LAC Annual Report 2017-2018

Read the Library and Archives Canada annual report and you can't help but be impressed by the achievements grouped under fourteen headings. I won't repeat them.

What's the highlight? In his introduction Guy Berthiaume writes "First and foremost, as a result of funding allocated to LAC in Budget 2017, the implementation of activities that respond to the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has accelerated significantly, allowing us to contribute to the preservation and revitalization of Indigenous languages."

There's a danger in allowing priorities to be dominated by availability of special funding. Yes, historical neglect needs to be addressed. Is that being done by neglecting core activities? Achievements should be benchmarked against those of peer organizations internationally.

For instance, was it appropriate to devote the entirety of external funding for the National Heritage Digitization Strategy to LAC indigenous newspaper digitization, especially when the LAC newspaper collection is so neglected?

A test will be how the $1 million external funding available to the NHDS in 2018-2019 will be distributed ?