LAC’s Annual Report 2018–2019

Highlights of the 2018-2019 LAC Annual Report include:

• Phase 2 of LAC’s Preservation Centre in Gatineau, scheduled to open in 2022;
• The new LAC/OPL joint facility at 555 Albert Street in Ottawa, scheduled to welcome users in 2024;
• Extensive public consultations held across the country;
• Updates on crowdsourcing programs like DigiLab and Co-Lab;
• New acquisitions, from the fonds of filmmaker Denys Arcand to a book that once belonged to Adolf Hitler;
• The launch of the Listen, Hear Our Voices funding initiative; and
• The establishment of both the Youth Advisory Committee and the non-profit LAC Foundation, which was set up by volunteers to help the institution develop new initiatives and expand its collection.

Each year the annual report includes statistics on the operation. Below is a three-year comparison.

The years in numbers	2018-2019	2017-2018	2016-2017
Pages of government records opened	3,580,226	10,190,631	8,033,794
Questions answered by reference services:	22,302	23,491	26,155
Images digitized	4,723,911	10,201,950	9,100,000
Publications collected under legal deposit	60,717	101,889	122,075
New private acquisitions	154	111	137
Items loaned to museums and galleries:	165	362	102
Tours of the LAC Preservation Centre	107	106	170

Notable declines are shown in government records opened, images digitized and publications collected under legal deposit. There were nearly 9 million website visits — the number is not comparable with previous years which reported website views.