Nearly 860 million pages of historical federal records remain inaccessible to Canadians, with an internal briefing note acknowledging 78% of the collection held by Library and Archives Canada is still closed to the public.Blacklock's Reporter says the April 21 Comprehensive Expenditure Review said only about one-quarter of archival records are currently accessible either online or in person.“How many historical records are closed at Library and Archives Canada?” asked the briefing note. “Seventy-eight percent of records, 860 million pages, are still inaccessible, underscoring the need for continued effort and reform.”An internal analysis conducted in 2024 estimated just 22% to 25% of archival records were open to Canadians.“While Library and Archives Canada has made major efforts in improving access to historical government records, much work remains,” said the note.Managers did not identify a single cause for the enormous backlog but pointed to the labour-intensive process required to prepare aging paper documents for digitization.“There is a tremendous amount of work involved in readying the often fragile, paper-based records to digitization,” said the note.Officials said records must first be identified and matched with the appropriate storage boxes before they can even be prepared for scanning.“Boxes must be physically retrieved from storage and transported from one building to another,” said the Expenditure Review. “Pages must be reviewed for preservation issues and flagged for digitization.”Even removing staples and paper clips was cited as part of the lengthy process.“Digitization technicians must remove clips, staples and other fasteners and select the most appropriate machine for digitization and then the files must be reviewed to ensure their legibility,” managers wrote.Documents can require additional conservation work if they are damaged, fragile or contaminated by mold. Processing becomes more complicated when records are classified secret, the note said..The disclosure follows years of audits criticizing Library and Archives Canada over its backlog of inaccessible records.A 2021 Evaluation Report On The Processing Of Private Archives estimated the backlog amounted to eight kilometres of cartons.“The material in the backlog is not available to researchers,” staff wrote.The Auditor General also criticized the agency in 2014 for warehousing boxes without processing them to determine exactly what records they contained.“Until the boxes are processed Library and Archives Canada will not know what is in them,” said the audit Documentary Heritage Of The Government Of Canada.The warehoused material included 24,000 records, with some dating back to the Boer War, as well as 5,200 cartons from the Department of Justice.“Some of these boxes have been in the backlog for several decades,” auditors wrote.
