Library and Archives Canada

This document has been prepared based on the reporting principles contained in the Guide to the Preparation of 2007-2008 Part III of the Estimates: Report on Plans and Priorities.

• It adheres to the specific reporting requirements outlined in the Treasury Board Secretariat guidance;
• It is based on the department's Strategic Outcome(s) and Program Activity Architecture that were approved by the Treasury Board;
• It presents consistent, comprehensive, balanced and reliable information;
• It provides a basis of accountability for the results achieved with the resources and authorities entrusted to it; and
• It reports finances based on approved planned spending numbers from the Treasury Board Secretariat in the RPP.

Ian E. Wilson
Librarian and Archivist of Canada

 

Section I:
Departmental Overview

Mandate of Library and Archives Canada

The preamble of our enabling legislation, the Library and Archives of Canada Act, states that the mandate of Library and Archives Canada is:

• to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations;
• to serve as a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada as a free and democratic society;
• to facilitate in Canada cooperation among the communities involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge; and
• to serve as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions.

We achieve our mandate through a variety of responsibilities and activities and, increasingly, through work with the archives, libraries and museums across the country that also hold their own parts of Canada's national collection of cultural materials as well as other partners reflecting Canadian diversity.

LAC is constantly building our unparalleled collection of materials in a wide variety of formats of relevance to the story of Canada. Those formats include printed materials, photographs, electronic publications, maps and documentary art such as posters and paintings of people and places. Some acquisitions result from legislated Legal Deposit requirements that require publishers to provide copies of materials published in Canada. Others are acquired from Government of Canada departments and agencies and through the purchase or donation of materials.

We catalogue and describe these holdings in accordance with international standards to make it easier for people to find items. LAC's leadership role in cataloguing and describing materials for the Canadian archival and library communities makes access to the LAC and other collections across Canada simpler and consistent no matter where an item in a collection may be.

By managing the care of our collection, we ensure it is preserved for future generations. Our use of risk management approaches enables us to make the best use of LAC storage facilities as well as our staff expertise in applying preservation treatments and techniques.

The collection is enhanced by our role as the permanent repository of Government of Canada records of business or historic value for reference by the public. We ensure that records are available in response to public requests and to support departmental and government-wide decision-making. We also examine broad records issues of government and advise on improvements to help meet government priorities.

Our mandate within this framework centres on recordkeeping and accessibility. We are working towards establishing recordkeeping as a regulatory regime of accountability and stewardship within government in which records are created, used, kept and preserved as vital business assets and knowledge resources to support effective decision-making and achieve results for Canadians. A commitment to accessibility informs all LAC work on policies, strategies and methodologies to make government records more accessible to users.

Government recordkeeping is also the focus of work at LAC federal records centres in eight cities, where records in all media are managed on behalf of over 90 federal government departments and agencies. This extends from taking in records of continuing value from government institutions, including personnel records, storing and protecting them and retrieving those required for reference or research. As part of this, we segregate archival and historical records that are designated for permanent preservation, and destroy the others when no longer required. Centres also hold backup copies of electronic records that are deemed essential, in the event of disaster or emergency, to the operations of government and the protection of rights.

We seek to make our entire collection known in many ways to Canadians and people interested in Canada. For example, our client services help users understand how our collection and resources are organized and assist them to find items of interest and relevance. As necessary, we safeguard the rights attached to all holdings. This can involve providing rights clearances, investigating copyrights or ensuring privacy protection. It includes dealing with more than 20,000 requests annually that spur reviews of archival records, of personnel records of former civilian and military government employees, and LAC's operational records.

Library and Archives Canada reaches out to Canadians through exhibitions, learning opportunities, public programming and a rich website, including those within the Portrait Gallery Program initiative. In Canada's Capital Region, LAC stages this programming at our Ottawa and Gatineau locations and at partner venues. Canadians living elsewhere make contact with Canada's documentary heritage through our ever-expanding website, travelling exhibitions and special events, many involving collaboration with diverse partners.

