Predecessors from 1906 to 1967. 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. the National Library of Canada was founded in 1953. 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.
Modernization 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). Eight pilot research projects were initiated to validate the framework, including projects on military documentary heritage, aboriginal documentary heritage, and stewardship of newspapers in a digital age. In March 2010 LAC issued its final report on Canadian Digital Information Strategy stakeholder consultations initiated in accordance with its mandate to facilitate co-operation among Canadian knowledge communities. In the same month it issued
Shaping Our Continuing Memory Collectively: A Representative Documentary Heritage, a document which outlines how it plans to achieve its modernization objectives. Despite LAC's stated objectives of continuing to fulfill its mandate by adapting to changes in the information environment and collaboration with others, the actual experience since 2004 has been a reduction in both services and collaboration. Federal funding cuts since 2004 have also impacted on LAC services and acquisitions.
Budget cuts Following the announcement in the
2012 federal budget of a
CDN$9.6 million funding cut over the three years commencing in 2012–13, more than 400 LAC employees received notices which indicated their jobs may be affected and the department announced a 20% reduction of its workforce of about 1,100 over the following three years. Changes introduced under the management of
Ian E. Wilson and
Daniel J. Caron have been the subject of controversy and public criticism. Caron asserted that radical change is needed to cope with the influx and demand for digital material and they are subject to
federal budget constraints. Several individuals and organizations voiced concerns about these changes. In 2011, the
Canadian Association of University Teachers launched the Save Library & Archives Canada campaign. On May 2, 2012, the
Canadian Library Association expressed concern about budget cuts to libraries, both in federal departments and at LAC. In August 2012, the
Bibliographical Society of Canada wrote to every
Member of Parliament urging them to ensure budget cuts do not compromise LAC's legislated mandate. In a follow-up letter to Heritage Minister
James Moore in November 2012, the Society singled out the termination of
interlibrary loans as a particularly harmful decision. Bibliophile blogger Nigel Beale characterizes LAC as "Canada's national disgrace" in his blog
Literary Tourist. Academic Ian Milligan describes LAC's "rhetoric of modernization" as a "smokescreen" for cutting services in light of the insignificance of and limited accessibility to LAC's online collections on the ActiveHistory.ca website. Historian Valerie Knowles outlines the impact of government cutbacks at LAC and federal government libraries in her article "Closing doors on Canada's history" on the
iPolitics website. On May 31, 2012, the
Association of Canadian Archivists announced its withdrawal from forums of LAC's Pan-Canadian Documentary Heritage Network, stating that it does not believe the network can meet the needs and interests of
archives across Canada previously met by the National Archival Development Program abruptly terminated by LAC following the 2012 federal funding cut. Following Caron's resignation in May 2013, a stakeholder coalition issued a joint statement on the qualities of a successful Librarian and Archivist of Canada for official consideration in what they consider a "matter of great national significance": In June 2013 the Heritage Minister said speeding up the digitization of records will be a priority for the new Librarian and Archivist of Canada. Moore also said he will ask the person appointed to revisit the termination of the National Archival Development Program. Ultimately, LAC did provide the records, but many were not in digitized and searchable formats as required by the commission. The
Calls to Action of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission explicitly referenced Library and Archives Canada as follows:We call upon Library and Archives Canada to: fully adopt and implement the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher principles, as related to
Aboriginal peoples' inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to
human rights violations committed against them in the
residential schools; ensure that its record holding related to residential schools are accessible to the public; [and] commit more resources to its public education materials and programming on residential schools.Library and Archives Canada has begun to address these concerns by dedicating funding to hire Indigenous archivists, build relationships with Indigenous communities, and support
digitization efforts. However, Indigenous-led organizations have drawn attention to the fact that Indigenous communities have been conducting this type of work for decades. LAC also holds and provides access to archival copies of the websites of organizations related to the TRC, in collaboration with the
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, the
University of Winnipeg Library, and
University of Manitoba Libraries. ==Facilities==