UPDATE: Restore Canada’s Local Archives

This notice just came in from Canadian Association of University Teachers. They have been following the developments at the Library and Archives Canada -   

“In the wake of enormous public pressure, the Minister of Heritage, James Moore, is considering reinstating the National Archival Development Program (NADP).  This would be an important victory for local and regional archives across the country; CAUT unequivocally supports the restoration of the NADP.  However, funding for the program is not yet confirmed. Especially troubling is that, Minister Moore has indicated that any money for the NADP would have to come from within the already depleted Library and Archives Canada (LAC) budget.

Read more:

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/06/09/pol-james-moore-funding-to-library-and-archives.html

The Canadian Association of University Teachers calls on all Canadians to contact the Heritage Minister and voice support for restoring the NADP, insisting that the $1.7 million annual cost of the program be added to the current LAC budget”.

To let your feeling be known, you can write to The Hon. James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage & Official Languages, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 0A6

Find out more about the NADP see www.canadaspastmatters.ca/local-archives

For more information contact Rosa Barker: barker@caut.ca or (613)726-5166

UPDATE: FamilySearch adds more images

FamilySearch has added more images to the British Columbia, Crown Land Pre-emption Registers, 1860-1971.

Pre-emptions are purchased land that has not been fully surveyed. The pre-emption registers summarize the information from the pre-emption certificates. The pre-emptions are listed in registration number order, with an alphabetical index in the back of each volume.

A full description is give on the Wiki at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/British_Columbia,_Crown_Land_Pre-emption_Registers_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)

And they have added more images to the Quebec, Notarial Records, 1800-1900.

You can go to the Wiki at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Quebec_Notarial_Records_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records) to get a full description of the records.

These records are made available because of the work by thousands of volunteers from around the world. These volunteers transcribe (index) information from digital copies of handwritten records to make them easily searchable online.

Thanks to the volunteers!

Heritage Minister not happy with the cuts at the LAC

It appears that the Federal Heritage Minister James Moore isn’t too happy with the way that the layoffs at the Library and Archives Canada has turned out.

One impact that the cuts have had is that the digitization program has been severely cut as the staff has been cut – and the digitization of records was suppose to take the place of inter-library loans, for example.

All of this is in a story carried by the Huffington Post this morning. The online newspaper says that “The heritage minister says speeding up the digitization of records will be a priority for the new head of Library and Archives”.

Read the full report at the Huffington post is at www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/10/heritage-minister-conside_n_3414200.html