LAC makes our collections available through resource-sharing services that include inter-agency borrowing/lending, document delivery and collaborative reference, as well as our work in partnership with the Canadian library community on the infrastructure that supports resource sharing. Within the federal government, this is matched by our coordination of the library services of federal departments and agencies to achieve excellence and to encourage the effective management of human and financial resources.

The financial and human resources of Library and Archives Canada are presented below.

Financial Resources
($ thousands)(Total Main Estimates)

2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010
$119,303.0	$100,987.0	$99,343.0

Human Resources

2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010
FTEs 1,134	FTEs 1,131	FTEs 1,116

Corporate Prioritie

It should be noted that the achievement of all five corporate priorities involves actions for which particular sectors and groups within LAC have taken on lead responsibility. However, all sectors and groups are working together to ensure the achievement of all five priorities.

Crosswalk between LAC Program Activities and Corporate Priorities

Departmental Plans and Priorities

Library and Archives Canada has a wide-ranging mandate, as described earlier in this section. To deliver on that mandate, in 2004 LAC established Directions for Change, a comprehensive, strategic vision that is shaping our management priorities and spending choices.¹ To target that work even more effectively and to ensure that LAC delivers results that matter for Canadians and their federal government, we have taken a thorough look at the trends and factors influencing our mandate and the work of organizations like ours around the world.

Drivers for Change in our Planning Environment

1. A World of Digital Information

With extensive collections in many media such as sound recordings, films and documentary art, LAC has always faced the challenges of building and caring for a diverse collection that now has to include digital means of recording information. As the major home for the Canada's documentary heritage, LAC is now alert to collecting and archiving Canadian websites, electronic publications and other documents that will never appear on paper. We have already begun to implement the new infrastructure needed to guarantee the survival of this electronic information through initiatives such as the electronic legal deposit of publications, our AMICAN work that is creating a single system to manage our holdings and a search capacity from our website that enables Canadians to search our collection.

2. Canadians' Changing Interests and Realities

One obvious impact of this new digital world is the way the Internet has transformed how Canadians find, use and share information. More and more Canadians, not just professional researchers, want access to our collection, particularly with the growth of interest in topics such as family histories. Canadians want online access to the information in their national collection. At the same time, we are working to ensure that our collection reflects an increasingly diverse society, both in terms of what our collection holds and how we reach out to many different groups of Canadians. We are acting on these opportunities through initiatives such as our upcoming Genealogy Strategy, public programming focused on specific communities and improved services for Canadians to search our collection online.

3. A Networked World

One more impact of the growth of digital technologies is how it enables networks to be built and operated. This creates great opportunities for LAC because Canada's documentary heritage exists in cultural institutions across Canada and in other countries - not just in our own facilities. New tools and new thinking are creating opportunities to enable LAC to work in partnership with others to achieve shared goals, putting Canadians in touch with their heritage, no matter where they are or the heritage items are located. This attention to building and using networks also reflects the government-wide commitment to engaging stakeholders, citizens and other levels of government in the development of policy, programs and service delivery. We are acting on these opportunities through initiatives such as our work with stakeholders to create a common Canadian Digital Information Strategy as well as much of our public programs and services.

4. Becoming a Window on Canadian Democracy

Library and Archives Canada has specific responsibilities related to Government of Canada documents of business and historical value. Canadians are increasingly interested in these documents as shown by a rising volume of Access to Information requests and increased interest in exploring government documents linked to past decisions. At the same time, federal departments and agencies are recognizing that their recordkeeping practices need to improve to meet current public and parliamentary expectations.

5. Accountability for Resources and Results

Canadian public administration has undergone a significant shift over the past decade to emphasize clear results and accountability for spending. The Government of Canada is reassessing programs to focus on core federal roles and to ensure that spending is controlled and efficient. LAC, like all departments and agencies, has to reassess the effectiveness of our business processes, develop mechanisms to reallocate resources from low to high priorities and ensure that spending is directed to measurable and realistic outcomes. This is particularly important as we address the many challenges of caring for our collection and ensuring its security. It is influencing profoundly our capital investment choices.

