Directions for Change

Section 2:
What will guide LAC?

Directions that will guide us in realizing our vision

2.1 Access is our primary driver

As a "source of enduring knowledge accessible to all," Library and Archives Canada collects and preserves Canada's documentary heritage for the express purpose of current and future use. The outcome that we must look toward-and which we must find ways to measure-is how this use and understanding makes an impact on the lives of Canadians, on the effectiveness of government, and ultimately, on the continued successful development of Canadian society.

Information about users' actual and anticipated use of our resources must be explicitly brought to bear on all activities undertaken by the institution. The implications are profound. LAC will acquire for access, preserve for long-term access, describe for access, digitize for access, drive policy toward access, innovate with technology for access, and ensure that the ways in which we provide access effectively meet users' needs. Everybody at LAC is in the access business.

Timely and equitable access

All Canadians should be able to access information in a timely, affordable and equitable manner. But for persons with disabilities, some forms of our documentary heritage are not accessible. LAC must continue to play a key role in assuring the accessibility of information, through mechanisms such as the Council on Access to Information for Print-Disabled Canadians, by ensuring its Website, content and services meet accessibility standards, and by exploring new partnerships and new technologies that may assist in meeting this challenge.

We must recognize that value to most users is derived primarily from the collection of intellectual content that we hold. Users are interested in what is on or in items in our collection. Items' physical characteristics as objects may tell a user how to access an item but rarely whether to access the item, whether it is pertinent to them. We must be media savvy but content focused; our descriptive practices must facilitate access to the content of our holdings.

Self-service access

Access to the collection can be provided in a number of ways. First, we provide direct access to content, onsite or online. Often, this access is to a digital or physical surrogate; only a small percentage of users require, as a necessity for their purpose, access to the original. Second, we provide indirect access through finding tools of various kinds. And third, we provide interpretive products that select and explain content in anticipation of its use or based on the likelihood of its appreciation by many users over time. These three access models, provided they are well done, all support client self-service. Promoting autonomous use of LAC resources by clients enables us to serve unprecedented numbers of Canadians at minimum per-transaction cost, and enables clients to do their research on their own terms.

Mediated access

A fourth way we provide access is through services such as reference, in which our staff act as intermediaries between the user with an information need and the information that will meet that need. We need to make certain that our services are timely, available through multiple channels (online, telephone, onsite, fax, mail) and responsive to the needs of users. We will rethink our reference service model to ensure that clients are directed in a timely manner to the most appropriate LAC staff for their needs. The new model will entail optimal use of our front-line general reference staff, of reference specialists who focus on a certain subject area or media type, and of content experts who have intimate knowledge of specific collections (such as the collecting archivists).

The more effectively we can filter demand through self-service access models, fostering client self-sufficiency, the better we will able to provide custom, individual service to those who still need access to our staff expertise. LAC must consider its access goals and make strategic choices in how we distribute our resources across these different forms of access.

Lastly, we must recognize that increasingly the user wants-indeed, expects-content to be available to them online when they seek it. Digital content, whether "born digital" or converted, is the 21st century reality. Our challenges will be to provide enough of it, to keep it accessible over time, and to find ways to ensure that digital content is not in silos of diverse Websites and databases that are not sufficiently cross-searchable and linked.

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