ARCHIVED - RPP 2007-2008
Library and Archives Canada

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Section II:
Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcomes

Strategic Outcome:

Effective with the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Library and Archives Canada began to focus planning and reporting to Parliament and the central agencies of the Government of Canada through the achievement of a single strategic outcome:

Within that strategic outcome we identified three program activities that encompass the range of activities under the mandate that Parliament set out through the Library and Archives of Canada Act. Each is described on the following pages.

Program Activity #1: Managing the disposition of the Government of Canada records of continuing value

Financial Resources
($ thousands)(Total Main Estimates)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$10,472.0	$10,888.0	$10,965.0

Description of Program Activity: Through the issuance of Records Disposition Authorities, the development of record-keeping advice, tools and guidance, and the provision of Federal Records Centre and Council of Federal Library services for departments of the Government of Canada, LAC enables and facilitates the management of information within federal agencies and ensures that government's archival and historical records are identified and appropriately preserved.

This program activity includes many ongoing activities but under our new Strategic Framework we are seeking to accelerate our transformation through actions under the following two corporate priorities.

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

We have identified one key commitment under this corporate priority that will be relevant to this program activity in 2007-2008.

Key Commitment 1 - Optimize the role of government record centres to support preservation and access

LAC has a network of eight Regional Information Management Services, located in eight cities across Canada. To make progress on this key commitment, we will develop and implement an Accessibility Strategy that will make a particular emphasis of improving accessibility to federal government records that are held outside of Canada's Capital Region. The Accessibility Strategy will focus on streamlining the manner in which departments and agencies transfer records to Library and Archives Canada and how LAC preserves those records for use by federal institutions and Canadians.

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

We have identified three key commitments under this corporate priority that will be relevant to this program activity in 2007-2008.

Key Commitment 1 - Lead the development of an action plan arising from the ADM Roundtables and participate in its implementation

Improvements in government recordkeeping are recognized as a priority in enhancing accountability throughout the Government of Canada. In 2006, we initiated a process with the Privy Council Office to hold Deputy Minister (DM) Roundtable sessions on government recordkeeping and information management. The goal of this process was to seek DM-level engagement on recordkeeping issues and improve departmental stewardship of records through recognition of five key principles:

a) proper recordkeeping is an essential enabler for the multitude of Government of Canada programs and services, and for meeting regulatory and performance requirements;
b) proper recordkeeping facilitates sound business management;
c) records are a key business asset and must be effectively managed;
d) understanding recordkeeping is an invaluable part of creating a culture of accountability and transparency; and
e) all Government of Canada employees benefit when they engage in proper recordkeeping during the course of their daily business activities.

The DM Roundtable sessions resulted in collective recognition by the senior executives that the management of government records and information needs to be modernized, just as the key management regimes relating to finance and human resources were modernized through the initiatives of modern comptrollership, the Management Accountability Framework (MAF) and the Public Service Modernization Act.

It was recognized that solutions for improving recordkeeping would require collaboration across the government. Accordingly, the DM Roundtable consultations resulted in the creation of an ADM-level taskforce.

During 2007-2008 the task force is expected to identify how to create a sustainable culture of, and a regulatory regime for, recordkeeping in government, and strategies to support implementation. Specific immediate outputs will be a directive on recordkeeping in government, a regulatory regime for recordkeeping and the development of proposed solutions for specific recordkeeping issues (e.g., risk, capacity, legacy and electronic records), with an overall action plan. Implementation of approved actions would then take place on a multi-year basis. Key Commitment 2 - Develop a methodology to enable departments to identify records of business value

Government departments and agencies produce immense numbers of records each year. The long-term challenge is to determine which of those records are of business value, and therefore require ongoing management to preserve them for later use when needed by government institutions and Canadians.

In 2007-2008, LAC will make progress on an Accessibility Agenda, driven by a collaborative approach building on partnerships within LAC and across the Government of Canada and drawing on the implementation of recommendations that were made in 2006-2007. The Agenda will touch on all aspects of the record continuum, involving enhanced advisory services to federal departments and agencies on recordkeeping, streamlined transfer and disposition procedures as well as the development of a strategy for legacy records and the acquisition, preservation and accessibility of electronic records.

