Infographic - Evaluation of the Access to Documentary Heritage Program, 2011–2012 to 2015–2016

Annual financial resources of access program

This table shows the Access to Documentary Heritage Program financial resources between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016.

Fiscal year	Financial resources
2011–2012	$36,826,100
2012–2013	$35,649,500
2013–2014	$31,959,088
2014–2015	$33,220,247
2015–2016	$25,694,773

Source: Departmental Performance Reports, 2011–2012 to 2015–2016.

The Access Program’s financial resources decreased significantly between 2011–12 and 2015–16, from $36.8 million in 2011–12 to $25.7 million in 2015–16, representing a total decrease of $11 million. This was due to the implementation of the federal government Deficit Reduction Action Plan in 2012–13.

Human Resources (per year)

This table shows the Access to Documentary Heritage Program human resources between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016.

Fiscal year	Full-time equivalent (FTE)
2011–2012	376
2012–2013	298
2013–2014	329
2014–2015	360
2015–2016	311

Source: Departmental Performance Reports, 2011–2012 to 2015–2016.

Human resources were also affected by a decrease of 65 FTEs during the five-year period, from 376 FTEs in 2011–12 to 311 FTEs in 2015–16. The decrease was due to the implementation of the federal government Deficit Reduction Action Plan in 2012–13. Analysis tools used: documents reviews, interviews and case studies.  Evaluation period: 2011-12 to 2015-16.

Objective and evaluation methods

The main objective of this evaluation was to review the relevance and the performance of the Access to Documentary Heritage Program. Analysis tools used: documents reviews, interviews and case studies.  Evaluation period: 2011-12 to 2015-16.

Analysis tools used

Evaluation period: 2011-12 to 2015-16.

• Documents Reviews
• Interviews
• Case Studies

Results: Description and contextualization

Activities that reached their outcomes:

• Indexing
• Block review

Activities that made progress toward reaching their outcomes:

• Description
• Digitization

Activities that need improvement:

• Finding Aids

Indexing

In addition to description and digitization, another important aspect of facilitating access to the collection is indexing. This activity is successfully achieved in collaboration with partners and the public.

Block review

The institution made 18 million pages of government records available for consultation from 2011–12 to 2015–16.

Descriptions

LAC increased the amount of digital content available—and made it easier to find—with nearly 271,000 descriptions of archival documents and almost 58,000 descriptions of published documents between 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Digitization

Digitization increased progressively until 2014-15 notably with the contribution of external partners. It should be noted that LAC is developing and implementing a content digitization strategy that reflects the topics of interest of its client and which is carried out in accordance with available resources. Digitization should continue to promote access to LAC’s collection.

This table shows the number of pages/images (in millions) digitized between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016

Fiscal year	Number of pages/images digitized (in millions)
2011–2012	4.5
2012–2013	2
2013–2014	17
2014–2015 (With the contribution of external partners)	35
2015–2016	12

Source: Departmental Performance Reports from 2011-12 to 2015-16.

Finding aids

Finding aids make documents easier to locate. However, the format is not standardized and are mostly paper based. Finding aids that are accessible online would facilitate the identification of documents or items in LAC collection.

Results: Public services

Activities that reached their outcomes:

• Reference Services
• Access to information service

Activities that made progress toward reaching their outcomes:

• Reprography

Activities that need improvement:

• LAC website

Reference services

The number of annual contacts to Reference Services has decreased between 2011–12 and 2012-13 but stabilized starting in 2013–14. These results are linked to LAC’s commitment to improve access to its holdings by the implementation of a new digital service delivery model and to help clients with self-serve services to make documentary heritage more accessible.

Number of Contacts at Reference Services

This table shows the number of contacts at Reference Services between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016 by type of contact: in person, by email or Internet, by telephone or by letter/fax.

Type of contact	2011–2012	2012–2013	2013–2014	2014–2015	2015–2016
In person	45,989	40,584	36,788	33,398	33,862
Email or Internet	55,198	41,928	28,910	31,067	30,558
Telephone	25,901	21,493	20,608	17,991	19,249
Letter/Fax	16,628	16,076	13,861	13,418	12,950
Total	143,716	120,081	100,167	95,874	96,619

Source: Data from Access to Documentary Heritage Program, 2011–12 to 2015–16.

Access to information service

Number of annual requests for the Access to Information Act have been falling gradually between 2011-12 and 2015-16. LAC has undertaken to improve access to information through mechanisms such as block review and more extensive digitization of its collection.

This table shows the annual number of requests processed (formal and informal) by the Reference Services between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016 under the Access to Information Act.

Year	Formal requests processed	Informal requests processed	Total
2011–2012	821	7,075	7,896
2012–2013	874	5,361	6,235
2013–2014	924	6,922	7,846
2014–2015	821	6,671	7,492
2015–2016	758	5,422	6,180

Source: Annual Report: Access to Information Act, 2011–12 to 2015–16, Library and Archives Canada.

Reprography

The transformation in 2011-12 of its reprography services for textual documents without rights restrictions resulted in a huge increase in the number of reprography. However, digital reprographies are rarely available online.

This table shows the number of digital reprographies requested to the Reference Services between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016.

Year	Number of pages/images delivered to clients
2011–2012	750,000
2012–2013	1,060,916
2013–2014	1,623,221
2014–2015	1,031,176
2015–2016	1,523,634

Source: Departmental Performance Report, 2011–2012, Program 2.3: Describe and contextualize documentary heritage, Library and Archives Canada. Performance Measurement Strategy: Access to Documentary Heritage Program, from 2012–2013 to 2015–2016.

LAC website

LAC’s website remains popular despite a decrease in its use since 2013–14. However, it is not easy to find what we are looking for.

This graph shows the number of visits on LAC’s website between 2012-2013 and 2015-2016.

Year	Number of visits
2012–2013	17,073,646
2013–2014	24,344,772
2014–2015	22,011,883
2015–2016	20,250,929

Source: Data from Access to Documentary Heritage Program, from 2012–2013 to 2015–2016. No data for 2011-2012.

Improvement recommended

Finding Aids Digitization

Finding: Few finding aids are accessible online on LAC website. They are mostly paper based format.

Recommendation: Efforts should be made to complete the digitization of finding aids.

Website

Finding: Searching in the LAC collection remains a complex process. It is not easy for clients to find what they are looking for.

Recommendation: LAC should improve the search tools found on its website as well as the navigation.

Roles and responsibilities

Finding: Because some access-related activities are under the administrative responsibility of various branches, there is a lack of coordination and priorization of tasks at the operational level.

Recommendation:A better coordination of activities and a prioritization of tasks among branches are needed.

Performance measurement strategy

Finding: Lack of ongoing data limits performance analysis for some program activities and their progress toward expected outcomes.

Recommendation: A review of outputs and outcomes indicators is needed.