27 July 2012

LAC adds WW1 era finding aids online

A small step forward for LAC is placing online finding aids to files of the Department of Militia and Defence (RG9) circa 1914–1919.

The Library and Archives Canada Blog details what's newly available online:

General Staff, London—501 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-36)
Headquarters, Canadian Troops, Seaford—106 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-41)
No. 5 Canadian General Hospital, Kirkdale—239 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-39)
Military Hospital No. 12, Bramshott—363 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-38)
Director of Supply and Transport, London—1159 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-42)
Quartermaster General, London—1367 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-43)
Canadian Army Service Corps, London—684 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-44)
War Graves (Adjutant General Branch)—188 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-51)
Canadian Air Force—89 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-49)
Assistant Director Medical Services, Shorncliffe—236 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-47)
Canadian Forestry Corps, 51st District (Scotland)—198 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-46)
Canadian Army Veterinary Corps—1077 descriptions (Finding aid 9-31-45)

Each leads to multiple sub-series with lower level descriptors as illustrated to the left. Each one I looked at included the caution:
Warning: Descriptive record is in process. These materials may not yet be available for consultation. 

With no descriptive record you have to guess as the content from the title. This is an example where the record should be more precisely described. Some files contain correspondence arranged chronologically, time-consuming to process. I'm told some contain alphabetically ordered records and it should be relatively easy to add the range of names contained in the file to the finding aid.

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