In particular, we intend to develop a methodology to enable departments to identify records of business value. We also will develop and consult, both within the Government of Canada and beyond it, on draft functional specifications for digital record keeping.

When implemented over time, the Accessibility Agenda will lead to improved mechanisms for acquiring and describing archival records in all media to make them more accessible to Canadians. We expect to measure success by more efficient workflows, improved intellectual control and enhanced services to clients in the Government of Canada and the Canadian public.

Key Commitment 3 - Begin the implementation of a new storage model for legacy records of the Government of Canada

The 2007-08 fiscal year will mark the beginning of significant changes for our Regional Information Management Services. LAC is developing a new storage model that will allow the institutions and Government of Canada departments and agencies to manage the enormous backlog of textual and electronic records. This work will result in an LAC action plan to address paper and electronic storage capacity in the Government of Canada for implementation in the following years.

Program Activity #2: Managing the documentary heritage of interest to Canada

Financial Resources
($ thousands)(Total Main Estimates)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$67,500.0	$62,284.0	$60,366.0

Description of Program Activity: The building of national documentary resource for all aspects of the study of Canada is fundamental to the mandate of the Library and Archives of Canada. The Library and Archives collection consists of published and unpublished materials in a variety of formats acquired through Legal Deposit, Agreements with government institutions and selected private materials purchased or received by donation. To access the contents of collections, they must be described. Description can take many forms and provide various layers of access but is governed by nationally and internationally accepted codes of practice. At the same time, holdings are also described to meet Canadians' expectations for timely and equitable access. Once materials enter the LAC collection they are managed to ensure their long-term preservation and accessibility through policies, procedures and various programs including storage, conservation, and restoration and copying. To fulfill its role as a permanent repository of the government records and publications, the Library and Archives enters into agreements with government institutions to ensure that documents of historical and archival value are eventually transferred to LAC. LAC also provides advice to assist government institutions in fulfilling their obligations under Sections 12 and 13 of the Library and Archives of Canada Act.

This program activity includes many ongoing activities but under our new Strategic Framework we are seeking to accelerate our transformation through actions under the following corporate priority.

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 have identified four key commitments under this corporate priority that will be relevant to this program activity in 2007-2008.

Key Commitment 1 - Define a Canadian Digital Information Strategy

We are continuing to move forward on our ongoing determination to implement a national strategy for digital information production, preservation and access. Based on our leadership role in this area and the results of a national summit held in December 2006, including representatives of libraries, archives, museums, data centres, publishers, producers, distributors, rights organizations and academia, we intend to lead the development of a collaborative, decentralized Canadian digital information strategy during 2007-2008. In following years, we expect this strategy to open the way for more coordinated activity to build Canada's capacity to produce high quality digital information resources, to digitize key parts of its non-digital information riches and to preserve for future use information produced in digital form.

Key Commitment 2 - Begin development of Trusted Digital Repository services and network

The development of a suite of Trusted Digital Repository (TDR) services is central to LAC's capacity to meet our legislative obligations to acquire and preserve more of the rapidly growing volume of Canadian digital documentary heritage. A TDR provides and manages reliable, long-term access to digital resources. It is organized to address typical challenges such as the volatile nature of digital objects and the change in the information technologies used to create and access them.

LAC, like similar organizations around the world, sees development of TDR services as vital to addressing the tremendous scope and breadth of Canada's growing digital documentary heritage. Our leadership in this area will contribute to the development of TDRs by other libraries, archives, museums and public institutions.

Our TDR work began in 2006 and should continue until 2009. We are focusing on building a solid policy and technical infrastructure for effective management of submission information from content creators. We are addressing the management of metadata related to the technical, descriptive and rights attributes of the content. We intend to ensure that people will be able to find digital resources, thanks to consistent naming, storage and locating practices as well as preservation tactics that will enable long term access to obsolete file formats. Much of this work will involve partnerships with content creators and other institutions and initiatives that share common digital missions and issues.