The Strategic Framework

In 2006, LAC adopted a new Strategic Framework that has put us squarely on the path to the future we intend to create for ourselves. It sets out how we will rebalance our activities in light of our changing environments. It defines the five LAC corporate priorities, listed above in this section, that we will make in order to implement Directions for Change and identifies how we will change the way we do business.

While the five corporate priorities vary in nature and complexity, each requires a significant rebalancing of the way we carry out our business. LAC will rethink many activities in relation to more than one of the priorities as we strive to be:

• much better-known among Canadians as we reach out actively to people and communities of all kinds, reflecting their interests and the importance of telling Canada's many stories;
• even more strategic in our operations as we draw on networks and make capital investments that generate the best possible contributions to the achievement of our mandate, ones that allow us to serve as the trusted repository for Canada's documentary heritage and a valued cultural leader and internationally-recognized innovator; and
• a key supporter of the strongest possible accountability in government and a more vibrant Canadian democracy as we align our government records roles with the needs of citizens, parliamentarians and government managers and leaders.

We are on a path to become much more than the sum of our institutional parts through the five corporate priorities, three of which that focus on what we will do and two that focus on how we will move ahead.

What we will do:

Corporate Priority #1 - LAC will adjust all aspects of its activities to adapt to the needs and benefit from the opportunities of the digital information environment.

We will extend our efforts and increase our investments in acquiring and preserving Canada's digital documentary heritage, and in making use of digital technologies - both to improve access and awareness and to rethink our business processes and operations.

This objective will require the development of a comprehensive digital asset framework that will support fully automated ingest, preservation and access to digital documentary heritage. We will increase our rate of digital acquisition to deal effectively with the annual production of documentary heritage; we will develop functional specifications for digital recordkeeping in government. LAC will also begin working with partners to build a national network of Trusted Digital Repositories that will provide reliable and long-term access to items that exist in digital formats.

LAC will work towards integrated access to our collection by means of an enhanced website that is even easier to use, and is more dynamic and interactive. LAC will digitize for use and for preservation and will steadily build the volume of documentary heritage available on our website. LAC will systematically rethink the services we deliver, both to content creators and to content users, and the way in which we do business in order to respond to the demands and maximize opportunities of the digital environment.

Rebalance:
While LAC has already made significant steps towards the stewardship of digital information and the use of digital technologies in its business, this choice will require us to rebalance our capacity to deal with digital and digitized collections and favour ongoing investment in communication and access via our website. It will also favour reengineering of business processes to take advantage of digital solutions.

High Level Results:

• Digital documentary heritage is acquired and preserved for future generations;
• In their homes, offices or anywhere with hand held devices, Canadians have more extensive and effective access to their documentary heritage;
• LAC makes efficient and effective use of IT in all of its business activities.

Corporate Priority #2 - LAC will increase the relevance and accessibility of LAC collections and expertise to Canadians outside Canada's Capital Region.

In order to make the documentary heritage of Canada known, LAC will focus on activities that demonstrate the relevance and increase the accessibility of our collections to Canadians who live outside Canada's Capital Region. This shift in service horizon will build on a market segmentation of current and potential clienteles to identify particular needs and interests. LAC will deliver products and services in formats appropriate to the clientele and will increase the relevance and accessibility of our collections by increasing digital access and content and by working both with organizations who share custody of the documentary heritage and with targeted communities such as genealogists, multicultural communities, teachers, librarians and archivists. LAC will make use of the expertise of our staff both to improve access and to develop content relevant to Canadians in all regions.

Rebalance:
LAC will actively work to make our collections and expertise accessible outside of the Ottawa-Gatineau region; this will involve examining the kinds of programming that best meet the needs of Canadians and how they can be delivered. LAC will review the role of our Regional Information Management Services in making the collection accessible.

High Level Result:
Canadians outside Canada's Capital Region have improved access to LAC programs and services relevant to their needs and interests.

Corporate Priority #3 - LAC will focus its role in Government of Canada information management on the development of effective recordkeeping.

