LAC Departmental Performance Report 2014-2015

Every year Canadian federal departments have tabled in Parliament a performance report, an overview of how the organization is doing in meeting its mandate and objectives.

The report for 2014 - 2015 was tabled at the end of January.
After introductory material by the Minister and the Librarian and Archivist the content is in four sections
Section I: Organizational Expenditure Overview
Section II: Analysis of Programs by Strategic Outcomes
Section III: Supplementary Information (mainly financial)
Section IV: Organizational Contact Information

Program 2.3: Access to documentary heritage is of most interest for genealogy.
It's an activity in which LAC spent 16% more and employed 10% more staff than originally planned.
LAC met or exceeded all of its performance targets in this area.

The following extract is of most interest for the genealogical community.

"Performance Analysis and Lessons Learned
In 2014–15, LAC contributed to many initiatives aimed at improving client access to the collection. In addition to digitizing the collection and making it available online, LAC also organized and participated in a number of thematic public events, loaned remarkable documents from its collection to other institutions, and continued to promote the use of social media.
The majority of users who accessed LAC collections and services in 2014–15 did so via the website, which saw over 22 million visits. To better serve the interests of its vast clientele, LAC undertook an online survey which revealed that the two main subjects of interest to users are genealogy and military records. The survey reaffirmed the importance of the digitization and online posting of 640,000 Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) service records.
These records, which are among the most frequently requested documents in LAC’s collection, allow Canadians to find their ancestors and learn more about their movements, their injuries, their pay records and their stories. This initiative was LAC’s primary contribution to commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First World War. As of March 31, 2015, 21% of the CEF records had been added to the Soldiers of the First World War database and 19% of the 32 million images in the collection had been made available online.
LAC also continued its participation in digitization projects in collaboration with Canadiana.org and Ancestry.ca. As of March 31, 2015, 35 million (out of 40 million) images had been digitized by LAC and Canadiana.org, and 22 million images had been made available online at the Canadiana.ca website. Canadians now benefit from better access to the archives of several prominent Canadians, to historical Government of Canada documents, and to various documents concerning immigration and the history of First Nations. In the project being undertaken with Ancestry.ca that aims to digitize 1.3 million images. 10 of the 11 collections included in this project were digitized in 2014–15, and will be made available online in 2015–16."

Read the whole LAC Department Performance Report 2014-2015 here.