National Archives of Canada: Machine‐Readable Records Program

Abstract

In the fall of 1973 the Public Archives of Canada, now known as the National Archives of Canada, established the first Canadian program within a traditional archival institution to identify and acquire records created and manipulated through use of a computer. In the early seventies, the major use of computers in federal government departments and agencies was restricted to large main frame systems for the manipulation of alpha numeric data. The EDP environment was quite separate from other areas of departments and tended to function in isolation. Communication between the EDP environments and the traditional paper‐based, records management environments was non‐existent. At the time of the creation of the machine‐readable records program it was hoped that the methods for identifying paper‐based records could be used to identify machine‐readable records, taking into consideration the specific needs of computerized records. Although those involved in the program were aware that using such techniques would require time and effort, no one expected the difficulties that were encountered. Over the past ten years it has become necessary to re‐adjust the program to meet the requirements of the community, which creates the majority of the records. While the National Archives has tried to develop the appropriate mechanisms to identify, schedule, and acquire machine‐readable records, the types of records, the computers that create and manipulate these records, and the uses of the records have expanded to such an extent that the size and complexity of the problems have grown far beyond what they were in 1974.

Citation

Gavrel, K. (1988), "National Archives of Canada: Machine‐Readable Records Program", Reference Services Review, Vol. 16 No. 1/2, pp. 25-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049006