The capacity of federal departments and agencies to operate effectively is affected by their challenges in all areas of managing records of business value. LAC will therefore focus our government information management role on the development of a Recordkeeping Regulatory Regime that will facilitate accountability and stewardship in the creation, use, management and preservation of records as vital business assets and knowledge resources to support effective decision making, policy development, and the delivery of programs and services to Canadians. We will also assist the Government of Canada in ensuring the accessibility of its records of on-going business value.

Rebalance:
LAC will move from a general focus on information management in government to concentrate more attention on the need by departments to identify records of business value. We will also revisit our storage model for federal records.

High Level Result:
Government of Canada institutions demonstrate the capacity to create, use and preserve records of long-term value as reliable evidence of business decisions, activities and transactions. How we will move ahead:

Corporate Priority #4 - LAC will make systematic use of collaborative arrangements and will increasingly deliver on its mandate through or with others.

LAC can benefit from working with others, as we have in the past, but in order to achieve our mandate, we need to expand this approach. More significantly LAC can benefit from the synergy and more effective results of working with or through others. The model for this new way of doing business is evident on the web. Distributed networks permit a variety of institutions to make contributions based on their strength and capacity. By working together, institutions can realize economies of scale, improve service levels and maximize investments in information and communications technologies and in professional expertise.

In order to achieve this corporate priority, LAC will have to realize a major institutional change. We will shift attitudes from a focus on "doing" to a focus on collaborating or enabling. We will need to develop the necessary capacity and infrastructure to negotiate and manage a wide range of partnerships. LAC will actively seek opportunities to deliver on our mandate by working with or through others.

Rebalance:
LAC will move from being opportunistic to being more strategic, long-term and sustainable in our partnership practices. We will systematically and comprehensively use collaborative arrangements as a means of delivering on our mandate.

High Level Result:
The LAC program is more efficiently and effectively delivered through extensive use of partnerships with others.

Corporate Priority #5 - LAC will ensure citizen/client research and evaluation results are built into management decision making.

As LAC moves beyond providing well established services to a traditional clientele, the institution requires an enhanced user research and evaluation capacity. The quantitative and qualitative evidence provided by such research will be a key contributor to more effective decision making. User research and evaluation will be critical in enabling LAC to identify Canadians' changing needs and to serve new markets, as well as to meet our accountability requirements as a federal department.

Rebalance:
LAC managers will use formal and informal evaluation processes to determine federal department needs and user satisfaction when making decisions.

High Level Results:

• Canadians' need for and interest in documentary heritage is understood and acted on in the planning and delivery of the LAC mandate;
• An integrated LAC approach provides federal departments the seamless access to products and service they require.

From Strategic Framework to Results

Library and Archives Canada has a broad, national mandate that our institution must work strategically to fulfill. We must adopt strategies that enable us to extend the reach of our activities and increase our effectiveness. With the corporate priorities set out in the Strategic Framework, LAC has begun to define how we will accomplish that mandate:

• We will move from an institution that is primarily analog to one that is primarily digital.
• We will move from largely being an independent player to being principally a partner who works with or through others.
• LAC will shift from being an institution whose function is primarily operational to become an institution whose role is a blend of operations, policy and enabling others.

We have identified two critical success factors in accomplishing this strategic alignment of our institution. The first is a sea change in our management and operational practice. In parallel with our commitment to collaborative arrangements with other institutions, LAC will also transform its business practices to establish internal collaboration as the defining characteristic of our institutional culture. We will favour interdisciplinary or inter-sectoral approaches and teams able to move strategic projects forward; we will look for leadership from our executive and managers in modeling collaboration to achieve corporate goals. The second success factor requires the systematic review and reengineering of our business practices, and reallocation of resources to support implementation of the Strategic Framework.

LAC is now embarked on the building of a new business model built on Directions for Change and the Strategic Framework. We will change the way we work, difficult as that might be at times, and align our resources so that we generate the key results that we wish to achieve for Canadians.

Links to the Government of Canada Outcomes

Through its strategic outcome and as a result of its activities, LAC supports Canada's Performance objective - A Vibrant Canadian Culture and Heritage.

 

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