Library and Archives Canada

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The headquarters of LAC on Wellington Street in Ottawa.
The headquarters of LAC on Wellington Street in Ottawa.

Library and Archives Canada (in French: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is a Canadian federal government department responsible for the collection and preservation of the documentary heritage of Canada through texts, pictures and other documents relevant to the history of Canada, culture of Canada and the politics of Canada. Archival and library material are acquired from government departments, national groups or organizations, private donors, and legal deposit. Located in Ottawa, Ontario, its director with the rank of deputy head of a department is known as the Librarian and Archivist of Canada. The first holder of this title is the former National archivist Ian E. Wilson.

The department was created by the Parliament of Canada in 2004 (S.C. 2004, c.11), when it merged the Public Archives of Canada (founded in 1872) and the National Library of Canada (founded in 1953). After the merger there are now slightly more than 1,100 employees in the Library and Archives.

Contents

[edit] National Library

Located at the front of the building is a sculpture named The Secret Bench of Knowledge by Lea Vivot.
Located at the front of the building is a sculpture named The Secret Bench of Knowledge by Lea Vivot.

The National Library Building is located at 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, near other significant buildings such as Parliament Hill, the Supreme Court of Canada and others. Built for a cost of $13,000,000, the building has five floors and covers 52,600 square metres. It was opened on June 20, 1967 by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson with 400,000 volumes of information which has grown to over 18,000,000. It is now designated as a heritage building.

The administrative units, including the sections responsible for acquisitions (gifts, purchases, and legal deposit), cataloguing, ISBN numbering, conservation and other matters, have long ago overflowed from the main building to several other venues on or around Wellington Street. Starting in autumn 2004 the 600 or 700 employees in these units have been gradually consolidated in a building in Gatineau, Quebec, across the road from the Gatineau Preservation Centre.

[edit] Gatineau Preservation Centre

Gatineau Preservation Centre
Gatineau Preservation Centre

The Gatineau Preservation Centre ("GPC") opened on June 4, 1997 after years of planning. It is a massive hangar-like building with external glass walls and opaque internal cement walls housing specially constructed preservation vaults for some of the most fragile documents of the Archives. It has three stories of windowless vaults with a top story for preservation laboratories and offices. The Gatineau Preservation Centre is located at 625, boulevard du Carrefour, about 12 km north-east of downtown Ottawa, in Gatineau, Quebec.

[edit] Former National Librarians

  • 1953–1967 William Kaye Lamb (1904–1999)
  • 1968–1983 Guy Sylvestre (1918– )
  • 1984–1999 Marianne Scott
  • 1999–2004 Roch Carrier

[edit] Former National Archivists

[edit] Related legislation

  • Library and Archives of Canada Act[1]
  • National Archives of Canada Act (repealed)
  • National Library Act (repealed)

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 45°25′11″N 75°42′28.5″W / 45.41972, -75.707917

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