During my infrequent visits to The (UK) National Archives (TNA) a valued ressource has been collocation of the London FamilySearch Centre (including volunteers who helped patrons with the many microfilms and computers in the Centre). It was never intended to be permanent and the end of the arrangement is scheduled for 23 March.
The good news is that TNA has agreed to become a FamilySearch Affiliate Library, meaning
that access to all digitised records on FamilySearch will continue on PCs located in the
reading rooms.
As Dick Eastman writes in a blog post "Advances in technology and rising expenses of doing things “the old way” apparently have caught up with FamilySearch, just like it has everywhere else."
It's surprising that given the cooperation between Library and Archives Canada and FamilySearch, including indexing of the 1926 Census of the Prairie Provinces and recently announced project on scanning Ontario's Vernon Directories, LAC is not an Affiliate Library.
Locally in Ottawa there are other sites that would be good Affiliate Library hosts like the City Archives and branches of the Ottawa Public Library. That goes double for smaller communities which have no LDS Family History Centre but do have a public library.
I tried to get both libraries in Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor in Newfoundland to become affiliate libraries because the closest family history centers are in St John's and Corner Brook. They wouldn't do it. They both had the equipment needed.
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