Library and Archives Canada (LAC; French: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. The LAC reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture.
LAC traces its origins to the Dominion Archives, formed in 1872, and the National Library of Canada, formed in 1953. The former was later renamed as the Public Archives of Canada in 1912, and the National Archives of Canada in 1987. In 2004, the National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada were merged to form Library and Archives Canada.
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History
Predecessors
The Dominion Archives was founded in 1872 as a division within the Department of Agriculture tasked with acquiring and transcribing documents related to Canadian history. In 1912, the division was transformed into an autonomous organization, Public Archives of Canada, with the new responsibility of managing government documents on all types of media. The organization would be renamed in 1987 as the National Archives of Canada.
With the efforts of people like Freda Farrell Waldon, the first president of the Canadian Library Association, the National Library of Canada was founded in 1953.
21st century
In 2004, under the initiative of former National Librarian Roch Carrier and National Archivist Ian E. Wilson, the functions of the National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada were combined to form Library and Archives Canada. LAC was established per the Library and Archives of Canada Act (Bill C-8), proclaimed on April 22, 2004, with a subsequent Order-in-Council on May 21, which formally united the collections, services, and personnel of the National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada. Wilson assumed the position as the first Librarian and Archivist of Canada in July that year. In February 2026, the prime ministerial archive of the Stephen Harper government opened, featuring an oral history, digital records, and others.
In June 2004, LAC issued a discussion paper titled Creating a New Kind of Knowledge Institution; after consultation in June 2006, it issued LAC Directions for Change, a document setting out five key directions to define the new institution, including being a new kind of knowledge institution; becoming a truly national institution, a collaborative institution that works to strengthen Canada's documentary heritage; a learning destination; and an institution in government information management.
LAC's modernization policy provides for transformation from an institution focused on the acquisition and preservation of analogue (non-digital) materials to one that excels in digital access and digital preservation. A Documentary Heritage Management Framework developed in 2009 seeks the right balance between resources dedicated to analogue and digital materials and is based on:
three main business pillars: acquisition, preservation and resource discovery (resource discovery includes description, discovery, access and services to the public)
four guiding principles for fulfilling its documentary heritage mandate, i.e. significance, sufficiency, sustainability and society (broad social context)
four key roles, i.e. foundation building (relationship building), collaboration, program (integrated collection management processes) and transfer (formal agreements with third parties to fulfill its legislated mandate).
Facilities
The building at 395 Wellington Street in downtown Ottawa is the main physical location where the public may access the collection in person. The building was officially opened on June 20, 1967. With the de-emphasis on physical visits, in-person services have been curtailed—for example, since April 2012, reference services are by appointment only—and the role of this building is decreasing. There are also administrative offices in Gatineau, Quebec, and preservation and storage facilities throughout Canada for federal government records.
The Preservation Centre in the city centre of Gatineau, about 10 kilometres away from the Ottawa headquarters, was designed to provide a safe environment for the long-term storage and preservation of Canada's valuable collections. It was built at a cost of CDN$107 million, and the official opening took place on June 4, 1997. It is a unique building containing 48 climate-controlled preservation vaults and state-of-the-art preservation laboratories. In 2000, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada named it one of the top 500 buildings constructed in Canada during the last millennium.
A Nitrate Film Preservation Facility on the Communications Research Centre campus in Shirleys Bay, on the outskirts of Ottawa, houses Canada's cellulose nitrate film collection. The collection contains 5,575 film reels dating back to 1912, including some of the first Canadian motion pictures and photographic negatives. The film material is highly sensitive and requires precise temperatures for its preservation. The state-of-the-art facility, which was officially opened on June 21, 2011, is an eco-designed building featuring an environmentally friendly roof that provides better insulation and minimizes energy expenditures.
A planned key activity for 2013–14 was to rehouse analogue (non-digital) information resources in a new state-of-the-art high-density storage facility in Gatineau, where the national newspaper collection and records of Second World War veterans will be stored. The facility will feature a high bay metal shelving system with a suitable environment to better protect Canada's published heritage. In January 2019, Library and Archives Canada announced that negotiations for a new facility to be built next to the existing one in Gatineau were starting, with an opening date in 2022.
LAC's online collection is accessible via its website and LAC provides ongoing information online via its blog, podcasts, the Twitter and Facebook social networking services, the Flickr image-sharing site, and the YouTube video-sharing site. RSS feeds provide links to new content on the LAC website and news about LAC services and resources. A new modernized website is being developed and is scheduled for completion in 2013, with both new and old websites accessible during the transition period.
Collection
The Library and Archives of Canada's holdings include:
250 linear kilometres of Canadian Government and representative private textual records
textual archives for various individuals and groups who have contributed to the cultural, social, economic and political development of Canada
22 million books and publications acquired largely through legal deposit
24 million photographic images (including prints, negatives, slides, and digital photos)
over 3 million architectural drawings, plans, and maps
over 90,000 films (including short and full-length films, documentaries, and silent films)
over 550,000 hours of audio and video recordings
over 425,000 works of art (including watercolours, oil paintings, sketches, caricatures and miniatures, as well as medals, seals, posters and coats of arms)
about 550,000 musical items (including the largest collection of Canadian sheet music in the world; documentation related to music in Canada; and recordings on disks and records of all formats, including piano rolls, reels and spools, and 8-track tapes)
the Canadian Postal Archives;
national newspapers from across Canada, including daily newspapers, student newspapers, Indigenous magazines, and ethnic community newsletters.
Notable items in the collection include:
Digitization
LAC also houses more than a petabyte of digital content. Some of this content is available online, primarily books, Canadian theses, and census material—equating to around 5 thousand terabytes of information in electronic format. Many items have not been digitized and are only available in physical form. As of May 2013, only about 1% of the collection had been digitized, representing "about 25 million of the more popular and most fragile items."
Operations
Since its inception, LAC has reported to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture. LAC's stated mandate is:
to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations;
to be 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 co-operation among communities involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge;
to serve as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions.
LAC is expected to maintain "effective recordkeeping practices that ensure transparency and accountability".
Management
The Librarian and Archivist of Canada has the same seniority level as a deputy minister of a federal department.
On May 27, 2019, Leslie Weir was appointed Librarian and Archivist of Canada for a four-year term commencing August 30, 2019. Weir is the first woman to hold this role. Her term has been extended another four years to provide continuity through some major building projects.
The head of Canada's national archives was known as the Dominion Archivist from 1872 to 1987 and the National Archivist from 1987 to 2004.