September / October 2002 Vol. 34, no. 5

Interview with Louis Forget

Looking back on your 38-year career at the National Library and, most recently, at the National Archives, what are the achievements of which you are most proud?

I am very proud of the fact that my colleagues and I succeeded in making the National Library and the National Archives better known and used by an increasing number of Canadians. I have been extremely lucky to work with a dedicated and excellent staff in the Information Technology Services branch, who, in turn, works in close cooperation with the business branches of the Archives and the Library in developing and operating systems to improve services and reach more and more Canadians. The use of technology has increased productivity, transformed services, improved the sharing of knowledge and information, and positioned the Archives and the Library to contribute to making Canada a knowledge-based society. This is a team effort not only between the Archives and the Library but also with their many partners inside and outside the Government of Canada. I see partnering of the Library and the Archives with other organizations as the most important strategy for the present time and the future. We can no longer succeed alone.

You have witnessed and been a part of a great deal of change in the information technology sector over the course of your career, a time during which library catalogues were automated and the World Wide Web was created and developed. Can you explain how the Library has been able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by technology?

I think that the Library (and this also applies to the Archives), being a service organization, has always looked for better ways and means to serve its clientele.

In the late 1960s, the Library saw the benefit of using the MARC format to automate its cataloguing processes and to improve productivity in the creation of the national bibliography, Canadiana. Then in the 1970s, with the development of computer telecommunications and on-line systems, we saw the opportunity of sharing bibliographic information with other libraries to reduce duplication of cataloguing work and thus costs in libraries.

In the early 1980s, due to the fact that the Library had an on-line bibliographic database comprising the national bibliography, the Library catalogue, and other catalogues from Canadian libraries reporting their holdings to the National Union Catalogue, we were in a position to launch the DOBIS Search Service in 1984. This service allowed Canadian libraries to search directly on-line and to locate books and other documents in the National Union Catalogue for interlibrary loans. Before 1984, libraries had to call, write or telex the National Library to obtain locations for interlibrary loans.

In the 1990s, with the creation and development of the World Wide Web, the Library and the Archives had the opportunity to digitize the full text of collections of books, other documents and archives and make them  -  together with electronic publications and electronic archives, which are born digital  -  accessible on-line via the Internet. The technology to preserve and provide access to publications and archives is the same; therefore, the Library and the Archives can develop common Web sites to provide comprehensive and single services to their clientele.

People will continue to come in person to the Library and Archives, but technology has given us the chance to be more than a place; we are now a service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, throughout the world. Services such as AMICUS, ArchiviaNet, the Digital Library of Canada, New Books, and many others have certainly transformed the services of the Library and the Archives.

The Library and the Archives have acquired magnificent national collections and treasures, which need to be promoted, marketed and known to Canadians for their use. And today’s way to promote and make accessible these collections is through technology.

I am sure that the Library and the Archives will continue, within the context of the Government On-line programme, to take advantage of the opportunities offered by current and emerging technologies and continue to find innovative ways to transform their services in order to better serve Canadians.

In your early days, the Library was involved in the development of the Canadian MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloguing) format. The Library was particularly concerned with accommodating bilingual records. One of the Library’s latest challenges is developing a system that will be compatible with Aboriginal and other non-Roman scripts. How is the Library using technology to provide access to records that use these scripts?

Of course you want me to refer to the implementation of UNICODE, which provides the technical framework and standards for coding, processing, storing, communicating and displaying Aboriginal and other non-Roman scripts. Until now, the Library and the Archives have not succeeded in obtaining the resources necessary to develop applications based on UNICODE. The costs of such applications are high and the Library and Archives have the opportunity to seek partnerships with other government departments and/or organizations that have a need for these applications. This will be an interesting and challenging task for my successor!

You have worked with thousands of staff over your career. Are there any individuals that are particularly memorable?

They are all particularly memorable for something. If I were to name one individual, I would have to name them all and thus take thousands of pages of the Bulletin. The answer to this question would become a book and this is not your intention with this interview. The individuals who have worked and are now working at the National Library and at the National Archives are all very special to me. They are all experts in their own field and, above all, I have learned something from everyone I have worked with.

I am proud to say that I have worked under the leadership of all four National Librarians since the National Library was created in 1953. When I started working at the National Library on June 1, 1964, Dr. W. Kaye Lamb was both the National Librarian and the National Archivist. Then after Dr. Lamb left, I worked for Dr. Guy Sylvestre, then Dr. Marianne Scott, and most recently for Dr. Roch Carrier, the present National Librarian. Over the last two years, I also worked for Dr. Ian Wilson, the present National Archivist, since as of April 1, 2000, the Information Technology Services branch has served both the National Archives and the National Library.

In addition to the National Librarians and National Archivists, I would like to mention one person who is particularly memorable to me. She is Miss Hope Clement, who was my boss and mentor in the 1970s and early 1980s. She was dedicated and committed to the National Library. I have learned a lot from her. "Elle avait le sens du devoir" as we say in French. She helped me a lot, and she had a major influence on my career. I admire her and thank her very much.

You predicted the paperless society and the virtual library. What do you see in the future of technology in knowledge/information?

Yes, I predicted the paperless society and the virtual library like many other people. We were wrong on the paperless society but very right on the virtual library/archives. I now believe that paper will be with us for many more years, at least until electronic paper and electronic ink leave the labs and become a reality. The virtual/library/archives are here to stay and will continue to expand as telecommunications, both wired and wireless, continue to develop.

I believe that the ultimate role of technology in the future is to provide access to knowledge/information just in time to anyone and anywhere. And I would also like to predict major changes in the field of knowledge and information management. These changes will definitely affect the Archives and the Library in a major way.

Over the last three decades, we have lived the information technology revolution and we are now at the beginning of the knowledge/information revolution. The National Library and the National Archives face exciting times and opportunities.