New LAC website

Last week I attended a presentation on a new website for Library and Archives Canada. A first look showed a more visual presentation compared to the present text-heavy website. LAC gives details in this blog post.

Some of the key changes are:

Findability: consistent and intuitive design
Navigation: based on themes, topics and tasks
Themes: collection, services and corporate
Plain language: easy to understand
Improved search tools
Continuous improvement.

Continuous improvement is most welcome. Staff will be monitoring to see how the site performs and major provision for feedback is promised. I wonder if in these days of social media the feedback will be public so that clients can see if it’s acted on?

At launch, which could be within the next couple of weeks if all goes well, expect to see:

New templates to ensure a consistant use experience
Focus on findability over interpretation
Updates to three main collection topics (indigenous history, military history, family history/genealogy)
Improved collection search
New help pages.

Remembering the perfect should not be the enemy of the good, this is a positive development.

For the record, before it dissappears, here’s the main LAC page as of 22 August 2022.

2 Replies to “New LAC website”

  1. Thanks, John. But, is it just me or is that site VERY slow? I browse a lot of sites around the world, but LAC is the most difficult to connect to, often just a spinning wheel which sometimes never connects and I have to occasionally abandon my search. I don’t believe it is my browser (chrome) or my system causing the slowdown?

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