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Library and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada was an interesting place to work, in both the work involved and the people you work with.  The department is described as the Institutional Memory of the Government if not the Country.  It handles government documents, files, of national enduring value.  It also handles citizen tax returns, immigration and refugee claims, as well as registration of licensing within the Departments of Environment, Transport, Natural Resources, just to name a few. 
The colleagues that I worked with were some of the nicest and supportive I have ever worked with in my career. Truly a great working environment, this was the major plus. The Management at the local level were excellent and supportive.   Senior management from Ottawa and Gatineau, were somewhat distant, both in management style and accessibility. You have more recognition from Manager and Supervisors at local level.    Good to know French if you are working for LAC, and certainly this is helpful if you want to work in Ottawa or Gatineau, QC.

I loved my time with Library and Archives Canada. I spent my time filing and recording documents all associated with the project I was working on. My manager and supervisor were always excellent in the support that was available if needed. Having no former experience in the field I learned a ton about how the archival process happens. I was brought on as a student assistant and their treatment of students is top class. LAC set up and took the students on trips to other archives around the National Capital region to help us continue our learning. That was valuable and helped create a reward. I loved exploring the history of the documents I was filing and that was fantastic. The repetitive nature of the work was slightly frustrating but with a large project as the one I worked on that was pretty much unavoidable, in general most at LAC did not have that repetitive problem.

I've always really liked history so, in terms of the sheer quantity and content of the information to which you're exposed at LAC, this was a FASCINATING place to work. For example, the majority of the records I reviewed while there related to the Second World War and the Cold War.

Management (at least when I was there) was hit-and-miss. Expectations can be high, even when the number of team members are limited, which became more and more frustrating the longer I stayed. 

The central location at 395 Wellington is much easier for me to access so, as frustrated as I became with management, it was senior management's decision to relocate my group to Quebec that made my decision to leave an easy one. :(

Although I loved working at Library and Archives Canada, I feel I was grossly underpaid for the skills and handling required for the position I was in. I learned a lot about heritage preservation and digitization. I also learning about housing archival materials and documentary history. There was no hard part of the job itself; however I did have to keep my evening job in order to make enough money to live. Thus, I worked 72 hours a week. Staying awake and keeping healthy was the hardest part about taking on this position. The most enjoyable part of the job was the people and the material with which i was exposed to.

Create an e-copy database, linking digital images to textual records
Create textual descriptions for historical records, sorting, indexing, filing and controlling records
•    Review, verify e-copy records that was created from various government departments and enter information such as file title, files and container numbers into the MINISIS database
•    Once a match is found, a record is created in the e-copy database, noting the unique number of the image and unique number of the textual description.

The Library and Archives of Canada was a great department to work. Work environment was excellent and had a terrific Management team. Unfortunately, due to the cut back they had to terminate our whole team. I had the opportunity to work twice as a casual employee, but unfortunately, due to the policy of the Government of Canada, you can only work 90 days per year. I am a strong and dedicated employee who is looking to get back in the work place.

Overall, this is a solid place to work. There are many dedicated people here who take their jobs seriously and consistently put in real effort. There are strong directors and DGs who help keep things moving in the right direction. Like anywhere, it’s not perfect (especially in the current climate), but compared to many workplaces, it’s a pretty good environment with a lot of capable, committed colleagues.

Provide technical support to 1000-1200 clients, by resolving software issues, password problems and creating new mail accounts.  The best part of the job was providing top-notch customer service and support.  The hardest part was fitting all my workload into 1 day. Always a challenge and never a dull day.

Relatively easy job, easy to learn. Often can get quiet and so there is not much to do since it is a customer oriented job. Managers were a bit unclear on how the actual job was performed and there were sometimes conflicts that ensued regarding certain policies or procedures. very friendly staff and clients.

It is a very good place understaffed and lots of work to be done. They were in the process to get new people in to do the work. They were doing interviews when I left and were going to staff  with permeant people.

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