Canada, Finding Local and University Archives - International Institute

Before setting out to use the facilities of archives, the researcher must know that one exists and what it has which might be useful. There are several ways to find archives, and then to discover something about their collections, without leaving home.

There are directories of archives, similar to those for libraries, or we may locate them by doing a website search or through links on other sites. Researchers should not assume that every archive will have a website, as many smaller ones do not have the personnel or funds to create and maintain an Internet link.

The Canadian Council of Archives used to publish a Directory of Archives in book form, and you may find copies in libraries across Canada. The current version is found online where it can be searched by place, name or topic. In this format it is not possible to browse, but the search tool works very well.

It is also possible to search for provincial or territorial associations:

On many of these websites researchers can find lists of links to other archives’ websites and can go from site to site searching, and perhaps finding archives which they did not previously know existed. Some references can be found on Cyndislist.com. The Canadian Archival Resources on the Internet, formerly on the University of Saskatchewan site, can now be found on their website.

In addition, these associations of archives often combine together to make searching easier. Many of them cooperate in joining their databases to provide what used to be called a Union List.

The Canadian Council of Archives has launched CAIN (Canadian Archival Information Network), whose objective is to provide a fully searchable database of archival collections across Canada. It is a modern version of the old Union List (see below). It will not only be searchable, there should also be digitized images. The images can be found on the CAIN website. It provides access to archival holdings across Canada, including links to provincial, territorial and regional archival databases. This site is a cooperative effort of the CCA, LAC and provincial archives; it is both a good example of what is being done in the area of archival cooperation in Canada, and a pointer to the future of archival research.

One frustrating aspect of using these Internet searching mechanisms for archival collections is that often when researchers are offered the chance to search, the screen contains the bar in which to type the search terms but nothing more. If the term used is the right one, hits result. If, more likely, a wrong term is inserted, the message comes back ‘no results.’ Without further instructions, the researcher is stuck. As this type of searching becomes more sophisticated, we can hope that creators of the databases will provide more extensive help, especially in the realm of ‘words similar to’ or ‘near’ hits.

In terms of finding specific collections, if you do not know which archives hold them, or indeed what collections exist, there have been attempts in the past to create a huge catalogue of all archives across Canada. With the proliferation of archives and collections, this became an impossible task and the publication has been abandoned, but the advent of the Internet has created an alternative for being able to search for collections through individual archival websites and network search engines, as we have seen.

The old books are still widely available in libraries and archives, and will still be useful: Union list of manuscripts in Canadian repositories (2 volumes, 1975, with index). There were three supplements published from 1976 to 1985.

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