Hours: The registration desk on the ground floor is open Monday-Friday, 9:00am-4:00pm with the exception of statutory holidays.
- Service hours in the textual documents consultation room are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:00am-4:00pm; Tuesday and Thursday 10:00am-5:00pm; and Saturday 10:00am-4:00pm.
- For use of microform readers and to access previously ordered materials stored in lockers, the textual documents consultation room is open evenings and weekends.
- Here is the full list of service and opening hours.
Location: 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A ON4
Contact: Contacts vary according to the request. View here.
Access: Users who wish to undertake research or to consult the holdings in Library and Archives Canada facilities must obtain a user card.
- To obtain a user card number prior to visiting, fill out the online form.
- The user card number will be emailed in the next two working days.
- To obtain the card, go to the registration desk located just inside the doors of the LAC building, present a photo ID card, and sign your user card.
- This card is valid for two years. The online form can be found here.
- Prior to visiting, it is recommended that you consult the “Preparing for a Visit” webpage.
Website Address: http://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/
Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) collection is the shared documentary heritage of all Canadians and spans the entire history of our country. The vast collection contains approximately 20 million books in various languages; 241 linear kilometres of government and private textual records; more than 3 million architectural drawings, plans and maps, some dating back to the early 16th century; nearly 30 million photographic images, including prints, negatives, slides and digital photos; more than 90,000 films, including short and full-length films, documentaries and silent films, dating as far back as 1897; more than 550,000 hours of audio and video recordings; over 425,000 works of art, including watercolours, oil paintings, sketches, caricatures and miniatures, some dating back to the 1600s; as well as medals, seals, posters and coats of arms; the Canadian Postal Archives; and national newspapers from across Canada, from dailies to student newspapers, and from Aboriginal magazines to ethnic community newsletters.
The LAC has a strong collection of material related to Aboriginal Heritage. The LAC provides a detailed guide to the collection, including information about First Nations, Metis, and Inuit, photographic collections, residential schools, and digital collections. Residential School photographic collections are separated by province. The website includes links to useful databases, such as the Indian Affairs Annual Reports, 1864-1990; Indian Reserves—Western Canada; Project Naming (Database); Red and Black series (Archived); and Treaties, Surrenders and Agreements. Archived electronic collections include Finding Out About Native Canadian Women Writers Published in English; Heroes of Lore and Yore: Canadian Heroes in Fact and Fiction; Passageways: True Tales of Adventure for Young Explorers; Pathfinders and Passageways: The Exploration of Canada; and The Jesuit Relations and the History of New France. Archived Virtual Exhibitions listed on the Aboriginal Heritage information site include Aboriginal Sound Recordings: Music and Song; Canadian West—Aboriginal Claims; Framing Canada: A Photographic Memory. Essays on Aboriginal Peoples; Our Voices, our Stories—First Nations, Metis and Inuit Stories from Yesterday and Today; Project Naming; Project Naming: 2002-2012; Treaty 8; and Virtual Vault: The “Four Indian Kings.”
The collection of documentary art, some of which dates back to the 17th century, includes paintings, watercolours, prints, drawings, caricatures, posters, medals, and sculptures. The Art collection guide online includes links to the electronic resource Canadian War Artists and the research resource Lest We Forget: Cenotaph Research.
The LAC holds an extensive collection of census records, from 1666 to 1916. Prior to the first Dominion Census in 1871, census enumerations were conducted in different areas in various years. Many of those early records have not survived, including portions of the 1851 returns. As provinces joined Confederation, they were included in subsequent federal census returns, for example Prince Edward Island in 1881. Returns prior to 1851 are usually partly nominal, listing only the heads of households or families; the other members are just counted. Returns from 1851 to 1916 are nominal, listing each person individually, with details as to age, sex, country or province of birth, religious denomination, racial origin, occupation, marital status and education. Users can click on the relevant census year online and can access an online database searchable by name of person or by place that includes digitized images of the original census returns; or, only digitized images of census returns; or, a list sorted by locality that provides a microfilm reel number. The LAC also has detailed vital statistics records. These records include Births, Adoptions and Orphanages; Parish Registers; Church Records and Indexes; Civil Registrations; Deaths, Cemeteries and Wills; and Marriages and Divorce.
Immigration is another important subject area for the LAC. Its holdings include immigration records and guides, travel guides, passenger lists, letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, newspapers (some ethnic titles), maps, art, photographs, music and film. Immigration resources have been sorted into three categories: Immigration Records; Citizenship and Naturalization Records; and Immigration History: Ethnic and Cultural Groups. Further information can be found here. There are also virtual exhibitions, including The Anti-Slavery Movement in Canada and In Quarantine:
Life and Death on Grosse Île, 1832-1937, which can be viewed here.
The LAC has also provided a detailed search guide to help users search, order, consult and research maps, charts and architectural plans. The collection includes the National Air Photo Library; County Atlases; British Admiralty Charts; Canadian Hydrographic Charts; The Atlantic Neptune; Canada Land Inventory; Electoral/Election Maps; Fire Insurance Plans; Three-Mile Sectional Maps of the Canadian West (1891-1955); Aeronautical maps; Bird’s Eye Views; Census maps; Early Historical maps; Geological Maps; Government maps; Indian Reserves; Land Grants; National Topographic Series; Soil Survey; Trench maps; Township maps; Architectural plans; Fortification (surveys); Government plans; and Townships plans.
The LAC holds an extensive collection of records of the Canadian men and women who have served their country in the military and in the early years of the North West Mounted Police. There are records relating to Loyalists, the War of 1812, the Rebellions, the South African War, the First World War and the Second World War, many of which are featured in databases, research guides and virtual exhibitions. The records include muster rolls, military service files, unit war diaries, medal registers, photographic collections, documentary art and posters, as well as published sources. Virtual exhibitions includes The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters, which tells the story of six women who served as nursing sisters during the First World War and presents excerpts from the personal diaries, letters and photographs of these women. Another virtual exhibition, Oral Histories of the First World War: Veterans 1914-1918, offers a series of one-on-one interviews with veterans of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. There is also a digitized record available of Circumstances of Death Registers, First World War.
The Photography collection includes the online resource Photographs: Canadian Nurses and the National Film Board of Canada: War Records- Manufacturing (WRM) Series online resource.More information about the photography collection can be found here.
Other online resources include Made in Canada: Patents of Invention and the Story of Canadian Innovation, which presents the story of the innovative dreamers who pushed the borders of science and technology. Another online resource, Bon appétit! A Celebration of Canadian Cookbooks, features the history of Canadian cooking and cookbooks.
The LAC also offers a thematic guide of the specific archival references relating to the Spanish influenza epidemic in Canada, 1918-1919.