Directions for Change

Section 2:
What will guide LAC?

2.2 A clear focus on the client

Library and Archives Canada collects and preserves Canada's documentary heritage for Canadians to use. They may use it for pleasure, for learning, or in the course of their jobs. They may encounter it casually, perhaps happening upon it on the Web; or they may seek it out deliberately, and often. There is no one "client" and there is no one use. We need a nuanced understanding of our actual and potential users, the nature of their uses, and the benefit they are deriving as a result of their use.

New user groups

In addition to continuing to serve traditional user groups such as researchers, other cultural organizations, and genealogists, LAC will place increased emphasis on serving learners of all ages, particularly youth and educators in an educational setting, and currently under-served communities such as Aboriginal and cultural communities. Particular emphasis needs to be placed on ascertaining and being responsive to the needs of these target communities, which may differ substantially among themselves and from traditional user groups.

Understanding user needs and behaviours

To be a more effective disseminator requires a finely-tuned understanding of actual and potential users of documentary heritage resources. What are the characteristics of our target client groups-how large, how diverse, how distributed, of what ages, backgrounds, professions, education levels? How do they seek information? What do they seek, and for what purposes? What brings them to us? What are their subject interests, and their access and product preferences? How much market potential have we not yet reached, and why are non-users among target groups not using us? Are our current services and products serving target users well, being both heavily used and highly valued?

LAC will put in place ongoing mechanisms for gaining knowledg about, and deriving feedback and guidance from, users. We will foster lasting, two-way relationships, engaging communities in meaningful discussions about their needs and expectations. We will consciously, continually, test our assumptions and assess our success against an evaluation framework focused on outcomes and impact. And we will institute a clear commitment to follow-through, to evolve our programs based on what we learn from users.

Ease of use

Also key to being client-centric is to make it simple. The complexities inherent in our work must be hidden from clients. It must be simple for users to find, use, and understand our resources. We will use our metadata and tailor our interfaces so that we provide many lenses through which the collection can be viewed. The philatelist needs a very different view on the collection than the family historian, and both differ again from the needs of the high school student researching an essay or of the academic writing for publication.

Users' diverse approaches must be known and acknowledged, so that all routes lead to successful interactions-as defined by the user. Our clients should be able to tailor their experience of LAC to meet their unique need. There must be no "wrong" way in, and we must aim to maximize the consistency of client experience across the different access channels.

LAC will provide timely and responsive services that meet client expectations. Online users increasingly expect to conduct a variety of end-to-end transactions with us in real time. A usable website, structured for the client, will ensure that our large and growing body of online users are satisfied with their experience.

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