The Public

Consultation Rooms

Consultation

• Clients of Library and Archives Canada (LAC) have access to several consultation rooms. With the exception of the Jacob M. Lowy Collection Room on the 2nd floor, all of the consultation rooms are located on the 3rd floor of our building at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa. For the hours of operation of our consultation rooms, please visit our page Service and Opening Hours.
• LAC allows users to consult documents from its collection, but on-site only, at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa. No document may be removed from the building.
• LAC's documents are stored in closed-stack areas access to which is restricted to institutional staff.
• Clients can use our research tools to identify and, in many cases, retrieve the material they wish to consult. See Research Tools.

Interlibrary and Inter-institutional Loans

• Many documents from LAC's collection can be made available through Interlibrary and Inter-institutional Loans.

Ordering Material in Advance

• It is sometimes possible to make a request for material prior to your visit to LAC. See Request For Retrieval of Documents Form.

Textual Documents Consultation Room

• Consultation of published materials

Retrieval of published materials is done through our research tools, on-site, at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa. See Research Tools.

Staff members will retrieve the requested material from the stacks during services hours and will place it on the shelves assigned to the public. Please visit our page Service and Opening Hours under Textual Documents Consultation Room.

Retrievals usually take between 60 and 90 minutes, but the waiting period may be longer if the requested materials are stored in another building.

You may also request published material in advance of a visit to LAC. See Request For Retrieval of Documents Form.

• Lockers

• Consultation of textual archival records

The majority of Library and Archives Canada's archival records are not stored in the main building at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa.

Requests for retrieval of textual archival documents will be processed during service hours, please visit our page Service and Opening Hours under Textual Documents Consultation Room.

Retrieval of documents usually takes between 24 and 48 hours.

You may also request material in advance of your visit to LAC. See Request For Retrieval of Documents Form.

• Lockers

Restricted Documents Consultation Room

It is in this room that researchers with the necessary permission will consult restricted textual documents.

Microforms Consultation Room

• Consultation of microforms

Numerous documents belonging to LAC's collection have been copied to microfiche and microfilm. Some items from the collection are available through self-service in the Microforms Consultation Room.

You will have access to a microcard reader, as well as to magnifiers and viewers which enlarge the characters of books and microfiches for persons with visual impairments.

Printers and scanners for documents on microfilm and microfiche are available. Please visit our page Service and Opening Hours under Textual Documents Consultation Room. See also Photocopies and Reproductions.

• Lockers

Special Collections Consultation Room

• Consultation of documents from the Special Media Collection

If you wish to consult the originals of photographs, documentary art items, philatelic documents, maps and architectural documents, you will need an appointment. Consultation will take place in the Special Collections Consultation Room.

Consultation copies of these documents, however, can be made available during service hours, and no appointment is required. Please visit our page Service and Opening Hours under Special Collections Consultation Room.

• Consultation of items from the Rare Book Collection, Literary Manuscripts, Children's Literature.

These documents must be consulted in the Special Collections Consultation Room.

Audiovisual Documents Consultation Room

• Consultation of audiovisual documents

Requests for audiovisual documents must be submitted during service hours. Please visit our page Service and Opening Hours under Special Collections Consultation Room.

Retrieval takes 24 to 48 hours.

You may also order material in advance of your visit to LAC. See Request For Retrieval of Documents Form.

• Lockers

Jacob M. Lowy Collection Room

• Consultation of documents from the Jacob M. Lowy Collection

The works belonging to the Jacob M. Lowy Collection of old and rare Hebraica and Judaica are stored in a special room located on the second floor and must be consulted in that room.