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Volume 1, Number 3, September-October 2005 Message from Ian E. Wilson
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 Ian E. Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada Source |
Through the Internet, Canadian archival institutions now have a national and even a world wide audience for the stories which can be told through their records. Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA) are working in partnership to assist Canadian archives in obtaining funding for the development of Web projects and other digital content designed to make their holdings more widely available to the public.
Thanks to the combined efforts of LAC and CCA, and with the full cooperation of the Canadian Culture Online program of the Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian archival institutions have received funding to create Web projects and recount stories of the people who have shaped Canada. Connecting Canadian youth with their heritage is a strong focus of the program and each project contains complementary educational components. Involvement in this program is but one of the many ways that LAC is fulfilling its mandate: to work closely with other archives, to assist in providing access to archival collections for all Canadians, and to facilitate cooperation among communities in Canada involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge.
Archival documents enable each new generation to connect with the voices, the words, thoughts, hopes, the music and the images of those who have gone before. Web projects are freeing these sources from the stacks and vaults in which they must be preserved to give life and voice to the Canadian experience. The stories they tell invite exploration and discovery.
I would like to extend my congratulations to the institutions launching projects in 2005, as well as to the institutions creating projects for 2006. I invite you to visit these projects, and the www.archivescanada.ca portal to see what Canadian archives have to offer. For more information on the Canadian Memory Fund program and on funding available for the archival community, please contact Kristina Lillico at (613) 943-0236, or webservices@lac-bac.gc.ca.