Digital Initiatives at LAC

Introduction

Within the context of its mandate to "preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations" and "be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all," LAC has set a key objective to become a truly digital institution.

The Library and Archives Canada Act (2004) gave LAC new powers to acquire Canadian Internet publications under Legal Deposit and to collect a representative sample of Canadian websites for the purpose of preservation. LAC has ongoing responsibility for appraising Government of Canada records and preserving those with archival value, and this extends to records in digital form. Also, from private sources, LAC acquires digital records including photographs, documentary art, geomatic material, music, architectural material, manuscripts, and email.

Beyond the digital content that it collects, LAC is also a digital content creator. Its digitization program generates terabytes of data each year.

LAC aims to become as capable of acquiring, describing, preserving and making accessible digital documentary heritage as it has long been for analogue material. To realize this goal, change is required in institutional policy, work processes, technology, and staff expertise. Work is underway to:

• establish policy, strategies, practices and tools to support the development of the digital collection and to make it known, accessible and used;
• develop and implement the necessary technological and procedural infrastructure to support the acquisition, management, and preservation of digital documentary heritage, with the goal of becoming a Trusted Digital Repository;
• review and update existing LAC guidelines for creators of digital documentary heritage material;
• conduct research and environmental scans, and undertake projects that explore activities in a digital world, in order to inform our policy and practice.

This website shares information on digital initiatives at LAC.