RECENT SERVICE CUTS AT CANADA’S NATIONAL ARCHIVES HINDERING RESEARCH, HISTORIAN SAYS

Researchers say recent service cuts at Canada’s national archives are making their work – already hampered by COVID-19 – even more challenging.

In a letter to Library and Archives Canada, the Canadian Historical Association urges the institution to reconsider reductions that have left its archival reading room open just three days a week.

Historians say the move means researchers from across the country, including students trying to complete degrees, must scramble for coveted appointments to view paper file holdings in the Ottawa reading room.

The historical association’s letter allows that Library and Archives has doubtlessly struggled, like other organizations, to maintain employment and services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the association says members are “gravely concerned” about the federal institution’s limits on public access, which threaten the agency’s core mission.

In response to questions from The Canadian Press, Library and Archives say it is facing difficulties meeting client demands, meaning it has had to prioritize some services and reduce others.

The Wednesday letter from the historical association is signed by president Steven High, a Concordia University professor, and past president Penny Bryden of the University of Victoria.

“At a time when other institutions and businesses are slowly expanding their availability to the public, it seems that LAC has taken the reverse approach,” says the letter, also posted on the association’s website.

“How is it possible to continue to make the case for the value of … heritage and history when the key driver of their value – the public – is being kept out?”

The previous system of registering for limited numbers of archival reading room spots, two weeks in advance, was difficult enough, the letter says.

“Spaces for the week were snapped up by researchers within minutes of the portal opening, making research virtually impossible for people outside the Ottawa area.”

Nevertheless, the possibility of signing up for a maximum of 12 hours of research time a week was better than the complete lockdown of public access that had characterized much of the pandemic, the letter adds.

“Researchers are desperate to get back to the Archives. The complete closure of the reading room in the summer of 2021, and the retrenchment rather than expansion of its services since then, however, is going too far.”

University of Toronto historian Robert Bothwell said delving into the past is a time-consuming slog through reams of archival papers, a task that is now even more drawn-out.

“Academic budgets are just not made for this,” he said.