Key Commitment 3 - Develop the "Virtual Loading Dock"

The Library and Archives of Canada Act now requires that publishers deposit their electronic publications with LAC. A "Virtual Loading Dock" will provide an automated vehicle through which publishers can comply with that requirement more efficiently for themselves and LAC, regardless of medium or file format and using numerous transfer mechanisms. Linked to the Trusted Digital Repository (TDR) being developed that was mentioned above, we expect to achieve automated management of submission information as well as other features such as harvesting of digital information, the use of webforms and effective file transfer approaches.

Over time, we expect this electronic infrastructure will enable us to acquire other content through contracts with private donors and record disposition authorities for government records. We will gauge the success of this initiative by tracking the increase in acquisition of digital content and the increase of depositors and donors who work with us.

Key Commitment 4 - Set up several projects to enable users to add information to our catalogues

Historically, LAC has received information from individuals and organizations such as publishers that we have then input into our catalogues. With new digital tools, it is now possible for LAC to make the process more efficient by establishing a capacity for others to input information directly into our catalogues - much as has already proven valuable when Canadian universities provide us with metadata related to doctoral theses and dissertations. A key need that has to be met in these processes is that the information has to meet the standards that users of our catalogues require for a consistent ability to search and make use of information, regardless of who placed it there.

During 2007-2008, and in conjunction with the implementation of the Trusted Digital Repository services that we described elsewhere in this section, we expect to launch projects that will test ways of creating opportunities for users to add information to our catalogues, while maintaining the standardization needed by LAC partners. We are considering projects such as:

• mechanisms for publishers to submit bibliographic data in a designated format for use by LAC;
• mechanisms that would make it possible to extract metadata automatically for digital publications, thus speeding the work of LAC staff;
• using two of our virtual exhibitions to solicit descriptions from users of unidentified photographs; and
• introducing a capacity for users to add information related to genealogy as part of our larger Genealogy Strategy.

Regardless of which projects are implemented, we will assess their outcomes through measures such as the number of users adding data and the number of records that have data provided by users.

Program Activity #3: Making the documentary heritage known and accessible for use

Financial Resources
($ thousands)(Total Main Estimates)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$41,331.0	$27,815.0	$28,012.0

Description of Program Activity: All materials that become part of the LAC collection are intended for use by those interested in Canada. LAC provides information and services including consultation, research and lending, across multiple channels to facilitate access to the documentary heritage to a wide variety of clients. It also establishes programs, such as the Portrait Gallery Program, and encourages or organizes programs such as exhibitions, publications and performances, to make known and interpret the documentary heritage. LAC also provides information resources and standards such as the national catalogue and supports the infrastructure necessary to ensure its accessibility to those interested in Canada.

This program activity includes many ongoing activities but under our new Strategic Framework we are seeking to accelerate our transformation through actions under the following four corporate priorities.

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 have identified one key commitment under this corporate priority that will be relevant to this program activity in 2007-2008.

Key Commitment 1 - Integrate virtual and in-person planning and delivery of making known activities

"Making known activities" include all our outreach and public programming opportunities, whether virtual or in-person, that are of interest to LAC audiences and partner communities. LAC resources provide much of the funding for this programming, complemented by support from the Department of Canadian Heritage's Canadian Culture Online Program (CCOP). Given the commitment to increased integration of digital approaches into our strategies, including for public programming, we will now plan for the development of programming that has both virtual and in-person elements. As this becomes established, LAC will have the potential to reach Canadians more effectively wherever they live and in the format that is best suited to their needs and interests.

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

We have identified two key commitments under this corporate priority that will be relevant to this program activity in 2007-2008.

Key Commitment 1 - Work with networks to enhance delivery of the Strategy for Public Programming and the Genealogy Strategy, and the Portrait Gallery Program's Travelling Exhibition

The resources and expertise in supporting Canadians to make use of the LAC collection represent some of our most direct services to individual Canadians. However, our Strategic Framework recognizes that we can do much more to reach out to Canadians. During 2007-2008, we intend to move forward with initiatives that will build our collaboration with partners to connect better with Canadians through our Strategy for Public Programming and our Genealogy Strategy.

