Electronic Collection
A collection of digital books and journals

Introduction

The Electronic Collection of Library and Archives Canada (LAC) consists of Canadian books and periodicals published online, and continues to grow through the Legal Deposit of online publications. As of spring 2009, it included more than 30,000 monographs (books) and more than 100,000 serial issues (journals, periodicals, newsletters, magazines) published in Canada by both non-governmental and governmental publishing sectors. The collection supports LAC's mandate of preserving the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations.

The Library and Archives of Canada Act (2004) (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/showtdm/cs/L-7.7//en/en) is a federal statute of Canada that mandates and legally empowers Library and Archives Canada (LAC) to collect and preserve the nation's published heritage under legal deposit. On January 1, 2007 legal deposit was extended to online or Internet publications.

All Canadian publishers are required to deposit copies of their online publications with Library and Archives Canada (LAC), according to the Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/SOR-2006-337/index.html). Further information is available by consulting Legal Deposit: Preserving and Providing Access to Canada's Published Heritage.

Some titles are labelled "Restricted Access". This indicates the title is only accessible at the public Internet workstations in the Library Reference Room. These workstations permit read-only access.

LAC began harvesting the web domain of the Federal Government of Canada (.gc.ca) starting in December 2005. This harvested data is accessible via the Government of Canada Web Archive (GCWA). The web archive can be searched full text, by keyword, department name, URL or file format.

For assistance with International Standard Numbers (ISNs) contact the Canadian ISBN / ISMN Agency, or ISSN Canada.

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How to Reach Us

For more information, please contact Electronic Acquisitions at the Published Heritage Digital Office.

by email at: epe@bac-lac.gc.ca

by telephone at: 819-997-9565
1-866-578-7777 (Toll free in Canada and the U.S.)

by fax at: 819-953-8508

or by regular mail at:

Electronic Acquisitions
Digital Office, Published Heritage
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0N4
Canada