Our Strategy for Public Programming was approved in early 2006. It is implementing the LAC commitment to take an approach to public programming that actively increases awareness of, access to, use and understanding of Canada's documentary heritage through the achievement of five objectives:

• Increase interest and awareness in Canada's documentary heritage
• Increase understanding of the Canadian experience
• Generate life-long learning opportunities
• Make a personal, emotional connection with Canadians
• Create visibility for LAC

Consistent with the approach set out in the Strategic Framework, the Strategy for Public Programming sets a path with much greater use of partnerships than has traditionally been the case, a strong focus on identifying the needs and interests of Canadians to guide programming choices, the expanded use of the internet and technologies to make the collection accessible to people regardless of their location and a clarity of focus for programming.

During 2007-2008, we intend to continue to implement the Strategy through a wide range of initiatives. For example, we want to expand the use of LAC resources by educators. One way we will do this is through consultation with faculties of education at Canadian universities to determine the needs of new teachers that LAC may be able to assist in meeting. Consistent with our commitment to becoming a more digital institution, we will increase access to LAC learning resources via digital suppliers. We also will review and update selected current educational resources.

Under the Strategy, we expect to move forward on other activities, which will mean changes to some established approaches. One example is the projects that we have under the Canadian Culture Online Program, noted above. We intend to ensure that educational components are included in all those projects as well as selected exhibitions/public programming initiatives to increase our value to the educational community.

Our active approach to implementing public programming, in conjunction with other commitments to reflect the needs and interests of Canadians of all kinds will ensure that we build and use a better knowledge of our target audiences. It will communicate to Canadians the strengths and scope of our collection, as we highlight selected media within the collection. More generally, it will support our partners and encourages literacy and an appreciation of Canada's heritage.

Although distinct from the Strategy for Public Programming, our Genealogy Strategy is based on the same commitment to meet the needs and interests of Canadians. This Strategy is being developed to address the growing interest in family histories among Canadians. We are a partner with, among others, the provincial and territorial archives who hold most of the genealogical records in Canada and we expect to be able to make unique contributions as the Strategy unfolds during 2007-2008. For example, we will work to connect the Canadian Genealogy Centre website, which we are developing, to a new Canadian Genealogy Portal that the community of genealogical partners across Canada is planning to develop. Our website will be a core part of a national collection through links to other repositories in Canada. We also expect to work with our partners to provide links to their resources and knowledge for people researching family histories and local community histories.

Our goals for the Genealogy Strategy are to make LAC a significant partner in the search for an individual's family history and ensure that we remain relevant to the genealogy community. We will measure the increase in new partnerships and additional resource links provided via our genealogy website. In addition, we expect to measure our performance through elements such as user research and client satisfaction indicators. More generally, progress on our Genealogy Strategy should help us to build stronger links to more partners as we all work to ensure the development of a strong Canadian genealogy sector.

The Portrait Gallery Program will increase its visibility through selected travelling exhibitions, eg. Niro/Thomas First Nations Portraiture, allowing for wider accessibility of portraits to Canadians and a better understanding of the story of individuals who built Canada.

During 2007-2008, we also intend to expand our strong partnership with TD Bank Financial Group and libraries across Canada to promote reading through the TD Summer Reading Club.

Key Commitment 2 - Develop and implement an institutional plan to follow up on multicultural consultations

Library and Archives Canada is determined to ensure that our collection reflects Canada's multicultural heritage and that Canadians of all cultural backgrounds find material of relevance and interest to them in the collection and through our programs and services. We have conducted a consultation process within LAC and with some multicultural communities. During 2007-2008, we will continue these discussions, which will lead to our development of an institutional framework for increasing the multicultural relevance of LAC's collection. This will enable our collection to reflect the diversity of Canadian society and will better serve multicultural communities and all Canadians.

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

We have identified three key commitments under this corporate priority that will be relevant to this program activity in 2007-2008.

Key Commitment 1 - Develop a partnership policy and framework

A fundamental step in developing successful partnerships that will enable LAC to better deliver our mandate is to put the key guidance and tools in place. During 2007-2008, we intend to develop a partnership policy and framework to guide our actions. As part of this, we will prepare model agreements, procedures, guidelines and other tools necessary for consistent, effective and appropriate action. This effort will take place with the engagement of groups throughout LAC and with appropriate sectors of the community.

We expect these actions to create the necessary infrastructure to negotiate and manage successful partnerships, which will be demonstrated over time as LAC negotiates and manages an extensive range of successful partnerships that foster more effective and efficient delivery of LAC programs.

Key Commitment 2 - Initiate pilot projects to work in partnership on acquisition, preservation, access and/or making known projects, including creators, memory institutions or user groups as appropriate

As noted above, "making known projects" are about making our holdings and resources, as well as Canadian stories, known to Canadians through outreach and public programming. However, we potentially have many partners who share our goals and whose collections or access to audiences would be beneficial in helping LAC to reach our goals. In 2007-2008, we will identify some of those partnership possibilities and investigate possible partners that will contribute to and further LAC's overall strategic objectives while increasing access to and visibility of the collection.

We expect these partnerships will allow users to gain access to more material from our collection and those of partners, including access to a more diverse selection. By providing that expanded access more quickly and efficiently, all partners will better serve the needs and interests of users and LAC, in particular, will enhance our connections with more Canadians.

Another aspect of this key commitment will be to announce a new partnership approach, which will include inviting proposals from traditional and non-traditional partners, leading to the launch of early pilots.

For example, we intend to explore the direct lending of our library material to the public through a pilot project under the SmartLibrary initiative in the Ottawa area. SmartLibrary is a partnership of public, university, government and institutional libraries that offer integrated information resources to users. Through it, LAC will determine how best to offer individuals direct access to the rich resources of our collection and how to measure the impacts of this initiative.

The Portrait Gallery Program activities are currently and will continue to be partnered in exhibitions, outreach (eg. Community Portraits) and through acquisitions fund-raising. This is expected to increase involvement and interest by diverse Canadians, as well as increase visibility to the LAC's holdings. The preservation and care of the LAC portrait collection will remain a priority, as options for a permanent site for the Portrait Gallery of Canada are explored

We also will explore the feasibility of off-site lending of non-circulating materials from our collection through the existing network of interlibrary and inter-institutional partners. Should we decide to launch a possible pilot project, Canadians may be able to borrow specific materials that have been in our non-circulating collection until now and do so through the convenience of their local information resources, such as a local library. If successful, this approach would increase access of LAC's collections to citizens regardless of their geographic location. It would also provide more user-centred services.

Key Commitment 3 - Continue implementation of the National Archival Development Program

The National Archival Development Program (NADP) is the sole LAC contribution program. It provides financial assistance to Canadian archives and related organizations to increase their capacity to preserve and make accessible unique archival materials about Canada and Canadians. In line with our commitment to Treasury Board when the terms and conditions of NADP were revised and renewed, we worked in collaboration with the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA) to develop a performance measurement plan that will document the impact of the Program.

During 2007-2008, we intend to work with CCA to implement performance measures that should provide evidence that will demonstrate the degree of effectiveness of NADP in preserving and making accessible Canada's archival heritage. We will track the success of this implementation and the performance measures by gathering and assessing the statistical and qualitative evidence

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

We have identified one key commitment under this corporate priority that will be relevant to this program activity in 2007-2008.

Key Commitment 1 - Test or pilot a mechanism to conduct client research

We intend to become much more guided by research into what people who use or could use our programs and services want from us, given our mandate and resources. This will include full attention to the results of evaluations of our programs and services. During 2007-2008, we will move on this commitment by establishing feedback mechanisms for our web-based programs as well as our public programming more generally. We also intend to develop other client research tools that we will begin to test. We expect that these measures will enable us to collect and analyze information of relevance to future planning. They will also allow us to determine the effectiveness and reliability of our client research tools for clients and LAC program managers.

 

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